Take Me Out to the Ballgame...

It is NOT July anymore...but it was really fun, really hot and our first family professional baseball game. Pirates vs. the St. Louis Cardinals. The Pirates had the entire city buzzing, their record was 0.500+ and they beat the, now World Champion, Cardinals 4 to 3. It was exciting! The kids had a blast, lots of snacks and treats. Tons of water! Did I mention it was HOT!?!?!

The highlight of the day (ignoring a bee sting waiting in line...) was running the bases. I can't believe that they survived the hot day and managed to run all the way around! It was great.

KI, OH - 2011

Oh what a vacation...swimming, biking, sand castles, sun and fun!

Kelleys Island, OH

Thank you Grandma and Grandpa Vitale

In all of my sandcastle-engineer-building glory! The kids 'helped' but mostly dug trenches, transported water, poured it in the motes and stomped on castle tops. No matter what it was good. They loved the castle city.

The beach at Kelleys Island State Park is wonderful. Lots of sand, calm waters - cold this year - but calm thanks to the break wall. Swimming was fun. Dylan had a hard time early in the week since it was so cold. He was blue pretty fast. Thanks to hotter weather, less clouds and a couple degree warm up of Lake Erie water trapped in the bay - he was swimming like crazy the last day. Nothing like a good lake shark!

Just picture Gavin included in the picture and not sleeping in the back seat of the Pacifica. Gavin didn't make it the 4 miles from the house to the west point of the island. The sunset was beautiful but not nearly as beautiful as my girl. Gorgeous girl. I appreciate the beautiful peach colored light.

LOTS of Pictures!

Splash Lagoon

A Vitale 5 family weekend at Splash Lagoon in Erie, PA. Good times and as the sign says, "Get Set to Get Wet." Pools, family friendly hot tubs, water slides. Awesome.

Slide and repeat - approximately 300 times. Follow with water logged 'hot tub' to wrinkle extremities beyond recongition and float until you need to sleep. Take breaks for potty, snacks and sort-of-food from the Island grill. Follow with arcade time and a snack in the car.

Beware of oreo cookie vampires on the way home (I regret not taking Dylan's picture in car, snoozing away, drooling oreo cookie drool).

Did I mention the Kid's Suite? Aka room with alcove with a bunkbed, TV and table. Apparently all I had to do was give Gavin the opportunity to sleep in a bunkbed to be happy.

Happy 7th Birthday Gavin Tucker Vitale

Seven G! Sounds good? Seven! 7! Seven!

Lucky number 7 maybe? Even more luck if you loose a tooth on your birthday? Maybe - or just bonus? Either way, chocolate frosting all over the vanilla cake will do. Keep the cake comin' and when that is over, keep the presents flowin'. Beyblades, Nijago Legos and a new Wii remote. Good times.

Happy Birthday Gavin! Love from a little sister and a little brother.

(Side note, Nora dressed herself today despite a lovely outfit hanging on her closet door. This is lovely too! :D)

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It wouldn't be complete without a memory lane stroll for all those that wish to take it.

Gavin-6

Gavin-5

Gavin-4 (former email, end of post)

Gavin-3

Gavin-2

Gavin-1

Boys Night Out

Pete took the boys to Nuclear Cowboyz for a Boys Night out to celebrate all of the Vitale boys' birthdays. Of course this was a big hit for all of them but Dylan loved the yellow quad! Who exactly lights themselves on fire and then jumps a dirt bike. Not sure but apparently that is good entertainment.

Basketball

Something new...basketball clinic was the theme for Saturday mornings for Gavin in January. It was really fun. The high school program in the school district offers the Little Dribblers clinic for K-2 kids to teach skills including dribbling, passing, ball handling and some basic shooting. The coach and the team did a terrific job and they do it for a fund raiser as well. Two for one in my mind. You can imagine that you have to be on your toes being a spectator with ~2o boys dribbling their own basketball. We'll be back in the fall!

This is the best Chrismas ever...

"This is the best Christmas ever," says Dylan after putting up the Christmas tree. He also repeated the line tonight after a visit with Santa and shopping and pizza dinner - did I mention a trip to Toys R Us tonight? They had gift cards burning in their pockets. Funny that their spending turned into my spending...

I'm grateful for all of it. No tears during a nearly perfect Santa picture, movie and popcorn, shopping, dinner out and no dishes and a evening on the couch with happy kids and a husband that doesn't have to work tonight.

O' Christmas Tree

Christmas Tree basking...

Ice Time

Gavin went to his buddy Jack's birthday party. First time ice skating. He had a blast. Thanks to the cones and buckets, the falling was more minimal.

Bikes: The Beginning

Dylan learned to peddle!

He has desperately been trying to figure it out and foot peddling the big wheel bike had become over rated. After vacation, he jumped on his tricycle and despite barely being able to reach the peddles. he took off. He is, of course trying to catch up to Gavin and Nora.

In addition to Dylan's milestone, Gavin has shed his training wheels. Nora has been riding without training wheels since late June. Gavin has been frustrated by this, especially on his scooter. She is faster. He got over the hump with Daddy's help. Circus bears have evolved...

Gavin: Fall Ball

Gavin has been playing fall baseball. It has been an interesting adventure moving up to Bantum league. We are now playing with outs, strikes and the boys are positioned at pitcher and catcher. Coach pitch continues.

Gavin team is young. They all played instructional/t-ball in the spring. Winning has not been within reach but good experiences have been. We have mixed practice with games and they have learned a lot. Interesting to see them learn plays and the rules of the game. We will continue to work on implementation!

Too many kids, too much time...

First Day of School

~Gavin~

Gavin is officially a first grader. While many folks are crossing this bridge this fall with their children, our own journey is is sharply real and monumental. We have not traveled down this road before. This is nearly always true when I discuss Gavin, as he is the oldest, but it never seems unimportant. So true of the above picture, that Nora and Dylan are part of his journey. They insisted on being there to see him on to the bus.

"Check-out my backpack!", he says to Daddy. Dylan was very interested in this process. He normally is when it comes to his brother ("brofer"). I love that Dylan looks like I feel here. Very proud. Very happy. Very curious.

Ok, ok...posed, required photos with parents...

Gavin was a mix of excitement and apprehension for his first day. It depended on the moment. He did not recognize his teacher (negative - mental note & lesson learned: at end of school year, suggest meeting next grade level of teachers ahead of time). He did, however, know some students from previous class, baseball or playground (positive). He was riding the same bus with kids he knows well (positive). We had the same bus numbers (positive and bonus*). He was unsure of classroom location prior to bus stop (negative) but during long wait for bus*, discovered through kid-conversation with a now second grader, where class was located (positive). Go Gavin - network to your advantage!

* Bus: (1) The morning bus time moved up from 8:40 to 8:20 which for our family schedule is nearly invisible. However - bus was late on first day so that is not a positive influence on nerves (next picture). (2) Afternoon bus was SUPPOSED to be the same number, time, etc. In the middle of the day - changes were made - chaos was created. Gavin luckily, the social networking butterfly that he is, made it on to the correct bus. Three others on his bus were not so lucky. Two stayed at the school with the dozens of other kids too confused to know what to do and one child boarded the wrong bus. Lovely...in the end all was well. Second day was smoother and on time.

Let's get this over with!

BYE!!!

Note: Dylan and Nora both cried when Gavin got on the bus. They cried hard. Although this was terribly sad, it was easier to comfort them then to shed my own tears of detachment. I cry for fleeting moments that I just can't seem to capture let alone touch as they fly by on this journey.

Another magic carpet ride...

Pete took the kids (solo) to Idlewild! They had a blast despite HOT, humid weather and a heat index around 97 degrees. No swimming since Daddy was solo but they must have had fun since they all napped in the car on the way home as well as were in bed by 8 pm. Pete took a few pictures with his cell phone camera. Thanks Daddy!! I love them!

Nora?!?!

So, the kids took another magic carpet ride in Story Book Forest. Can a whole year be summed up in a comparison of two pictures? Gavin hadn't visited elementary school, ridden a school bus or lost a tooth. He was still in our family-world of home, daycare and family. He was still 5. Nora still wore toddler sizes, couldn't write her name and she hadn't started to catch up to Gavin in height. She was still a toddler - 3. Dylan was still a baby - not technically - more of a toddler - but still had short baby legs, a waddly walk, pudgy cheeks, and chubby rolls at his wrists. He had never spoken a sentence and had just given up the last bottle.

They were tall to short, just in a row - boop, boop, boop.

2009

2009: Last year...Idlewild

This year, they barely fit...legs are everywhere, torsoes have stretched, arms that can reach, and the glory of the lollipop has been passed on to the younger generation. The older two most likely either did not have one or chewed it up fast to get rid of the stick.

Gavin has finished kindergarten, now has a mohawk and has more legs and arms than he knows what to do with. He can run and I mean run. He can beat me in Mario Cart. Nora is fast approaching 5 with Mommy putting on the breaks. She is growing faster than Gavin and threatens to pass him ~8 years of age, as far as I can tell. She is starting to read, writes efficiently and has learned a ton of new songs, including pop-music favorites. She has a MP3 player! Dylan speaks with sentence structure and the vocabulary of a 3 year old spoken with the linguistic ability of a 2+ year old - adorable. He is insightful yet is a mocking bird. He is following as closely behind his siblings as his now-longer legs can carry him. An amazing year of differences.

2010

Some things are the same. They still love their lovies (Bunny, Li-Li, Pink Bear, Frogger and Roary), they still snuggle down into their beds the same way: Gavin on his left side, Nora on her right with one leg up and Dylan on his belly. Gavin has already reached a beautiful shade of tan for the summer and they are all turning their summer shade of blonde. Blue, chocolate and brown eyes between them. Smiles from all. Laughter, squeals and rare tears. They love the water, Nora loves to be soaked and Gavin likes to dish it out. They are slaves to their routine and they are wonderful.

Monkey See...Monkey Mohawk

Gavin has been begging for a mohawk haircut for nearly a year. We have used a few excuses, including the school year, but my excuses have run out. I have been cutting the boys hair for a few months now and recently purchased new clippers to support these efforts.

He is now the happiest 6 year old in the neighborhood!! Happy blonde mohawk (and SpongeBob pushup) to you buddy! Never mind the 23 silly bands and no shirt tan belly for a hot summer day.

Kelleys Island, OH - Vitale Family Vacation

Post is LONG overdue, but here it is...

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Kelleys Island Ferry: You gotta wear shades...

We went to Kelleys Island this summer for a nice long weekend with Grandma and Grandpa Vitale. We had amazing weather for summer in Ohio. Blue skies, warm weather. It was great.

Prettiest Girl!

We visited to limestone Glacier Groves while were there. They are glacial markings in the island limestone that are part of the State Park. Much of the natural groves were destroyed by limestone quarries.

As you can see, Nora started out dry, with merely wet feet. That did not last...

Nora Mermaid, so pretty.