What's in a Name?

Yia Yia decided to ask Addison, Alexandra, & Isabel a very hard question, obviously..

What is your teacher's name?

Isabel responds to the question, "Do you know my teachers name?" (reverse psychology)
Addison responds, "My teacher doesn't have a name!" (good thinking-he'll cover it up)
Alexandra says, " My teachers name is Mrs. Johnston." (she was actually right)

I thought the responses were quite entertaining! Maybe you should ask if your child knows their teacher's name?

Kevin and Jen's Luau

I wasn't going to post pics from the luau but i've had a few people inquiring about the turn out so.. here we go. Angela and I helped decorate early that morning. We simply had a pineapple on each table with a flower stuck into it and a lei wrapped around the bottom.. it looked very hawaiin! The roasted pig was pretty cool however you might take note that no kid ate pork that evening! Kevin has a huge Italian family which created quite the dance atmosphere. We actually had to drag Alexandra off of the dance floor at about 11pm that night. She danced the night away and had no intentions of leaving anytime soon! The luau was a great idea.. people really seemed to enjoy a change from the typical same-old reception!

NASA Visitors Center..

Because my Dad programmed satellites for NASA, I remember going to the NASA Visitors Center many of times and really really enjoying my experiencex. I have been really wanting to take the girls to visit NASA but have not seemed to have very many free Saturdays sooo.. we decided to go regardless of having 5 kids! I even had a few people ask if they were all ours! They kids had a blast! They looked around at the many pictures of planets, played with some of the interactive games, and enjoyed activating every possible movie in the center. They really enjoyed dressing up as astronauts and sitting in the space shuttle along with climbing on and seeing some of the shuttles and rockets that were previously sent out on missions. Heck, maybe one of them will make it to the moon one day?



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Couldn't Pick a Better Day for the Zoo..

This weekend our family took our annual trip to the Baltimore Zoo and boy we couldn't have picked a nicer day! It was gorgeous and because we went down during the very last 2 hrs, there were no crouds whatsoever! The girls favorite animal was the giraffe and favorite thing to do was to go down the tree-house-slide and hop across the lily pads.




After our trip to the zoo, we headed to the harbor where I had all intentions of eating at my favorite restaurant, PHILLIPS, however lines were too long for two little girls to wait. We ended up in Little Italy where they were holding a street festival. We decided to eat at a little restorante chosen because of it's name, Isabella's which was muy delcioso! What a fun time, not to mention it only takes us about 45 mins to get to B-more now that we've moved..woohoo!

Jen & Kevin's Wedding!

(Heather, Jen, Alexandra & Haley)

Jen and Kevin have been together as long as Michael and I, so when they announced they were getting married and wanted Alexandra to be one of their flower girls, Alexandra and I booked our tickets for Vegas! We decided to stay at the Excalibur where the other little flower girl Haley was staying and was known to be the best resort for kids. Alexandra loved the castle, it looked alot like Disney Land she said.

The wedding was awesome.. definately the highlight of our trip. I went to Vegas with preconceived ideas of how the wedding would be.. however it exceeded all of my expectations. It was one of the nicest weddings i've been too. And Jen was ecstatic that Alexandra was able to be there on her BIG day! Directly following the wedding ceremony at the Paris, we headed downstairs to one of their famous restaurants where the reception took place. I have never had soo much food! And all of the servers were amazing singers.. Jen and Kevin danced their first dance to the waiters singing.

(The Paris Hotel - where the festivities took place)

(Alexandra & Haley)

The next evening some 30 guests from the wedding all met us at our hotel for a Jousting Tournament which the kids really really enjoyed. Haley and Alexandra had soo much fun hanging out and cheering for our prince, The Prince of Romania!

(Haley & Alexandra at the tournament)

Our trip was hot but alot of fun! Our flights were another story! The next morning we had to be at the airport by 3am. We checked out, took a cab, waited an hr at the airport until Delta even turned their lights on. The first thing they told us was that our aircraft and crew never made it in the night before. I was soo MAD! I could not believe they didn't call us as they usually do! They could not get us on another plane until 1 pm which would put us in BWI early the next morning if there we no other delays.. not to mention this was the day of our settlement! Needless to say.. the crazy part.. we take a cab back to Kevin and Jen's honeymoon suite because most of our family members already had flights out of Vegas. Not only do we have to wake them up at 4:30 in the morning but Jen feels so bad that I am laying on the floor that she insists on me sleeping with them on their king size bed ON THEIR HONEYMOON, luckily it was the 2nd night after their wedding! AHHH! So here I am on the bed next to Jen and her new husband! LOL! A few hours their honeymoon breakfast is delivered.. the lady said she had never seen so many people in a honeymoon suite.. Amber was with us and Mike Kevins brother also crashed on their couch. We all enjoyed the breakfast and had a fun time waiting for our plane!

TALK ABOUT WEDDING CRASHERS!!

(A in the pool w/ Kevin, Jen and Mike)

(Amber and A)


(G-L-A-M-O-R-O-U-S.. A loves this song!)

Our Vacation to Maine

Michael and I were very impressed with how well behaved Alexandra & Isabel were during our drive to Maine. On the way up, we stopped at a hotel in Lowell, MA which was absolutely gorgeous with views of the waterfall right beside it. The girls really really enjoyed the pool and cookies we were given. They seemed to think the hotel was the Lake House we would be staying at?

The Lake House on Green Lake

We were all absolutely thrilled to finally make it to the lake house! You could see the water from almost every room in the house. Upon arrival, the main activity of the day was fishing. Meno was the very first person to catch a fish and the kids had quite the lesson on scaling, filleting, and deboning the fish. It became one of the entrees for dinner that evening. We also celebrated Pappoo and Michael's birthdays!

(Isabe'ls 1st Sunny!)

(Pappoo w/ the 3 amigos)

(Meno fishin) (Michael's 1st fish 12'' not bad!)

Our Weekend Warriors..

One of Meno's favorite activities during the trip was playing with his paint-ball-gun! All of our warriors went to battle and we had no problems bidding them farewell. Every time the guys came back, they tried to convince Angela and I that we should join in. We weren't stupid.. they came back with new battle wounds every game. The most adventurous battle the guys had was the time they insisted we drop them off at an island so that their game would be more confined.. they had a great time!

Some miscellaneous pictures..