Diary of a Saturday

   
          View of autumn from our new deck.

          Duncan playing alone (which he does so well).  He actually made fake blood with those berries and
          came inside pretending to have cut himself.

          Off to my parents to watch the boys build a new fence for the orchard.

          My favorite brother.

          Seany hard at work.

          Break time.

           Us.

          Tia had a porcupine quill in her tongue that we tried repeatedly to remove.  Suffice to say, she was not
          crazy about our attempts.  In the end we all held her down and Natalie pulled out the quill.    

          Butchie digging the holes for the fence posts.

          Pears in the orchard.  Now safe from deer.

          My father lovingt his new fence.

   
          Duncan in motion.  Love this.

          Cooper and Duncan at my mom's kitchen counter.  It's blury. I don't mind.  This is a famous spot in
          my mother's kitchen.  I have sat there hundreds of times...nice to now see my children sit there.

     

          My mother's hands.  Strawberries and apples from the garden.

          After a long day, curled up in front of the bonfire.

          Light.

          Butchie and Mathew hosing down the fire.

Annual Trip

Every year we take a trip to Pittsburgh.  My father has family in Pittsburgh and went to Pitt Dental School. He also happens to be a  HUGE Pittsburgh sports fan.  And so it's no surprise that the boys and I have have become rather fond of the Three River teams as well.  First and foremost would undoubtedly be the Pirates. We have always loved the Pirates (even when they sucked), so the past two years have been rather exciting for us.  And as you can see, has made my dad pretty happy!

Mom and dad at the game.

 Love love love PNC Park.

This year we splurged and stayed right across the bridge (walking distance) from the game at The iconic Renaissance Hotel.  It was SO nice to leave the game and not have to fight traffic!

Die hard fans.

Every year we head down to the Strip District and hit Penzeys and stock up on our spices for the year.  This year we hit one of the Pittsburgh memorabilia shops so that Coop could get his Just Cutch It shirt and Mom got her Abso Buck'n Lutely shirt.  I'm really wishing I had got the Bucktober shirt... And it seems to have become a new tradition (2nd year) to stop and get Bloody Mary's for brunch!!   

Repeat

Yesterday was so much fun...he decided he wanted to do the exact same thing again today.  No arguments here :)  Love you Duncan ~ Mom

Special Day with Mom

Today was Cooper's first day at his new school and since Duncan doesn't start until next week, that meant special time for Dunc to hang with Mom.  He got to choose what he wanted to do (my only stipulation was that it had to be something outdoors since it was such a beautiful day).  He chose going downtown, stopping at my office, going to the bookstore and then the Brickyard for lunch...

We both love wandering around our local bookstore.  And I LOVE when I turn a corner and find this...

Duncan: book on Minecraft

Mom: Williams-Sonoma cookbook

    Wonderful afternoon.

   Next we learned what the line is like at pick up time.
   Make note: must arrive 15 minutes early.

Perfectly Lovely

My it's been awhile hasn't it?  I see the blog needs some work.  Things are a bit different here at blogger.com.  I've taken the weekend to reacquaint myself.  I need to fix the header, I need to fix spacing, I need to update the links and information on the side.  I'll get to all that.  Maybe.  But for now I need to say hello.  I'm still here - WE are still here.  Growing up, learning, experiencing, laughing, crying, playing and living.

So much going on, so much has happened and so much to come. Cooper starts 5th grade today. PUBLIC school for the first time.  25 kids in his class vs. in the entire school (slight exaggeration but not by much). Duncan starts 4th grade but not until after Labor Day.  We head to Pittsburgh this weekend for our annual trip and Pirates game.

My plan is to get to know my blog again.  If for no one else but my boys.  This was the place that I documented their lives.  Our lives.  I want them to know (through my words and my photographs) how we lived.  They will have their own memories, but I want them to also have mine.  I want them to know what we ate for dinner, what we talked about, what we struggled with and what made us laugh so hard we fell off our chairs.

So that is my goal.  My goal for tomorrow and next week.  Maybe even my goal for later today.

My goal right this very second is to go snuggle Duncan (who just got dropped off) and kiss him way too many times.  That, I believe is a perfectly lovely way to start a day...