Aunt Jess in July

Right after my folks left Aunt Jess headed out East. She flew into NJ to spend a little bit of time with our other "J", Jodi, and then we all met up in NYC. Our family drove down on Friday after a 1/2 day of work for Matt. It was a relatively painless drive, and I didn't hit any pedestrians in Manhattan. Woo hoo!

Our first night there we went to the Carnegie Deli for dinner. Their sandwiches cost $20+ each, and this is why:

Saturday was our sightseeing day. Our hotel was in an ideal location in midtown Manhattan, we were able to walk everywhere we wanted to go.

We had breakfast at a little cafe across from Rockefeller Center.

Our main purpose of going towards Rockefeller was so that K & Matt could go to the Lego store.

Super cool!

Then we headed to FAO Schwartz.

The purpose of meeting in the city, besides having a good time and picking up Jess, was that Jess & Jodi were spoiling me with a birthday date night with Matthew. I had the choice to do anything we wanted in the city and I chose to go to dinner and the Manhattan temple. After a great session we went to Rosa Mexicano for dinner. It was pretty good. Not really Mexican food. But the guacamole made table-side made it yummy!

After dinner we wandered ...

Lincoln Center

Times Square

Matt said he felt like a missionary in his suit and tie and in a big city. Brought him back to Tokyo.

On Sunday we had plans to go to the Central Park Zoo before heading home, but the kids were whiny and tired of walking so we just wandered around the park.

We rode the carousel.

Ate ice cream.

Chased bubbles.

And of course blew bubbles.

We had to teach Matt how to blow bubbles.

L played in the dirt, and LOVED it!

Climbed rocks.

And played at the park.

Whoever came up with the idea to preserve that amount of park space in the middle of the big city was a GENIUS.

We drove home after lunch with Jess and JJ in tow.

It was SO fabulous having Jess and JJ around! C loved having a little "gril" for her to play with. L didn't mind sharing his space or his toys with her, and JJ loved K. She laughed and cooed at everything he did. It was very cute.

We went to a production of "The Merry Wives of Windsor" in the park. K helped with some of the pre-show entertainment.

One morning we went for breakfast at the racetrack. I enjoy breakfast there over the races since you get to see more of the horses. We all enjoyed our Dunkin Donuts and OJ while we watched them exercise.

I can't really remember what else we did. We did a lot of playing and letting babies nap, they were never on the same schedule so it seemed like somebody was always sleeping.

We liked to keep the babies in the box, since that's how they were best contained. Kidding! But there was a sticker that told us not to put babies in the box ... so that's what we did.

Thank you Jess and Jo for the fabulous birthday trip to NYC!! And thank you Jess for trekking all the way out here to come play with us! We miss you!!

Grandma and Grandpa in July

My folks came out for a visit during the first part of July. It was SO great to have them here. They spoiled me with extra help around the house and extra help with the kids. It was so great to be able to take the big kids to swim lessons, and not have to worry about little L, and I got to take L to his 6 month check up without dragging along the big kids. They even let Matt and I go out for an overdue Anniversary date. Since they had been here before, and because it was SO hot, we didn't do too much, but we did get them out of the house a few times.

We went to see the NYC Ballet at the Saratoga Performing Arts Complex (SPAC).

 Our wonderful friends, the Bontorno's, joined us.

They had a few of the principal dancers doing a little demonstration for the kids. C did this last year too, and actually wore the same thing. :-)

These are a few of my favorite pics. The girl can really jump!

But I love these two even more!!! Hehehe.

"Oh mom!!"

They had a photobooth that we all crammed into for our picture.

... and just L and I. Not sure why I was making such silly faces.

We went for a hike to check out our local geysers.

Every year we have gone to the Melting Pot to celebrate our anniversary, since that is were Matt proposed. Thanks to my parents, this year wasn't any different!

 How cool is this chocolate creation that they made for us?!?!

 Can't wait till you come back Mom & Dad!!

6 Months

L is a full TWO pounds heavier than his brother and sister were at the same age!! I love my little chunker.

Family Pictures

We hired a friend from church who owns Moments Defined Photography to take some family pictures of us. We needed something that included the most recent family member. They turned out SOOOO great, and there are SOOOO many that I love! Here are a few, but you can see the rest of them here: Porter Family Pictures 2013. If grandparents (or anybody else) wants me to send them specific images so that you can get them printed let me know and we can figure something out.

4th of July

We had a super fun 4th of July yesterday. We started with a parade downtown with a bunch of friends.

After going home for lunch and naps we had a surprise for the kids. We hopped in the car and started driving without telling the kids where we were going. We pulled up to our hotel and the kids started putting things together. We had booked a hotel for the night in downtown Albany. It was really close to where they shoot off the downtown fireworks and we had a room that we could see them from. So we went out for dinner and then had a swim, put on pj's and people watched from our hotel window while we waited for the fireworks to start.

Sorry for the really crummy cell phone picture, but we forgot the camera and it was dark.

It was SO great to be in a hotel. We were able to put L to bed and avoid the mosquitoes, humidity and crowds of the 4th of July. We just sat in our room, in our pj's, and oohed and aahed at the spectacular show. It was a good 45 min long, and it started really late, so it was well after 10:00 when it was over and the kids just jumped into bed and were asleep within 15 minutes. No fighting the crowds to get back to our car, or fighting traffic to get home.

This morning we got up and got breakfast then went for another swim and headed home. We had a great time! It might have to be a new 4th of July tradition for us!

Preschool Graduation

Wow! The school year sure flew by! I can't believe K is done with PreK and is on to Kindergarten next year! He is  more than excited about the adventures ahead of him while I am a little teary eyed that things are going too fast.

He has grown up a lot in the last 9 months!

Tonight they had a graduation ceremony for the PreK graduates. I was a little annoyed that we had to rent a cap and gown and that there was an outrageous number of kids that they were giving diplomas to, but it turned out great. The ceremony was super cute, and relatively organized and it was a fun moving-on celebration for the kiddos. I even got teary eyed here a few times too!

The ceremony was at the High School. Look how many kids there were there, and how awesome the auditorium is!

They sang several songs, but they were all like this:

Keegan getting his diploma from Ms. Brandie.

Ms. Brandie

Ms. Jaqueline

Ms. Kathleen

There were many girls vying for K's attention this year, but this sweet little girl, Georgia, was the one who caught his eye.

K and Molly. (C and I were rooting for Molly)

I sure do love this boy! I can't believe that he is starting Kindergarten next year! How does the time fly so quickly?!?

Who knows if we will be taking HS graduation pictures outside of this building in 13 years?!?