Whirlwind of visitors!!

Now for the fun stuff - summer visitors!! I love it! We have officially had the most visitors in one week, breaking our own records...heehee. Living here is like a permanent vacation! (...well except for the laundry, bills, chores, etc...)

Last Friday, June 20th, I packed up the girls and met a friend of mine and her kids at the beach. The weather forecast was sunny and perfect, which at first it was. Here are some pics of the kids having fun!







Then, within minutes, a huge thunderstorm came rolling in. First we saw the dark clouds and thought it would pass. Then heard some thunder. Then - lightening all around us. I love Tstorms and I was even a little spooked. So we quickly packed everything up - not an easy feat with 7 kids age 7 and under. Each with their own buckets, shovels, towels, shoes, and sandy wet little bodies. Plus our chairs, bags and stuff. Oh my. But we survived and by the time we got home (less than 10 minute drive) the sun was back out. Oh my. We had stopped at Linwood Market for sandwiches to eat on the beach, so instead we just ate them here and all was well.

After lunch, I went to take the cover off the pool (which was covered in leaves and disgusting brown crap, yuk). Of course, while pulling off the cover, everything fell into the pool. I tried to hook up the pool vacuum (first time ever attempting without Tim)...not good. I tried scooping things out. I put chemicals in. I tinkered with the filter - and blew a fuse in the house!! Can you believe it? OK, so things were not going my way.

My cousin Tommy took a half day from work to come down and visit for the weekend. He arrived around 3:30 pm and was a huge help in recovering the pool situation. Sometimes all you need is an extra set of hands (and a whole lot of encouragement... thanks Tom!) We decided to stay home that night and ordered stromboli for dinner (Yummy). We played Candyland with the girls and watched TV.

Saturday, Tommy let me sleep in and he got up with the girls. As you may know by now, I love my sleep. And with Tim having been gone his entire 2-weeks on duty, I was desperately missing my morning sleep! It was a lazy morning, Tommy ran to get McDonalds breakfasts for the girls so they were in their glory.

Then we went up to the OC boardwalk because Madison was invited to a birthday party for one of her friends. This didnt make the other 3 girls very happy, as they were not invited (they dont even know this little boy). But we survived. And the mom offered all of us pizza, drinks and cake, which was very nice. I enjoyed chatting with some of the other moms and we even made plans for the summer and exchanged phone numbers. Kaitlyn's friend Marissa was there (her little sister is in Madison's class) and we invited her to come over to swim. So when we got home, we enjoyed the nice clean (er...semi-clean?) pool for a few hours. Very refreshing.

After Marissa left, we had movie night (instead of our typical Friday night). We watched High School Musical (for probably the 100th time!) - the girls love it. Poppop offered to stay with the girls so Tommy could take me out for a belated birthday dinner. We went to Applebee's around 8:30pm and spent a few hours enjoying drinks, good food and nice conversation. It was very very nice and I am thankful for the friendship I have in him (and for Poppop allowing us to leave!)

Meanwhile, Kaitlyn began complaining that her ears hurt. She was up throughout the night with pain and ran a slight fever overnight. She laid on the couch most of Sunday - with the help of some Motrin she made it through. I'm thinking it was Swimmers Ear because after I got some OTC drops, she is much better (thank GOD!)

Sunday afternoon, Tim's brother Gary, his wife Beth and their 2 boys, Tyler & Ian came. They had been on vacation in OC, MD for a few days prior. Then they decided to take the Cape May-Lewes ferry to come visit us!! Shortly after they arrived, Tommy left to make it home before the shore traffic got too bad. Unfortunately, we didnt get any pictures during Tommy's visit... I will make that a priority for our next visit together.

Gary, Beth & I had some nice time chatting, then went up to the boardwalk. Once again, Pops stayed home with Kaitlyn because I didnt think she should go out with her ears in pain like that. We ate at Mack's pizza of course (it was Gary & Beth's first time having it - they seemed to enjoy it). Then Beth introduced me to a favorite treat of hers - Chocolate covered strawberries - oohhh they are soooo good. We took some pics then came home. The triplets went to bed and I let Kaitlyn stay up later (because she was sleeping in my room so our visitors could sleep in her room). She played Sorry and a card game with Gary and Tyler as Beth and I looked at pictures and played with Ian. Oh Ian, is he ever a cutie! And such a happy baby... always offering up a huge grin.



Monday morning was the triplets first day of Summer Enrichment (I will explain more about that in a separate post). So I dropped them off at 9am and the house was so quiet. We had breakfast and of course I played with Ian some more. Then it was time to pick up the triplets already... that time sure goes fast. The weather turned ugly (seems to be lots of pop-up Tstorms around here, especially with this heat), so we went to the mall to hang out. We ate in the food court, then let the kids play in the indoor playground. Beth & I walked around the mall a bit (with Ian in tow) and so quickly it was time for them to leave. I really wish we lived closer - too much time goes by between our visits. (Although we already have 2 more visits scheduled for this Summer to stay on top of it!)







After they left, Pops and I watched some TV - it is so nice to have that companionship in the evenings - especially when Tim is away for long periods of time. While watching TV, my sister-in-law, Boochy wrote to me on the Instant Messenger to ask what our plans were for the next day (Tuesday). Her and my brother Sean had taken a vacation day from work and wanted to come down to visit.

So, Tuesday was another day of fun with a new set of visitors! It feels like it had been forever since we saw Sean and Boochy, so the girls were excited. We talked, laughed and played together. Boochy's parents (Patty Ann & Joe) were staying in Atlantic City for the week and asked if they could also stop over to visit and see our house. Yet another set of visitors!! It was nice to see them, because if I'm remembering correctly, we hadnt seen them since we moved to NJ (almost a year ago).

Sean and Boochy wanted to watch Kaitlyn's gymnastics practice, so we all went and got to see all of her 'stunts'. Kaitlyn felt really proud to have an audience silently cheering her on. OK, so the triplets werent so 'silent' but close enough, lol. When we got home, we ordered dinner. Pops came home from work and we were able to all eat together, which was very nice. Then we took the girls out for ice cream! I think with all these visitors, I'm gonna gain another 10 pounds before the end of summer...uh oh! Sean and Boochy left around 10pm and were home safely by midnight. Tim got home around 1:00am from his 2-week excursion and it was very nice to have him back.



Wednesday was my younger brother's 23rd birthday... unfortunately we didnt get to see him, but I had a nice conversation with him and hope to see him and Amanda soon. After the triplets were done school, we went swimming again. Have I mentioned how much I LOVE that pool?! Then we ate a picnic lunch out on the deck - that was so nice. Our yard is surrounded by trees (which is awful in the fall, raking and all) but Spring & Summer are beautiful. So we listened to the birds and even watched a woodpecker for a bit. We have some Cardinals and Blue Jays who are regulars in our yard as well - pretty cool.

Tim went around and cleaned out all the gutters, which took the rest of the day (and made a huge mess). They were so bad, they seemed to be growing trees of their own! I watched Island Princess with the girls. We had dinner and homemade sno-cones for dessert. Just before putting the girls to bed, we celebrated a belated Father's Day with Tim and the girls couldnt wait to give him his gifts!



Thursday, Tim and I took Kaitlyn to the free movie at our local Frank's theater (click HERE to see if there is one near you that offers the free Summer movies!) The movie was Shrek the Third, which of course we own, but it was nice to have some time with her, watching it on the big screen. Then Tim went to pick up the triplets from school and Kaitlyn and I went shopping. We went to the mall and got the triplets all of their birthday presents at the Disney store - they were having a great sale!! We had BBQ ribs on the grill for dinner and homemade sno-cones again (thank you Carl & Anita... we use it all the time!)

Friday (yesterday) - yep...you guessed it...another visitor!! Tim's mom Anita took a bus trip to OC for the day. Tim picked her up at 10am and we visited here for a bit. Then walked to the Linwood Market to have lunch and ice cream. When we got home, it was so hot, we all jumped right in the pool...it felt so good.

After we got out and dried off, we decided to take Anita on a quick boat ride before she had to go. It still amazes me how we can get there, go boating and get home, within an hour!







Then we came home to play and color together for a bit. And again...another Thunderstorm - crazy weather! We all went together to drop Anita back to her bus in OC. Then I ran into the OC library to return a book and pick up a new one (my favorite pasttime).

That is when we went to Wendy's for dinner on our way home and saw that awful incident take place with the little boy. Then we came home to watch the movie Air Bud and the girls invited the neighbor boy over to watch it with them. Long, busy, fun day!

A busy week, which leads into yet another busy weekend - all four girls are in the gymnastics show tomorrow at 1:00pm. So look for pictures from that in the next few days!

Whew...if you made it this far reading this update - then you really do care about us...thank you!! If not, dont feel bad, I know our lives are pretty exhausting!