Back to School 2015

Frankie was totally ready to head back to school this year. Although he frequently saw his close school friends over the summer, he was still excited. No tears on the first day this year!

He couldn't wait to dress in his "sniffy" button down shirt from Grammy and head out the door! (I've told him numerous times that it's "you look spiffy" but he insists it's "sniffy".)  

This year he's started to unbuckle his car seat himself while we wait in drop off line and gets so excited to see everyone walk in.  One day he was even yelling out of the open window to the other kids. What a difference a year makes. 

He recently saw Frank using a shoe horn and lately has insisted on bringing it to school every day. (They change into slippers when they arrive.) The other day as I dropped him off, one of his teachers said smiling, "Oh, you've got your shoe horn!"  

Here's to another successful school year!

Labor Day in New York

We didn't want to miss out on celebrating Lea's 20th birthday, so, since Frank had a Labor Day soccer tournament, I decided to take the kids to Long Island for the weekend. We were pulling away from the house a little before 5am on Saturday and made it to Grammy & Grampa's by 10am - just in time for a late breakfast at the Pinky Diner. :)

Frankie actually stayed up THE ENTIRE ride. And Julia finally dozed off in Staten Island. So much for my "early departure and the kids go back to sleep" plan. Despite the lack of shut eye, it was an easy drive and the kids were really well behaved.

We spent Saturday afternoon strolling along the water in Northport. The kids loved watching the boats and got to touch some of the bait fish the fishermen were using. We couldn't leave without stopping in the Sweet Shop that we used to visit as kids with Grammy & Grampa for a scoop (or two) of ice cream!

Julia reminds me SO MUCH of Laura (when she was little) in this picture!

Later that afternoon we squeezed in a fun visit at Grandpa & Papa's and then headed back to Huntington for the night. On Sunday, the kids got to play with Kate & Emma at my grandparents and then at 1pm, we were in Commack for Lea's party. The kids swam, played and had a blast. (And Julia somehow snuck in a 2 hour nap on the couch in the middle of the party since she was so exhausted.) And, per plan, at almost exactly 8pm, we were back in the car on our way home. Not exactly per plan; however, was the stop and go traffic almost the entire way from Commack to the Verrazano Bridge! I figured we would miss Labor Day traffic by leaving late on Sunday. But, boy was I wrong.  Thankfully it was clear sailing the rest of the ride and we were home by 1am - and the kids slept the whole ride home. Frankie was so tired, he was out before we hit the Expressway from Uncle Mike's.  

A great weekend, followed by a relaxing Labor Day with our family at home!