Xmas Recap in Pics

Yep, life has taken over....I've been MIA for months now living life.
As we end another year, here are some pictures from our holiday....

Happy New Year everyone!

Cottage

I'm still trying to play catch up on here.

So many things I want to update about, but no time to do it!

And...school starts next week around here (say what?!) which is just crazy to me. Where did summer go?! I feel like Avery just got off of the bus on her last day of school!

Anywho....I thought I'd write about our family getaway to Owasco Lake a few weeks ago.

Gabe's family all went so there was a total of 10 of us staying in the cottage we rented. My sister-in-law did a lot of the research and planning on this one!

We arrived on Sunday evening around dinner time. We got in, unpacked the car and got dinner going pretty much right away.

A few shots of the house when we arrived:

Dining area

Living room

Master bedroom

bedroom (where Gabe and the girls slept)

view from the dining/living room area

a shot from out near the lake

You can see from the photo above, we had quite a bit of flat, grassy area. It was great! Lots of room for the kids to run and play and we had a nice flat entry into the lake as well.

We were there on one of the cool weeks in August-the one day it barely hit 70 out. Some days weren't very water friendly, but other days were!

Owen kayaking

My sister-in-law made this cute dessert for us one night....and it was yummy!

Mid-week we celebrated my nephew's birthday. His other set of Grandparents came in for some of the day to celebrate with us. Hard to believe he's 11 already!

Bianca and Avery

Opening gifts:

Of course we had to sing to him!

One night they had music at a nearby park. We went and met some of Gabe's cousins there. It was a lot of fun! The band they had was pretty good too! The kids had a ball!

Cassie, Avery and Raylee

As you can see, they were dancing up a storm-at one point, they even went up on stage!

This kid just cracks me up:

There was a family of ducks (6 babies and a Mama) that visited us multiple times a day. Of course we always gave them some bread. But they would come right up to you and take it out of your hand! The kids loved looking for them and feeding them!

baby ducks

Mama duck

When I was in Buffalo back a few weeks ago, I stumbled upon an article about the Finger Lakes area. They mentioned this store/cafe that makes and sells pancake mixes and have an all you can eat pancake breakfast. Of course we had to go and check it out. And the pancakes were quite good and very reasonably priced. Then you go and spend $100 in the store to make up for it!

Bianca, Molly, Mark, Owen

The cousins stopped by to visit us as well and the girls all had fun coloring!

Bianca, Raylee, Avery

And some other cousins came by and gave the kids a boat ride-which they loved!

Gabe and Owen went on a kayaking adventure! Owen tuckered out so Gabe ended up rowing both kayaks back home!

Gabe

Avery did quite well swimming with a life vest on! Go girl!

We went for ice cream one of the last nights there and it was stunning! The sun actually turned red at the end-it was breathtaking! The pictures don't do it justice.

We had I think 3 bonfires while we were there-the kids loved that too!

And before we left, we had to do a group shot to prove we were all there and survived the week!

August?!

I can't believe it's August already.

Did you see when I last posted? Over a month ago. Life has been so crazy. With Avery home all summer, I've had zero time to be doing this. Normally I fiddle on this during naptime when my housework is done. But now I have Avery home, so naptime isn't really "my" time right now. I'm lucky I get the housework done these days!

Anywho....we've been so busy this summer.  Our entire month of July was booked before July even started-including my days off during the week. Doctors appts, dental cleanings, going places, visiting with people. And our weekends were the same way.

I don't even know where to start so this is just going to be a random post of stuff from the last month. Avery chose a pretty cool birthday present this year...but that will be it's own post when I can get to it!

We had Gabe's annual family reunion at the lake on July 4th....

Red, White, and Blue!

and even got to go on a boat ride! Avery loved it! Cassie wouldn't step foot on it!

Bianca, Molly, Owen, Mark

The kids had a good time swimming that day too!

Avery

My Mom had a few free tickets to an amusement park here that I haven't been to in about 15yrs! So we decided to take the kids for the day. My Mom met us there and my friend Megan and her family met us too. We had a really great day-the kids loved it. Avery wanted to go on everything, but of course wasn't tall enough to. Cassie was a stinker and refused to go on a lot of things, but eventually we dragged her on a few rides and she had fun!

Avery and I at the top of the ferris wheel

Avery and Leigha

Gabe and I celebrated 7 years of marriage! My Mom watched the kids so we could go out for dinner that night-was really nice!

YUM!

Before dinner, I had a chance to visit with my old neighbor. His Mom and my Mom have lived on the same street for at least 35 years and him and I grew up together. I haven't seen him in probably close to 10 years (he lives out of state now) and we actually were in town at the same time for once. It was really great seeing with him and briefly catching up!

Dominic and I

We also have gotten some use out of the bounce house this summer! My friend Jessica came in to visit us for the day and we had a great time. I think it had been at least a year since we saw each other, but we picked up like it was yesterday. Our kids all played really well together too!

Connor

Caroline

It's been a really great summer so far-it's hard to believe we have less than 4 weeks left until school starts back up. And of course those weeks are quickly filling up with things to do!

Turning 6-Party #2!

Over the weekend, we had Avery's  second party for our family and close friends.

Avery and I ready to party!

We had a not-so-nice day for her party. It was freezing all weekend-like low to mid 60s. We had planned to set up the bounce house like usual, but unfortunately that was out of the question. It was strange having people over in long sleeves and pants at the end of June (hello summer? Where are you?). But...we managed. Everyone arrived and we had snacks and a nice cookout.

Then we tried to get a group photo of all of the kids, which didn't work out all that well...

Avery opened up her nice gifts...

keychain

bathing suit #1

bathing suit #2

After presents it was time for cake!

She wanted another cat themed party so I scoured the internet for some cat cake ideas. This is what I came up with! I will say that I cursed at it many times in the making, but I think it turned out ok! She loved it and that's all that matters!

Happy Birthday, Avery!

Make a wish!

Despite the bad weather, we all had a great time! Party #2 was a success!