It's the most hectic time of the year...

The start of the school year is crazy. I can only imagine how much more crazy it will be next year when R starts kindergarten. Thankfully, we have two families to help get everyone where they need to go, and C and my parents are close by. We are very blessed in that regard. It also helps that A now has her driver's license, so she can drive herself to some activities. Let's see, there's: school choir and bands, after-school pep band and glee club, evening church choir and youth group activities for the girls, not to mention babysitting jobs and the fact that C, A and I are all teaching Sunday school this year. That's just the girls....

R started his own activity roster this year as well. He has soccer 2 days a week, and swimming lessons. It's been a frantic start to things, but as we settle into the routine it will run smoother, I know.

As for me, I have choir once a week, and while it doesn't seem like an "activity", I really want to keep this blog going. I am trying to commit to it more seriously because I believe it is good for me to have an outlet.

C actually has the busiest schedule of all of us, he sees homecare patients after work 3 days a week, picks the kids up from everything, drives H to school in the mornings because she doesn't like the bus from our house (don't get me started on that one...), helps run the youth group at church, makes dinners,  rides his bike on the weekends, helps with homework... OK, now I feel like a totally lazy, helpless mom/wife. I am married to Superman.

And I know I am lucky.

I love this time of year, even if it feels overloaded at times. There still always seems to be time at the end of the day after the kids are in bed (or at least in their rooms) for the hubby and I to have a glass of wine and catch up on the day. And maybe even split a candy bar from our secret stash we have hidden in the kitchen... We have to get our energy from somewhere!



-the good stepwitch

It's Mushroom Fest Time!

I have blogged about the Annual Kennett Square Mushroom Fest in the past, so you know the deal. We are the mushroom capital of the world and we celebrate it big time every September. This year is the 28th annual festival! There are rides, vendors, music, contests, tastings and most importantly, good food!

Friday night we kicked off the weekend with a visit to the little carnival the town sets up literally a block away from our house. As I am writing this, I can hear the screams of kids on the rides tonight. It has been PERFECT weather this year for the festival, which is a nice change from the past few years.

Both A & H were excited to meet up with friends at the carnival, and R is always excited to see his sisters' friends. He is one big flirt. Thankfully, his sisters' friends think R is cute, and don't mind him hanging all over them and dragging them everywhere. So a good time was had by all at the carnival!

R and his friends...

His favorite ride was the spinning monkey! 

He looks happy a bike...as long as he doesn't have to pedal...

The girls were so sweet, they even went on rides with him.

Up, up and away!

Today was all about finding a good lunch. We headed up to the festival around noon. We walked through the antique car festival and up to the street fair. It was jammed packed with people, food tents, craft tents, so fun! After looking at what there was to eat, I decided on a portabella cheesesteak with a side of breaded buttons, which were heavenly, and pumpkin-mushroom ice cream for dessert. That's how you DO Mushroom Fest!!! (and yes, the ice cream has mushroom slices in it)

C decided on a burrito. A had a Cheeseburger. R had a hot dog. My family has never grasped the MUSHROOM aspect of the festival. When P was in high school and would go to the festival with us, he was my mushroom buddy, but now I have be the responsible one and enjoy mushrooms during the fest.

The girls stayed at the festival almost all day, hanging out with friends. It was really nice and I think everyone had a great day. 

R got to crank the alarm on an antique fire engine.

Enjoying lunch, sans mushrooms.

Ice cream while watching a really bad magic show, but R enjoyed it...

-the good stepwitch

The start of soccer season!

R started his first team sport tonight! He's in an under-5 soccer league and had his first team practice tonight! C and I were a little nervous about how it would go, practice is 6:15 - 7:00, but it went very well. He was excited and listened to his coach well. He's not the oldest or youngest on the team, and not the fastest or slowest, it seems like a nice mix of kids - 4 boys and 4 girls. And thankfully the coach seems really nice and was good with kids and is trying to make it FUN! That's what I found myself wishing for the whole day: just let the coach be nice and good with kids and kind....

Here are some pictures. First game is Sunday!!

Ready for practice to start!

Going for the goal!

He likes his green shirt. And apparently hands in the air is how you pose for soccer pictures...

-the good stepwitch

Front Porch Finished - almost!

We own a 100-year-old 3 story twin. When we bought the house almost 8 years ago. It had been completely redone and flipped by a builder. Everything in it was new, solid countertops, tile floors in the bathrooms, new windows and new carpet. It was move in ready, which we wanted, and it had 4 bedrooms which we needed with HAP. A lot of headaches also came a long the house, associated with things we could not see... The house has basically no insulation, a basement that floods (until recently!!!! - Thank you dad!!!!) and a number of other things that come with owning a old house. We have tried to make improvements each year to the house, since we realized we were not going to be leaving this house anytime soon thanks to the timing of the housing crash. Our latest project has been the front porch.

When we moved in, porch had a unpainted, hack-job railing that the builder installed last minute to make the porch up to code. It was ugly, but it was temporary, I told myself. We painted it, put some flowers on the porch and said "We will fix that soon".

Almost 8 years later and "soon" has arrived!!! I couldn't be happier!

Here is the old porch:

This is after we painted. I do love the old architectural arches at the posts. They were original to the house and I really wanted to keep them. And I love having a white porch to fly our flag on. Just looking at this picture I am struck by how much has changed since it was taken in 2008. We have had the house re-sided, a more buttery yellow, we got a full view storm door and painted the front door red. Our plants are much nicer in the front now too.

So here are some new porch pictures!

I seriously love it. I love the new solid posts, I love how we now have a flat, level rail to put drinks, I love our new house numbers that match our nickel door fixtures. And I love love love that we painted the ceiling light blue. And the contractor who did the work found a way to alter our arch detail pieces slightly and re-attach them to the the new posts. Love him!!!

But most of all, I love my hubby. who did the majority of the painting this labor day weekend. LOVE LOVE LOVE him big time.

So the porch is finished, almost. We have do have to re-roll the floor unfortunately, because we dripped some blue paint on one uncovered area. But that's fine and will go fast.

One more improvement checked off the list! Happy labor day!


-the good stepwitch

Pintrest and party days

I was at a 4-year old's birthday party today at our community pool. R was so excited to be at one of his favorite places (the pool) with one of his favorite things (cake). There is not usually cake at the pool, so could it get any better?

It was a really nice, low-key party. The cake was a Despicable Me cake, the decorations were one bunch of 8 multi-colored balloons, the goodie bags were Angry Birds bags stuffed with sports trinkets and a little candy. The invite had come via text message two weeks before. All this from a mother who I have always thought of as very high-strung, everything-must-be-perfect kind of mom.

The kids had a great time in the pool and running around the playground there. Some of the moms (including the birthday boy's mom) were talking around the party table sipping bottles of water, and people started taking about Pintrest.

"Great time-suck"

"Ugh...people just post picture after picture of stuff they like but will never make, places they want to visit but will never go, and food they want to eat but will never cook."

"I hate Pintrest - it makes me feel like a bad mom" one woman said with a laugh. "My kids will never have parties like on Pintrest."

Everyone agreed on this last point. I mean really, if you look at the kids section on Pintrest, you would think everyone's 1st birthday party must have a designer theme with a 5-tier "Cake Boss" fondant creation, complete with Martha Stewart designed place settings, banners and garlands. And of course the birthday child in a designer outfit posed in front a backdrop of dozens of white balloons and mason jars with candles in them. At dusk. With fireflies.

The birthday boy's mom spoke up at this point. "You know, it just wasn't going to happen this year. I had plans to do a themed party, but there was just too much going on, and I realized, he's four. He wants pizza, he doesn't really like cake, he just wants to run around with some friends. So that what he got."

And I thought back to R's fourth birthday party, which I had done plenty of Pintrest research for, looking for the perfect superhero-themed games and decorations and goodies. Now, I am a graphic designer, so part of me is programmed to think about how to do things creatively and make things I am proud of. And R's party was awesome - I wouldn't go back and change anything about the day. He had the BEST time, but it wasn't because I made special cake toppers, graphic BOOM! WHAM! decorations, and personalized every kid's goodie bag with superhero names for them. It was because he got to eat unlimited Cheese Curls (something I hardly ever let him have) run around with his friends, see all of his family members dressed up as superheroes, and eat cake. I could have eliminated a lot of stress on my part in the weeks prior to the party.

So I thoroughly enjoyed today's party, probably as much as R did. And I really respect moms who get that when it comes to kids, it's not the details - it's the big picture that counts for birthdays. Details are for graduations and weddings. I will try and remember that for R's 5th birthday.


-the good stepwitch

So What's New?

Really, I know, I know.

This is the saddest blog ever.

Thank goodness no one really reads it, though it might be neat to see how quickly our life progresses when I only post about once every 8 months or so! Except that the info I updated on my last post and nice family picture I uploaded are already sadly outdated. Bummer. I think I just have to accept that this is way I blog now. There is no schedule, there is no theme. It is a random few minutes to jot down some some thoughts, share something funny, brag about something our kids did. It's not something I should feel pressured by. It's a 10-minute brain break. I only hope I get to have 10-minute brain breaks a little more often...

It's the start of another school year, so what better time to start a new blog post. P headed back to Penn State for his sophomore year. Such a difference from last year! He was excited to see his friends, there was no great "setting up of the dorm room". It was a "throw everything on the bed and let's go get lunch" sort of move in day. He has a new roommate, someone he knows and likes (thank you God!), no 8:00 classes, and we haven't heard anything from him, which means he is content and that is good.

H and A started classes this past Monday as well. A is a junior this year and H is 8th grade. The girls are becoming so beautiful I can hardly stand it. I can't believe A will start looking at colleges this year.

My little guy is 4 now. He likes to remind us of that fact. He just got his first bike and that has been more stressful than I could have imagined. R has a love/hate relationship with his bike. He loves that he has a bike, he hates to ride it. He has had some good rides (rides usually consist of going around the school parking lot across the street one time) but he has also had plenty of tearful rides where I feel like we are torturing him by forcing him to ride his little green two-wheeler with training wheels. The drama! Coming in from a particularly bad ride the other day, he announced (for the whole neighborhood to hear) he was NEVER GOING TO RIDE THAT BIKE AGAIN!!!!!! sigh. It can only get better!

This was a good bike day!

Oh, and in other news, C and I are going to be celebrating our 7th anniversary in September. According to the Traditional anniversary gift list, this year is the "Wool" anniversary. I thought that was pretty lame, so I checked what the Modern anniversary gift is for the 7th anniversary. I would never guessed it. It is the "Desk Set" anniversary. DESK SETS???? Nothing says bring on another 7 years like a good desk set... I loved you last year C, but this year I "Desk Set" love you! 

So that is my 8 month update. When will the next entry in my blog be posted? Your guess is as good as mine. Hopefully before our 8th anniversary, or should I say our "Linens/Lace" anniversary. (that's way better than desk sets...)

- the good stepwitch

All the ducks in a row

There have been some changes in our family since my posts from last year. The largest change is that P is a college freshman at Penn State. This has made my hubby, P's mom and his Uncle A all very happy and proud because they are all PSU alumni. It has been a year of firsts for P, living with a roommate, making new friends, football tailgates and games, freshman dorm life in general. He is having a good year so far, and this week he is home on Spring Break!

We are sooooo happy to have him around for the week. This is a picture of him AFTER he had been to get a haircut and shave. I can't say I blame him for letting his beard grow at school - it's friggin' COLD up in Happy Valley! R has been overjoyed to see his big bro. The Hubby has just been all smiles to have all his ducks in a row at home in the evenings. P does duck out to see his girlfriend, and I think he has been mostly sleeping during the day, but we have gotten to spend some nice quality time with him. I can't believe his freshman year is coming to a close.

In other news, there was supposed to be a crippling blizzard today and overnight. What did we get? absolutely NOTHING! Light rain throughout the day and it was windy, but noooooo blizzard. I was very happy about the blizzard being a myth. I want SPRING!

Like, now.

For many reasons, but one main reason is I am tired of wearing the same cycle of sweaters and pants. I'm dying to wear spring clothes. I'm also ready for our old house to thaw out. Heating our house is still a major issue, what to with a 100 year old house? We re-sided and had foam insulation put in, and the house still just doesn't stay warm. Oh well, spring will be here soon enough - clocks go forward this weekend, which means we are getting close!

- the good stepwitch