What do you do when your own kids have taken off to see Grandma? Borrow someone else's, of course! I took Faith and Juli over to Jungle Fun while their dad was at work. Their parents say I spoil them, but where's the fun in being an aunt if you can't spoil your adorable nieces??
For Father's Day, we got Scott two tickets to the Phillies/Red Sox game. Since Nick professes to being a Red Sox fan (although I sincerely doubt he could name a single player) Scott took him along to Citizen's Bank Park. It was Nicky's very first MLB game. He was super excited, and Scott was thrilled to see the Phillies in action. (Yep, he likes the Eagles, the Phillies, probably the Sixers if forced to watch basketball - just call him a local boy.)
Of course, the problem with sending the dynamic duo off to the ballpark was that someone would come home unhappy. After all, only one of their teams could win.
Nicky watched anxiously...
But didn't seem to mind that much when his team lost. Which is good - it was _Daddy's_ present, after all! Plus, he got a consolation prize - the Red Sox cap he HAD to have to go to the game, and a baseball from the gift shop. Not a bad deal!
It's a miracle!!! Nicky, who has always professed a complete hatred of strawberries, has decided he likes them! That is, he likes them if they are warm and fresh picked. Which is precisely how we spent the morning, as it happens. We picked a huge pile of strawberries at Seiple Farms.
In the afternoon, I canned up some fresh strawberry jam, and sure enough - Nicky liked that too! Now if we could just get him to eat hot dogs without throwing up...
And that means the Hellertown pool is not only open, it's THE place to be for Saucon Valley kids. The kids talked me into taking them to the pool early in their vacation. I thought it was a bit silly since we were going to get Dorney passes, and Dorney has a waterpark. But swimming at the pool isn't all about swimming, apparently. 
Kairi and Nicky found so many friends at the pool with them. Everywhere I looked, there was another kid we know. They didn't want to leave, but we did have to pick up Daddy eventually!
Who knew? I guess I've been depriving the kids of the the hot social spot for summer fun in Saucon! Too bad for them, I'm still not getting passes - since they're leaving for Grandma's on Tuesday!
Kairi has been such a help with babysitting Faith and Juli. We've been watching them when Barry and Cyndy's schedules conflict. Sure, we aren't about to leave Juli with Kairi all by herself, but she's pretty good at taking care of one of the sisters while I take care of the other. It's great having such a responsible, helpful daughter!
Since my sister's family had just moved here by Faith's birthday, we got to host Faith's birthday party at our house. Unfortunately, since they didn't know anyone in the area, only our kids were there. But we still had a really good time!
Cyndy is so creative with party ideas. The goodie bags were decorated to look like Dora's backpack. In case you can't tell, the party theme was Dora the Explorer.
Faith loved the bean bag toss, which was a good thing, since she didn't like the sprinklers at all.
Kairi and Nicky loved them though!
And even Juli got her toes wet!
Don't worry about the birthday girl though. She got tons of presents (most Dora themed).
She had first crack at the pinata candy.
And a few good cracks at the pinata itself.
She got to make her cousins and parents and aunt and uncle wear silly hats.
And she had a tasty Mexican feast with a cake fit for a fiesta. Not bad for a three year old!
The drama club's annual trip to New York went off, well, with a lot of hitches, but since it turned out fine, we just won't worry about that. We usually go at night, so it was nice to see the skyline by daylight.
We had a little extra time in New York (see glitches...) and so we wandered around Times Square a little bit.
We saw the musical Mary Poppins, which was simply fabulous. The sets and effects were amazing, and the musical numbers highly entertaining. I'm hoping to go back with Mom, because she missed the trip after planning to go (more glitches...)
With all of the craziness going on in May, it was nice to finish the trip and know that most of my extracurricular obligations were done!
Kairi had been looking forward to the Music in the Parks competition for weeks. The band did a great job when we watched them in the morning, but let's face it...
They were really excited about getting to wander Hershey Park all day! Winning prizes for playing their instruments was just a bonus.
We took Faith with us to the day's activities because since she was just shy of 3, she got free admission. She had a great time, although the costumed characters made her a bit nervous.
No nerves for real Hershey kisses, though!
She also had no qualms about going on any rides. In addition to the tame merry go round, she rode rollercoasters and dark rides and anything her height would let her get on.
Nicky, of course, was not so daring, but got to ride a few things nevertheless. And we got him on a rollercoaster, although he did NOT like it, so we won't try that again.
Best of all, at the end of the day, Saucon's bands and chorus groups took high honors. The concert band took second place with an excellent rating. The jazz band took first place, and Saucon won a special award for one of our singers. We're very proud of all of the Saucon kids!
Of course, this violence is on purpose. The actors of Roundtable Productions made a special trip out to perform for my seventh graders when our Medieval Faire was rained out. They put on a fabulous show, as always. I got some great pictures capturing the action this year.
Kairi did a great job at recital, as always. What we didn't expect was her cousin's reaction to her.
She loved all of Kai's costumes, and loved watching her dance. Especially the dance with the Disney princesses.
But most of all, she loved Kairi's ballet costume. She was afraid to even touch her, but once Kai said it was okay, she seemed to think of Kai as a giant ballerina doll, just for her.
In fact, everyone liked that outfit so much, I completely forgot to take any pictures at all of Kai in her competition jazz outfit! Oh well!
Looks like all that hard work on school projects does have some rewards. We went into Kairi's school to talk to the principal about a medical excuse from gym after Kai tore ligaments in her finger during gym class. Boy, were we surprised to look into the 6th grade display case and see three of Kai's projects featured! We're always proud of her, but it's nice to see her teachers are proud of her, too!
What's so exciting about this picture, you ask??? It's taken in my hometown. It's my niece. And the reason she's here is: she moved here!!!!!! YAY!! Cyndy, Barry, Faith and Juli moved down to Pennsylvania. Hannah will join them for various school vacations. I'm sad that they will see Hannah less, but so very glad they'll be close to us. We're going to have so much fun having close relatives so close!
So I repeat: WOOOOHOOOOO!!!!
