The Royal Wedding

This is a continuation from yesterday's post. The reason we went to Connecticut was for our niece's wedding. The boys were ring bearers (or ring security). Glenn carried the rings in on the pillow. Alexander got to bring them up to the Pastor with the best man. I love this picture of the boys. They are so serious!



Hopefully someone else got a better picture, but this is Alexander up at the front after bring the ring to the pastor.

The father of the bride had several surprises for everyone (including the couple). He and a friend sang and at the end of the ceremony, professional singers came out in the back by the organ singing. Musicians popped up all over the church. It was really amazing.

The boys had some photos with the wedding party outside in the foliage on the West Haven green. It was freezing and windy. I tried to get photos of the boys to use for a Christmas card. This was the best one. Glenn looks like an old man and Alexander is scowling.

Bob did get a smirk out of Alexander.

The reception was at the New Haven Lawn Club. The whole place was rented out. While the guest had a cocktail hour in a beautiful room, we met up with Bob's immediate family for pictures. Here's a cute picture of Alexander talking to Kat. He did this several times throughout the evening. 

Here are most of the grandchildren with Bob's parents (Kat and her brother Tim are missing in this picture). Sky has been "adopted" into the family. :)

Our family with Nan and Pop.

 
Our family- I think we were all looking at a different camera. 

Cute buddy

At the reception

Amazing floral arrangements on the tables

My Baby and me

There was a band during the cocktail hour and another band for the dinner and dancing. It really was a royal wedding for a perfect couple. 

Our Week in CT

We went for a week to CT this past week. We drove up there because our niece, Kat Anderson, was getting married. The boys had Monday and Tuesday off of school, so we went up the weekend before. We had great travel and arrived Sunday afternoon at my parents' house in Mystic. The leaves were in peak color. I haven't seen foliage like this for years. We told the boys about raking leaves into a pile and jumping into the pile. They asked why. I said because it is fun! Silly boys. So, shortly after we arrived, Nana got the boys a rake and set them to raking leaves. 

 

 

They got pumpkins with my parents. Papa helped them carve them. Alexander's is angry and Glenn's is sad. There are even tears carved into the pumpkin. I asked why his pumpkin was said. He said because we'll miss them. I'm not sure if that was my parents or my sister and her husband who would see them the next weekend. He even wrote on the pumpkin, "I will miss you. Your friend, Glenn"

On Tuesday, we drove north to my brother's house in Coventry. Apparently I was too busy to take any pictures. But the boys were so happy to stay there. Alexander and Jason, his cousin, were very excited to play with each other. They are just a month apart in age, so they are into the same things. Jason was sad to go to school the next day. He would have rather stayed and played with his cousins. 

We then left there on Wednesday to head south to West Haven. But on the way, we went to visit our old houses in Middlefield and Durham. In between, we stopped at Lyman Orchards in Middlefield. We had to get an apple pie, eat some bakery treats, drink hot apple cider and picked up half a peck of McIntosh apples. They were scrumptious. Unfortunately, we left half the bad of apples on the counter at my in-laws' house. Enjoy them Nanny and Poppy!

This is a road in Durham on the way to our old house.

Here's a view of our old road. The colors were more vibrant than this. It's just hard to get a picture through the window of a car. 

We stayed at my in-laws' house the remainder of the week. On Thursday, we went to the PEZ factory. Did you know they make PEZ in West Haven, CT? We had driven by it hundreds of times and could smell them making it, but never stopped in. We promised the boys we'd go this time and really enjoyed it. They had PEZ dispensers that they have made throughout the years. I think it started in the 1950's if I remember correctly. Here's one blinged out PEZ dispenser!

Alexander was excited to see Spider Man and The Hulk.

Glenn enjoyed the Mario Bros. dispensers.

We love Phineas and Ferb!

Bob's sister, Cindy, is hosting an exchange student from Korea. This is the second year he has stayed with them. His name is Sky and he is a senior in high school. Alexander really took to Sky. Sky enjoyed Zander, too. They were pretty much inseparable. Alexander asked if he's every going to see Sky again. We told him to come visit us when he comes to FL. So, we shall see...

Did I mention it is cold in CT? We left 80 degree weather to come to highs in the 50s. Okay, it was in the 60's a couple days, but then the temperature plummeted. I forgot to bring even a sweatshirt for Glenn, so my mom got this for him when we were in Mystic. He lived in this sweatshirt!

The boys also went to the Peabody Museum in New Haven with Nanny and Poppy. Glenn could only tell me about the dinosaur skeletons. But Alexander loved everything about it.

On Thursday night, there was a party for all of the out of town family. During the party, we had cake to celebrate Bob's upcoming birthday.

Friday, Bob had a massage for his birthday present, while Cindy and I got a manicure and pedicure. That evening was the rehearsal for the wedding and the dinner. Both Glenn and Alexander were ring bearers, or as Kat and Ryan called it, Ring Security. They got the boys bags of toys and some very cool ties as thank yous. Glenn's is a zebra tie. You can see it a bit here in the picture below. He wants to wear it at school. I said, why not!. Alexander got a batman tie and suspenders. I couldn't get him to wear it for a picture, but I'll try again.

 

 

I will blog more tomorrow, picking up at the wedding.

End of September

Can you believe it's almost the end of September? Now that school is in session, time is really flying by. The boys are still loving school. I'm really happy with both their teachers. They really keep the kids engaged in learning. I love hearing about what they learn. Alexander has really begun to enjoy coloring, which was always a battle. His art teacher showed him how to color more controlled and he was showing me his new technique. He was so proud of himself. Glenn is rocking his math tests! He enjoys math, just not when there are word problems (I don't think anyone ever enjoyed word problems in math). One Friday, at dinner, Alexander did this at the table. I asked him if he was tired, and of course he said yes. He wasn't sleeping, just resting.

Bob and I just celebrated our 13th wedding anniversary. We are still so in love! I won't get all mushy with you. I'll save that for home. We went out last night to celebrate. We went to a local Italian restaurant that we wanted to try, but couldn't bring the boys (it's a fine dining restaurant). It was really nice and dinner was delicious. You forget how nice it is to just talk and enjoy each other and our meal going out with kids all the time. After dinner, we went to a movie: The Family. It's with Robert DeNiro- Italian dinner and Italian family. The boys had our pastor's daughter babysitting them. They really love her and so they had a great night, too. They had to show her the original Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, Glenn new favorite movie.

We don't have a picture of Bob and me, but I wish we did, because he looked great (even got a haircut for the occasion). But I had asked Bob to take a picture of me for my new website, since I was all dressed up. My jewelry company, Premier Designs, just release new websites that each jeweler can have. So, I wanted a more recent picture for my site. If you want to check it out, it's at http://lauriedechello.mypremierdesigns.com. You will need to email me for the code to view the online catalog (lauriedechello@gmail.com). Here's the picture I will use that is from last night. 

In other work news, I will begin teaching two sections of the same course next month for Kaplan. It will be nice to have the extra money for bills. Also, my department chair was able to get two sections with the same live seminar time. So, I won't have to teach the same seminar twice a week, just once. I was very excited about that. Now that the boys are in school, I have more time to grade papers. 

We are going camping in Key Largo next weekend. The campground is a state park and has a couple of good snorkeling beaches. There are 70 nautical miles that are part of the under water state park because of a huge coral reef. So, we're very excited about snorkeling. We're going with some friends who have never camped before. So, it will definitely be an adventure for us all.

Labor Day Weekend

We went camping Labor Day Weekend. We went toward the FL panhandle on a peninsula called St Joseph Peninsula State Park. We have come to really enjoy the state parks. Their bathrooms are always nice and kept clean. Here's a picture of Bob and Alexander fishing. They didn't catch anything but didn't fish long, either.

We had this pretty pathway from our campsite to the bathrooms. Alexander enjoyed riding his scooter and bike back and forth through here, and it was nice we didn't have to worry about cars on this path. Glenn is in the picture.

Our neighbors had a visitor while they were gone. The raccoon stole something off the table and then scampered away.

We spent pretty much two solid days at the beach. The water was warm, but there was a strong current. So, we couldn't go out far.

 

 

 

The boys spent hours playing in the sand and took turns boogie boarding.

We had a view of the sand dune and the bridge across it from our campsite. So, the beach was just a quick walk from our site. We couldn't be any closer. 

Don't worry, the boys filled in their holes they dug at the site. That's a plus camping at the beach; you can dig right at the campsite!

Cubby is such a cute little camper. He's so good and other campers enjoy him, too. He doesn't bark at all, which is a pleasant surprise. He squeaks a lot when he can't get where he wants to go.

 

 

 

 

End of the Summer

It is the end of a fun summer. We kept busy pretty much the whole time. After we got back from our trip visiting family, we had a week to decompress. Then we had VBS (vacation bible school) at our church. I lead a group of kids around to the various activities. Alexander was in my group, so of course he was the one most difficult to keep under control. But we had a lot of fun. We followed Paul's 2nd missionary trip and wore togas on the last day.

I have some sad news. London, who had just turned 13 years old (91 in dog years), passed away earlier this month. He had not been doing well since the spring, but really declined fast the last week. The vet thinks he had cancer, so there was nothing we could do. The boys took his passing pretty well. They shed some tears, and then were happy that he was in heaven where he didn't have trouble walking or breathing anymore. Alexander even pictured Jesus bringing him up to heaven on a cloud. Here is the last picture I took of him, laying on Bob's back pillow in our room. He was such a handsome puppy!

Thankfully, we had already planned to go see the new Planes movie that same day. So, that kept all our minds occupied. After the movie, there was supposed to be a street party outside the theater (it's a really old theater downtown, my favorite place to see movies). But then it began to rain. We thought it would pass and hung out while a couple of guys played guitar and sang. But then it really rained. Alexander, and his friends began dancing and splashing in the rain. They were soaked, but had a good time.

Our church had a rally day festival (beginning of Sunday School) a couple of weeks ago. The major attraction was a whole hallway filled with refrigerator boxes made into a tunnel maze. The boys must have done it 20 times. They could go in the dark or with little lights. Bob even tried it once. The other big attraction was the ball toss to get a goldfish. Wouldn't you know it, Glenn won a fish. I didn't think I should put it in with our other fish, so I put him in this decanter than I never use anyway. I think he's my fish, now. Glenn named him Goldie, and says he's a boy. He sits on the counter in the kitchen.

We are back to school! They started the 19th. Alexander is in kindergarten and they had staggered start. So, he didn't go on Tuesday or Wednesday and was so excited to go back on Thursday. He has two friends from his old school where he went to preschool in his class. So, that made the transition even easier. Glenn is in 3rd grade! He also has some previous classmates in his class. We are thrilled with their teachers and they are loving it. Also, our school is part of a pilot program where all the students in the school get free breakfast and lunch (since over 40% would qualify for free lunch). This is a pilot to see if they will save money just letting everyone eat for free rather than having to process all the paper work to determine if families qualify. I am thrilled! That saves us 10 meals a week. They love it, too. We talk about what is being served and what choices they are going to make. So far, so good! I drop them off when they are first allowed to go into the cafeteria (7:15) and they get to eat breakfast together. I wish I could go in there and be a fly on the wall. :) Here's a picture of them on their first day.

Glenn's favorite animal is the zebra. He has slowly accumulated thing to decorate his room with the zebra motif. We finally got his zebra poster on his wall and since I just clean his sheets, his bed is made. So, I thought today was a good day to take pictures of his room. 

In the first picture we have his big zebra poster, zebra bedding (including sheets), zebra back pillow, blue and zebra print pillow with his name (I didn't make it, a friend had it made for him), and of course, zebras. Oh yes, and a zebra rug.

I had made him a chalk board last year, but it was falling apart, so I fortified it with zebra duct tape. Notice also the zebra throw blanket (soooo soft).

And lastly, we have his desk. He has a zebra box, white organizer with zebra crates, zebra lamp, zebra slippers, and zebra trash can. You can't see the zebra pen and zebra light switch plate. :) He wanted me to take the duct tape and put the zebra print all around the top of his walls. Um, no. I don't think it would ever come off the wall.

I have gone back to teaching for Kaplan University online. I enjoy it more since I had a break. I just told my department chair that I'd like to teach two sections at a time. She was happy to hear and is going to try to get two sections with the same seminar time so I can teach both sections at the same time. Otherwise, I have to teach the same thing twice a week. 

Bob has been working from home more since his new warehouse doesn't have air conditioning. So, we get to see more of him and he gets to pick up the boys with me. That's about it.