Where have I been???

Oh my where have I been? It's been how ling since I have posted anything? Almost a month! Oh my goodness! Time flies by when you are busy and having fun.

Well, we were in New Hampshire for a ten day vacation. We rented a little cottage on a picturesque lake in Wolfeboro NH just a bit (2 hours) north of Boston. My side of the family has seemed to invade this area since we all grew up and left home. My parents and brother live in the next town over, my sister Stacey and her family live in Wolfeboro, and my other sister, Rita, and her family live in the next town up, Mirror Lake. It's so nice up there that you almost get lost in the nostalgia of summer.

We arrived in Boston (on Friday) to a beautiful sunny and warm day. It was beautiful. We drove an hour north to Brian's Mom and Dad's house and about an hour later these dreadfully dark clouds started to roll on in and thunder started to boom. We got a terrific thunderstorm during dinner and it didn't stop raining (except for brief moments) until the following Friday. There was even a funnel cloud and talk of a tornado that touched down in WOLFEBORO NH. It rained and rained and rained some more but it didn't dampen *well it did dampen* but didn't hurt our fun. We went swimming until it was lightening out, the kids got out til it stopped and then got back in again. We ate lots of yummy food {I did have an AWESOME lobster roll} and spent time with all of our family. Garrett had a blast with all of his cousins and played until he was seeing cross eyed every day. He loved every moment of being there and so did we.

Since getting back, I have also been busy working on putting together our annual street Block Party. Whew! It's a lot of work to try to put together a fun party for around 100 people. I put together the invitations and made most of the plans for the day. It started out with a parade with the kids riding bicycles and the Euclid Beach Rocket Car leading the way with LOTS of noise and music. Then the car zipped off and took people on rides for an hour. Then we played some games and had a really fun cake walk. Around 4pm a city Firetruck came by for the kids to see but had to leave shortly after getting there due to an emergency. We had a bunch of games planned so it simply lead into game time with sack races and "how many people can we stuff in a car". From there we had a potluck dinner/dessert and a raffle of prizes from local businesses and people on the street who made things. We played a couple more games and a pinata after and dinner to end the night. It was a great success and we had more people come out than any other year we have been living on this wonderful street. It is so nice to know you have great neighbors who care especially when you live far away from your family. I am proud that our street party was such a success but mostly I am proud that we had such a great number of people who came who got to mix and mingle and meet those who live around them and to see just how great it is.