miscellany monday

Happy Monday Ya'll! :)

I hope everyone had a great weekend! It's the beginning of the month so hopefully things will be a tad slower at work this week so I can regroup, recharge and just have some quietness to my day.

I'm linking up for some miscellaneous ramblings! :)

~For the first time in Mia's life, I never "recognized" a milestone birthday of hers. To make me not feel like the worst mother ever! There is a reason...July 18th she turned 18 months old, but we were enjoying a vacay, so that's why I didn't blog about! :) I can't believe she's 1 1/2! Really, it's crazy! She has hewr 18 month check-up on the 9th so I'll have exact measurements then. But needless to say, she isn't lacking in the height or weight department! :) She talks up a storm, most of it we can understand, some of it we can't! ;) She eats anything and everything (from good for you fruits and veggies, to not so good for you freezie pops! :)) She throws Oscar award winning tantrums, and the next second will be sweetly playing on the floor give her baby "lovies" and trying to give them her ninny! :)

~ Yesterday, my sweet baby boy turned 5 1/2! :) (Yes, he and Mia are exactly (well almost! ;)) 4 years apart! He starts Kindergarten in 28 days, and I'm just beside myself about it. I'm actually "accepting" it more and more (do I really have a choice? ;)) and now, when I think about it, I get a little sad, but more happy and excited for him! He is ready! :) He's continuing to enjoy his days at summer camp. The only downside to summer camp is that they don't nap and that makes for a VERY tired (and usally cranky) little boy come 7pm! He is honestly one of the sweetest, most kind hearted children I have EVER met and I love him more than words can say! :)

Trying to run away from the camera the last day of vacation! :))

~Yesterday was my hubbys work party at Ironbirds Stadium (it's our local minor league baseball team, owned by Cal Ripken Jr.) It was a good time, but SOOOOOOOOOOO hot! It was fun to meet Manny's coworkers and put faces with names. Mia got stung by something (assumedly a bee) so that combined with the heat made us cut our stay a tad short (which was totally fine by me! I don't "do" heat, UGH!!!! :))

~I will be posting our final Ocean City recap tomorrow! These pics are probably my favorite! :)

~My mom, sister, her hubby and their kiddos leave for Mexico tomorrow for vacay. I'm super jealous! :) I know they'll have a blast! I can't wait to see their pics!

~One of fav Christian groups is coming to concert in November-Third Day! I've been dropping a ton few subtle hints to hubby about it being a GREAT idea for an early Christmas present. Let's see if he gets my hints! :)

~I can't believe it's already August! I mean seriously where does the time go!?!?!??!?!?!

I hope you all have a great day! :)

Ocean City Day #4 (part 1 :))

Hello friends!

Sorry for the hiatus in vacation postings not that you all were waiting by your computers for them ;) but it was month end at work, and VERY busy! :)

Our 4th day on vacation was VERY eventful and full of A LOT of pictures, so I'm going to break up the pics up into two posts so there aren't 75 pics to look through :)

Manny's best friend from his childhood was at the beach with his girlfriend for the weekend, so we met up with them, and figured that with four extra hands, we might be able to "conquer" the beach with Mia! ;) And we did. It was a great time!

 Yes, the Spongebob shirt AGAIN! ;)

 The loves of my life! :)

 Face plant in the sand! :)

Being a beach baby is tough work! ;) 

"Uncle" Marty and Megan playing with Mia

Part 2 (our evening on the beach for family pics!) coming soon! :)

Wordless Wednesday

We interrupt your regularly scheduled programming (aka Ocean City Day #4 :)) for a Wordless Wednesday (or not! ;)) post...

Our last evening at the beach! :)

Ocean City Day #3

 Thankfully, after such a fun filled day #2, the kids kindly slept in a TAD on day #3! :) I think I woke up around 7am and began my morning. Mia followed suit, so I strapped her in her stroller and we went for a walk. We walked about a mile to Dunkin Donuts for coffee (well, for me, munchkins for her and Manuel, and a sausage croissant for Manny! ;)) When we got back to the condo the boys were up. We enjoyed breakfast, hung out for a bit, and then decided that since Day #2 wasn't quite a huge success at the beach with Mia (she is quite the busy body, and would rather walk all over everyones blankets with her sandy feet, eat the sand, etc. then play in the pool we bought just for her to use at the beach ;) or do anything remotely "relaxing"! ;)) so Manuel and I headed to the beach, while she and Manny headed to the pool. Manuel had a blast chasing waves, I got some sun, and all around we had a great Mommy/Manuel couple of hours (while Manny and Mia enjoyed a nice Daddy/Mia couple of hours-those sort of moments don't happen as often as we'd like, so it was nice! :)) Then Manny and Manuel hit the beach while Mia and I hung out at the private beach at the condo (She napped, I laid out :)). Then we all met up, got showered and ready, went out to dinner (surprise, surprise! ;)) and once again, hit the boardwalk! :)

They LOVED hanging out on the balcony in the morning!

All dressed up and ready to go! :)

I let Manuel "bury" me (I'm REALLY claustrophobic, so my bottom half was the only thing I was okay with being buried! :))

 My baby and I ;)

 Having a blast! :)

 Just for fun I had to take this pic...Ocean City is a pretty crowded place, no way around it! Thankfully for us, the earlier part of the week was pretty empty EXCEPT for the beach, the beach was packed EVERYDAY! Manny would go down early to set up our stuff and get a spot for us (some people would do this REALLY early, as in 6am!!!) but anway, on this day, Manny went down around 8am, put our stuff out and had a nice little area set up for Manuel and I. So we are enjoying the beach, relaxing every once in a while in our chairs and then it happened...a women came and sit LITERALLY right in front of us! I had to snap this pic! :) The family next to us just looked at us in shock and amazement! I know it's a free beach and a free country, but have some respect, geez louise! :) Not to mention that now I could no longer have a straight view of Manuel (NOT in the ocean, playing in the sand!)

 Back at the condo, ready to head to dinner

 But not before more pics! :) (yes, Manuel did get a little too much sun, but I promise we put a TON of sunscreen on him :(

 At the fun restaurant we went to for dinner

 Hanging out in the pirate ship while we waited for our table (the ONE time we had to wait to be seated our entire vacation. Pretty good if you ask me! :))

 Mia and Daddy (notice the random little girl in the bottom corner. She wanted in on the family fun too, apparently! ;))

 Enjoying her absolute favorite drink EVER....water! The girl LOVES it!

 Waiting for our food, Manuel was still playing :)

 At the boardwalk (I couldn't pass up this BEAUTIFUL photo op! :))

 Manuel was SO excited to win Mia this Strawberry Shortcake (it was the first game he played, and he insisted on getting his sister something! SO sweet! :))

 Yes, he's wearing his Spongebob shirt again. Yes, I washed it (I actually did laundry EVERYDAY so that I wouldn't have to do it when we got home! :))

 Mia on the airplane ride. She was the pilot, I was co-pilot :)

 Mia and Manuel on the mini ferris wheel! Mia LOVED It! :)

 The kids and I on the mini carousel

 Too funny! :)

 The sno-cones at this place came in one size, and this was it! :)

 Mia was eating some of my ice cream and there was a family on the bench next to us just in awe of her and her cuteness. And of course, she was eating it up, TOTALLY! :)

 Manny and I (see the sign in the background, it was for the Dew Tour. THANKFULLY it started the day before we left because we heard it was a complete madhouse down in Ocean City with it there! :))

He fell asleep on the boardwalk while we were "people watching" :) 

Not sure why this pic keeps moving to the bottom, but it's too cute not to share!

Stay tuned for tomorrow, our last day (and probably some of the best pics-if I do say so myself! ;))

Ocean City Day #2

Unfortunately our condo did NOT have darkening shades and since we were beach front the sun started shining BRIGHTLY thru our WHITE BLINDS at around 5:30am, UGH! Sure enough, at 5:59am (yes, I remember the exact time! :)) both kids were up and ready to go! Don't get me wrong, vacation is all about getting the most out of every second BUT considering we went to bed way late the night before, I could have settled for a 7am wake up call! ;) We made the best of it though and just had a day FULL of fun...beach, pool, out to each and the boardwalk (that was pretty much protocol everyday! :)) Here are pics from Day #2...

 The view from our balcony around 6:30am :)

 Manuel BARELY awake, enjoying the view

 Breakfast in her jammies, enjoying some water, at the Bayside Skillet

 Enjoying some fresh squeezed lemonade, waiting for breakfast (and the peace sign! ;))

Mommy and Mia (I looked tired! :))

 Our beach set-up

 Our beach visit was short lived on Day #2 because of Mia so we headed to the pool

 All showered and ready to hit the boardwalk

 All dressed up and ready to go! :)

Manny and Manuel (yes, I'm not a fan of "character clothing" (just not my thing, no offense to anyone who is! :)) but it's vacation, so I let him get a Spongebob shirt which he wore this day (over top of the shirt he was wearing AND again the next day! :))

 Time for rides again! :)

 I LOVE these pics of Manuel (and NO peace sign! ;))

 They bicker, but honestly, in the end, have the sweetest relationship! :) Manuel ADORES her and takes such good care fo her! :)

 This picture puts a huge smile on my face...pure joy of children! :)

Another fav pic of Manuel! :) These clowns were adorable and collecting donations for their wedding (or so their bucket said! ;)) but they made Manuel perhaps, the most pathetic Spongebob balloon person I have EVER seen! :)

Day #2 was awesome and fun filled! I know the kids probably won't remember this trip (maybe Manuel will) but these memories will last a lifetime for Manny and I! :)

I hope you all had a great weekend! Heading back to work tomorrow after nine days off...EEK! ;)