That seemed to be the theme this weekend as we continued our streak of having people over on the weekend this summer. Every weekend in July we have entertained. Not sure how it ended up that way, but it did. This weekend was a double whammy as we had Deb’s family here on Sat. and our friend Barbara and Sandford (with their kids) on Sunday.

Saturday saw an amazingly beautiful day here in NY for a family BBQ. Deb’s Aunt Claire was up from Georgia and we decided it would be a good opportunity to get several members of her side of the family together. It had been a while since we did somethign like this so it was a big deal. In addition to Claire we had Jen & Scott, Mike & Alana & Jarett, Betty Ann & Jimmy, and Mike & Cathy, along with us (Deb, Mona, Dylan, Marissa, and me). The two bigt peices of news that came out of the day is that big Mike and Cathy are engaged, and Mona and Betty Ann are talking again, though that started when Deb’s grandmother passed.

A good time was had by all and I have some pictures that I will post soon. And Jen, if you are reading this send me your pictures!

On Sunday it rained. Then it rained some more. However, this did not surprise us or put a damper on things since it seems to rain every time the Selzick’s come in from Tuscon, so why should yesterday be any different. The kids all got along great and played together on the Wii and the computer. Lilly even played Lego Star Wars with Dylan! Sandford played Wii for the first time and almost broke our ceiling fan (and his writs) while playing tennis. Everyone had fun and we pigged out on some good Chinese food (thank you Sandford!). It was sad to see them go, but they will be back, hopefully without the rain.

Well, it’s been a few weeks since i last posted an update so I figured it was time for one.

Dylan has been in camp since June 30th and is loving it. He get’s to go swimming twice a day and do all kinds of fun things. Deb has been workign part time at the camp to help defray the costs of Dylan attending full day and, well, let’s just say she doens’t love it quite as much as Dylan does. She has a group of toddlers that are as young as 22 months, which really, IMHO, shouldn’t be left at camp for 2hrs a day.

Marissa is getting steadier on her feet every day and even walked all the way around the block on her own last weekend! She can stay upright while running, at least for short distances. She has begun identifying the parts of her body like hear, eyes, nose, and toes. It is just mind boggling how fast she learns stuff. And her vocabulary is expanding on a regular basis.

On the 4th we had our good friends the Kranidis over for a little BBQ. They all got time to really get to know Marissa. I think Hope had been the only one to meet her until then to be honest. As is always the case when we get together everything was wonderful and all had a good time. How can you not with friends like these? Dylan and Elias played in the pool most of the day and then played Lego Star Wars together while the rest of us ate, drank, and had a good time.

This past weekend we played host to the Ramoindi family: Nelly, Joe, Samanth, Robert, and Jordan. It was an amazing day on Sat with the weather being about as perfect as on can ask. Jordan and Dylan played together all day long in the pool, on the Wii, and, you guessed it, Lego Star Wars. Sam and Robert also played Wii Fit, trying and succeeding in breaking the few records I had set. Now I need to go back and re-claim my crown. Sam was going to drive home but Nellie was all worried about her driving on the parkway, it was to be her first time, so I took Sam out for a quick spin on the Wantagh and Southern State. She handled them like a pro.

Dylan is also getting very creative with his Legos. He built this model of WALL-E, even though we haven’t seen the movie yet. Pretty cool, eh?

And the hosting will continue it seems with Deb’s cousin Mikey coming over this weekend, than Babs will be in town. I think the first Sat in August we have nothing scheduled, yet. Dylan’s birthday party will be the 23rd and the Saddle Lane block party the 30th.

If you are looking for photos from Mrs. Shapiros 2006-07 Kindergarten class or Mrs. Basil’s 2007-08 First Grade class then you have come to the right place. They are all right here in these photo albums.

In addition, I have some videos from Field Day 2008 (mostly of Dylan and Emily) on my YouTube Page.

Of course, feel free to browse around the entire site it you would like.

Hi everyone! Welcome to our family blog. If you are looking for photos from both Mrs. Shapiro’s 2006-07 class and Mrs. Basile’s 2007-08 class then simply click here. It will open up to a new page with the two albums, one for each year, and all the photos we have.

I also have a bunch of short videos from Field Day 2008 on my YouTube page, you can find those here. Unfortunately I only got some of Dylan and Emily mainly, things were moving just to fast for one cameraman that day.

Of course, feel free to poke around and enjoy all the other family photos!

GamerDad used my story about Dylan and I playing Lego Star Wars together for his column on “What They Play”. Very cool if you ask me, to be selected along with Tony Hawk and Chris Taylor.

That is what just about everyone in the NY Metro area is screaming this week as we muddle through our first heat wave of 2008. We are in day 4 of hot and humid weather and the air conditioners are humming along at full speed. Dylan and I spent at least 2 hours each day this past weekend in the pool, which is already setting new highs for water temps at 84F. Marissa even went in her kiddie pool. Pictures will be posted soon, once things cool down.

Sunday afternoon we took the kids to Jones Beach for a little while. Marissa went right into the sand and started digging like she knew what she was doing (and it looked like she did!). It’s amazing. She also was wowing the socks off people who came by just being cute. We were sitting at the edge of the boardwalk where people would go down on to the beach and two older couples came by on their rollerblades and stopped to take them off to go on the beach. She just started talking to them like they were old friends, they loved it. Dylan even went over to some kids who were digging int he sand and started playing with them. It was great.

Monday night we went to the LI Ducks baseball game with Dylan and a groupd from his school. It was fun, even if the Ducks lost horribly (11-6). We left in the 4th inning when it was 10-0. Dylan was very excited and had a lot of fun.

At Dylan’s school they use color-coded cards to indicate what kind of day the kids have had. Green, Yellow, Red, and Black (good to bad). They have a calendar in a folder and each day they color in the corresponding box with the appropriate color. So last year Dylan was a mostly Yellow kid with the frequent Red and occasional Green tossed in. This improved as the year went on, but even by June he was still a “Yellow”.

This year he has been doing better, much better. Mostly Green with frequent Yellow and occasional Red. But until two weeks ago he had never had an entire week that we green. Now the last two weeks he has been green. It is amazing! Oh, and he still gets 110% on all his spelling tests, well, except one where he wrote to sloppily for the teacher to read. And he just got his 2nd tip on his Purple Belt in karate today too.

So I just wanted to say, CONGRATULATIONS DYLAN! for two green weeks. Keep up the great work.

Marissa has said her first word, three words actually. Over the past two weeks she has repeated these words at appropriate times. Of course they are not what you might expect. No Mama, Dada, brother, or grammy. No Dylan, bye-bye, or Hi! No, our daughter says “boom”, “cup”, and “duck”. What the hell? I mean Dylan’s first word was “Scungie” but at least that made sense since we were always calling the dog around him. We were out for a walk one day and the dog ran in front of his stroller and he said “scungie!” and pointed. Marissa the ohter night saw Mommy taking her sippy cup to wash it and said “Cup!” while reaching for it.

Her standing is also getting much more sturdy and she finally figured out how to sit down from the standing position. It won’t be long before she is running around the house.

All over the web and media you have people making lists and checking them three times about the best of this and worst of that. Lists of people who died, did something good, bad, or ugly. Lists of movies, songs, books, albums, TV shows, and on and on. It seems that people in general have a need to “look back” and summarize what happened in the past year. I am not so sure I understand our need to do this other than to simply remind us of how much things have changed, even if it doesn’t feel like much has changed. Since I don’t want to be left out, I will probably post a few of these types of lists over the next several days, though I promise, they will all have a slight twist.

However, let’s start with a very typical list of some of the personal things that stand out from 2007 in the form of this sorta free-form poem…

January.
Cold. Winter. Anticipation.
Moving rooms around. Changes.
Daddy get a new home office,
with cabinets by Ikea.
Blog begins.

February.
Still cold. Deadlines approaching.
Dylan gets a new bedroom.
Mommy and Daddy get a new bedroom.

March.
It’s almost time!
Last minute rush.
It’s a girl! Marissa Leah!
Yipee, hooray!!

April.
Spring is coming.
Sleep is not.
Happy Birthday Mommy.
We got an Equinox

May.
Sping has sprung.
Still no sleep.
Try counting sheep.
Big Brother is soooo excited.

June.
Warm. Sunny.
Northside sports day.
Kindergarten Kapers!
Let’s go swimming!

July.
Summer. Camp.
Routines start to form,
sleep starts to come.

August.
Dylan turns 6.
Marissa “swims”
We celebrate 14yrs married.
Adios CGS.
September.
First grade! Hooray!
Welcome to Ninth House
and working from home again.

October.
39.
Optimus Prime and Pink Poodle visit.

November.
Turkey day. Yummy.
Holiday season starts, decoration explode.

December
Marissa’s first Holidays
Chanukah gifts galore.
Chirstmas. Ice Skating.
Time off with the family
Ring out the old year.