It's been a crazy week...

We had an extremely busy work week and we're looking forward to the weekend. This may be the last farewell to summer with temps in the 80s all weekend... it's been 70s for 2 weeks. So we're looking forward to the warm weather. Hoping to get some more of the deck stained. Sean's playing in a golf tournament on Saturday and the Run For Jon is Saturday too. 

And if you're wondering what all the "voting" is about... We're asking everyone to vote for the Hannah's Hope Fund. If you'd like more information please let us know. Her website is www.hannahshopefund.org. A friend of ours' little girl Hannah was diagnosed with Giant Axonal Neuropathy (GAN). GAN patients lose the ability to speak and swallow and become quadriplegics and die in their 20's. We're directing everyone to Pepsi Refresh Project (click here) to vote for Hannah.  Hannah's Hope Fund is hoping to win a $250,000 grant to help with their clinical trial to help treat GAN and hopefully find a cure for this disease. There's only 5 days left to vote and Hannah is in 4th place and need to be in 1st or 2nd to qualify for the grant. With all your help, we can help them do it! It costs you nothing but a few minutes of your time. You can Text* 101885 to Pepsi (73774) as well as adding the facebook application.

We said goodbye to the boys' nanny today. She was an amazing nanny and we're sad to see her go, but she's left for college to get a degree in elementary education. I'm confident that she'll make a great teacher some day. She took a lot of stress off us this summer and I'm going to miss her. The boys were asking after she left "when is Miss Ari coming back?" And I had to explain that she is going far away and she won't be here anymore. I don't think they understood what it meant until it clicked with Matthew and he ran out the door after her. So sweet. They plan to write her letters and share pictures and we hope she'll be home on break soon to visit and hoping she considers being the boys' nanny again next summer. Which brought us to a deep conversation on what it means to "Miss" someone. I explained the best I possibly could about what "miss you" means. Andrew said "I think it means when someone leaves and I think about them a lot and it makes me sad that I don't see them anymore"... He said it's like when he thinks about all the fun he had with Miss Samantha & Miss Rebecca (Their cousins). We went to visit them in NJ and see their Great Gram & Pop. Andrew said he misses them and it makes him sad he can't see them more and that they live so far away. We had a great time in Jersey and hope to be able to go back soon. It's hard living so far away from family.

On another note... Andrew had an eye doctor appointment today and the eye doctor said that he still does not see "3D"... (there goes Sean's idea for a new tv) BUT his vision has improved and he no longer needs to wear glasses all the time. He only needs them for reading now! YAY! But now I'm sure we'll have many more lost pairs of glasses since he'll be taking them on & off as needed. I wish the dollar store made reading glasses for kids too! But it's encouraging that he only needs them for reading. They won't consider bifocals because of his balance and gait issues. Bifocals can throw off your balance. He still has some problems with visual perception, his depth of field and peripheral vision. But not having to wear glasses all the time is an improvement. I love his new Sketchers glasses. They are very cool and stylish and now I wish he could wear them all the time. He definitely looks more grown up with them on.

guess we need a photo update...

I just realized that I need to update our blog header photos! wow those are old. I guess I will wjavascript:void(0)hen I find some time

2010 Sand Sculpture Competition

Looks like summer is coming to an end...

Although we've had a wonderful fun filled summer, it seems as though it may be coming to an end. The boys still enjoy the pool just about every day, but the sun is getting lower in the sky and daylight hours are starting to lessen. The cool evenings and the cold rain, even for a day, really lowers the pool temperature. Too cold for me. The boys don't seem to mind so they'll get another month out of it.

Matthew completed just about every week at the fun runs at the local park. He did really well and was sad to see it end. Andrew did his first 1/2 mile run a few weeks ago and did a great job! We were so proud of him for completing the whole race and even came in ahead of 2 other children! Talk about so proud it brought tears to our eyes. The same week, Matthew completed his first 1 mile run with a time of 10:40! And that was in 85 degree weather. He'll be competing in the Run For Jon this weekend. He's definitely a natural and wants better running shoes.
Matthew will be starting up Soccer this fall. His first practice is tomorrow. He's so excited since we were unable to register in time last year.
The boys also entered the Sand Sculpture Contest at our beach and came in 2nd place for their age group by building Yankee Stadium! they won $20! They're so creative. here's the link to the photo gallery from the Press-Republican website... CLICK HERE

We've only just begun school shopping this year. Our stores are limited for boy's school clothes and Andrew won't wear anything but dress pants and button down shirts and they have to be wrinkle free. Walmart & Target are just not cutting it.
On another note, our Nanny (Arihanna) that we hired this summer has worked out amazingly! Not only does she entertain the boys all day, but she brings them everywhere they need to go, makes sure they clean their rooms, make their beds, brush their teeth and to top it all off, she does homework time with them to keep them on track for the coming school year! Unfortunately she's leaving us on Thursday to continue her college education and she'll be too far to watch the boys after school. We're going to miss her so much. I've had an extremely reduced stress summer... last year was going to be the death of me. This summer, she was able to bring Andrew to all his therapy appointments, was there on time every time! She had them at the library once a week, brought them to the beach, out to the movies, lunch... I could go on forever at how much less stressful she made our summer. Here's hoping she will be back next summer.
As for Sean & I, busy as usual. We're getting ready to plan our trip to St. Louis for Andrew's Surgery at the end of September. We'll post more details on the surgery when we get all of the information. We've spoken the the neurosurgeon and the Orthopedic surgeon and we're pretty hopeful this will be the answer to Andrew's toe walking! ((Fingers crossed))