A Renewal...

...of vows that is! Yesterday we had the pleasure of participating in the Seneca Niagara Casino's attempt at breaking the Guinness World Record for the largest vow renewal ceremony! It was in Niagara Falls, and my awesome friend Erika stepped up to the plate when we couldn't find a sitter and almost had to miss the event. She brought her little boy and they had a great day hanging out with my two crazy chitlins.

This is actually our SECOND vow renewal, so that means we have now been married 3 times!! Haha, we'll probably do it again somewhere amazing in 5yrs for our 20th anniversary.

The casino is ridiculously huge, but the event was pretty well organized considered how many thousands of people were there. They did not actually end up breaking the record (which is 1201 couples) unfortunately. It was still a fun time! It was held out front of the casino and afterward we had dessert, champagne, and a free buffet inside! You know I love my free food.

While in line, we saw a guy there who we thought for a minute was John Popper from Blues Travelers. We were waiting for him to bust out a harmonica.

In between things we had some time to kill, so I figured why not play some slots? We each took $10 and hit the penny slots. I of course won nothing....however Nicholas was much more lucky! On only his second time in a casino ever, he put in $5 and within a few minutes--on a PENNY slot mind you--he cashed out at $425!!!!! I was losing my mind I couldn't believe it. He did end up playing off $25 of it, but he walked away with $400 cash money. Yeah baby!

Erika sent me pics throughout the evening of the kiddos having a blast. The rain had cleared up enough for them to play outside. They had pizza for dinner, watched a movie with popcorn, and had some leftover birthday cake for dessert. We all had a fun day!

Today we dropped Brad off at his first ever summer camp! I'll post pics on my next blog when we pick him up on Saturday.

Bradley's 9th Birthday

This evening we had a fun backyard birthday party for Bradley. He invited a few kids from his school, as well as a couple neighborhood friends. Almost everyone came! Jacob loved having all the friends to play with as well.

They all took over the swingset and tire swing while I grilled hotdogs, then everyone came to eat on the patio. After that it was cake and ice cream time!

I kept their attention just long enough for Brad to open all his presents, then they all went back out to play some more until their parents picked them up.

 He had a great time and got tons of neat stuff. The party was almost thwarted by some rain, but it cleared up shortly after the guests started arriving.

My town has started their summer "Concerts by the Canal" every Thursday evening, so we went there yesterday to check it out. It was classic rock night, and the band was pretty good! The fire department was grilling food for sale, and the weather was perfection.

And to get into the spirit of festivities, we put up our July 4th decor outside!

32 Years Young

Monday was my birthday, and it was a fabulous one! I got to spend a nice quiet day at home being pampered by my darling hubby. He cooked me a delicious breakfast and let me read while he wrangled the kids.

After lunch I got dolled up and we went back to our favorite Amish farm for some more veggie plants to put in the garden. Went to some other stores and just browsed around before relaxing some more while Jacob napped.

I requested chicken fettuccine alfredo for my dinner, which he pulled of beautifully! He also made a carrot cake from scratch with cream cheese frosting--YUM.

I have been trying some recipes for no-churn ice cream, and my latest one is mint chocolate chip. So good!

 
The weather has been lovely this week, and my rose garden is in full bloom. I decided to finally snip some of the prettiest and most fragrant plants for bouquets in the house.

I've enjoyed a few days off, but that ends today. Out of the next 7 days I'll be working 6 so I won't see much of my boys. Thankfully I'm off for Father's Day so I can dote on my favorite guy!

A Fun Memorial Day Weekend

Last Saturday was opening weekend for our favorite Lakeside town, Olcott! They have a great vintage kid's carousel park with rides for only a quarter. We packed up the littles and drove there for lunch and fun! It was a nice overcast day so we didn't have the sun beating down on us. We enjoyed some lunch on the boardwalk overlooking Lake Ontario.

Unfortunately I think this will be Brad's last year because he was at the max height allowed for the rides!

Nick put together the swing set and the boys just love it! They have been on it every day.

For Memorial day Monday I made some homemade no-churn cherry cheesecake ice cream...and it was DELICIOUS. We grilled out hot dogs and BBQ chicken and had a fun day at home.

In other news...I booked a beach vacay for us in Florida! It's been way too long since I've relaxed by the ocean so I found a quiet weekend in September for us to all sneak away and have fun.