All Saints' Day Celebration

Kiddos #3 and #4 attended an All Saints' Day Celebration on Thursday 10/30. It was held at an infirmary for aged and ill priests.

The priests were so appreciative and happy to see the children who marched around as their saint, told a story or facts about their saint (or their moms told it for them) and sang some songs. The program ended with some refreshments.



St. Matthew and St. Katharine Drexel were portrayed very well by the kiddos. Kiddo #4 stayed in her costume literally all day and took it off only to go to sleep. She kept looking at herself in the mirror and saying, "I really look like St. Katharine, mommy!"

PHINALLY!!!!!!

Wow! More than 12 hours after the fact, it still isn't quite sinking in. World Series Champions.

Elation, relief, celebration. This town hasn't seen the likes of this in a long time-- a very, long time. I was 12 the last time there was a Phillies parade down Broad Street. And, now at 40, I will happily attend this one with my 4 children in tow.

What really impressed me was this team. They were not boastful or egotistical like many other athletes in other sports. These guys were a team- a textbook definition of one. They worked together, supported each other and were always thanking each other even for their own accomplishments. They were each so humble in their remarks and all thanked the Philadelphia fans. It made a lot of us cry-- not only for the magnitude of their accomplishments, but for the way in which they accomplished it. They are an incredible group of guys and we will never forget them. Thank you, Phillies, for bringing a championship back to this town. Thank you for making us proud again. Thank you for giving us something to celebrate in these troubled times.

We Philadelphia fans are a special breed. We love our teams with a passion that cannot be duplicated in any other city. That enthuiaism will again be on center stage at the parade tomorrow for the whole world to see.

Yo, Adrian! We did it!!!

Turning 40

On September 17th, I hit the "milestone." 40. It didn't seem to hit me, at first, as I have always considered myself a kid at heart. However, some things started to come into focus and I realized that I am indeed, if not old, certainly getting older.


You know you are getting old when your doctors/surgeons are younger than you are! I guess that was really what hit me lately. My husband's kidney surgeon, who operated on him for 5 hours on Monday, is younger than me. He was only graduating from medical school when I preparing to have our second child. Oh well, I guess there are certainly advantages to having a younger doctor, but I won't say that it didn't get to me, even just a little bit. :-)

You also know that you are getting old when most players on your baseball team, which has finally reached the World Series (after a whole lot of years!)(GO PHILLIES!) are more than half of your age! Most of them were not even born when I stood on Broad Street and celebrated the first and only Phillies World series victory 28 years ago with the rest of Philadelphia.

You know you are getting old when you go into a sporting goods store to buy a t-shirt commemorating said Phillies entry into the World Series and the salesman tells you that he was born in 1989, so he has no recollection of the World Series loss in 1993 and his parents weren't even married yet when the Phils won in 1980. yegads!

Even though my birthday was last month, we had a big celebration this past Sunday. It was a wonderful time! We actually rented a place called TNT amusements, that has a gazillion (ok, not a gazillion, but a lot) of video and arcade games. My family and friends got to play to our hearts' content for 2 hours.
My children were amazed at our favorite games like "Centipede," "Ms. PacMan," "Frogger" and "Space Invaders." It was fun feeling like a kid again, even with our primitive graphics. :-)
We went back to the house afterwards for some of mom's homemade cooking and my baking and a really good time was had by all. The nicest thing, though, was actually seeing everyone relaxing and playing and if even for the shortest time, not having a care in the world. :-)

Four Generations!!!

This morning, my aunt and 91-year old grandmother left after spending a wonderful 2 weeks with us. It flew by too fast! It seems like you always wish you had more time to talk, share, and hear some of the "old" stories just one more time. :-)

I also wish I would have taken more photos, but this one is of four generations- my grandmother, dad, me and my four children. I'm going to quote the MasterCard commercial and say that this photo is, beyond any doubt, "priceless."

This next photo is with my aunt in it, as well. P.S. Don't you love all of our shirts? GO PHILLIES!!!

Our baby loses her first tooth!

Kiddo #4's first tooth is gone! My baby isn't such a baby anymore. Most people tell me that she's young to lose her first tooth, but all of my children have lost their first tooth at exactly the same time-- one month before they turn 5! :-)

The tooth was wiggly for awhile. Since Blue (the dog) in her book "Blue and the Tooth Fairy" wiggled her loose tooth everyday, Kiddo #4 followed suit. She wiggled it in the morning. She wiggled it in the car. She wiggled it at night. It got to the point where the poor thing was literally hanging on only by a thread. I told kiddo #4 to give it a good tug. She was scared and said it may hurt.

Then, a lightbulb went off.

I went to the fridge, got out an apple, proceeded to cut it for her and asked her to take a bite. One bite is all it took. And the rest, is tooth fairy history. October 7th was recorded as the monumental day in her baby book.

I'm not sure if the picture is clear enough, but it is the bottom center tooth on her right. It always amazes me how the first tooth to come in is the first tooth to come out.


The adult tooth is visible already and is actually loosening the tooth next door. So, the wiggling several times daily begins yet again.... No apples yet. :-)