Mel's Box of Chocolates

Last weekend at the last minute we decided to jump in the car and drive to North Carolina to visit with my brother and his family. In case you didn't know, my brother is an active marine and currently his unit is packed and waiting for the command to head to Afghanistan. There isn't an official word yet, but rumor has it that he may leave before the end of the month. We shall see! Anyways, my parents decided to head there last weekend since my brother had weekend leave and we though, what the heck, let's go too and have a family weekend. After a full week at work and school it was quite a long 7 hour drive on Friday afternoon, but totally worth it to hang out with everybody. Since our weekends have been so packed lately, we haven't had a chance to get to the pumpkin patch so we took the opportunity to head to one in North Carolina. My sis in law searched a place for us to go and we headed there Saturday afternoon with, I believe, just about every other family who lived...

Disclaimer: No eyes were poked out with the shooting of the BB gun or taking of the photographs! SUBSCRIBE to never miss a piece of chocolate Be Sweet, Follow Mel on Twitter

I must start out by saying that I realize that my family is very blessed that we do not have any allergies in our family. So far nothing seems to bother my kids and we all eat everything, well except for hubby and his veggies, but that is a completely other subject. Therefore I am writing this from my own selfish, perspective. As a school teacher, I am very aware of the number of kids who have some type of allergy to food, whether milk, gluten, strawberries, or the unspeakable peanut. Each year it seems like I get a few more. Most of the time they are allergic to only one item here or there, so I haven't really had to pay close attention to them, although I did have a peanut girl (yes that is what we all called her) my first year of teaching and that was absolutely miserable. No pbj for me that year as I ate in the room and goodbye to my afternoon snack of pb m&m's (not that I really should have been eating them anyways). Every snack that entered the room I had to scru...

A couple of weeks ago I hosted a giveaway for Disney on Ice 100 year celebration tickets in Philly. Well my family also got to attend opening night for free thanks to Feld Entertainment and Mom Central . We are huge fans of Disney on Ice and never miss a show when it comes to town. There is just something about seeing Mickey and all his friends skating around on the ice. The scenes are always spectacular, the costumes stunning, and the music makes you just wanna get up and dance too. Just like Disney to make one night...magical!! Here are some picture highlights of the show. Mulan was impressive as always, but her dragon had me totally mesmerized! This was the first time we saw Pinnochio in one of the shows, which was neat, but Monstro stole the show! Intermission was the time to get a snow cone and plastic cup to add to our collection. Princesses were everywhere and with our close seats we could see the love in their eyes, or in this case the surprise in Belle's. The g...

This weekend was just what I needed. Other than a bit of cleaning (and I mean A bit ) and some laundry I accomplished absolutely nothing! After treating the kids to breakfast out, I spent yesterday morning in front of the computer and I must say that it was nice! I've sporadically posted here and there the past couple of weeks, but had not read some of my favorite bloggers posts in way too long so it was great to catch up. Hopefully I'll keep my reader under control from now on cause that 1000+ was hard to handle. I also played with the software for my SMARTboard at school, found some fantastic pre-made SMARTboard lessons, and created a couple of my own. I just love technology! Can't wait to share everything with my students. I need to learn some more about Flash because some of the cool lessons I found seem to be made through the program. Any of my readers know anything about Flash???? In the afternoon, I dropped Zoe of at a friends where she was spending the night....

So I started this post about 3 weeks ago right after the big birthday, but then life interfered with the posting, so here ya go. I can't believe my little girl is FIVE! Since the big celebration happened in New York we decided to keep the birthday celebration on her actual day pretty low key. She invited her two bestest friends, along with grandparents and neighbors, over for a a few hours of dressing up, eating pizza and cake, and opening presents. Gotta love the simple parties!! Chocolate ice cream cake was her order along with the big ol #5 birthday candle. Each year the kids put in their costume order with Gramma Sally, who uses her magical sewing skills to make the kiddos the best costumes around. This year she gave Zoe her costume as a birthday present. Isn't she the cutest Dorothy you ever saw??? Grandma even provided her American Girl doll with a matching costume and we got lucky when we were in New York and found a pair of sparkling ruby shoes to match. Add Toto in his...

First the sweet... When we were in New York last weekend the doors to St. Patrick's Cathedral were open so we took a minute to step inside. It is an absolutely gorgeous church and you can't help but become mesmerized with the beauty. There were many places where you light candles and Dylan wanted to know why there were so many candles and what they were for. I explained that people light candles to signify sending a prayer for a loved one (I am not Catholic so I hope I got that right). He thoughtfully stood still for a second and then asked if he could light one for Mako since he was thinking about him. He asked it so quietly and with such love that it completely stopped me in my tracks. I was so choked up that my little boy would be so thoughtful that I couldn't really respond. Thankfully, my mom in law was with me and came to my rescue telling him what a nice thought that was. In the end we didn't light the candle, but I'm sure Mako could feel all the love Dylan...

What a week we have had! In 7 days we have spent a day in New York, celebrated Zoe's 5th birthday, went to Philly for Disney on Ice, and drove through Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina to visit my brother for this weekend. Quite the travelers we are! I have lots of pictures, but other than our New York pix just haven't had the time to get them uploaded. Guess I'll add that to my every growing to do list. I'm hoping that this week things will slow down. Other than a field trip and a PTO meeting things should be quiet around school (as quiet as quiet can be with a class full of 5th graders that is). Next weekend is unplanned as of now and I'm hoping to keep it that way. Of course unplanned still means soccer games, SeaWitch Festival in Rehoboth, and Zoe going away for a sleepover! The fun never ends!! Here's to a great week ahead! SUBSCRIBE to never miss a piece of chocolate Be Sweet, Follow Mel on Twitter

A contributing factor of my being MIA recently is that my computer bit the dust. It had been giving me grief for quite awhile and finally it gave me the dreaded blue screen that warned me that the hard drive was about to be erased, then a bright green screen, and that was all it wrote. Thankfully hubby doesn't think anything is lost, but that I need a new motherboard which means once we can afford to get a new one of those all should be well again. Hubby has been nice enough to share his laptop, but it just isn't the same, especially when he likes to use it and Dyl uses it too. I do sneak in some time now again, but I hesitate to download any of my applications, you know like TWEETDECK (oh how I miss my groups and automatic Facebook/Twitter updates) because his is pretty ancient itself and already runs pretty slow. Isn't it funny how reliable we become on our electronics? I think I was so depressed about not having my computer that I ended up ignoring all things personal th...

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Every year the kids and I take a bus trip to New York City for a day of fun. This year our trip fell on the day before Zoe's birthday so we decided to celebrate her 5th in city style. Zoe got to choose a friend to come spend the day with her along with Dylan, her two grandma's, one aunt, one uncle, and me. The day was jam packed with a trip to American Girl, a visit to the Central Park Zoo and Children's Zoo, afternoon tea at Alice's Tea Cup, and a dance on the piano at FAO Shwartz. Not to shabby for turning 5!

Well not really a baby anymore. Although don't we always look at our kids as our babies, no matter what their age? Right mom??!! Zoe turned 5 today. It's been a bittersweet celebration as I watch her bloom into a beautiful, smart, thoughtful little girl and say goodbye to her toddlerhood. There is just something about my baby turning 5. At 4 I think you can still get away with thinking of your child as a toddler, but 5??!! 5 means kindergarten, reading, writing...independence. ((Sigh)) On the flip side though, boy do I love having a little girl and I do enjoy her getting older. Everyday she makes me smile with something she says or does. Sometimes she can be so much older than her 5 years. She is definitely my girlie girl. She enjoys dressing up, putting on cute shoes, wearing her jewelry, and spending a day shopping. I can see many days of shopping together in our future...and getting our nails done too of course! I love you, princess!! SUBSCRIBE to never miss a piece of choco...

Ever since Dylan started soccer a few years ago I've enjoyed being known as a soccer mom. This year Zoe decided to test out her skills and joined the team for her first season. Yes, Miss Model posed for every picture I took. It is definitely a different kind of season as I now walk back and forth between fields so I can watch them both. I'm missing my folding chair and just sitting for a couple hours! After a minor meltdown on the second soccer practice, I'm happy to report that Zoe seems to be getting the hang of it. She enjoys the drills, but loses steam during the games. You would think as much as the girl moves she would have stamina, but not so. She doesn't connect with the ball very much, but she does look pretty darn cute running around in her pink soccer shoes. We'll see how the rest of the season goes. Dylan is having a blast and I enjoy watching him interact with his team. He is really coming out of his shell and it is great to see him taking more risks. G...

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I cannot even believe that it is October already. Where does time go? The other night on a rare Twitter-a-thon I made the comment about how it's funny that we bloggers like to talk about being part of the community, but that in the almost month I haven't blogged not one person had emailed to see what was up. I honestly wasn't pointing fingers, I just found it interesting. Now I do have to say that I have had a few people tweet me to see what was happening and some of my readers who are my facebook friends also check in there, but that is about it. After sending the tweet I had quite a few people reply back asking me if everything was okay, how I was doing, and a few even mentioned they did miss my posts ((remind me to send out their checks!!)). Then I had a couple people admit the same thing happened to them...they went m.i.a. and nobody even seemed to notice. Then it hit me. Call me the black kettle cause here I was musing why people hadn't emailed me to see what...