My Golden Girls in Italy

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There is a lyric in the new Ed Sheeran song, Castle on the Hill…
But these people raised me
And I can’t wait to go home

I just returned from a trip to Italy with my “these people”. These gorgeous people.

They raised me.

To be crystal clear, I am aware that it was my family that raised me (thanks Mom and Dad :-) )

But these girls, these women, these amazing humans; were and are a huge part of the person I have become.

We have all known each other for over 35 years. We grew up in small-town New England. 180 kids in our graduating class. People have come and gone from my life, but these lovelies, I can’t seem to shake. They have seen me at my absolute worst and my glowing best, and every step in between.

To make use of a completely overused an inappropriately used word – our trip was amazing. I was amazed daily and hourly. We laughed and we cried. We ate and we drank. We talked about the past and the future. We spent long hours in the car, on hikes, and in search of bathrooms. Oh and we were in ITALY! Bellissimo.

Did I mention we laughed? One of T’s very young coworkers remarked upon hearing we were coming, “Oh it’s just like the Golden Girls!” Bless her heart. T nearly killed her, but we fully embraced it after nearly peeing our pants (let’s find a bathroom!) hearing the story about it. We are now the GG’s.

And on and on. These women know my soul and I feel so fortunate to have them in my life.

We travelled from Vicenza to the Cinqueterre then to Bellagio on Lake Como, and to Venice. More on our #ItalianGNO adventure to come! A Domani.

Week 1 of Summer – Cape Fun

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We started the summer off with a bang! A trip to the Red Jacket Resort in Yarmouth, fireworks on the beach. Back home for a bit and swim lessons. Then to the cape again for the 4th and more fireworks on the bay!

Two babies. Then and now.

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A while ago I posted this photo on Facebook  and it got a lot of likes.

I showed it to the two of them and they too thought they were adorable!

A few mornings later they were snuggling in my bed and I said let’s do the photo!

“The photo?”

“The one I posted on facebook.”

At which time they both simply turned to each other and started cracking up.

Heh

Happy Presidents Day or Katy Perry Day. Whichever.

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My middle brought home some papers in her folder the other day. As elementary schoolers have a habit of doing. The amount of paper these kids bring home is suffocating. It’s everywhere. Some get hung up, some get put in the hanging file on the wall, some ends up on my desk. There is paper the children have manipulated in some way on every surface of my house.

But this one was special. I saw it and knew you would love it.

Happy Presidents Day or Katy Perry Day. Whichever.

The caption says “He didn’t go to school for a long time.”

I asked her very cheekily if this was George Washington or Katy Perry.

She burst out laughing. “Oh my gosh mama it does sort of look like her. I didn’t mean for it too.”

In her defense we did just watch the Superbowl halftime show two days prior to this illustration. Had there been a dancing shark in the picture too I would have been much more concerned, or amused.

Whichever.

Family Photo Fun! A fundraiser for FWR

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A couple of weeks ago we had our first family photo taken in a few years! It was a fundraiser for Fertility Within Reach, a nonprofit that aims to empower infertile individuals to advocate in order to build their family. A dear friend of mine is the founder and she does amazing work. Tracey Rodriquez Photography agreed to come on, was paid for her time and part of the proceeds go to FWR! Win Win Win. :-)

There was MUCH discussion about what to wear for our picture. Matchy matchy or not. What colors? On and on. We shopped in our closet and did not buy anything new. We took an hour and decided and did not sweat it after that. My baby girl helped me and we settled on something that I think looks pretty great.

This is the shot that will make it on to the wall.

But the following series made it into our hearts!

Right in between these two shots Theo decided he should try to moon us to make us laugh.

That is why everyone is howling and incredulous at the same time.

And here are my gorgeous kiddos.

And there’s one more that I LOVE, but I may actually make a holiday card this year (as well as a video, of course) so you’ll have to wait!

Do you get your family photo taken every year? Or just once in a while? We may start doing it every year. They are getting so big SO FAST!

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PHOTOS BY Tracy Rodriguez Photography

Wordless Wednesday – Week 10 of Summer in pics

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Yeeeeeeha the kids are back at school!

But that means that summer is ovah – OVER.

We had such a lovely, fun, idyllic, wonderful summer. Truly we did.

We spent lazy days at the pool and the lake in the beginning learning to swim and being with friends.We were so fortunate to be able to spend most of August away. And then come back to our little purple house and love it even more!

The last official week of summer we were supposed to go to Storyland but opted to move that to a nice fall weekend and spend some time at home getting reading for school to start.

So this was the highlight of week 10…

My husband and I get some well deserved kid free time. I don’t think I had been without the kids in 7 or 8 weeks. Like 24/7 Mom, mooom, mommy, mom, mama, mom, mama MOOOOOOOOOOOM 24/7.

So there you have it Summer 2014 in the books.
Week 1
Week 2
Week 3
Week 4
Week 5
Week 6
Week 7
Week 8
Week 9