Just the three of us...

I am painfully aware that I have only one week left before my baby goes off to Kindergarten, and I must say - I am dreading it. I just know that I'm going to be that Mother who cries the whole way home after dropping her child off for her first day. I just feel like I'm not ready to give Maria up for the whole day, everyday - I'm going to miss her too much! And, is it me, or is she a little too young to go all day every day without her Mommy?! She's only five, for crying out loud!!

On that note, I've been trying to squeeze in all these end of the summer special things with the girls. I just don't want to feel like I wasted my last week of the three of us being together all day. In that spirit, I took the girls to Willow Bay (a part of Onondaga Lake Park) for the afternoon yesterday. It was a gorgeous sunny day, the perfect chance for us to get out and enjoy the last days of summer freedom...

Vroom Vroom - We are READY to go! Maria on her bike and Josephine taking her baby for a walk in the stroller.

I don't know why, but this picture reminds me of the ones that you see taken by the paparazzi in those gossip magazines (not that I would EVER look at one of those things). Of course, it's my totally unbiased opinion that she's cuter than any of those celebrity babies!

This was my attempt at taking some pictures to possibly use in our Christmas card. Too bad I can never get them both to look at me AND smile at the same time!

We biked, pushed strollers, and walked all over the place. We just took our time and explored until the girls got tired. We found a cute little creek that fascinated them for a good long time (don't you love how excited kids get about the little things?).

The girls were pretty tuckered out by the end of the day, but of course there is always energy for the playground! We played there for a good bit (yes, WE - I played on the playground, too - my kids don't ever let me get away with just watching them play, which is good - it keeps me young!) and then headed back home. I decided that the perfect end would be a trip to Gannon's Isle for some ice cream, and the girls agreed! A fun day, indeed...

Off to the fair!

The New York State Fair is regarded in this area as the unofficial end of summer, so the feeling is always a little bittersweet when we go - I'm not ready for summer to end yet!


There was a really cute little petting zoo there - no Fort Rickey, of course, but fun for the girls nonetheless.

Gotta love the cute little donkeys - always makes me think of the Christmas Story (the real one, not the TV movie with the big pink nightmare)

"Mooooo!" I was kind of wondering what this guy was doing here - these horns could disembowel someone!

And onto the rides..

Doesn't she look so tiny on this big huge blow-up slide?

Ah, what a lovely day for a ride in our cart (or is it a chariot -hmmmm...).

Oh, how we love the rides!

Yay! More rides! But not too many more, because we ran out of funds - bummer.

"Weeeee!"

"DOUBLE weeee!"

The firetruck ride - everybody say CHEESE!

"Up, up and awaaayyyyy!"

Hey, what's this cow doing here?

Of course, of course, during every fair trip...

we MUST touch at least one cow. Don't ask me why. There are no explanations for these sorts of things...


...and then we must ride in big plastic cows around in a circle, going all of about .25 mph.

"Child, how many times have I told you NOT to mess with a cow's tale?!"

I don't know why people feel the need to get their pictures taken in these things - I mean, they really are stupid. But, it's just that they're there, and at the the time, it just seems like the right thing to do...

Aha! THIS is why we do it! To make our husbands look like idiots! Oh, but what a cute idiot he is - don't you agree?

Anyways, so that sums up our fair trip. The rest of the details are boring - eating fair food (thank goodness it comes only once a year!), children getting tired, parents getting tired, the smell of greasy food, dirty farm animals and sweaty people becoming all too much for everyone...ahhh, such is the great New York State Fair - what a great day.

This one is for Rachel (but will be enjoyed by all...)

"Here comes the sun, doo doo doo doo, here comes the sun, and I say - it's all right..."
For those of you who are not Beatles fans, that is the opening line from one of my favorite songs of theirs.

Check out these sunflowers that Lou grew in our backyard! He has a talent for growing things, and these things are freakishly tall (yes Rachel, even taller than your monstrous weed). As per Rachel's request, I am posting pictures as proof. Now, I know this is not a weed like the one in her backyard, but it is a plant other than a tree in our backyard that reaches over 10 feet tall, and I therefore think it merits mention in this blog.

See the pictures below to see how truly huge they are.

This first picture gives you a pretty good idea of their immensity, but the next one really shows you.

When you see that they tower over my 6'1" husband, even with his arm stretched up, you can really see that they truly are HUGE! Yay Lou! Good job, honey.

A local hooligan strikes...

...and by local, I mean right in our very own family. I was gathering up the girls at the park today, getting ready to leave Park n' Play and head home for naptime. I had to ask one of the other Moms there a quick question, and Maria waited for me next to the minivan. When I walked over to the van and went to open the door, you'll never guess what I saw...




Just in case there is any confusion as to what you are looking at, here is a closer look...

Yeah, my five-year-old scratched her name into the side of our new (okay, not new, but new to us) minivan with a stone - in six to ten-inch high letters, no less.

Well, needless to say I freaked out just a tad, telling her that her father was going to KILL her when he found out, how she was going to be punished for the rest of the day, asking her how she could be so stupid, etc. (Yes, I am the bad mother who asks her daughter how she could be so stupid - but on the upside, I did not spank the life out of her, which is what would have been my fate at her age had I done such a thing...)

Well, after I got done freaking out, I got online and searched to see if there was any hope of fixing this disaster. I found out that with some rubbing compound and a little bit of car wax, that I would be able to get most of the scratches out. I found some compound in our basement (how lucky!), and my sister loaned me some of her car wax. It took us about 20 minutes, and here are the results:

If you look on the right, you can still see some of the "A", but it's mostly all gone. If you know what you're looking for, you can still see traces of it, but as you can see, just looking at it dead-on, it's not really noticeable.

Voila! Almost all gone - phew (I notice in this picture that it looks like the repaired area is a totally different color than the door in front of it - it's not. It's just a weird shadow on the front part of the car). If you're thinking to yourself "Wow, Robyn, you're amazing!", you're right, I am! Okay, maybe not amazing (refer to comments above about the use of the word stupid in conjuction with one of my daughters - not one of my finer moments), but at least resourceful!

By the way, when I told Lou, not only did he not freak out, he laughed. How dare he...

Random bits and pieces

There are a couple of current events that I want to share, all completely unrelated - hence the title. I must say though, that although this information is completely random, I have no doubt that you will find it all rather fascinating...

It has come to my attention that my last couple of blogs don't really show a very balanced picture of life here at the DeGaetano home. Were you to just read those blogs, you would probably think that life over here is just picturesque and completely problem-free. Well, I wouldn't want to give anyone that idea - I think that blogs should the ups AND the downs of daily life, so here's a couple of jim-dandy stories about life with a potty-training toddler:
(There is no accompanying picture for this first part, because that would be, well, disgusting)

Josephine has been doing rather well in this area (well, with the exception of her peeing on all three of our "dry-clean only" couch cushions within a weeks' time). She does have the occasional accident, but of course that is to be expected. Last week though, was quite interesting. I was vaccuming out the minivan, (which was quite filthy from all our galavanting the previous week), and the girls were playing in the kiddie pool in the backyard. About every five minutes or so, I would stop vaccuuming and see what they were up to. One of the times I did this, I looked over at the pool and noticed that Josephine wasn't there. I quickly scanned the backyard, and then I spotted her - naked...squatting...and pooping on the driveway. Yes, my friends, she was pooping on the driveway. I caught her just as she finished, at which point she jumped up and said "Poop!", as if she felt the need to point out the obvious. The rest of the dialogue went as follows:

Mom: "Josephine, you do NOT poop in the driveway" (another one on the long list of things I never thought I would say)

Josephine: "No poop in driveway?"

Mom: "No, Josephine, you do NOT poop in the driveway!"

Josephine: "Why?"

Mom: "Because it's disgusting!"

Josephine: "Disgusting?"

Mom: "Yes, Josephine, it's disgusting - yucky."

Josephine: "Yucky?"

Mom: "Yes, Josephine, it's yucky."

Josephine: "Why?"

Mom: "Because poopy goes in the potty - NOT in the driveway. It's yucky!"

Josephine: "Poopy yucky?"

Mom: "Yes, Josephine, poopy is yucky"

Josephine: "Why?"

Mom: "You know what? I give up - because I said so, that's why."

And there you have it, folks.

The second fun thing last week was when we were in Wegmans. We were in the bulk food section when Josephine said "pee", which usually means she has to go pee. Unfortunately, in this case, she was simply announcing what had already happened. As she said this, I suddenly felt a nice light sprinkling all over my feet (wearing flip-flops, thank you very much!). Yep, pee all over my feet and the floor of Wegmans. Oh, how I love the potty training.

And now, for the rest of the randomness...

Yes, these are My Little Ponies you are seeing. They are my My Little Ponies, to be exact. No, not the ones I had when I was little (those are at my Mom's house still) - these are new ones, just for me! They are re-released ponies from the original six that came out in 1983. My mother saw them at Marshall's and said she just couldn't resist, seeing as I had a mild obsession with them when I was a child. She told me that they were for me, and that they were not to be kept with Maria and Josephine's toys. Now, I must say that it was funny to be receiving toys at age 28, but there was something very fun in it at the same time. And yes, they are kept in my room, and the girls play with them only when I say they can. Do I sit around and play with them alone - uh, no. But it is cool that they are mine. What can I say? I guess I'm still just a kid at heart.

This is a picture of one of my new great finds in the dessert world - Blackberry Cornmeal Cake, and yes, it is every bit as delicious as it looks, and it is super easy to make! I made it for my sister Melanie's birthday (as per her request), and I was quite thrilled with how good it turned out. Everyone else loved it, too! If any of you would like the recipe, you need only ask and I will email it to you (sorry, I'm not so talented at the hyperlink thing yet). Trust me, you will NOT be disappointed...

This is a picture of my homemade ice cream cones. Yes, you read it right - I made ice cream cones! I've had a recipe for years that I found in the newspaper, and I finally got around to trying it out tonight for Family Home Evening. They were easy to mix up, but really tricky to shape into cones, but boy was it worth it! They have a caramel-candy taste to them, and were absolutely KILLER with plain vanilla ice cream. Again, if you are feeling adventurous and want the recipe, let me know!

My last tid-bit is some happy news to share: One of my sisters is finally getting married! My younger sister Adria (the returned missionary, 26 years old) - the one on the left, obviously - is getting married on January 24th of 2009. Her fiance is a convert (baptized 1/12/08), and they have been dating for about a year now. I am SO looking forward to finally having a sister who is married, not to mention the potential to finally have a niece or nephew at some point! It will be an exciting month, as Lou and I will be celebrating our 10th wedding anniversay 8 days before the wedding - can you believe it took ten years for my parents to get another son-in-law?! Now if only we can find someone for Dana...

Gone Fishin'

After such a rainy day yesterday, we were relieved to see this morning that it looked to be a lovely day. Lou got it into his head that we were going to take the girls fishing, so we packed up our stuff and went!

We headed out to DuRuyter Resevoir. I think for the girls, the boat ride is the best part!

We had our little barbeque on a tiny island in the middle of the resevoir (yes, Tolboes, that is your grill!). We had hot dogs, baked beans (if you look you can see them cooking on the grill - right in the can!), and some fresh veggies from our garden (courtesy of our resident green thumb - Lou). We used our cooler as a table (yes, ghetto, I know) and had a great picnic lunch!

Here is the first fish of the day - a small sunfish that Lou caught. Josephine insisted on holding it, but once it was close to her, she politely declined...

Maria won the prize for the most fish caught - here she is with another small sunfish (she ended up catching three by the end of the trip, Lou got two, and I got one).

Maria amazed me with her fishing skills. She caught and reeled in all three fish all by herself. She cast herself, felt the fish bite all by herself, and reeled them in all by herself. Maybe it's because I'm her Mom, but I was amazed that a five-year-old could do this alone!

Rainy Day Fun!

It's raining, it's pouring...
So today was yucko weatherwise. Usually I would just let the girls watch a movie, but I decided to not be a lazy Mom and do some fun stuff instead...

...like play in the rain with umbrellas and raincoats. If you look closely, you will see that my childrens' feet are completly immersed in water. Yeah, that's the man-sized pot hole at the end of our driveway that becomes a lake everytime it rains - we lovingly call it "Lake DeGaetano"

We had a lot of fun marching up and down the street singing songs and splashing around in our flip-flops!

Then we came inside and made very cool paper airplanes and threw them all over the house. I couldn't believe how much fun the girls had with this - if you haven't already, you should try it sometime!

And lastly, we made good old chocolate chips cookies. The girls helped a little, but as you can see, they did more tasting than helping!

Here's to good times on rainy days!

And the grande finale - Thunder Island!

Well, it's sad, but we knew this day would come - the last day of the 2008 DeGaetano Staycation. For day #5 we went to Thunder Island - a small, family-owned water park in Fulton, NY. It only has four adult rides and three kiddie rides, but it also has miniature golf, go-karts and a ferris wheel (and is way closer and way cheaper than Enchanted Forest!). Also, two of the adult rides can be ridden by small children if they are accompanied by an adult, which we took advantage of, of course! Anyhow, it was perfect weather for such a day, and we thoroughly enjoyed it. There are not a lot of pictures in this blog - I was too busy riding rides and splashing around to snap photos all day!

Maria loved the lazy river - she went around and around and around and around...

Maria messing around with the sprinklers

Maria going down one of the kiddie slides

Maria and Daddy playing around in the wading pool (Maria would have spent hours in that pool - she thought it was the coolest!) The slides that you see in the background here are the two kiddie slides - they were so cool because they were pint sized, and emptied in the wading pool which was only about 18 inches deep, plenty shallow enough to make it safe for almost all sizes. Also, the slide on the left was a big wide one (wide enough to fit 4 or 5 people across!) that was a straight shot down - perfect for a family like ours to go down all together!

Thunder Island...continued

Josephine wasn't so sure about this place in the beginning. By the time we got there, she was long overdue for a nap and so not interested in water play time...

Here is Josephine looking VERY unamused by of the merriment going on around her...

Here is Josephine with her one true love - a sippy cup filled with milk. We have found that, when it comes to Josephine, all the ills of the world are solved by a sippy cup filled with milk...

She then took a nap on a towel and woke up a different kid! (naps are amazing like that, aren't they?)

After her nap, she couldn't get enough of the rides (that's her going down all by herself!) - going down the slide over and over and over and over...She actually started crying when the place closed and it was time to go home.

This may be a small park, but it is definitely enough to make a day of, and the PERFECT thing for families with small children - we will be going back again next year!

Thanks for checking in on our staycation adventures - now go plan yours!

The DeGaetanos explore Howe Caverns!

For Day #4 of our staycation, we took a long drive (2 hours) to explore the Howe Caverns - an underground cave world that, according to geologists, was formed millions of years ago by an underground river. The entire thing is naturally formed, except for the brick walkways and modern lighting installed to enable visitors to tour it. The tour lasted about 1 1/2 hours (Josephine slept on Lou's shoulder for half of it!), and was truly a once in a lifetime experience!


This is the scene we pulled up to - the building where you find the gift shop, the café, the place where you can cut your own geodes or mine for gemstones, and also where the tour begins. The building is actually much bigger (about 7 times as long as what you see here), but I couldn't fit it all in my camera! I just had to take a picture, not only because I thought the building itself was really pretty (I love the tudor style!), but also because I couldn't help but notice the fantastic view!

I just love all the valleys and rolling hills of New York!

The caverns are quite a ways below-ground - 156 feet to be exact, or the equivalent of 15 stories down. We took an elevator down to start our tour. The caverns are 52º year-round, regardless of the weather outside, so it was quite a bit chilly down there. Luckily, I had some towels in the car, so we were able to wrap the girls in them to keep them warm!

Because of the constant cool temperature, there is a local company that pays to use some of the space in the caverns to store and age their cheese - you can see here that there are quite a few wheels of the stuff. I have to say, I was curious as to how this "cavern-aged" cheese tasted...

This was one of the first things we saw in the caverns - a huge rock formation that looks like Godzilla - can you see the eye at the top, the nostril at the left and the mouth below? (he is facing the left) Pretty cool, huh?