The Mullen Family: Sept 2011 Updates

Another summer has passed by and now we enter the season of apple picking, pumpkins, scarecrow and hail bails, and raking leaves :) We had such a great summer and feel fortunate to have moved into our new house over Memorial Day weekend so we could enjoy the full season here. In August we had a nice family birthday party for Caitlin- even Uncle Darren made it up for a visit! Greg and his friends held their 2nd annual "Dudes Olympics" the same weekend that Hurricane Irene decided to hit the Northeast. Thankfully she waited until Sunday morning so their events on Saturday were not affected. I, however, was up in Vermont with the girls visiting Theresa and Aubrey and had to leave late Saturday night in order to beat the storm. We had driven up Friday night and had an action packed day on Saturday - a walk to Dunkin Donuts for breakfast, an hour plus of playtime at the Essex Maple Street Park followed by swimming at the pool (which has been totally redone and is really fun!); then home for lunch and naps, and after that we headed to the Fair for a couple of hours. Needless to say the girls fell asleep on the ride home within the first half hour, which never happens. A fun day! The next day, Sunday, we spent inside watching the rain and wind and we lost our power around 11AM. We were hoping it would come back on before night time, but it was actually out until Monday night. In fact we had packed suitcases and our food and headed over to Greg's parents and just put the girls to bed when our neighbor called to let us know the power had come back on, so we put everything back in the car, got the girls, and headed back home. Luckily there was no major damage to our house or property, mainly just a lot of fallen branches that we had to clean up. Vermont got hit very hard and many of the major roadways are still impassable, and buildings and business destroyed. Heading up to Mom & Tom's over Labor Day weekend we had to go about 40 miles out of the way in order to get to their house. We had a fun weekend though - the girls stayed with Grandma and Grandpa while Greg and I headed up to Vermont to meet up with friends to celebrate Susan and EJ's 40th birthdays. It was a great weekend all around.

We also recently painted four rooms in our house which has really changed the look - it is much lighter and brighter, and more neutral and warm. The weekend after Labor Day we had a big end of summer BBQ here, which was quite a bash! Lots of friends and family and tons of kids :) Everyone seemed to have a great time and we may try to make it an annual event.

In other news, Maddy started dance class 2 weeks ago - they do both tap and ballet, and she loves it so far. She will be taking computer class once a week at school, and we are also looking into swimming lessons. Trying not to overload her with activities, but she is interested in trying different things and seems to really enjoy them. Caitlin is now asking about dance class, which they actually do offer a 2 year old class at the same time as Maddy's class on Saturdays. We'll see, but it would be pretty cute to see her in a leotard and dance shoes fluttering around.

Party Pics...