~A Few Recent Photos~

Pictures from our recent trip to the lake house of Deacon John and Mary.

Enjoying the boat and the beautiful lake.

Nicholas fishing

The boys enjoying lunch at the lake.

After lunch Dn. John took the boys out on the boat and left them on this platform to fish; within minutes of being out there Basil caught his first fish.

During the renovations of the house the boys and I would bring lunch, coffee and donuts to the workers; here is Jonah enjoying lunch with the men. He was always so full of questions and the guys always humored him.

Maria~Angelica, Connie and Basil in front of the parish house.

During Connie and Dean’s visit to NY Connie and I took all 5 kids out to a very nice dinner on the lake. The sunset was beautiful.

At the local playground. The recreation  department in NY offers some wonderful programs in the park for the children of the community. I have been taking the kids to swimming lessons and arts and crafts in this park.

Basil at his inline hockey game. He is doing really well, catching on quickly and enjoying himself.

One rainy night Connie and I took the children to an indoor play and bounce place.

~Niagara on the lake~

It’s nice to be home….

~Harry and the Potters~

Last night I took the kids to see  ”The Whomping Willows“, “Draco and the Malfoys” and “Harry and the Potters“. It was so much fun! I had to laugh out loud when Maria~Angelica tore the bow out of her hair and threw it to the ground in order to let her hair down while she shook her head to the music; she was dancing in the aisle and was just as entertaining as the bands. I don’t have any pictures but a good time was definitely had by all! I am sorry Nicholas missed out, he is in Cincinnati. (Keep us in your prayers today as we travel to Cincy to see my father in the hospital.)

Ten years ago when the J.K. Rowling’s first book was published  we were living in London, England; Basil was just a newborn baby and the Harry Potter craze was not at all on our radar- that was until about a month ago. At the end of the school year Basil, now aged 9,  showed an interest in reading the Harry Potter books and he devored books 1- 6 in the first 3 weeks of his summer break.  It has been so much fun to be a part of the end of an era with the 7th and final book being released. Last Friday we were at the bookstore at 1am to buy our copy of book number 7 and Basil has already finished it! I am really very proud of him; that is an extraordinary amount of reading in a very short time.  It is pretty amazing the children that were 9 when the first book came out are now in college; they have had the thrill of anticipation waiting for the books year after year. Yes, we missed that whole era but the series is great nonetheless and we are enjoying the tail end of the Harry Potter years and the music that the books inspired is really pretty awesome too!

My dad is out of surgery and did very well. Thank you so much for praying!

 ~Say a little prayer for my Dad today~

If you could please pray for my dad, my mom and the surgeon; my dad is having knee surgery today at 12:00 pm EST. The surgery should be about 4 hours. We couldn’t go home today but hope to be with him on Thursday. I appreciate your prayers. The surgeon is a friend of ours and my dad will be feeling much better with his new knee. We are looking forward to having my parents visit us when my dad is walking pain free and the house is ready.

My best friend Connie came up with her son Dean for a few days to surprise Nicholas. (Dean is Nicholas’ best friend) Nicholas was in shock when Dean came through the apartment door. When we asked Nicholas what he was thinking he told me, “I was thinking where are they going to sleep?” LOL! The boys all had fun camped out on the family room floor and Connie had the second bedroom. Nicholas went back to Cincinnati with Connie. Half way through the 6 hour drive he said to her, “You drove all this way to see me?”

 Here is a picture of the boys and Dean in the Skywheel at Niagara Falls.

For the last month we have been busy with the parish house and not able to go home for a visit.  As it turns out there was much more work to be done; under the popcorn spray the ceilings were cracking and needed all new drywall. All the electricals needed to be replaced as well. The house was built in 1949 and to do it right we needed to bring it up to code.  Here are a few shots of the  house before it was gutted; it has been a pleasure working with the contractor to bring this lovely house up to date and protect the Church’s investment.

Maria~Angelica enjoying the wicker rocking chair I found her at a great little children’s second hand store. The column in the kitchen has been removed and it has really opened up the kitchen.

The kitchen before it was gutted. Maria~Angelica LOVES this elephant. I would like to find a way to preserve it when they put in the new flooring . It would be cool to put some kind of transparent flooring over the elephant just to be able to enjoy this quirky and unique feature of the house.

The gutted kitchen

  The carpet in the family room has come up to revel hard wood floors and the beams and the acoustical ceiling have been removed. The column and wall have been removed to make the kitchen bigger. The step has been replaced and extended. This room was once the garage 

This room will be the laundry room. The paneling and closet have come down, the plumbing and electricals have been installed for the washer and dryer, on this brick wall where the coat closet once was and a coat closet has been framed in to the left of the doorway leading into the family room. This room leads outside to the driveway and will serve as the mud room.

The first floor powder room will get a new vanity and toilet.

The foyer has  been opened up by  removing a few feet of wall. This made a huge difference. The carpet also came up in the room to revel hardwood floors. I plan to use this room for the dinning room. It is now nice and bright from front to back and overhead lighting has been installed.

Before the foyer wall was opened up

After the opening  from the foyer to the dinning room was widened.

The master bath before- the shower was like a tomb and built to last; it took two guys two days to knock out.

and now, waiting for a new toilet, bath/shower,  vanity and sink.  To save money we are keeping the original tile.

Maria~Angelica in the room that will soon be her bedroom- sure beats the closet she’s been sleeping in! I love the beautiful windows in the whole house and  the view.

 ~Per Request~ (Sorry Mom that it took me so long to get these photos on here.)

Thank you Yia Yia and Papou; Maria~Angelica LOVES her new purse, sunglasses and hair brush too! The boys bought fishing polls with their gift cards and are going fishing tomorrow. I like my new purse too! Thanks Mom and Dad!

And here are some cute pictures of Jonah feeding Maria~Angelica fried rice at the “Taste of ” festival ,

We were all getting ready to leave the festival when we looked up and saw that Jonah was a part of the children’s show!

~Playing at the Parish House~

The  parish house renovations are under way. I hope to post some before and after pictures soon. The kids like to go over there and ride their bikes and play with the neighbor children. Maria~Angelica loves to sit down in any little space. She scoots her little behind onto curbs, stoops, open fridge door ledges and anything else that is just her size. It is quite cute!  The boys also got a kick out of seeing her dressed in her little pants and gym shoes- I rarely, if ever, have put her in pants.

 ~Skating Lessons~

The boys started ice skating lessons through the US Figure Skating association.  Basil does pretty well; he  starts in line hockey next week as well. The little ones are very cute and are making progress. Each week the kids learn certain skills and  get a sticker in their ice skating book when the have mastered the skill.  I use to love to ice skate but never took formal lessons. If it wasn’t for this move I don’t think we would have pursued ice skating lessons for the boys, but in this neck of the woods hockey is everything so you better know how to skate! Jonah is in the black turtle neck, Nicholas in the brown hoodie and Basil in the camo jacket. They younger children start off by pushing the orange cones along. In some pictures Nicholas and Jonah are skating without the aid of the cone. Maria~Angelica enjoyed watching her brothers and was so cute when she would spot one of them on the ice. She would point and say excitedly,“Jo Jo”, “Kickalis” and “Bayil”.

I am on Facebook now, here is the link .  It has been neat to connect with friends from our London days.

~Random Thoughts- A Sign of the Times~

The other night we were out to dinner enjoying the nice weather and eating Middle Eastern food el fresco.  This reminded Fr. of his time in Egypt as a young college student. He had the boys full attention as he recalled his travels to Cairo, riding a camel,  the pyramids and his stay at Mt. Sinai and St. Katherine’s Monastery. The were all silent as we sat and ate and Baba’ reminisced; one memory recalled the time that he had to stop and buy film for his camera at which point the boys all interjected with, “What’s film?”

On a related note….Maria~Angelica enjoys babbling little musical ditties. She zones out in her car seat as we are driving along and sings her little heart out. The rest of us just enjoy listening to her.  The other day in the middle of one of her tunes she kept repeating the same sound. I said to the boys, “I think her needle is stuck.” They said, “What do you mean Mom?”

Jonah (age 6) and I were talking the other day. In the course of our conversation he mentioned to me that he wasn’t going to get married. I said to him,  ”Well you can’t have children if you don’t get married.”  And he responded ever so quickly and with complete confidence, “Yes you can!  You know those kids on Yiayia’s street with the trampoline? Their parents aren’t married.”  After he so proudly pointed out the obvious to me, he followed up with a very earnest, “How’d they do that?”