Last Weekend in Pictures

Richelle and I visited the last market of the season at the Fenton Street Market. It was freezing but there were lots of great vendors there.

Sunday we went over to Gramma Deb's to visit with family and have dinner. Marino got his presents from Gramma Deb, including the new Leap Pad. He loves it!

Aunt Chelle, Aunt RiRi, cousin Danny and cousin Sam lurking in the back!

Don't ask me about these silly faces he's making.

Aside from his not feeling great, we had a fun time. Marino tried chitlins for the first time and loved them, to which Pop Pop (his great grandfather) declared "That boy has soul!" He even got to play video games with his cousins. Lots of fun!

Thanksgiving 2012

The 4 of us (Max included) headed up to NY last week for Thanksgiving. This was the first holiday since my brother passed and it was nice to be with my family. We got lucky and had amazingly beautiful weather while we were there. We headed to the park twice on Thanksgiving to take advantage of the great day. 

My stepsister, Jennifer, her husband and daughter, Bae-Corine came over to spend the day with us at my mom's house. Bae-Corine gave Marino what may be his favorite gift ever - a Spider-Man glove that shoots "webs" (silly string) and water. To my surprise, all the kids at the playground wanted to be sprayed with the webs. They were begging for it!

They had a blast - it was fun to watch.

As always, Marino and Bae-Corine were two peas in a pod. She's amazingly patient with him. Its so fun to see them together.

Snuggle time with Gramma, watching Sid the Science Kid.

The next day we went to Benedict Farm Park - what a gorgeous place. We had amazing weather again.

Grampa Ray and Daddy went fishing (it was too cold to catch anything, but they were going through fishing withdrawl).

Friday afternoon, we headed over to my dad's house for a couple of days. We had a great time - Marino loved hanging out with his Pap Pap!

More pictures from our trip coming soon!

Adams Harvest Festival

Last weekend, we went to New York for my brother's memorial (post coming). The next day, my mom and I took Marino to the Harvest Festival at Adams Fairacre Farms (local independent grocer in my hometown).  Marino had a great time - there were animals, a magician, bounce houses, games and delicious food.

Here's Marino and Gramma - his favorite person

Petting a goat...he fell in love with this goat and introduced me to him, saying, "This is my buddy, Goat."

My friend Anne was there with her gorgeous kids. Anne's stepfather was the magician at the event!

My friend Tracey, who was my next door neighbor for 20 years, came, too. 

Here we are with her new baby, Sara (born just a few days before my birthday).

Marino got to ride a pony named Jaxon. He was very sweet with the pony.

He really loved this goat.

He also loved this giant bunny.

Tracey's other kids - Emma and Alex. Emma is a spitting image of Tracey at her age!

My friend Jill was there with her boys, too. 

Fun day with lots of special people!

5 on Friday

As always, here are 5 special reasons I am loving my boy this week:

5. We saw my parents over the weekend, and every day since, Marino has told me how much he misses his Gramma.  The other night he told me, "The best girl that I miss is Gramma Nancy".

4.  Morning conversation with Marino
Marino: "I'm so jealous"
Me:  "What are you jealous of?"
Marino:  "All the people who don't have to go to school today."

3. My Dad and stepmom got Marino some fun costumes and he was so excited to try them on for everyone! Can you tell he's pleased with himself? 

A combination of the 2 costumes = Iron Spider

2. Marino at dinner on Wednesday night...
Marino:  "Let's hold hands and wish about something." ::meaning pray::
Evan: "Ok, what do you want to wish about?"
Marino: "I love you, I love you. Silly to funny faces. Bananas. Amen."

1. Marino thinks Frankenstein's name is "Cremstone." I find this hilarious. 

Recent Days...

A hodge podge of pictures from the last few weeks...

Dinner with Nannie and Great Grandpap before they head back to Florida.
Miranda, Pacey and Addie joined us - lots of fun!

Feeding ducks with new buddies - Aiden and Ashton

Soccer practice with Gramma Debbie

Matching outfits with Daddy

Silly faces - out to lunch with Daddy

Everyone stayed home sick with Mommy - even Optimus Prime!

5 on Friday

As always, here are 5 special reasons I am loving my boy this week:

5. The other day we were sitting at the table. Marino was eating a popsicle. I was surfing the Internet. "How's your popsicle?" I asked him.
"Good," he said, "How's your tasty computer?"

4. The next day we were sitting at the table again when Marino said to the flowers on the table "Flower, can you get me a popsicle?" "No, sorry, I don't have hands," he had the flower reply.

3. Last Sunday we went to Evan's cousin's house to watch the game. Some other friends were there with their kids, and the older girls were nice enough to give the boys (the other boy was also 4) horseback rides. At one point, I saw them arguing about something, so I went over to find out what the problem was. Marino told me "He's not sharing the girls with me. I want to ride on them." I tried to explain we don't share people...hopefully that lesson sank in!

2. Speaking of girls, Marino tells me of girls he likes "I just want to pick them up and hug them." When he shows me how he wants to "pick them up" it looks like he's carrying firewood!

1. The other day, Marino was talking about staying in the hotel with Gramma and I in Dallas. "Did you like the hotel?" I asked him. "Yeah, it was so cozy!" he said.

Visiting with the Paps (and Gramma Barb...and Nannie)

My dad and stepmother were in town visiting last month. As always, Marino was super excited to see them.
We had a delicious dinner at Red, Hot & Blue and Marino colored a special blues picture for his PapPap.

The next day, we all went to Virginia to have lunch with my grandfather and his wife. Marino is really starting to open up more to them and I love it. I'm so thankful we get to spend half the year with them from now on!

Four generations!

A boy and his PapPap

Marino loves his grandfather and is so lucky he's able to get to know some of his great grandparents.

A Saturday in Ahoskie

A couple weekends ago, we headed down to North Carolina to visit with Evan's extended family. Evan has wonderful memories of spending his summers there, so he was very excited to share this place with Marino and I. Evan's maternal family is from this very small town in North Carolina, called Ahoskie. I would tell you what it's near, but its not near anything, so it wouldn't help you to place it.

When Evan described why he liked going there so much, I wasn't sure I understood, but watching Marino there helped me realize that living in a small community affords a freedom that kids in suburban/urban areas don't have. The kids can just run around and not have to worry about cars, or strangers, or getting lost in a crowd. At times, it was hard for me to adjust to letting Marino be "free" with his older cousins, but he had such an amazing time when I did. It was a "crazy, crazy night" he told me.

Before heading to NC, the family (not me, I get sea sick) went deep sea fishing. Saturday afternoon was spent cleaning and scaling the fish for a fish fry. It's really a lot of work, and not very pleasant. The fish heads went to the feral cats. They were in heaven.

Some group shots. I love my family!
The oldest siblings
Marino playing with his cousin Christopher.
2 days old kittens. So adorable!!
BIG group shot. Don't ask me to name everyone. They're all family.
Marino playing basketball with Cam and Aunt RiRi
Marino with his new buddies - Tionna and Kamari. "I like these girls and they like me too." he told me.

They had a great time playing hide and go seek together (although they were easy to find, since they kept hiding in the back of one of the half dozen pickup trucks parked at the house).
We all had a great time!!