Idlewild and Soak Zone

On our return trip to Ohio, Monika and I decided to make a little overnight pit stop in PA and visit a kid's amusement park.  It turned out to be a great day!  Idlewild was so much more relaxing than Disney and the kids could go on almost all the rides (there were some that Gabi couldn't, but the older kids could go with an adult).  We made a whole day of it enjoying the park and the attached Soak Zone area.
The kids all marveled that it was one of their best days ever.  Will and Aidan loved the Roller Coaster (Will and Isa's first REAL coaster ride), they loved the water tube slide, and the Toboggan!  Isa and Andrew were fond of the Caterpillar and kids water area.  Gabi loved all the little rides (wanted to go on ALL of them) and had a great time with Andrew in the baby splash area!  They kids even ventured into the wave pool.
It was an AWESOME day with our little ones with so many little memories!  

on our way through Mr Rodger's Neighborhood!

 

 

 

 

 

Isa has really been wanting to go on a hot air balloon since watching The Wizard of Oz... 

she was happy with this substitute!

 

 

 

goodbye DC

 Day 4:  We took our time getting out the door to head back home.  We can't even begin to describe what a great time we had and what absolutely amazing hosts we had.  The Love family opened up their home to us, gave us amazing accommodations (like staying in a resort), provided spectacular meals (more on this later), and lent us their children to help us out with our lil ones!

Sofia and Adam Love are amazing cooks (they even owned a restaurant at one point).  So when I say we we were spoiled... we sure were.  Dinners ranged from fresh Clams, to home-made Pizza, to flavorful pesto sauce on spaghetti with rotisserie chicken, to Quinoa, and finally ending with an amazing Paella.  Each dish was more dilectiable than the previous (and taking several hours to make).  We gathered around with a few glasses of wine and enjoyed the company while the food was prepared.

 The kids had an amazing time with Andreas, Elise and Bella.  They were great sports watching over and playing with all 5 little ones!  Thanks for a great time, and we hope to do it again soon!

 

DC tours

Day 2:  On Sunday, the kids and I decided to just take a nice relaxing day off.  Monika, Arnold and the boys headed out to the city again to walk around. Since they were going to see the same areas we had seen a few years ago (and because I didn't want to haul the 3 kids around the city myself), we spent the day with family and all swam at the community pool!

Day 3:  On Monday, we woke up bright and early!  Thanks to my brother-in-law Paul, we had a special VIP tour of the Capitol building through the Speaker of the House's office!!!  A couple of Speaker Boehner's interns gave us a tour of his office, conference room, balcony, and walked us around the Capitol building.  It was real neat to hear all the little details about the building.

After the tour, we had lunch and headed over to the American Museum of Natural History.  We couldn't skip this stop with all the little dino lovers we have! We managed to do all this and be back at the Love's home by 4pm (Arnold's flight out was as 7).  

 

 Once Arnold was off to the airport... we headed back to the pool for a little more swimming!  Aidan even took the test to go in the deep end and passed!  He jumped off the diving board for the first time ever!

Road Trip

The day after my sis and the boys arrived to Ohio, we set out on a fun road trip to DC and Idlewild.  We spent the first couple of nights with family near DC, the Love's. 

Day1:  After arriving on Friday night we slept in and awaited Arnold's arrival to DC to join us!  My sis and hubby, the boys, our kids, along with Elise and Bella (our wonderful helpers) headed into the city to the National Zoo.  Let's just say... despite the pics.. the Zoo left much to be desired (we've seen MUCH better).  However, we managed to make a great day of it anyway even though it was a long commute, we did way too much walking, and took some rather long ways to get around! 

 

 

Will's Safety Town

With Will ready to head to Kindergarten in the Fall, he attended a week of Avon's Safety Town!  Will and his buddy Luke did the course together and had a blast!  It was real sweet watching them get their little certificate of completion and watching Will show us the Safety Town course.

Fun in the Summer Sun!

This the  epitome of  Summer... outings and water fun.  It's amazing how both new and old adventures still make the kids smile and laugh so much.  We are loving our Summer so far and it's only just begun!

Our first time at the Avon Duck Tape Festival!

Squishy Baff with the Avarello girls!

 

a day at the zoo (on Chloe's birthday!)

swimming with the Millers!

Happy Daddy Day

 This day started out GREAT.  Since Will is usually the first one of the kids awake... he came into my room, tapped me gently and signaled for me to come out of bed.  We went downstairs, and he and I got the daddy dad festivity preparations going.  He helped me set everything up, decorate, and start a light breakfast.  Once all kids were awake, all the kids went up to loudly knock on Tob's door and ran downstairs to await him! 
Surprise!  The kids were SO excited to see him, show him all his gifts and drawings, and have breakfast together.  This year was a "practical" father's day.  Tobin got lots of socks, new polos, new pair of pants, undershirts, and some special t-shirts from Will (Transformers-decepticon, and GI Joe)!  The best gift was Tob's #1 Dad shirt... made special by his lil loves!

 

 After Mass we spent a little time at Gramma and Bapa's to celebrate with the other dads! Happy Father's day to all the special dads out there!

these 2 are the best together =)