Pre halloween and a romantic weekend.

My tribe and our best friend Henry (a perfect foil for the pirates ~ if someone has to walk the plank who better to eat them than a shark???) before the Halloween Parade in WC. This parade is a very long standing tradition for our family ~ we love it and look forward to it every year :)

All of the DiLullo grandchildren await the Parades start. 

Halloween cookies! A baking treat :)

Julia and Tessa at Highland. Getting a 14 month old to look at a camera is impossible. 

Again, the DiLullo clan. This time at Highland Orchard. It may be a physical impossibility to get 6 children 5 and under to look in the same direction. I was so happy Carolyn (Grandma) could come with us while Nate and Tony (Grandpa) played golf. We were so grateful for their help in watching our kids friday night as we snuck down to the city for som very much needed couple time! 

The proud big sister/little Mama and her best bud. 

Luke had his class party/halloween parade at school on Friday. I'm one of the homeroom Mom's so got to  go in early and help the kids get dressed ~ with only 16 kids in his class (awesome) but 13 boys (difficult) it was really fun! Standout costums included Tom Burgeron (???) I didn't know who that was but apparently he is the host of a reality show? The child (Kellen) is one of Lukes best friends and he pulled the costume off with total aplomb~ while the batmans were punching one another he was walking around stick straight with his microphone totally composed :) The Michael Jackson was busting dance moves that I couldn't touch. Total awesomeness. It was so cute. We left for the city directly from the party. 

Our first night out ~ we have been like strangers passing in the night for a few months and really, truly needed a weekend away. Between his school, my hip, the kids, and the general confusion of life with three young kids ~ school, the basement refinish, friends, social obligations, well.....you get it. With Nate being in his most difficult module (4 of 5) we barely see one another. We needed this. I get so busy being on my routine, that at times I can forget about "our" routine. 

We spent friday night at el vez, Saturday at the spa at the rittenhouse, late lunched at village whiskey, shopped on walnut street (my first time at an Athleta store! and a personal shopper at BCBG!) a nap before dinner at a. kitchen, a WILD experience at the super secretive Franklin Mortgage & Investment Co,  a late sleep in, and brunch at the Continental Midtown.  We hit up Wegmans to pick up some storm supplies on the way home, and are officially in the midst of Hurricane Sandy.

I'm terribly worried about the Cape May house ~ The Garage will surely be flooded, the boat was not able to be dry docked so is in danger, and town is under water.

This picture was taken on Windsor beach, this morning. Windsor is OUR beach, the beach we go to every summer, the beach that our kids are growing up at. The place that that wave is at is BEHIND where we are usually sitting, and those blue things are tents which are almost at the boardwalk. High tide was again tonight, at 8 PM, and with a full moon, right as the storm made landfall in cape may. I am afraid that the damage could be monumental. I'm thrilled that we still have power ~ friends all around us have lost it but we have been lucky so far, the winds are howling, large limbs are down, the cornfield is flooded as is the field on our other side, yet we have no real damage to our home, for which we are incredibly grateful. 

I have started the twilight series so have that to get me through this.....in fact I have to get back to it immediately. Stay safe, friends. 

Crash. Bang. Seriously?

 This is the car of the woman who hit us. She was on her phone, got out of the phone after rear ending us STILL on her phone, which, I admit, raised my eyebrows. So as to not be a hypocrite, I admit that I talk on my phone all the time. She rear ended us, HARD, out of no where. Her car was undriveable. We waited for the police, who had to push her car out of the middle of a busy road, while I sat there with the three kids in their car seats. I will say that I am grateful that I am a bit of a car seat nazi who still has all three kids in car seats and 5 point harnesses. Though the damage to our car was minimal due to its sheer size, the impact was hard, and I was grateful that other than Luke complaining that his head hurt, there was no harm to anyone. 

 The scene. 

Our damage. SO minimal. Unfortunately due to the cameras/technology it was pretty expensive, but thankfully she had insurance. The accident occurred Monday afternoon, by wednesday morning we were at the repair shop where we were given a rental of another Yukon XL for free, and our car was returned to us by Friday afternoon. I was very grateful and impressed. 

I feel so lucky that this was not worse. I will say that it affected me more than I thought that it would. I had picked Luke up at school to try to sneak in a shopping trip (with three kids!  ha!) to try to find a fun outfit for my weekend out with Nate......and we were utterly derailed by the accident. After the police/report etc were all cleared up I went straight home, and as soon as I saw Nate I burst into tears. It was easy to keep it together in front of the kids, to feed them snacks, to talk about the nice policeman, to play off the accident as a fun adventure...........but as I drove us home I realized I was sweaty palmed, glancing into my rear view mirror, and playing out horrific mental scenes of kids trapped or injured or worse. You can't live your live afraid, of course. You can't step into your car every day envisioning fiery crashes or decapitations or scenarios in which your children are trapped in their seats and you cannot get to them............but this relatively small accident was a healthy reminder to me that these things happen. They happen on sunny, normal, Monday afternoons when one is daydreaming about a pair of blue stilettos (I got the blue stilettos!!!! I just had to wait till Saturday downtown :)). They happen when you are doing nothing wrong. 

And........they happen, too often because of cell phones. I admit that I am AWFUL and flat out IRRESPONSIBLE about my cell phone use. You would be disgusted to know how I use my mobile device in the car. 

So, I'm committed to change. I have to. Because the stats are very, very clear. 

And you know what? This is more painful to me than I would like to admit. I like to think that I'm a multitasking master........but I'm messing around with my kids lives, and that just isn't right, and that just isn't fair. So. 

No more phone in car, for me. 

No more texting at lights. No more facebooking in car line while waiting to pick up Julia at school. 

Damn it. I miss it already. 

Fall, GLORIOUS fall.

 The merry band of Mangan's at the halloween party at our gym. We caught a glorious day, Nate got out of school early after a late night out for "partners night" where we had a fun night out at Paramour with several other couples, and we got to spend a fun day as a family. That night Nate and I got to attend a wild tailgate party with friends where we got to relive our college days of yesteryear and remember how much fun it is having known one another since we actually were 18 year old crazy college kids :).

 Sunday was spent at a friends family estate in New Jersey. The 1722 farmhouse was truly a place of historic beauty, and the 500 acres of pristine land provided ample romping grounds for hiking, shooting, and simply soaking in the beauty of fall in the northeast. I feel so lucky to live in such a beautiful place, and to have such wonderful friends. There is nothing that I treasure more than great friends, and watching our children growing up together, and developing these beautiful memories and friendships just warms my soul. 

 perfection. 

 On our happy hike. 

 No words. 

 Fall splendor. 

My first time shooting a gun. We were shooting clay pigeons. I missed my first shot, nailed the second one, and declared myself finished. Why try again when I could retire with a .500 record? 

Catch up

 So this was wild. We were enjoying a lazy Sunday morning family breakfast at Penns Table when I get a text from Melissa Reed with this photo. There is Julia, in the middle of the Phillies full page thank you ad to their fans! Of all the games, of all the photos, they chose this shot of Julia from the ONE game she went too all season to make their thank you! It's off getting framed now and will soon be hanging in her bedroom. Too cool! She got a foul ball, was on the jumbotron on the Philly fanatics shoulder......and made the one thank you that the Phillies themselves published. Talk about maximizing your one game of the season!

 This is Peanut, our new pet. Long story short, Peanut is a racing pigeon who got lost or exhausted along the course of a 300 mile race that started out in Southern VA. She decided to call our house home, and has been with us for a week. We found her owner, thanks to the ID bands around her ankles, and thought he was coming to pick her up Saturday....but he hasn't showed up....and Peanut seems quite content here with us. Its strange playing in the driveway with three kids and a pigeon, but hey, the Mangans are strange. Why not?

 A Halloween preview. The Ninja idea was nixed after looking at costumes and realizing how weapon dependent ninja costumes are. THis being 2012 and weapons being, well, completely disallowed everywhere, we came up with plan B.

 More Thursday afternoon baking with my little helpers. 

 As the kids get more independent I sleep in a lot more often. The bigs come downstairs and play while Jake and I lay in bed till almost 8 some mornings. I came downstairs to this the other day. 

 A night at Iron Hill with the Rutherfurd clan. I'm trying to set up more fun plans on Friday nights to keep myself from feeling so lonely when Nate is at school. This friday I actually have Brooke coming and they have "Partners night", so out to dinner we go with a bunch of Nate's classmates. We are getting close, folks. Closing in on 7 months to go. Go, Nate, Go. 

 Nate and Jake on a hayride at Pumpkin Fest at East Goshen park on a PERFECT October Saturday.

 The Chili Cook off in West Chester on Sunday! One of our favorite borough events was better than ever this year! 

The kids and the Ram. 

Lots to catch up on, I will update after Wednesday. 

It's been a long day.

 Our garden continues to produce......in spades. We are enjoying tons of basil, mint, parsley, oregano. peppers, lemon verbena, and cilantro.....and as it was a crazy 82 degrees out today it appears that this may continue a bit longer. I'm not complaining, though my stomach lining might be. The habenaros are smokin hot! I can't even let the kids near them, or cut them up when they are around, or use the garbage disposal, as they can choke us all! Love em!

 This was Jake this afternoon, when I had to go wake him to pick up Julia from school. He is so huge that he looks funny in his crib. At 28 months (I think, I just tried to count on my hand) he may be the kid who is in his crib the longest? Which is funny as he is our largest kid....he is so content in there that there just doesn't seem any rush to move him into a bed. Plus we are lazy. Plus I am sentimental. Plus lazy. And lazy. He looks like some weirdly cute man baby in there. But wow, does he sleep. I heaved the giant into his car seat, where he soundly slept for another 45 minutes while I picked up Jules, then a prescription, then left him sleeping in the car while we waited for Lukes bus. Finally, at 4:15, I woke him up out of his car seat, just because I felt like enough was enough. The kid loves to sleep. Works for me. 

 More on this, later. Not a happy Mom. 

I take no prisoners. 

So its been a kind of shitty week. 

It all started off with a difficult for us birthday party at chuck e cheese on saturday night. It was for one of our very favorite kids in the whole wide world, so I'm not complaining, but I had to do it solo, and it isn't one of the most......well.......zen or holistic like places one can go. We all woke up slightly crabby. 

I woke up feeling like I was getting sick, in fact. So did Jake. Luke wet his pants at the gym. It wasn't our best day. 

In fact, it was such a bad day that it started to hit me that Luke had been wetting his pants fairly frequently lately. Blah blah and a lot of talking to friends later, I realized that it really HAD been happening a lot, after not happening EVER, for years. I called our Pedi, fully expecting them to say, "oh, yeah, totally normal, silly BOYS". Nyet. Instead, they said, "we would like to see you at 10 tomorrow". Ok. 

So. On Tuesday morning me and the three kids trotted off to the pedi. Super fun. He said it was one of four things. 

1. Diabetes

2. Urinary/kidney infection

3. Constipation (backup pressing on his bladder, compressing it)

4. Something else that I forget, because it wasn't this. 

Anyway. We ruled out 1 and 2 with a pee stick test. We went to the hospital for an x ray (me and the three kids ~ fun times!) to test for #3. We found out that afternoon that sure enough ~ despite the fact that Luke will down a bowl of whole oats, or a boatful of sauteed broccoli or cups of brown rice or couscous like no bodies business.....the kid is constipated. Shocker. He goes everyday? Apparently, even though he is going, he is backed up inside himself, and where he is backed up, it is pressing on his bladder, so his poor little bladder is all tiny and by the time he realizes he has to go, it is urgent, or he does not realize it at all, hence the accident. 

Awesome. And I was yelling at him. And here it was medical. So. The fix is easy, MiraLax for a few weeks.......but. That was Tuesday. 

And today? Today I get a call from his principal ~ Luke got in trouble on the bus for spitting. At a kid. 

Being silly. But still. Spitting. And in TROUBLE. And THE PRINCIPAL. 

And I feel badly writing about this, like I'm telling on Luke or something, but heck, this is the blog, and this is about them, and if this is their childhood, it has to be honest. Luke, you little bugger, I wanted to THROTTLE you. I may have used the word asshole in texting my best friend. I love you. I love you so much, and I know that you are the kindest little kid out there, so what the heck? 

The super double annoying thing is that this actually happened yesterday.....and yesterday he came off of the bus, and Jules and Jake and I were waiting for him, all excited, telling him that we had a surprise for him inside (an apple crisp in the oven) and we had this great afternoon of a bubble bath for the sibs, and a family pizza night with Dad, and this apple crisp and ice cream and family time.....and he never said a word. 

And TODAY I get the call, and of course, Nate is off at school, and its just me here to deal with him as he gets off of the bus. And of course, I have this fun kids night out planned for them at my gym (from 6-9 , they offer free babysitting once a month, the competition to get in is fierce, tonight was my night, I was signed up so that I could go out with girlfriends, but I'm fighting this cold, and have been trapped in the house a lot this week/my house feels a right mess/I feel a mess with my hip falling apart again/I didn't feel social/I took the kids anyway and came home and went insane on the house cleaning and organizing)............ anyway. I had to deal with how to punish/talk to Luke about this. Solo. 

And you know what? This stuff is HARD. I know its only Kindy. But I'm just not well equipped for this. Because it feels HUGE to me. And I know, logically that it isn't. I know that. 

So. That has been our week. I'm struggling with my hip. I'm going to get a second opinion, and may be facing a second surgery. May be, we will see. And Luke hasn't wet his pants since Tuesday, which is good. But he spit on a kid on the bus, which is really, really bad. So my heart hurts. But my house is really organized, for this next few hours, anyway, and that is good. So we will take the good with the bad and just march on, I suppose. This parenting stuff is about to start getting real. THIS is when people should start showing up with cassaroles and shoulders to cry on, not when you have a newborn, folks, newborns are a walk in the park. (if anyone mentions teenagers in the comments I will cut you. I know. I am in denial. Total, total denial).