Isabella's 4th birthday

So today is actually September 3rd, so I am ridiculously behind on my blog posts, but I am going to date this July 19th, so it looks like I was totally on top of things. I love that little function on Blogger.  We did Isabella's birthday party at the De Angelo Family Reunion this year.  It seems to always fall on Isabella's birthday weekend.  It was great because there were a lot of people there, it was at the lake and everyone else brought food, and I didn't have to coordinate it. So we just brought a cake and sang her Happy Birthday and opened some gifts.  She had a wonderful day at the park 

Here are Nonna, Isabella, and Gianna running for the playground.

Jack really enjoyed the playground, but loved the swings the most.

Isabella and Gianna went on the paddle boats with their daddies.

The girls got the easy part. b

Then we did cake.  It was a delicious chocolate cake with peanut butter icing.  She said she wanted a horse cake so that is what we did.

Isabella is so good at being excited.  She makes giving her gifts exciting for others too.  She was so thrilled to get hand made cards from me and daddy.  I think her favorite gift came from Aunt Jenny and Uncle Steve who got her a barbie with a horse.  She was really thrilled with that.

Here is Nick's cousin Santino with Isabella.  She absolutely loves him!

 Nick and Doug and their cousins.  The call themselves the "Fab Five"

The day after Isabella's birthday party we went to the Wurst Festival (Bratwurst that is).  It was ok.  The kids liked seeing the turtles, pigs, and dogs.  It was a beautiful location for a festival.

 Here are the turtles.  They had some enormous turtles.  There is a turtle riding on that big one's back.

They had pig races going on and they had some wiener dogs run the race too.

Cute kid watching the dancing.

This last picture is of Isabella with her baby doll that Grandma sent her.  She really likes her.  What a cute picture.

Swim Lessons!

Isabella started swim lessons on July 5th at the YMCA.  She has only had 2 lessons so far, but on her first lesson she laid down in the water and put her ears under the water and on her second lesson she put her head under the water and held her breath!  I was pretty excited at her progress in such a short time.  These pictures  and videos were taken from behind the glass.  

Jack watching his sister.

Blowing bubbles

Putting her face in the water.  After just one lesson she definitely seemed more comfortable in the water.

Our 10 year anniversary!

Nick's parents watched the kids for us for an overnight so we could celebrate our ten year anniversary.  We headed to Bethlehem, PA on Saturday around lunchtime and we checked in to our hotel.  We stayed in the Hotel Bethlehem which is a historic hotel.  It was beautiful and very cozy.  There is something spectacular about staying in a hotel...any hotel...without the kids.  It is ridiculously relaxing to me.

We headed out for lunch and ate at a little tapas place that was new.  We were fortunate to be there for the final day of Restaurant week, so most restaurants had a three course menu special.  It was a great little lunch and it was a beautiful day and we got to eat outside under the trees. 

Right next to our restaurant was this little store called Seasons.  It is an olive oil & vinegar taproom.  

It was a dream store for Nick and I.  We spent an hour or so here just sampling the oils and vinegar.  We left with quite a few...an anniversary present to ourselves.

The town was really beautiful.  I didn't know what to expect, but it was lovely.  In the background here are the steel stacks.  They are left over from the Bethlehem Steel mill that was here for years.  It opened in 1857 and closed in 2003.  It was once the second largest steel producer in the U.S.  The 5 blast furnaces were left standing after it closed and the city has turned it in to an arts and entertainment district called SteelStacks.  The night we were there was the first concert at the newly opened Levitt Pavilion at SteelStacks.

Here is Nick outside the oldest continuously running bookshop in the world, the Moravian Book Shop.  It was opened in 1745.

After walking around for a while checking out the city we stopped at a microbrewery and had some beer and pretzels with a beer cheese soup dip...delicious!

We had dinner at our hotel at this beautiful restaurant.  It had huge windows with great views of the town.

In the evening we headed out to a movie at the SteelStacks.  They had an outdoor concert going on and the stacks were lit up red, white & blue for the 4th of July.

I thought this was a cool picture.  It was the wall paper on the wall inside the Arts center.  It was just cool to me to think of what the Steel company was to this town.  It was such a part of this community...they even had a band.

After our movie we returned back to our hotel room and had Champagne and strawberries waiting for us.

The next morning we had breakfast at our hotel restaurant and then headed over to the Steelstacks again in the day time.   What a cool little area they are making there.

The Levitt Pavilion

This is the ArtQuest center where we saw the movie.  There were vendors out music playing there.  We bought some yummy salsa before heading home. :)  That's right...all we bought was food items. We have the love of food in common.

It was a great little getaway.  I can't wait to do it again!  I also can't wait to see what the next 10 years bring.

Visit with the Mandel Family

Jack and I spent most of the week with the Mandel family while Isabella spent time at Camp Nonna.  We took Isabella up to Nonna's on Monday.  Isabella enjoyed spending time with her cousins, as usual.  The girls played dress up and pulled Nathan in to be their adorable tiny Snow White.

Monday after we dropped of Isabella we headed to lunch at Chipotle and then headed to the Udvar-Hazy Air and Space Museum in Chantilly, VA.

Nathan really seemed to like Jack.  He wanted to do everything he did.  He wanted to have a dinosaur to carry since Jack did and when I got Jack a water cup Nathan no longer wanted his sippy cup.  He wanted a cup like Jack.

The Air and Space Museum was great. It was enormous.  I didn't know it but a scene from the second Transformers movie was filmed here.  They had a cool display and tv to show you the scene and how it was filmed.

Nathan had a great view from his stroller at all the airplanes hung overhead.
 I have to admit it was nice to only keep an eye on one child.  Pretty easy.

Kate and the kids.

Taking a little break...this is the closest Jack got to a nap that day.

It was fun to watch the kids with Nathan.  You can clearly see the advantages of a large family and how much the little ones benefit from the older siblings.  They were all so good at entertaining the baby.

Kate and her kids: Noah, Grace, Madison, and Nathan.

We also enjoyed just hanging out at Kate's house.  We played in the water table outside and the little pool.  Nathan is a little water baby.  He made me nervous because he had absolutely no fear of the water and was rolling all over the place.  Maybe I prefer my 'fraidy cate Jack

Kate and I had a great dinner out at the Melting Pot together.  I should have taken some pictures.  It was nice to have some time together to chat and enjoy each other's company.  Thanks to Mike for staying home with the kids.