Finally....

Ta Da.... Here is the Princess. Well at least that's what we told her . That she was going to be the mini princess walking down the aisle before Aunt Erika did. She bought it hook line and sinker and loved to do her performance. She was a great flower girl and now she has practice for next years wedding of Aunt Rita to Uncle Eric. Ya I know Aunt Erika and Uncle Eric. It's no wonder the kid gets confused sometimes. I put her hair up and by the end of the night it was a crazy disaster but here in the picture below at Grandma's(who made the dress) before the event it was great!

Here she is at the church with Uncle Roger right before their big performances.

Then it was on to the after party and let me tell you she had a ball dancing with anyone she could get on the dance floor. Then as she did the night prior(rehearsal dinner) she promptly fell asleep before dinner was served. Oh well at least she got her dance on huh!

Then after spending Sat with the family Mr. & I heading to the bright lights and big city of New York. We hit the early train and were in the city by 9:30 am . Then we headed straight to the hotel ,checked in ,dropped our bags and walked over to pick up our rental car. Yes I am out of my mind and wanted to rent a car while in the city so that we could make the most of our trip. I mean how many people could their possibly be on the streets on a Sunday right? We went on a tour of the areas around Central Park (Checking out the route for our 2010 visit to the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade ) Much to Adam's Geo caching dismay we were unable to drive through out the park on Sunday the street was blocked off. So after that we made a mad dash to Chinatown to do a little bargain hunting. I scored a Coach knock off for $35 and a Pashmina Scarf ($5) then a knock off pair of D&G sunglasses ($4) That was fun!. Then we were off to Brooklyn across the bridge to eat lunch and do a little caching in a local park there. Then we decided to cache more in the city and headed to Battery Park (for those who don't know that's where you catch the ferries to Statue of Liberty) Then we found one cache at the seaport. So around 8 pm we called it a night and parked the car,changed into dress clothes and headed to A.J. Maxwells for Dinner. WOW I went there in May of this year too with my Mom and my cousin and it was a fluke that we found a Coke Points gift certificate for the place . It was a great night!. Then we caught a cab back to our hotel. It was really nice big and Roomy (at least by New York standards)Not to mention it had an awesome view of Times Square too.
Here's me in the park in Brooklyn. I was smiling outside but inside I was whining cause man it was COLD in that park. Most of the caches were right on the water and I was not liking it one bit.

This is a brownstone. If I ever get incredibly wealthy and buy a place in the city it will look like this and it WILL have an elevator too!

Oh I would be remiss if I neglected to tell you that we got up Monday morning and had a wonderful breakfast and took our car back then we headed to Times square to shop for Bella's gift before we headed out to enjoy our last day in the city (our plan was to catch the 6:45 train back to reality) We walked right into the M & M World store and lo & behold they were having a little free ticket lottery for 2 free tickets for that nights performance of Shrek the Musical

We had to hang a round from 9 am when the entry was till the 10 am drawing. In the mean time we went across the street and checked out this place.
Trust me when I tell you it was a whole bunch fancier on the outside than it was on the inside. The ole M&M store was 3 story's of chocolate bliss compared to this Hershey's store I'll tell ya.Must be because Hershey has their own theme park or something?

Then it HAPPENED....... I WON me little ole me . 2 free tickets to the show . It started at 8 that night Whoo hoo but then we found out it wasn't over till 10:30 the exact same time of the very last train back to Connecticut. So long story short our free tix cost us $170 for a room but the tix alone would of been $235 if we bought them. It was a wonderful show and we both had such an awesome time. That meant I had a chance to take a nap before the show and Mr had a chance to hit Central Park on foot gobbling up caches like Pac Man. I did hit quite a few with him though and below are some of our shots of caching. That last one???? A huge piece of the Berlin Wall (largest piece outside of Germany mind you) right in the middle of midtown Manhattan . It was once again a place or thing we would have never got the chance to know or see if not for Geo Caching.

So what...

Ya I know your waiting with baited breath for a post that has to do with my recent trip but instead I decided with so little time I should decorate for Christmas. Hang around I'll be doing another post soon with all new pic's and updates about our trip.

Busy Busy Busy

This is what I've been up to in case you were wondering. Not to mention a few HUNDRED cupcakes (you know who you are!)

A Haunting...

is taking place at the our house. Look only if you dare! We started off with carving some crazy pumpkins. Bella had already made a really cute mini one at Kid's Kingdom.

Bella loved cleaning the seeds from the pumpkins.NOT! she was so funny said said "I'm not sticking my hand in there! "but she warmed up to it.

Then Dad cut out the faces. They made crazy crafts too!

We went to Bella's room and hung up a strand of cool orange lights.

Then hung up the signs & inside decorations

Then out to the front porch to decorate .

BOOOOOOOOO!!!

Let's Face it....

I'm not going to win any blogging contests any time soon. However I have gotten off my duff or should I say decided to sit on my duff long enough to inform you of our goings on.

Last weekend Mr. Papi took Bugga to Connor Prairie for all that is pumpkins festival. They made a pumpkin hat ,roasted pumpkin seeds, learned about and got to pick Pumpkins. Overall he reported it was a success and Bug didn't argue so there you have it.He also took a few pictures which makes it pretty successful in Mom's eyes too.Here is his work.

Then after a short nap we headed downtown to meet up with my family for our yearly excursion to the Leukemia & Lymphoma "Light the Night Walk".A fundraiser that honors people with these diseases and there fight against it. It was a wonder full night to walk. Not to cold and a nice walk route along the canal. As always it's very heart wrenching to hear about the battles these folks go through daily. I have lost 2 people very dear to me from this terrible disease and desperately hope & pray that one day there will be a cure.

I had to work 3 days last week including Monday which is hard as that is my normal day to play catch up from the weekend. This week I really truly needed to catch up as we weren't home much at all. I went to early services on Sunday as Adam and Bella were both feeling under the weather. Then I headed to Rockville to the "Covered Bridge Festival" It was fun and hot. This year it was way more hot that in years past so we didn't stay long . Not to mention it was Sunday and we NEVER come on Sunday and totally spaced that the Amish booth would not be open so we didn't get any wonderful candy or fresh butter for our Thanksgiving feast like we had in years past. Oh well! I guess I'll just have to drag out the churn . ( Ya right I wanted to make sure you were still with me)

This past Friday I worked at home making a bunch of cakes for the Women's Guild bake sale. It was fun and Bella got to watch and ask way to many questions. Then we took her to church for our annual Kid's Kingdom Karnival. She had a blast (Thanks Ms.Mynde) and didn't want to leave.Adam and I were able to price some stuff for the church's booth at the yard sale and go out to dinner at O'Charleys (Thanks Ms. Mynde).Then on Sat we went to support the church and buy baked goods (wink) and shop the sale. Then we headed home to clear out the barn and garage and made a trip to Goodwill to drop off stuff we deemed not yard saleable, we also sprayed the house with bug killer to keep the spiders that come in every winter out.We had planned to go over to a friends house for awhile but I didn't call them early enough so instead we went to the movies. We saw a sophomoric high school movie but it was funny and that's what we needed after prepping our house for winter all day.I'll close this post with a few shots of Bug playing in the yard as we cleaned out the garage. Her Dad taught her how to throw leaves....Let's hope he can teach her how to rake them!

Splish Splash....

Bugga's taking a bath. Last night Bug and I spent some quality time ( an hour) taking a bath in Mom's big tub. Complete with Bubble Bath ,Toys and bath tub crayons. So I just HAD to drag out the camera and take a few shots. Let me tell you it was very hard ,as she was not happy with splash time being interrupted so as not to flood Mom's camera. I told her it was for Grandma and Granny and got a smile or two out of her..... so her she is in all her glory.Needless to say she was a bit pruney afterwards. Dad normally gives her a bath so when Mom does it she gets the full meal deal. Lotion,Smell goods,Ears cleaned ,nails painted if their is time. Last night we just took the old polish off because she wanted to watch "Dora saves the snow princess" for the 15,000th time(it came out last Tuesday). Then off to bed.
Adam and I went to Redbox last night and got this movie. It was quite funny and good. Adam wanted to see it when it was out but I had never even seen a preview at that point so we never winded up seeing it.
Today I am going to Greenwood to pick up my cousin's daughter after school . I have to pick her up on Tuesday an Wed as well. Hopefully I can take full advantage of her babysitting services and get my closets and Garage cleaned out over the next 3 days.

Worth a 1000 words....

I decided to I'd fill you in on my day yesterday (and various ramblings)in photos.

Some of you may or may not know I just started to like coffee within the last 2 years and I'll tell you now I just HAVE to have it. One things is for sure I am not a coffee snob. Oh I guess I've tried to be on occasion going here

more than a few times for a $5 cup of swill(in my humble opinion). Not that don't make some awesome $5 drinks like this one

I just think it fall's in the dessert catagory not a drink. What does this have to do with anything... I'm getting there. I prefer to go here anyday of the week

Not just because I used to work at their corporate offices as a buyer's assitant but because it's so much better to me. Really not just any GasAmerica will do either. There are a few very close to me but one is near and dear to my heart. It's just something about the way their machine makes the hot chocolate that I love. Now you wondering what the heck??? I drink 3/4 of a cup of black coffee with 1/4 cup of Hot Chocolate topped with a dose of half and half for good measure.I know, see what I mean NO COFFEE SNOBS here folks.On with the story... Like most mornings I started off with a stop here to get my fix and then I was off to

I may not give my kid candy but let me tell you I have made her a crack addict like me. She is addicted to the "Cinnamon Crack Bagels " way worse than me.Apparently it's sweeping the nation . All these little kids are getting addicted EARLY.

I tried to save us money (since she wants a bagel EVERY day) buy buying some at the store . Let me tell you she was NOT fooled. She was like"what is THIS" I did what every good mother does I lied and told her these were the new bagels and like it or lump it. So reluctantly she ate it. So I bought more grocery store bagels this week too. Trust me when I say it saves me a pretty penny. They know you get addicted that's why you'll pay $5 for 2 bagels with cream cheese.

SO anyway that was the start of a very busy day. I did my laundry,banking and various other chores and then we were off to

for a busy 2 hr shopping trip. Why 2 HOURS you ask. Well Miss Bugga has learned a thing or 2 from her Dad too.

FREE SAMPLES. OMG she was eating everything that was not nailed down. Chic breast,coffee cake,blueberries,Thai pad shrimp,fruit rollups, chic nuggets. It was a nightmare. Every corner we turned she was like "What do they have Mom"? That is 100% her Dad. He does it everytime we go there. Then I was off to

For Carrots,Peas ,Softner Salt and a 2G smart card. Which they had in the ad for $6.99 cheap huh? Well of course they didn't have any . Then I called Mom and she went to 2 stores and they didn't have any either. HUH? It was in the AD folks!!!! So much for that .Then it was nap time and we went home for Bella to crash and I had a chance to re-pack all of the meat I got at Costco. I usually buy all of our meat there . It's good and I am telling myself it's cheaper too.Then Adam got home and I ran off to

Yes I am mentally defecient going to Wal-Mart on a Sat afternoon. Yes people were in there running amuck. So and hour later I was exiting and ran into my dear friend and chatted her up whilst we waited in LONG,LONG,LONG lines.

That made my dear husband late to his "camp out" with the other Dad's from church. They all took all their kids and camped in the gym building at church last night.

Me being no dummy, I sent out a call for a girls night and my friend Mynde took me up on it. Our friend Shelley was able to make it over for a while too.So went went to dinner here

I talked my friend Mynde into getting one of these

COTTON CANDY MARTINI'S

as I wanted to live vicariously through her. I seriously wanted to try one before but never had the guts to order it and she did to make me happy! It was GOOD trust me. Then while searching for a photo I ran across this video of how it's made .Kinda loud and grainy video but you'll get the point.

So after dinner and drinks we had our friend Shelley drive us across the street to

I love this place and this program they have

Trust me when I say I'd rather see a $5 movie than buy a cup of coffee for that price. Any who we went to see this flick

I loved it and I knew I would but so did Mom and Mynde. It was a Tyler Perry (<--read this link)movie. My dear friend Mynde who is zipped up in Ziplocks (wink,private joke) had never ever never heard of him. I told her she must get out more and I do think that NOW she will. As a matter of fact I am quite sure of it . Even if I have to take her a gun point
HELLLUR!!!!!