The End

Now that the summer is coming to an end, and all of our kiddos are gearing up for back to school, it is time for me and Molly to say goodbye. I am heading off to NYC to try something new, and Molly is going to be attending grad school full time! Who knows what the Fall will hold for all of our kiddos, but we enjoyed spending one last summer with them... and this blog was a great way for us to look back and smile at all the good times we had together!

Tidbits from Martha's Vineyard

My kiddos are on vacation this week with their dad down at their Martha's Vineyard house. Earlier in the week I decided to go over for a night to get in some last minute quality time with them. Not only was it a nice break, but I also got the chance to celebrate M's birthday with her, and as an added extra special birthday treat for M I picked up her best friend K, and she accompanied me down to the Vineyard! As usual their was no shortage of the kiddo crazy talk but the following were some of my favorites.

Upon spying the GIGANTIC spider in the outside shower J quickly replied with "There's nothing itsy bitsy about you Big Guy!".

K: Hey M want to know the best thing about turning 12!?! You no longer have to order of the kiddy menu!

And then when K and I got back to The Cape to retrieve my car and found ourselves slightly stranded with no car keys (LONG story) we decided to make the best of it and went out to eat. When the waitress asked us if we wanted to bring our leftovers home K replied with a straight face "No thanks... we don't really have a home to go to right now."

Superheroes

J: Uh oh! Watch out S that spider is just about to fly at you.

Me: J... spiders can't fly.

M: Well Spiderman can!

Surprise!

For the last week or so M has been acting a little shady... top secret frequent calls to her best buddy K, random bouts of 20 questions, and regular conferences with J and S. BUT the most bizarre (though also the cutest) moment was when she stole my bathing suit. The other day I took M on a much anticipated trip to my house to meet my cats. While I happened to be in the other room she promptly announced that she needed to go get something from the car. I decided to peek out the window to check on her, just to make sure she made it down our treacherous deck stairs, and happened to notice her clutching something in her hands. Odd I thought. So I looked a bit harder and realized she was holding one of my bathing suits. Today I discovered why M had snagged my suit...!

Surprise!

She and K had planned me a surprise pool party to bid me farewell and wish me luck with my big move to NYC! They had ice cream cake, balloons, a sweet sweet card for me, and they burned me a CD with a bunch of my favorite pop songs. Then they let me relax and hang out in the hot tub while they catered to me... bringing me lemonade and serving me yummy fruits! It was sooooo incredibly sweet and thoughtful, and meant so much to me. I am so lucky to have all six of these cuties in my life, and I will miss them so much when I move!

Rabbits

J: Hey I just saw a rabbit!

Me: Oh, that's nice.

J: Oh wait, it was just that car.

Me: How did you confuse a car for a rabbit?

J: Well I thought it was a herd of rabbits... at least that's what it looked like.

And it ends

Yesterday ended my stint as a nanny. I'm still all mixed up over it- but this card was too cute not to share!

Missed Opportunities

Today I got to hang out with the nanny-to-be. We were driving her around, checking out the kids' favorite spots (schools, stores, library, parks, pool, friends' houses, restaurants...) and I was at a red light at one point. When it turned green, I pulled forward and Potato said "Oh man... "
Me: What?
Potato: I wanted to roll down my window and tell that guy 'Cool hat.'
Becky: What hat?
Potato: It said "Foxy Grandpa."

Lessons in Geography

S: Nana's house in New Jersey is so awesome. Wait... New Jersey is that in the US?

Me: Ummm... yes.

S: Oh OK. I always get that one confused with Germany.

Peanut Butter Jelly Time!

I have this thing with the kids during the summer: if we go on an outing that will go through lunchtime, I encourage one of them to make a picnic for everyone. Surprisingly, they're totally into it! Even though they make the same 3 things each time, they LOVE feeling like they're surprising their brothers when it's their day to make lunch. Today we're going to the aquarium. Potato, my 7 year old friend, is in charge of lunches.
I just watched him put peanut butter on one piece of bread.
Then he put jelly on top of the peanut butter and spread it around.
Then he put jelly on the other piece of bread.

I looked at him with sort of pensive eyes, so he explained "Well one piece needs jelly and the other needs peanut butter before you put them together. But I like letting the peanut butter get used to the jelly before I throw more bread in the mix."

Ok.

totally past my prime

The Philadelphia Eagles defensive coordinator Jim Johnson died yesterday. The children were all concerned. The oldest told me "Yeah. He died because he didn't wear sunscreen." I KNOW that this is what their mom told them, but in a moment of poor judgement I admitted "You know, you can still get skin cancer even if you wear sunscreen. Just like you can still get lung cancer even if you don't smoke." The kids looked at me HORRIFIED. I backtracked quickly "I mean- it's MORE LIKELY you'll get skin cancer if you don't wear sunscreen, but pretty much every sunburn you get increases your chances of cancer."
Blank stares. Finally Tree says "I got a sunburn last week."
"Well... that's not good. That's why you should wear sunscreen."

I am pretty sure that it's a good time for me to move on.