summer (fun) - in - review (july)

the beginning of july brought about more camping for the d's. we spent 4th of july weekend camping with the brumbaugh's and enjoying a reading phillies game. not too many camping pictures, but a few cute shots from the game can be seen here.

also in july was anthony's first year of vacation bible school (not the same bible school my friend luci refers to here). he spent the week with betty nana and attended at her church, st. benedict's in mohnton. he had a great time and although he spent much of the program not singing the songs...he definitely enjoyed it as he sings them for us all the time. here is one video that actually shows him singing and dancing...

tony - bible school from Christy D'Angelo on Vimeo.

the middle of july allowed for a night out for john and i with corinne and dave (thanks to mimi and poppop for watching both boys). we headed to philly for a little sushi and drinks mass quantities of sushi and wine at raw and then headed to walnut street theatre to see mel brooks' producer's. it was a great night and i can't wait until our next show with them the end of this month! here are a few pictures of our night.

one of the best pictures of john and i in years!

dave & corinne

the last bit of sushi and edamame left on the table

all 4 of us...stuffed and feeling good...ready for the show!

the end of july brought my sister and my "girl's get-away" weekend. we loaded up the convertible (thanks mom & dad) and cruised our way to delaware for a long weekend in dewey/rehoboth! this trip was a first for my sister and i as the two of us never went away together just us...it was a lot of fun. no husband, and no kids allowed us a lot of sleeping in, followed by a ton of time on the beach. yummy late dinners and boardwalk fun too. it was great and something we may need to turn into an annual trip!! there weren't many picture taken, but here were just a few.

on the beach @ dewey

following a delish dinner at la la land

headed to rehoboth on the jolly trolley

it was a lot of fun and the weekend (albeit a long one) was too short! thanks for a fun time corinne! can't wait to do it again!

sunday june 21, 2009 - daddy's day

john enjoyed a great father's day. more like father's weekend. sleeping in (saturday and sunday). breakfast in bed and lots of snuggle time with tony d - we were all exhausted from the crazy-as-usual busy weekend! we headed to weaver's (amish store) in fivepointsville to purchase john's father's day present - new hiking/work boots...and some homemade mini-donuts...de.lic.ious. then later that night after giving the decision of where he wanted to eat his f-day dinner, we ended up at our usual, sebastiano's...as it's foolproof we'll love what we'll eat and you can't beat the service and personal attention either!!

john - you are an amazing father...more than i could have hoped you would be. thank you for working so hard to provide for us and take care of us like you do! we hate that you're so busy, but it makes the time we spend with you (like this past weekend) just that much more special!! tony and i love you very, very much!!

i hope all the daddy's...whether it was your first, or you 31st...had a happy father's day!

well, that's all the updating for today. we had very special plans with very special friends yesterday (monday) and that will require a very special post of it's own...but for now...i need to get to bed! nighty-night all!

friday june 12, 2009 - phillies fun

neither john's nor my company had an official picnic this year due to the ever present "state of the economy", however tamara volunteered and took over the daunting task of organizing a great evening, attended by several berks homes employees, at the reading phillies on the coors light party deck. the all-you-can-eat buffet was great as usual and everyone had a great time...

little kids (paige, tony & jacob)...

and big kids (steve, john, joe) alike.

i didn't take too many pictures as i got to the game late since it ended up being the same night as the rehearsal for the wedding i coordinated. i got there just in time to enjoy a beer, chat with some friends and see the a-m-a-z-i-n-g fireworks display the stadium does! tony had a great time (as he usually does anywhere he goes), but i know he enjoyed spending some daddy-and-t time! thanks to aunt sue for lending her helping hands as usual!

gordonville auction 2009

saturday morning the 3 of us and harry b. loaded into the truck, (followed by mikey lutz and cj in his van),bright and early to head to the new holland area of lancaster to attend the gordonville auction/mud sale. it's always fun to look at all the gorgeous antiques and crafts up for auction and check out the animals and buggies the amish come from all over to bid on. we got lucky and this year turned out to not be too muddy of a mud sale as in years past. once we arrived, we met up with our friends tamara and danny and their two daughters paige and lilly. all the kids (and adults alike) had a great time!!

we bundled the boys up nice and toasty and off we went with the wagon.

i love this shot of the amish buggy's lined up waiting to be auctioned off

this little boy in his traditional amish clothing was absolutely adorable

there was no way we could be in the new holland area without making a stop at weaver's amish store for some window shopping...and a ride on the "big truck" inside the front of the store. it's tony's favorite...and it was harry's first time on it...he's a fan now too!

my little cowboy!

here is an album of the rest of our weaver's pictures.

sharing the love

happy valentine's day...

"call me"

no lack of love from this guy...

showin' his love for mom!

tony picked spiderman valentine's to give to his friends at school...

we've been working on him writing his name...he signed all his own valentine's cards this year...no help from mom or dad!

tony helped me make heart-shaped rice krispie treats (on lollipop sticks) for his valentine's party

he helped me make a lot of them...

wishing you all a "love"ly valentine's day!!

sixburgh, pa!!

well, they did it! the pittsburgh steelers (and d'angelo family 2nd favorite nfl team -- you can't go to school in western pa without becoming a steelers fan) became the first nfl team in history...yes, history, to earn 6 superbowl champion titles when they defeated the arizona cardinals this past sunday in the superbowl!

we had the pleasure of joining our friend the kutzler's at their homestead for a black and gold (doreen is from pittsburgh) party to watch the steeler's bring home a victory!! it proved to be a great time just as we expected as we got to see some friends that we haven't visited with in waaaayyy too long!

the lovely hostess and i

wave that terrible towel...there was a lot of this going on here in robesonia...

...and in tampa (via the big screen of course)!

here is a little slideshow of the rest of the pictures and some video from the party! thanks dor & paul (and all our other friends that were there) for such a fun night...and i sure am glad johnny and i took off the next day!

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

lordy, lordy, johnny turned 40!

my wonderful husband turned the big 4-0 on 1.10! i (with them help of family and friends) was able to pull off a surprise party at our own home the friday night before.

it was a little tricky organizing food, drinks, decorations, etc. and cleaning and readying the house without bringing too much attention to it and making him suspicious. but i managed to do it (again with the help of friends and family), and when the knock came on the door and he answered it to find a stream of people carrying food, balloons and cards, instead of the domino's delivery, i couldn't help but catch this picture...

i think he was surprised! it was a very small gathering of family and just a few friends (i would have loved to have more...just no room), but it was a fun evening nonetheless.

here is a slideshow of his party. there are just a couple of pictures...i swore i took a lot more than i did, but i guess not.

happy 30th mike!

after elmo we joined our friend shannon and her family in celebrating her husband's 30th birthday at toscani restaurant. it was a surprise (at least up to the point where the hostess went to seat the 4 of them and said, "oh yeah, the big table with 20 people") and shannon pulled it off beautifully!

the dinner was excellent...the best i've had at toscani yet! it was a nice evening and i got to meet some of their friends i haven't met before which was nice too! there was a little boy just a little younger than anthony and they had a ball with each other and troy too!

dessert was served and singing ensued...many times...as shannon not only had dessert delivered to mike for his birthday, but then a few minutes later a second time for his friend bob who shares mike's birthday with him...and then a few minutes later yet a third time for john who's 40th was the following week.

enjoy the slide show of pictures from our evening!

happy birthday tony d!

tony d. was up bright and early to start his birthday! 6:45 a.m. and we felt him crawl in bed with us...he laid quietly for about another 1/2 hour before he finally lost his patience and wanted to open his present.

john and i (after much discussion) decided on a cabbage patch kid for anthony. he has become obsessed with "caring" for babies to the point where he'll carry around the strangest things (ie: napkins) saying they're his babies, "feeding" them, "changing" them, etc. john's only stipulation was that it was a boy baby. can i just tell you the premium i had to pay to obtain a boy cabbage patch doll? can you say about $40 more than the girls? ridiculous and the reason behind only 1 gift this year from mama and daddy (plus the party)...he didn't care.

let me introduce you to duncan bertram...

funny thing...when i ordered the cpk, i wasn't able to read the name of him online, so to my surprise (and excitement) when he arrived and i read his name, tony's baby's middle name(bertram) was the name of my first boy cpk when i was growing up. i was extremely excited about this and knew this was a sign that we had made a right choice in his present!

tony was really excited about his new "baby"!

after our present opening in bed this morning, we headed off for church. tony had a special "shout out in the bulletin" for his birthday and pastor amy even mentioned him and asked his "new age" during the children's circle this morning.

after church (and a quick nap for t), we headed off to his favorite restaurant, sebastiano's, where we met up with 30 of our friends and family to celebrate tony's big day.

after enjoying chicken parm w/angel hair pasta or baked ziti, salad bar and garlic bread, we all dug into the yummy cake! thanks nee nee!

tony had no complaints!

i'm pretty sure everyone had a good time. we couldn't have asked for tony to be in a better mood than he was. even with all the people and presents and sugar, he was on his best behavior!

after leaving the restaurant and heading home, the next two hours were filled with him playing with every single toy he received...i'm not kidding you...aside from trying on the clothes he received, he played. with. everything.

for a complete look at his day, click here for his birthday photo album!

ummm...

where did the past 2 years, 11 months, 4 weeks and 1 day go? it was the same time last year that i was doing this in preparation for tony's birthday party at the sitter's.

seeing as how this is his first party at his new "school", (and things seem to finally be going much better - 3 tear free days out of the last 4), i thought i should break out the "big guns" and create my favorite "take to school snack"...the cupcake in an ice cream cone snack, which really brought back memories of when i was little. isn't it crazy how the simplest thing can bring back a flood of the best memories?

i called nana to find out just how she used to make them for us (my mom didn't - still doesn't - bake, so nan used to make these for us). i think they turned out quite nicely...what do you think?

not sure how i would get them to the school, i opted to wrap them individually in little cellophane baggies and tie them up with some red curling ribbon...this way too, if they didn't get eaten during snack time, they were easier to take home!!

oh, and on a completely unrelated topic...can i just say that i don't understand how i can go to bed one night with a giant tree out front full of yellow leaves and wake up to find a front yard that looks like this...
when my neighbor's yards look like this...

it's just insane! the sad part is the tree is still full of leaves...someone really needs to get working on that "money growing on trees thing", cuz if this tree were a money tree and it was dropping $ bills like these leaves with a tree still full of them...we'd be in business baby!!

crab feast, maryland 2008

yesterday started off bright and early with uncle bryan and aunt missie picking us up to head to maryland for a family crab feast with john's aunt janet and uncle lary and the scollick side of the family. it was a fun ride down and back with them as we all road together in their mini-van for all of our full entertainment!

we enjoyed a yummy breakfast at cracker barrell (who doesn't love it there?) before continuing on our way to rockville, maryland for some fun.

we got to visit with family...some we haven't seen since christmas or earlier (and in the case of john's cousin janelle's little girl alexandria, never), and have fun cracking crabs (a first time for missie, tony and i).

tony got to spend some time with his cousins evelyn and heather and had fun playing with them. he's at a great age that he was able to go outside and down in the playroom with them without mommy and daddy having to be right there.

it allowed mommy and aunt missie some fun martini time (thanks to poppop gary)...

and even more martini time with aunt jomay as well...

the reason behind this big family gathering was to celebrate all the july and august birthday's in the family, culminating with alexandra's 1st!

we had a lot of fun and want to thank aunt janet and uncle lary for their hospitality and to them and betty nana and poppop gary for the yummy crabs! you can click here for more pictures from the day!