Beach Vacation

You'd be forgiven if you thought you were looking at the same post as last year - we took the exact same trip: staying on the beach in cousin Morgan's motor-home. Thanks again to Grandma & Aunty Milly who always arrange such a great beach time for us.

As mentioned last year, Bocalli's pizza is now Madonna family tradition

Morgan, Jayci and Abigail

It's only fair if you share your pizza with a squirrel

she seems to be eating corn in almost every photo this year

brushing the sand off our feet at the end of the day

sparklers for the girls

Just a Quick One

Question posed to Abby & Matteo one morning over breakfast: "And where do you guys think we get our eggs from?"

Abigail: "Target?!"

Ultrasound Pictures

Here she is! We were sent home with 108 pictures & a DVD movie of the whole thing which blows my mind! I know some people are creeped out by U/S pictures but, personally, I've been staring day-dreaming at them all day!

Mini-Madonna #2

And, more importantly: wonderfully perfectly healthy, measuring a week ahead of her due date :)

Pregnancy

Whether I feel fabulous & glowing or not, I want to be able to show my daughters how I looked while pregnant with them:

Thoughts About a Blog

So, I've been thinking about this Blog, and I wanted to quickly share my thoughts:

It is not lost on me that having a family Blog screams me, me, me! Look at my weekend, look at my house, look how funny I am, look at our friends, look at our trips, and, in my case, a lot of look at my daughter. Look look look at ME ME ME.

It is very self-indulgent (which is un-English). Yet also so public & can come across as bragging about life. I hate that part. Jake & I fight like every couple, I have days I'd like to walk away from my job and never go back, nights where I'm counting the minutes till I can put Abby to bed & wondering why on earth I'm adding another child to the mix, and bills that never seem to be paid. Things I screw up as often as things I do well. But you don't post about all that on a Blog, do you?! So, it's been torturing me that my Blog is so, unintentionally ... boastful, if that's the right word for it.

Which is why it's been nice to have been reminded of the other side of the coin. I've had three relatives email me to say how much they enjoy my Blog. That I'm one of the few people they know that actually keeps it up after starting it, and it's become part of their reading - how cool! That they love feeling close to my family because they are not close in geographical real life. I love that! It serves as not only my record, for myself, of all these memories & pictures but my family & friends around the world getting to see it all too. So it's worth the hours I put into it, even if it's a struggle to find them sometimes.

I have been reminded that this is my modern version of a photo album for my kids to look through, or a journal for my feelings, and now I don't feel as tortured about it's loud scream of ME ME ME.

Goodnight All,
Kelly
x

World Cup 2010

So, I spent the last few weeks following the World Cup. I would say that I had high hopes for England but I didn't, ha ha. That sounds mean-spirited but when it's been since 1966, well, one loses optimism, don't they? I am disappointed not only because football is the World's sport, and the English are so blindly dedicated & devoted to it, but also because I wanted to throw a party for the Final and serve these:

And then I was thinking that if push came to shove, and England were knocked out, but the U.S. played on, I could serve this:

Sadly, both were knocked out in the same weekend. The U.S. had a good run with some close calls and the English, well, they were WHALLOPED out by the Germans 4-1. See you in 2014!

Back to School Special

And if you were running the art dept at your company, wouldn't you use Abigail as your Back to School Specials model? :)

Fourth of July

We decided to try a local resort for Fourth of July weekend. We found this place: www.wigwamresort.com that had a full calendar of things to do for the weekend, including the all-important firework display. We had a fabulous time, we really liked this place and it felt like such an easy vacation because it was less than an hour away. Here are the pics!

Fourth of July Face-Painting

Walking to the Great American Picnic

What a great food shot!

Waiting for the Fireworks to start

getting bored waiting for the fireworks to start

yay - dark enough for this thing

brave enough to try the waterslide with dad

Top of the Waterslide

bottom of the waterslide

she loved it!

lunchtime sandwiches before a nap

night-time swimming

smores on the firepit

'fishing'