Planting Flowers

The fruit and vegetable garden that Abby and I planted soon after we bought the house hasn't grown anything, so we thought we would try our luck again but this time with flowers. Thankfully those have already started sprouting and we can't wait to see how pretty they become.

4th of July

We had a great 4th. We grilled, played outside, and had ice cream for dessert. Quintin was sad his wasn't the slow-melt kind like the girls' popsicles.



We could even see the fireworks from our house. Adrianna loves her big sister, but isn't always in the mood for hugs and kisses!

Finally home!!

I finally finished Department Head school on July 1st and headed home. We had planned for Q and the girls to fly to Philadelphia and I was going to drive down and pick them up so we could go to Sesame Place and then we could all make the rest i=of the trip home, but that didn't work out. When Quintin got to the airport they told him his flight had been cancelled and the earliest they could get to Philly would be 10:30 that night- which was too late because by that time I could have driven all the way to Virginia. So- that is what I did and I made it home just before 10 p.m. Here are some pictures from the "graduation" we had.

Virginia Zoo

The zoo here in the Hampton Roads area isn't bad. We were glad it wasn't too big because it was a pretty hot day. They had a lot of animals and the prairie dogs were so funny- they kept fighting over who was going to get to sit on the top of the bubbles- you can see the chubby one that looks like it is sitting on top of Quintin's head.

Father's Day in Newport

Quintin and the girls came up for their last trip to Newport for a while. I finish class next Wednesday and will finally be home with them in Virginia!! We had a pretty fun weekend, although the weather wasn't the greatest up here. Saturday we drove up to Boston to go to the children's museum and the girls had a lot of fun. Adrianna was able to do more now that she is older and they had some new exhibits that we hadn't seen before.



One of Abby's favorites was a new section they had about children with disabilities, and they had a kid-sized wheelchair that the she could try to maneuver around in as well as a section with eye masks and walking sticks so you could see what is is like to be blind and try to get around. While we were in Boston we drove through Harvard Square and saw tons of kids waiting in lines for summer school admissions. It really is a beautiful campus there in the heart of Boston. I think it would be nice if the girls wanted to go to Harvard- hopefully on some sort of scholarship though because their tuition is outrageous!!
For Father's Day we took Quintin to a fabulous barbeque lunch at the Officer's Club. The food was great and the deserts were even better! We then were able to get into a sneak peek of Ice Age 3 in 3D! The movie was pretty cute. Adrianna slept through almost the whole thing, which was good I guess because she didn't want to leave her 3D glasses on and it might have hurt her eyes to try to watch the whole movie without them on.

This morning they were off to Virginia and made it home by lunch time. Abby also starts soccer tonight and is really excited so I will be posting some more about that soon. Quintin said the weather is really nice, so that should be great for her. This weekend we got all of her gear- some cute shorts, cleats and soccer socks. We had already gotten her some pink shin guards a few weeks ago, so now she is all set.

Here is a picture of the girls playing in the back when they got home. We are happy that our grass is starting to look pretty green. Guess all of that fertilizer does work after all!

Oh, sorry about the grainy photos, we didn't have our nice camera with us this trip and used our iPhones.

Mourning the loss of a friend

We are so sad- our little turtle friend must have been hit by a car while trying to cross the street!! We think it had to have happened at night and they didn't see him. We told Abby he is in turtle heaven and she said she thinks he must be happy now with all of his other turtle friends! We'll miss him.



Quintin stopped and took this picture because I didn't believe that a turtle would have been so flat...

What a great gift

For our anniversary Quintin made me the most precious gift!! He made some scrapbook pages of us. He borrowed some "tools" from his sister, and he and the girls picked out all of the decorations and pages and stuff. He did such a great job. I have wanted to scrapbook, but haven't had that much time and he said he wanted to do something special for me and also help get me started!! Here are a couple of the pages he made- these are of our graduations.

Twelve fabulous years!!

Quintin and I have been married for 12 years!! Isn't that wonderful? We almost can't believe it ourselves because the time has gone by so quickly. Most people are surprised because we are only 30, and we don't have a 12-year old kid, so it wasn't like it was a "shot-gun" wedding! :) He is the most caring, loving, patient, funny, smart, honest person that I have ever met and I am so glad that he is mine! Not only is he a great husband and my best friend, but he is also the most dedicated father. One day we would like to take a "beachy" vacation and renew our vows- just us and the girls. Maybe for our 15th- we'll see. Regardless, we are looking forward to many, many more years to come!

Tae Kwon Do

Abby had to shift over from karate to tae kwon do since we moved to Virginia. She really likes it though. In this class they get to spar on Thursdays. Abby is pretty tall for her age, so she usually gets paired up with kids that are older. She often spars with the little girl in the pink helmet (Quintin told me she is ten years old!!) in the video - Abby is in the red helmet.

When she first started Abby was getting pushed around a lot. The other little girl has quite a weight advantage over Abby, and she was using that to help her. Abby has been practicing and can hold her own now!! They tend to do a lot of pushing, almost like sumo wrestlers, but she does get in a couple of kicks, punches, and some pretty good blocks.

The other night Quintin said they ran some drills where they started sitting down with their backs touching. Then they had to jump up and push the other one down. Abby beat her 3 out of the 5 times and was so proud of herself!!

Riding around

The girls like to go cruising the culdesac! Abby seems to like to make left turns a lot, but Adrianna doesn't mind. She is just happy to ride around with her big sister!!

Baby frogs

This weekend we went for a walk and found a bunch of baby frogs! We saw at least five or six of them and Quintin was able to grab one so we could get a picture. Abby didn't want to touch it, but when she hopped back on her bike and rode down the sidewalk a little bit she passed another one and said, "Oh, there's another one! I didn't run over it, did I?" She hadn't of course, but I thought that even if she did I don't think I could have told her.

Projects around the house

The house is really coming together. We have been doing a lot of little projects here and there, and this last weekend we were really productive- I think because of the extra day I was able to spend at home. Quintin also gets a lot done when I am gone during the week, but it always helps to have an extra set of hands around.

I have the bravest husband!! A few weekends ago we painted the foyer, which doesn't sound like much, but it is two stories high. Q bought a 22-foot extension ladder and climbed all the way up to paint it for me. We really didn't like the light/chandelier that was there when we got the house. It was one of those outdated "contractor specials." We found a beautiful light, but just didn't know how we were going to install it because the light is in the center of the foyer and that would be a stretch because the ladder has to be propped against the wall. We couldn't rent a step ladder tall enough, and it was looking like we were going to need scaffolding!

Monday Q decided to pull out his 22 foot ladder and see if he could do it. He could reach, but pretty much only with one hand. We had to be a little creative, but after risking his life, here's the light!!











We also finished painting in the breakfast nook/eat in kitchen area and also painted Abigail's room. She chose a really pretty shade of green and had fun helping. Don't mind my crazy hair and glasses- we got started early Monday morning before I even put my contacts in!

Movie Night

This weekend we were at Sam's club and saw the coolest thing- an inflatable movie screen!! Of course we had to get it and we tried it out that night. It was so much fun! We watched Hotel for Dogs, which was a pretty cute movie- Adrianna even stayed up for all but the last 20 minutes or so. We also have a big screened in tent that we can put up so that way the bugs stay away, but we will save that for later when we have a get together at the house- it is just too much to put up that thing for one evening. We can't wait to have a BBQ once I am finally home for good (and not just on the weekends) July 1st!

The Turtle

We have seen this little turtle all over the neighborhood. Most of the time he is trying to cross the street and get onto the golf course. Quintin and the girls have stopped and picked him up from the street and put him back in the grass at least 5 times and we have seen others stopping their car to do the same. He is pretty feisty because he sees you coming to get him and he starts trying to "run" and then puts up a fight the whole time you are holding him. That must be part of his routine if he is so comfortable around people and not hiding in his shell. Silly turtle- we are just trying to keep him safe.

Just like big sister

Abby loves riding her scooter around the culdesac. Adrianna thought that Abby's old scooter was a perfect fit and wanted to ride too! She held on tight while Daddy pushed her around. The helmet is a little big, so we'll have to get her one that is her size.

Fun outside

The girls had fun drawing pictures on the sidewalk yesterday. Abby drew a picture of Quintin and I. It was so cute because she told me it was of us on our wedding day and I was wearing a white dress and her Daddy was in a gray suit. She wanted it to be black, but she said she didn't have that color, so gray was the closest!

Adrianna being silly

Adrianna has started to tell us, "No, no, no" by waving her little finger around. Sorry about the loud music- we were at Planet Hollywood at Disney for that part of the video.

Abby dances with HSM 3 Cast

Here is the video Quintin was able to catch of Abby being called up to dance at the HSM 3 show!! She had such a great time. She said that maybe they saw that she was wearing her High School Musical sunglasses and that was probably why they picked her!!

Disney Trip '09

This past week/weekend we went to Disney World to celebrate Abby's 5th birthday. We moved our trip up from July because I had some time off from school and we knew it would be cooler and not nearly as crowded. We had so much fun!! Even though we didn't stay as long as we were planning to this summer, it was well worth it because we were able to do everything we wanted because the lines were short and the weather
was great- sunny and warm every day!!

Abby had a very "big girl" vacation:
-Rode Splash Mountain with both hands up
-She was called up to dance with the High School Musical 3 show! (She was so excited about that!!)
-Rode the Tower of Terror and loved the drops!
-Helped Kim Possible save the world in a new adventure game they have at Epcot. That is what she is doing in the picture with the little cell phone. She had to run around and find clues after she got her "mission briefings."

Abby also found a new "favorite ride" to add to the list- Mission to Mars at Epcot. I was a little nervous about choosing the more intense version of the ride, but we were glad that we did because it was a lot of fun. I guess they also have one where you don't feel the G-forces, but we were feeling brave. After all, she did ride the Tower of Terror! It was a lot of fun. They assign each person a role as a team member and Abby was the Pilot and I was the Navigator. She was giving us pep talks and everything!

The Toy Story section was open this time and it was pretty cool. The 3-D ride was fun, and probably the longest we had to wait for a ride the whole trip. Adrianna rode too and was trying to "shoot" all the characters.
Of course, her favorite show was the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Live! Her face was priceless when she saw Mickey come out on stage- she loves him! She also likes to take off her shoes now, just because she can. We lost one for a while, but someone was nice enough to turn it in to lost and found, so we were thankful. The next day we thought the same thing happened while we were waiting for the Buzz ride (you can see her in the picture with one shoe) but we found it waiting for us in the stroller!!

We visited Downtown Disney this time and had dinner at Planet Hollywood. Q and I wore "bride and groom" mouse ears which were really cute! Some people would congratulate us when they saw us, but we had to tell them we have been married almost 12 years, but do feel like we were just married!!


The girls are ready to go!! Q got them dressed in their outfits for the plane ride to Florida. I flew from Rhode Island and we met at the airport- thankfully neither of us were delayed.



Cinderella's castle is always so beautiful


Waiting for the monorail


Abby loves riding these teacups and Adrianna enjoyed her first ride in them! Thank goodness they only wanted to ride once.


Cutie in her Minnie sunglasses!




Abby loves the Buzz Lightyear ride, and this time we rode it many, many times. The last time we got on, the ride stopped for a few minutes while we were on it!! We weren't too worried because our lasers still worked, so we racked up high scores! Quintin struck a silly pose for the camera.






Meeting Belle



We love Splash Mountain!! Abby even put both hands up this time- such a big girl!!















































The last evening we spent by the pool and relaxed. The girls loved the water and Adrianna liked splashing everyone, as you can see. We are glad we were able to go back this year and look forward to our next trip!! We think we may take a break from Disney World for a couple of years, at least until Adrianna is tall enough to ride more rides with her sister- we'll see.