Our Trip to the Dog Park

Last Saturday we took Bella and Sicily to Cosmo Dog Park. It's an awesome puppy haven with fenced runs, various water features, agility playgrounds, picnic ramadas, and even a big fenced-off beach. We were thrilled to discover that it's only a couple of miles from our home!

Bella & Sicily...before

Cosmo Dog Park won "America's Best All-Around Dog Park 2007" from Dog Fancy Magazine and DogChannel.com.

Kieran & Charlotte take a break to watch all the pups play together.


There was a lot of agility training equipment throughout the park.

McKenna tried to get Sicily to go for a dip, but she wasn't interested.

Bella LOVES the water and we couldn't get her out! She was on tennis ball duty and definitely was a crowd favorite! (Watch some of the video below.)

Sicily & Bella...after

They both went to bed early that night.

McKenna's 13th Birthday!

McKenna's 13th birthday was last Friday. In keeping with tradition, the birthday kid gets to choose their favorite dinner for Dad to cook. Keeping with tradition, McKenna chose Steve's famous Mac n' Cheese with bacon and broccoli. Mmmm...

Steve preparing his roux

McKenna is very lucky to have such a sweet BFF!

It was Bailey's 13th birthday too! She joined us for the shindig.


I positioned the presents so the stripes would line-up. Everyone does that...right?!

McKenna LOVED the present Kieran picked out for her...

...and she expressed her gratitude accordingly.


Nannie & Granchi, Grammie, and Grandma Liz even remembered her big day!

Welcome McKenna, to teenage-hood, we are bracing ourselves for what is to come. Lol! :o)
Happy Birthday - we love you!!!

The Face of Autism

This is an amazing video about our 7 year old, Quinn, made by his mother, Nancy (she made both the video...and Quinn - lol). She makes great babies and I'm lucky to have her in my life as the momma to my step-kidlets.

xoxox

It's Saturday!

Thursday night was Kieran's fourth grade musical. His proud papa and I cheered him on, and yes, the choreography was all his own.



For those of you who haven't met him, Kieran is the adorable little boy in the denim shorts, glasses, and navy t-shirt. In most of this video he is in the front row on the right side.

Rolling Coins

Recently Kieran and McKenna asked if I would take them to the movies. I explained that movies are a luxury item for families on a budget and asked if they could maybe think of some ways we could go see a movie, while not going over our entertainment budget.

They decided it was time to open up the trusty coin banks and see what they held. We went to the local BofA to get some coin wrappers. (It totally took me back to my days working at the bank.)

After a whole lot of counting, and a lesson in coin rolling, we tallied up $61.50! Mall Cop and Icees, here we come! (We also set aside enough to pay for our next movie day.)