New York City

We had a whirlwind of 2 days in good old New York City. Julie, Kim, Rachael and I sat through the 7 hours of driving, arrived in NYC by 10pm and were up early the next morning.
We woke up early, by 5am and headed over to The Today Show where we sat first row behind the stage and saw Katy Perry, Jesse McCartney and The PussyCat Dolls. It was quite a show! We even managed to get some views of Matt Lauer, Meredith Viera and Al Roker.
From there, we traveled back to the hotel to get ready for the RR show. I wanted to get there early as we were denied tickets last time my sister and mother went. We sat about 15 in line and Julie flashed the producer our VIP ticket and we were whisked away to the first waiting room. We held tickets 32-35!!! We went through a metal detector armed by a large man who was so tall that I was just about at his belly button! Then we took the elevator up.
Our next room was the holding room and this was sponsored on Friday by Sara Lee. We had bagels and muffins and coffee and juice and water... After about 20 minutes, we were sent to the stage. It was so neat. It was so small. I believe she sits about 100 people in the crowd. We sat 4 row up right on the end.
Her turntable floor spun around and we were entertained by RC who taught us how to clap on demand and smile. Then our floor was turned around and low and behold, Rachael was already on stage cooking up her Corn and Beef Hash. She did a quick costume change and came out to tape the next show featuring a hypnotist and another cooking segment, Citrus Chicken.
All in all it was a fun experience and I would definitely do it again. Look for me on the show. I was wearing green and sitting on the end!!! I'll post the actual show dates when I find them out!

Darien Lake

We spent the day at Darien Lake on Monday and my kids have officially moved to the big kid rides. While they still did kiddie land, they were more excited to go on other crazy things. We had a great day. The weather was perfect, just a little cold. here are some pictures...

The Great Preschool Debate

So we decided to send Mia back to her old preschool for year #2. This was a very hard decision for me especially. She had won a spot in the UPK program here and we were all set to send her there, until I heard more about the program. When I went to the orientation meeting, the director told me the kids would be learning only 10 letters and would be able to recognize their own name by year end. 10 letters? What happened to the other 16? I realize that preschool is not supposed to be all academic, but please she has to learn something. I was really stressing out this entire week as I was frantically calling people and schools to see if there were any spots left somewhere closer to my house. Everything was either full or really pricey. So i weighed the pros and cons and decided that we would be heading back to the private school Bailey attended as well as the whole Lisnerski gang as children. (yes, this was bill's preschool alma mater) She starts the 2nd week of september. At least now I know she will learn all 26 letters and be comfortable in her surroundings.

Update on us

So goes our non-busy August. We finished last weekend with a Beers of the World Party at a neighbor's house and then headed to the Annual Family Picnic. Both places where we ate way too much. My kids were exhausted and needed Monday to recoop.
So we have had terrible weather here. i mean I guess not terrible, but for August? it's been like 68 degrees everyday.
I did some more school clothes shopping with Amelia yesterday> She is at such a tough size as she is floating between the toddler girls and the girls sections. Bailey is also kind of at a weird size this year too.
Mia will start her second year in preschool going everyday and Bailey will be in the First Grade. I have the teacher's assignments and the school supply lists and I am ready. I have activities in mind for the first day of school, both the night before and the day of. Hopefully, I can get it all together.
The kids sleep schedules will be adjusted next week in preparation of school. Very exciting!!!!

My Little Man...

Pictures

So I told you Bill would post the video, but I did take a few snapshots of Mia riding her bike.

Look how proud of herself she looks...

And apparently, Amelia started the trend as later that day everyone was taking off their training wheels. And Bailey thought he was super cool as we let him set up a little ramp in the drive-way. Wait, did I say Bailey, because I think Bill was the one having the most fun on it as he was showing the kids all sorts of tricks on the ramp.

Bailey jumping the ramp...

Nolan(our neighbor) jumping the ramp (first day off training wheels)...

Rain, Ugh

So much for the fair. We have had enough rain to last us the year. I guess at least I don't have to water the lawn. I mean, at least Bill doesn't have to water the lawn.
The poor people that are building across the street from us are going to have pretty wet wood as they have no roof yet and it has been pouring for 3 days straight.
Bill and I had a night out Saturday night and went to a place called Mazzariello's in Lancaster. It was so good. I highly recommend it. It has Italian with of course chicken and steak and fish. The owner is very Italian and Bill and I were so stuffed that we could hardly move. Thankfully we did all our running around before we went to dinner.
We have Rachael Ray tickets again and I believe I am heading to the big city for trip 2 to see Rachael. I hope she doesn't disappoint me again. My family has backed out, but my friend Julie and her friend are on board for a day trip out to NYC. I do hope one of them is a good city driver :) I just hope it during a total audience giveaway taping...

School is almost here!

We rec'd our school assignments this week. Bailey found out who his new teacher is and we will meet Amelia's new teacher next week. We have a ton of school clothes shopping left to do, but at least most of the supplies are purchased.
Congratulations to Bill's cousin Beth and her husband Ang as they welcomed their baby girl, Isabella, into the world this week.
And congratulations to Amelia! Amelia reached a great accomplishment yesterday as she started riding her bike WITH NO TRAINING WHEELS! We have it on video and as soon as Bill tells me how to upload it, I will put it on the website. She is so proud of herself.
My little girl also had a really bad experience this week with some candy. Bailey bought himself some of that warheads sour spray candy junk earlier this week. We were at home later that day after they were both eating it like crazy/ Mia went to spray it in her mouth and the nozzle was not pointing in her mouth, it was aiming up (think eye level) she started screaming like crazy. I tried to flush her eye out. My neighbor (who is a PA) recommended throwing her in the bathtub and have her swim around a little to get the gunk out. That worked, but soon afterwards we noticed her skin was all red and puffy. Cindy (our neighbor) said that Mia had a 1st degree chemical burn on her face. We put some cream on it, but jeez, this was CANDY. So needless to say, sour candy spray is no longer allowed here.

Thank god it's Friday!!!!

CVS

So, I sent Bill in to do my dirty work again and here is what we came out with. I should mention, we walked in with $6.50 in ECB (extra Care bucks) and we bought...
1 - 12pk Scott toilet paper
2 - Pert Plus shampoos full size
1 - 24ct Excedrin PM
1pk - gum
2 - Dawn Dish detergents
1 - Colgate Advance toothpaste
And our total after coupons and ECBs? $0.02 The lady wouldn't even take Bill's dollar and took it out of the give a penny. Plus we made $2 on ECB for next time and it also printed a free mouthwash for our next visit. Yeah! I would have taken a picture of it, but we already busted into the toilet paper...

The stolen bank card

So I have been living in debit card fraud city for the past week. My personal bank account was overdrawn last week. Now I am usually a nut about this when I know I am awaiting to get paid, so I keep careful check of this account. Now mind you all that this is my personal account, so I don't keep a lot of money in it just basically money to take the kids out for a quick lunch or to buy something little. Anyway, it was way overdrawn last week due to a purchase on a King Fisher Air, which I later found out was an airline based in India. So I got charged for that and also a foreign atm fee. Then there were 2 other charges pending. Thanks to the other company, get this, this person was trying to buy computer software to prevent hacking personal info with MY card. I found out he was using the name Tomas. So, in case you are reading this Tomas, my account is on hold and that number is no longer valid. Thanks so much for tying up my money. My advice to everyone reading this, take a look at your own bank accounts and make sure that someone isn't stealing your money...