Laundry Day...well it was laundry day again today at the laundromat. Once again a fun experience. While my clothes were in the dryer, I walked down to the Whale's Tail and sat outside by the bar and drank a beer and had a crabcake. Beech St. already has the summer vibe. It was really fun to be out and about even if I was doing laundry. Yippee! Long Beach is fun. Our neighbors all donned wetsuits today and went surfing. Even with a wetsuit, I would not be surfing (period!) but especially because the water is still COLD. Woowee!

First dinner guest...John and I had our neighbor, John, over last night for roast and wine. His wife, Brona, had to work but came over later. He is a really good guitar player so the 2 Johns had a lot in common. It was a nice evening with lots of stories (and a few tall tales...my John) told.

Cupcakes for everyone! Jacob, Julia and I walked down to the Cabana Mexican Cafe the other night. Kids get to decorate their own cupcakes after dinner. The kids had a ball and spent most of their time eating frosting and sprinkles instead of cupcakes. Ha! We were quite messy.

Big Daddy's Birthday! Here is a picture of Jacob and Big Daddy when we went to celebrate his birthday back in February.

Lotsa hugs...here's a pic from before we left the farm of Jacob and Julia that was on my cell phone. They spend a lot of time loving on each other. Zerberts, especially...

Another beautiful day...went to the park today. Wound up talking to an interesting older woman whose husband is a tugboat driver. She said he did a fireworks show for some office building in Manhattan last night. WOW! They must be doing well. Everyone has been so nice. There is a lady that is at the park a lot when I am. She has a 2 yr old named Chloe that played chalk with us today and then she has twin babies (Michael Jr. and Ava). It is nice to be around long enough now that we are starting to see faces on a regular basis.

Am trying to get Jacob registered for school so am in the process of getting his medical record faxed here to a new doctor's office before we can register. The principal, Mrs. Schneider, at our school gave us a spontaneous tour the other day. That was the first time Jacob had EVER been inside a school. He thought it was WAY cool, especially since the kids were there in class. They had 3 kindergarten classes and we got to see the art room, the cafeteria, the gym, the library, etc. Jacob just sat right down to read a book in the library. Each class in the school is studying a different country of the world. It was really interesting to see what they were doing outside their classrooms. What a fun new world!~!!

Rain, rain, go away, come again another day...it has been raining for 2 1/2 days straight here. Kids have been great but we're all ready to get out of the house. Finally, around 5pm today the rain stopped and we bee-lined it for the park and played for an hour. Hopefully, tomorrow will be pretty and we can do some running around.

Rain, rain go away come again some other day...it has been raining for over 2 days straight here. The kids have done great but I am ready to get out of the house. We haven't been to the park in 2 days.

Princess Julia...have tiara will travel...ha! She doesn't want to take it off!

New pics from Long Beach having fun...kids at the park, John and Julia playing guitar and singing in her room, and at the beach.

Jacob's 5th birthday party. ..here are some pictures from his 5th birthday party in Ardmore before we left town. I have more pictures but this was all that was on my digital camera. The guests were John, me, Julia, Barrett, Patrick, Kristin, Gramma and Big Daddy, and Dixie, Zack and Zayne. We had the party at Dizzy's One Stop Fun Place.

Had first trip to laundromat last night by myself. It was amazing. Not the same experience as college. You have cards instead of coins, 4 different size washing machines and you pay depending of what size machine you use and the wash cycle only takes 21 minutes. Then the dryer is the hugest dryer I have ever seen. My regular clothes only took 24 minutes, my towels 32 minutes. I had all my wash done and folded and was home in less than 2 hours. And if I chose, I could have walked down the block for a beer and done some grocery shopping. It is AMAZING!

Pic's of the kids at the beach...

First Play Date in NY...
Had our friends, Jayme and Griffin out to the "island" to play from Manhattan. Didn't have a lot of time but had a lot of fun...chatting, going to the park, going to lunch, and a trip to Target! You should have seen the boys. They were going 90 miles an hour the whole time. Julia was pretty calm and just seemed to be taking it all in and having fun. Jacob is already calling Griffin his "best" friend. Ha! It was nice for Jayme and I to catch up and also see someone from "home".

Outing on the beach...we had our first outing on the beach with the kids. It was a beautiful day in the 70's so we took our sandtools to the beach and built sand castles with our neighbors, John and Brona. We even had a slice of pizza pie on the beach. Did you know they will deliver pizza on the beach? Who ever heard of such a thing!?!? Had a big time! Going by our neighbors house tonight. They are bbq-ing a turkey on their grill. Fun!

Mailboxes for flags...
Did you know that NY has mailboxes to put your old, worn U.S. flags in and they will dispose of it properly? It looks just like a regular corner mailbox but it is white with stars on it. It was right by the park I took the kids to. I have never heard of such a thing. They must be REALLY patriotic around here to have a mailbox solely for the purpose of disposing flags. WOW!

Well, we have now officially moved to Long Beach, NY. It was a long journey and a few bumps along the way but we LOVE our apt, our neighbors, neighborhood, the town, etc. We are 80-90% unpacked and just enjoying being in our new space. For the first time ever, I am taking my laundry to a chinese laundry to be done for me. The one we found is a little too expensive so we are trying to find a cheaper one not so close to the beach. It is so fun to be able to walk to so many places with the kids. Several mornings, the kids and I have walked to the corner for bagels. It has been great. And being able to walk down and get bread, milk, etc. at my corner grocery is great! We have been experiencing a lot of take-out so far and it has all been great! But we are ready to start eating homecooking. Tonight is meatloaf night. I am cooking with a gas stove and I haven't done that in a while. Since to stove is brand new, I have already set off the smoke alarm! Ha!