The fall of 2014 we basically spent doing the normal things. I'm actually reading a lot of books which is very different for me but very good. The next book I read was the Divergent series which my best friend Gina in Texas told me was a good book series. She was actually in the middle of the series so decided to join our little book club as well. I really liked all the action in the book so we decided to read The Hunger Game books next. At this point Mike wanted to join the bookclub as well and he started to read the books that I read. Of course he is a much faster reader so he was able to catch up with us no problem at all. I have very mixed emotions about Mike joining the bookclub but I guess overall it's good. The biggest problem with Mike and the bookclub is that he likes to talk about the book as he's reading it where is with my girlfriends we barely talk about it until we finish one book. It's kind of funny actually because I tried to ignore him because I don't like to talk about the books in the middle of the book but he keeps pressing me so we end up talking about it anyway. We did get an au pair for about two months which was nice. Lino is in preschool for five days he started swimming lessons in Cobh once a week and he is doing tae kwon do 2 times a week in Carrigtohill. I have Shaun in playgroups 2 days a week and Gymboree once a week so we were staying pretty busy. I wanted to see about taking a class at the university but it's almost impossible to do something like that in Cork it seems. Basically if I want to take a course in the University I have to be enrolled in a degree program. This is very different from how things are in the states. In the US you can take any class you want at the University as long as you are paying for it yourself. A lot of people like to go and take classes just because they're interested in them so it's not uncommon at all. But it seems like that is not something that is very common in Ireland. So I was very frustrated when I found this out but I guess there's not much I can do about it. I guess they have the adult education courses in the evening but I would preferred to take something during the day so that I can be home in the evenings with the family. So a lot of things to think about but I know that I need to start doing something because my brain is starting to shut down from being at home with the boys all the time. It's actually kind of crazy how much I enjoy being at home with the boys but how much work it is as well. So basically the fall I spent trying to decide what it is I want to do because I don't want to give up all the time that I have with the boys but I also know that I need a little break away from them which is why I got the au pair.
SEPTEMBER
September is the time for the massive spiders of Ireland to start making their appearance. This has to be my least favourite time of the year, I might prefer the rain over spiders...MIGHT!
Huge spider in our tub...this is like a every other day thing.
The long days of summer is finally starting to decrease which means the long days of winter will soon be here. One afternoon Michelle and met at the Radisson Hotel for a little kids show. It would have been cool except the music was way too loud and the venue was way too small for the amount of people that were there. It was crazy how much it costs as well but the boys didn't seem to care too much about sitting on the floor for the €20 that I just spent they had a good time.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles… Very old and very corny ones I might add.
Jake and the pirate crew
Spiderman up and close!! Lino was so pumped about that he is totally into Spiderman these days.
Crazy minions
I have no idea who she is but somebody all the kids now except my kids of course.
The grand finale was the frozen crew singing their most famous song Let It Go, all the kids were going crazy like it was a rock band or something.
After I finally got my hearing back I decided to never go to something like that again...too loud and crazy for sure.
So mid-September we got our first au pair, Alexandra. She came from Italy and stayed with us for about two months. I thought it would be a good idea to have an extra hand around the house and another adult to talk to. It was an interesting experience to have someone else in the house especially someone who cannot speak very good English. But we were very lucky because Alexandra could speak fairly good English and she was really social so it helped. It was interesting to watch Lino's interaction with her because he did not know if he should treat her like a grandparent a friend or what. So it was actually a bit of an experiment for two months … Not all good but not completely horrible either.
The first weekend that Alessandra was with us we had an impromptu end of summer BBQ. We had a good time and lots of people at the house and I think it was a little of a shock for her but it was a total taste of how Mike and I are and how we do things in America.
Alexandra and Lino making pizzas one day. Leno kept trying to lick all of the pizzas and we were trying to keep him from not doing it, it was such a useless game.
The big wine and food Festival of Midleton. Actually this year the festival was very nice and we had a lot of fun we did not expected to be so good because last year it was wasn't. The bad part was that most of the rides were at least one or two euros each ride and of course Lino and Shaun wanted to ride everything 2 or 3 times so it ended up being a little bit pricey but it was worth it because they had a ball.
Lino & Shaun ridding on the top of the bus...like when we are site seeing on the hop on hop off bus.
Daddy and Leno on the bumper carts. Shaun was having an out right meltdown because he was too small to ride.
I think Alexandra must have only been in town for about two weeks and we decided to make homemade raviolis which turned out amazing. We knew there would be a ton so we ended up having an impromptu dinner with some of our friends it was a very nice evening. I think at that point Alexandra thought we were crazy but she didn't take it against us thankfully.
Another sign that it's fall in Ireland is the sprouting of mushrooms all throughout our yard/garden. Instead of being freaked out about it like I was last year this year I told Lino that we can use the mushrooms like they are treasures and he thought that was a really cool idea. It's amazing how creative I have gotten since arriving in Ireland. A year ago I would have been freaking out about random mushrooms in the yard now I'm turning them into the day adventure for the boys which is way more fun than the way I was originally doing it.
A huge mushroom that Lino found in the garden. He was so proud.
Alexandra helping put the boys to bed.
This must have been one of the last times we went to the farm plus I wanted to take Alexandra there so she could see kind of what we do in Ireland. I didn't even know someone was taking pictures of me until I got a text message with these pictures but as you can see I was having a good time with the kids on the big go cart.
The funny story about this day, but not really funny, is that Lino was not being very good and wasn't listening so I told him I was going to leave him at the farm. A normal kid would be a little bit bothered by this but Lino did not seem to mind at all. I actually did leave him at one of the play areas because it was time to go and he didn't follow me. I thought maybe it was a good time to teach him a lesson and let him stay and play while I went to the front area. I thought he might look around and see that I was gone and be scared but boy was I wrong. I sat in the front area at the coffee shop watching him play with other kids and all the other animals for about 45 minutes and he did not seem to notice that I was nowhere to be found. He just played and did his thing and slowly made his way towards the café. And as you get closer you could tell he was looking for me but not like he was very worried. And then he found me and was like "hi mom, whatcha doing?" I was so annoyed my plan totally backfired in my face. That boy has no fear whatsoever of being by his self which makes me even more worried. Nini told me once that I had to leave him like that to get him that he needs to stay close to me but apparently it didn't work in this situation. I'll have to try it again when we are in another place that I can safely watch them but I don't know what I'm going to do with that boy.
A little pattycake with the boys. These are some of the moments that I really enjoy. I feel like sometimes i spend all day long saying no to the boys or do this or clean up that. it's nice to be able to just sit and play together and not worry about anything else.
Alexander was always very good at putting Sheun to sleep for his nap which I even had trouble doing.
Alexandra with Lino and Hami one afternoon while me and Ha Eun went to the city with the babies.
Always a silly face picture.
This is the moment that I realized Shaun actually liked tomatoes. I really don't like them but try to eat them so sometimes they are in the house and today he decided to eat it like an apple and he really enjoyed it.
One weekend we took a trip down to Kinsale for an arts festival. To be honest the festival was very disappointing but it was nice to be away from Cork for the day. Here's the boys playing on a new play set it at the playground in Kinsale.
After her afternoon walk around the festival we had dinner at a restaurant that Mike had been talking about every since he came to visit Ireland in 2013. Personally I thought the food was way over priced but the food was good... Fishy Fishy it was called.
One Friday night we went over to our friends house to play games and have a few drinks by the end of the night I was completely wasted and passing out on their couch. We had such a good time but I was completely embarrassed the next day. I totally have lost my edge when it comes to drinking but I'm glad I was with friends. That was definitely one night to remember even though we didn't do anything crazy it was just funny to be so drunk at our friends house.
One day both of the boys were covered in little bitty bumps and I was all worried that they had measles or mumps or something like that but come to find out they had been rolling around in the grass with daddy the day before so they were probably just bug bites.
Cool Shaun with his crazy hair!
One Thursday we all went out to Cobh for Lino swimming lesson and to walk around the town so that Alessandra could see where the Titanic's last port of call was. I knew Lino would enjoy this since he was so into the Titanic and I was right. This exhibit was very small since it really only talked about the last few people to board an exit the titanic before it set off but it was still nice.
A new favorite wine!
The end of Lino's first ever swimming lessons and he was able to pass on to the next class which was very exciting. I was always a little worried about that because he doesn't have very good listening ears but he is a decent swimmer I just hope he can keep it up for the next class. Also I think it helped that there was only two kids in the class so the teacher was able to basically focus on both of them which didn't hurt at all.
As for Lino and his tae kwon do class it's not as good as his swimming class. The tae kwon do is a big group of kids but that isn't really the problem I don't think. The problem is that Lino has a very very hard time listening which is a lot of what we have been struggling with this fall with him. He has been getting in trouble a lot at school because of his listening and the same is true at home. I know that we are going through a power struggle but the problem is I have a hard time giving up the power. I'm sure if I did it would make things a lot easier but that is so hard for me. We still struggle with Lino going to the restroom on his own I just can't believe he's four and still has so many P accidents. But my friends keep telling me that that is his way of being in control so until I can let go of some of my control we will probably still deal with this. Raising kids is so hard and complicated I never had any idea that the smallest little things can make such a big impact on your life. I started to read a book over the summer about raising kids responsibly but I only made it through half of the book because some of the techniques takes so much energy that I don't know if I could do it. I guess it's because the techniques are so different from the way I parent but we have tried to implement a few and I can tell that they do help. I guess slowly but surely will figure it out one way or another.
Shaun got scratched by a kid in one of the playgroups. I was upset but it didn't seem to bother him much.
After about two months of having our Italian visitor it was time for Alexandra to go back home. She was able to experience the playgroup coffee morning at the house, and American BBQ, and a typical impromptu dinner party and a few Irish sites so I think she had a fairly good stay. We were sad to see her go because while she was here we were able to go out pretty much every Friday so that Mike and I could have a little bit of time together. We went to the movies, to the pub, even to my friends house to drink and hang out which was very nice and good for our marriage. That's the one thing that is very hard about being so far away from family is being able to find time for each other without having to spend a lot of money on a babysitter. Alexandra was also able to experience a traditional peanut butter and jelly sandwich which by the time she left I think it was one of her favorite snacks. I also seem to have got her hooked on the Skippy peanut butter which is my absolute favorite and after tasting some of the Irish brands I think she agreed it was very good. Oh also she really enjoyed my lemon and blueberry ricotta cheese poundcake so I seem to make that for her at least once a week. We learned a lot about her and I know she learned a lot about us it was a great experience and I'm pretty sure we will do it again. I think it was also good for the boys even though it wasn't easy but I think they need to see that they have to respect adults regardless of who they are and that is something that Lino struggled with. It took about four weeks before he understood what was going on so I know the next time it will be a little bit easier plus I will know to be more prepared as well.
Goodbye dinner with Alessandra at The Elmtree restaurant.
Brother love!!!
Crazy brother love
My good friend Michelle turned 40 so we had to do a little surprise party for her. Nicole and I surprised her at her house with balloons and made her get dressed and took her out to dinner I think she had a good time. She is such a good friend I hope she knows that.
Michelle & her partner Dee
The gang at our favorite restaurant...Coq Bull. The most amazing burgers in Cork! They actually don't over cook the meat which is almost unheard of in Ireland it seems. Mike and I have actually been here a couple of times together because we really like the atmosphere the food and the location. I feel like that is one of the hardest things about being in Ireland is finding nice places to go eat that don't cost a lot of money. And this has to be our new favorite place to go.
Happy happy birthday Michelle!!!
So after all the drama with the Groupon booking we made it to Budapest. It was a really cool four-day weekend trip very cheap and very cold.
The flight to Budapest was very easy but the night before wasn't so easy. We drove up to Dublin the night before because we thought it would be easier to get a full nights sleep in the hotel before taking the flight versus getting up very early to drive to the airport. But boy were we wrong… We stayed in the airport hotel called Metro because they have a park stay and fly deal that was pretty reasonable and another friend had recommended. The hotel itself was very nice but there was a few sketchy guest in the lobby and bar area. Shaun refused to go to sleep or maybe he was just overtired but he ended up screaming almost all night long. Someone even came to the door knocking, probably coming to tell us to shut the baby up but we were so embarrassed we didn't even get out of the bed to open the door. Thankfully Shaun quieted down for the few minutes that the person was at the door knocking otherwise it may not have been so easy to ignore the knock. I guess the problem was that when she woke up the first time it seemed like he wasn't going to go back to sleep so Mike decided to give him the iPad to watch a movie and the problem with that is that Shaun hardly ever goes to sleep watching a movie. I tried to tell Mike that and I told him if you put them back in the car and drove around for a few minutes he would be out and we would be okay but I think Mike was too tired for that so course he ignored my suggestion. But to be fair I was so tired as well I didn't feel like getting up and driving around with him either. So Shsun watching the movie only kept him quiet for about 30 minutes and then the screaming started again there wasn't much either one of us could do to calm him down...I think he was just too tired. The good thing is that he barely even bothered Lino. Oh yeah, I almost forgot before we all went to bed we know was in his bed and we were getting Sean into the pack and play and Leno stops and says "I love you guys" Mike and I were so shocked by his comment. Sometimes that little guy can be so sweet it made us both feel so good. Eventually Sean went to sleep but not without giving us hell first and we were able to get a couple hours of sleep. Of course Shaun slept on the plane too but that was good because we didnt have to worry about a screaming baby on the plane.
The sign says it all.
Learned a lot about Budapest that I didn't know about of course. I'm not a history person at all but I do like to hear about the history of the places that we go to. After we got checked into our hotel we still had most of the afternoon to walk around so we decided to do a little walking and try and find this train place that I saw on trip advisor. I also know my mom was from Hungry and she was giving us a lot of suggestions on places to go, things to see and of course food to eat. The first thing we did though was got a little snack to eat on our walk. Mike and I got Gyros and we ended up getting the boys a slice of pizza. The food was so cheap it was crazy. I think a Gyro cost 400 Huf which is about €1.50 which is almost $2...crazy cheap! And the Gyros more amazing too, we did not know but that was a common food there. Although it was very cold it wasn't raining yet which was good. But unlike our trip to Belfast I had our rain boots in the bag ready so that we wouldn't have the same outcome as the last rainy trip we had.
Here is some cool artwork on the side of a house. I guess this type of art work is very common here. I really liked it.
So we were trying to find this indoor train place for about 10 minutes and we couldn't find it. So we decided to go to the Costa that we saw so that we could use the Internet to see if we were close or not. Once we got our self oriented I realize that we were only about one block away from the place so I told Mike that I will go and make sure it was there and make sure that we could get in and then I will come back to get them. Well little did I know we had just barely walked pass the area before it was blocked off by the police. I'm not sure if there was a protest or not but I'm guessing that is what was happening but when I tried to go back the way we came there was about 15 police officers standing across the sidewalk and street blocking people from going down the street. At first I was a little freaked out because I didn't know if it was very dangerous but everybody else around me just seem to be annoyed that they couldn't go down the road so I guess it was a peaceful type of thing. So I tried to go around another way to find the train place but all the roads were blocked off by the police. So I guess going to see the train is out of the question for today...oh well.
Kind of hard to see but there is a line of policemen guarding the entry to do sidewalk. I had to get a picture.
Since our plan a have backfired we decided to just keep walking around the downtown area to see what we could see. We ended up in this Square area with the Ferris wheel and decided to go on it. I guess Lino decided he wanted to go on it so we did. On the way to the Ferris wheel we saw this cool underground restaurant that had a glass roof with a little water or pond on top of it… It was pretty cool.
Closer look
Against my better judgment we ended up going on this Ferris wheel that looked like it was just put up as part of a carnival or something. I'm always worried about riding rides like this but I guess it must be pretty safe.
The view of Budapest from our Ferris wheel.
Mike and I on the Ferris wheel
Shaun and Lino enjoying the ride
After the Ferris wheel we decided to keep walking around and try to figure out what we were going to do the next day. We knew at some point we would get on the hop on hop off bus because that is just what we do but there was so much else to see we were not exactly sure what order to do it in. We stopped at this little booth that had information about metro passes and tried to ask them what was the best way to see the city but basically they were just trying to sell us tickets for the night boat tour which of course we bought. It was actually a really nice little boat tour not very fancy but it included a buffet dinner two drinks and a nice rooftop view from the boat. By the time we got onto the boat Shaun was passed out tired of course but Lino was completely wired and so excited to be on the boat. He had a ball just running around and going up to the top to look out over the water and look at all the lights on the buildings in the city. The food was actually pretty good as well and everybody on the boat was very nice the only problem was that the alcohol/wine was very expensive but we were not really in the mood to do a lot of drinking so it wasn't a big problem for us but it was just interesting that the food was so cheap but the alcohol was so expensive.
Family selfie on the roof of our night boat tour.
Lots of cool places we saw took a few pictures don't remember all of them but I know it was cool. We did end up going to the popular Great Market Hall and I saw a big sign for Dannon/Danone that was really old but cool that it was such an important advertising point. The market was really nice and very big, there was so much food, tons and tons of Paprika of all different types, tons of vegetables, meat and pastries too.
We ended up getting 2 Hungarian strudels, one with clotted cheese (cottage cheese I think) the other with berries. They were interesting but good.
The one thing that I did not like was that in order to use the restroom you had to pay to get in and of course we didn't have the right quoins so it was a bit of a pain to get in. And then when I needed to take Lino I ended up having to pay two times because both of us couldn't get through the gate at once so I had to pay for myself even though I was just going in to help Lino. I guess it wasn't that expensive something like $.50 but it was more of a problem because it was a pain to get the right change for the machine. Then we decided to eat lunch at the restaurant at the top of the market. It was very popular place and the food smelled really good so we ate there. It wasn't as cheap as some of the street places but the food was very good and I have to say the price was not very bad at all. I got a traditional Hungarian Gaulish and we got the boys sausage and rice and Mike got some type of Wienerschnitzel. Everything was amazing!! We even met some people from Canada and chatted with them for a while. They thought our story about being Americans living in Ireland traveling to Hungry was very interesting. After lunch it was back on the bus for some more sightseeing. We learned all about the Buddha versus Pest side which was very interesting.
At some point we ended up back to the Costa that we went to the day before and we decided to try out the train place again. I was able to find it and make sure that we could get in without a reservation so after a quick coffee and a little sweet treat we headed over.
Shaun missed out on his chimny cake because he was napping.
The indoor train exhibit was very nice and very cool Lino really really liked it and so did Shaun. It was pretty neat how they had a miniature version of Budapest in this train exhibit. It was also very kid friendly and a nice place to be since it was kind of getting wet outside. There were lots of moving pieces and parts trains going and coming cars with flashing lights lots of buttons to push to turn lights on turn water fountains on her make people move about very very cool...they totally need something like this in Cork. We ended up spending over two hours there and we didn't even realize it was that long but basically we were one of the last people to leave.
The next day was supposed to be a little less wet then the previous two days so my friend told us we needed to make it out to the zoo so that's what we did. Even though we had the hop on hop off bus pass we decided to take the local train to the zoo. Mainly because it was historical being the oldest train currently running in Europe. It did not look as old as it was but it was cool to be on it. The funny part was that after riding the train every time Lino saw a yellow train he would say "it's the oldest train in the world!" too funny.
The first few minutes of the zoo we were a little bit disappointed because it was more like a petting zoo then the zoo but after we made it into the second section we realize what my friend was saying. It was a very nice zoo and very big. Even though we go to the zoo all the time the boys still love to see different animals and different exhibits so it was a great place to be for the day. They had all types of animals and really cool interactive exhibits I wish I would have took more pictures but I think we were just so into what was going on that nobody thought about it.
I almost forgot about this picture, Mike and I were trying to figure out what this picture was about so we said we would take a picture of the sign and tried to Google translate it later. Later never happen...hahaha.
My guess was that it was a picture of a Whale skeleton that was found all in fact I'm sure Mike thought it was some tool.
Inside the little aquarium.
Even though today was a very wet we should have put on our rain boots because we were tracking in and out of poop all day long at the zoo I can't believe I have the boots but didn't use and what an idiot!
After the zoo we did some more sightseeing and then decided to take another boat tour to Margaret Island but once we got onto the boat we realize that the boat did not stop at the island and only went by it so basically we spent an hour on the boat just to see the same sites we saw the first night. After the boat tour we walked around the fancy shopping area trying to find a place to eat only because we thought there would be a restaurant that we could go to that was traditional but we ended up just going to a fancy restaurant that was nice. Then the next day I realize that the restaurant was a place that my friend had recommended that we go to anyway which was pretty funny that we just ended up there. Of course on the way back to the hotel we had to stop and get another one of the chimney cakes they are so good.
I last day is hungry so we tried to get back onto the boat even though are hop on hop off bus pass were actually expired but the people didn't seem to notice or maybe they didn't seem to mind so they let us get on no problem. So we spent a couple hours on Margaret Island walking around and seeing the sights it was a really cool little place.
Shaun doing a jig to the music...I have a video that is too cute.
Margaret Island (Hungarian: Margit-sziget [ˈmɒrɡit ˈsigɛt], German: Margareteninsel) is a 2.5 km (1.6 mi) long island, 500 metres (550 yards) wide, (0.965 km2 (238 acres) in area) in the middle of the Danube in central Budapest, Hungary. The island is mostly covered by landscape parks, and is a popular recreational area. Its medieval ruins are reminders of its importance in the Middle Ages as a religious centre. The island spans the area between the Margaret Bridge(south) and the Árpád Bridge (north). Before the 14th century the island was called Insula leporum (Island of Rabbits).
So before heading back to the airport we decided to stop at another Cafe, have a snack and of course the boys got a huge treat that as you can see they were very excited about.
One last Gyro before leaving. It was in a bread roll which was weird but if was still good. Not as good as the first place but still good. The funny part about it is that we said we wanted to have another Gyro before we left and on the walk back to the hotel we passed a couple of places but did not stop. Finally we got very close to the hotel and realize our options had run out and the only option was the place that we went to the first day we arrived but we hardly ever go to the same place twice so Mike decided to go off on a search for a Gyro close by. It's kind of funny the crazy things we do but anyway we were able to have one before we left.
Yum yum!
The boys are really pooped after this trip we had a good time lapse boats lots of buses lots of sites to see another one down for the history books for the Cutaia's
A couple days after our return from Hungry me and the boys were off again heading to Chicago to see GG for her birthday. The flight over was kind of crazy Shaun was all over the place and pretty much stressing me out the whole time. I'm glad it's one of the last flight I will have to take by myself with the boys. We got into town about a week before every one else which was nice because I get to spend quality time with GG & my mom. It's amazing how good GG's health is at 90 years old, she is so active it's almost unbelievable. So the first day or so we just hung around the house, I got IHOP which was amazingly amazing good!!! The pumkin cheesecake pancakes were to die for...definitely have to come back again before we leave and day 2 I was out trying to figure out if there was a way that I could get Internet on my cell phone without having to buy a full month of coverage. I know they're here in Ireland people can buy a data plan for their unlocked phones so I thought I would be able to do the same with mine in the states but that turned out to be not true at all. So basically I spent about two days and 10 hours looking for options and wasn't able to come up with anything. I mean why can't it be as easy as it is in Ireland? It's funny to admit but this is one thing that is actually easier to do in Ireland then it is to do in the States go figure. And the reason that I was making such a big deal about getting the Wi-Fi service is because GG doesn't have Wi-Fi at her house obviously, so most days I went without Internet unless I went to the mall or someplace public that had free Wi-Fi. So most days I went with out or I would use my moms phone which was weird sometimes but it was my only option. The 2 big points that I learned was that 1) I do not have an unlocked phone so I need to keep that in mind when we come back to the states because we were kind of under the impression that we would use our Irish phones in the states and just get US coverage but I think it will be a little harder than that. 2) Europe does have some things that are actually more convenient than the states...I never would have guessed that :-)
So we got to spend Halloween with the Gary family which was actually very quiet and uneventful which was nice. My cousin did my hair...it was long overdue for some loving. And while we didn't plan to go trick-or treating GG got all dressed up for the occasion anyway because I think Halloween must be one of her favorite holidays. She always seems to wear the same outfit but it never seems to get old.
GG scaring the boys while they play on the piano.
We didn't even do any trick-or-treating and only a few kids came by the house because the weather wasn't the best but it was still nice to spend it with the family.
November 3rd GG's 90th Birthday!!!!
I feel extra special because I was able to spend the day with GG on her actual birthday and not that many people can say that. So I told her we could go anywhere she wanted for dinner and of course she picks Golden Corral. She loves that place. So mom, the boys, Uncle Tommy & Aunt Tracy and GG of course go out to a nice birthday dinner. Shaun really enjoyed his self and he was eating almost all of Aunt Tracy's food...mostly the fried fish. I didn't even know he liked fried fish but I guess I can't put much past him, he likes almost everything. Anyway, dinner was nice and I'm glad GG enjoyed it. And of course she reminded me to remind the people that it was her birthday so that they could sing to her. Even at 90 she has so many demands. But of course I had to oblige her request and they sang her happy birthday & gave her a cake with a candle. After dinner Shaun & Lino where playing with Aunt Tracey and Shaun took a huge crash in the parking lot. He scrapped that crap out of his head but after about 90sec of blood curdling screams he was fighting me to let him get back down so he could keep running with Lino. That kid never learns...and he has the war scares to prove it. Aunt Tracy felt bad of corse but there was nothing he could have done to stop it.
So a couple days before the party in before Mike got into town I decided to go and take Lino to get his haircut but first I had to go and get a nice spa pedicure which was well overdue...and I got my eyebrows arched and the lady did an amazing job! It's so nice to have a little pamper afternoon. We also did a little shopping but not much. I got new jeans because my favorite skinny jeans were starting to seriously fall apart and o wasn't able to cover it up. But before we headed out I got Lino a nice cool haircut at the Black barber!!! I'm pretty sure that was his first time getting a haircut with the black barbers and I wanted to get something that said he was in Gary!!!! So the guy, very cool and nice, hooked him up with this cool cut and it only cost me $10! I was so shocked at the price & quality of the work. Like I said the guy was really nice and we chatted it up about Ireland the whole time and about how one of his bucket list items is to go to go Ireland and get into a bar fight with an Irish man...weird but ok. Meanwhile Lino watched Oz with the other guy. After it was all said and done I had to post a pic on Facebook to see what the reaction to the new haircut was and I must say it was pretty positive...except for his father! Daddy can be a little prude sometimes and for this he was a little not so crazy about...prude! Anyway I loved it and so did Lino...very cool dude.
Look at that smile
A couple days later and the party was hopping in the Britton house!!! Thursday we found out that one of my uncles had car trouble and was stuck in a town 5hrs away and wasn't going to make it in until Friday which sucked but it was at least good that he wasn't going to miss the party since he had planned to be there a couple days early anyway. Friday we had a big home-made Britain breakfast which was so amazing… Grits, eggs, pancakes, hash browns, huge cinnamon rolls, Tennessee sausages, bacon, the whole sha-bam...and it was all to die for. Of course TT and I were the head chefs, along with my aunt & uncle as very helpful sous chefs.
I ended up being in charge of getting the food so me and Uncle tommy & Aunt Tracy spent like 2 days shopping for food for all the people planning to be in town. It was kid of fun and kind of not but I was glad to be able to help some since I don't really do much to help get stuff for the party. It was all worth it tho because ALL of my cousins and their kids and all my Aunts & Uncles were there which was such a blessing. I don't think we have all been together like that since 2011 so it was great. The only person missing from the party was daddy/mike!!!! He was scheduled to come in on Fiday afternoon early evening and mom had rented a car for him so that he could just drive to the house and no one had to go get him. Well he text me at some point to say his plane was late and that was all I heard from him for the next 5hrs! I knew he didn't have internet but I was hopping he would find a way to contact us to let us know what was going on but no. And he didn't have the flip phone because I had it so I guess he was truly stuck in the caveman days. So while we were kind of waiting on him, we got on with the Friday night fish fry...so good and so traditional Britton style. In the middle of frying and making pasta and drinking there was a crazy shooting on the corner of the block (4 houses away). A few people at the house saw it go down and I just couldn't believe it was so close. Apparently a guy shot & killed his ex-girlfriend in her house. I can't believe it happened so close to the house and with all the commotion going on at our place that guy had no worries about who saw him or not...just scary. Thankfully none of our family was involved but it's such a tragedy for the young girls family. On a lighter note, at this point is about 3hrs past his delayed flight schedule arrival time and now I'm starting to panic...a little. Eventually daddy gets there and he's the Center of the party!!! After getting a quick recap of his crazy experience which was crazy, late planes, no free gate when the plane did arrive, broke down bus...the whole bit. But he made it and he was ok so that's all that mattered. Oh and he didn't get lost getting to the house which says wonders for him, daddy has such horrible sense of direction.
A little party time with the "cuz"ins!!
Almost everyone had a good night...daddy had a little too much fun with his cousins, father in law and Pierre so of course I was annoyed but what else is new. All the boys got trashed and I was worried they would be all hungover the next day but they seemed to recover ok. Needless to say the party was a hit!!! Best most exciting 90th birthday party I've ever been at! All the grand & great grands were in some form of black & purple. We had a nice dinner, dedication to grandpa (I miss him everyday), entertainment by Aunt Fannese, the 2 oldest great grands Morgan & Jacob and even a little musical selection by the other great grands (this little light of mine...I think maybe 3 out of the 10 knew the words and actually were singing when it was time to sing...so cute). The grand finale was none other than Family Feud hosted by Pierre. Let's just say that I gave the winnig answer agains my husband...even though he was faster to hit the buzzer I had the actually answers. It was so funny because the questions were put together by GG with some help from Uncle Sherman of course but when it came to answering the questions GG always gave some long answer that wasn't exactly what was written down or she would tell us of we were right or wrong before the other team had the chance to steal the question. It was nothing short of a hot mess but totally entertaining!!! Oh and the winning question was how many siblings does GG have and what are their names. Mike was close but couldn't remember Uncle Cecil. It's actually amazing he knew the names even though he has never met either one of her siblings (unfortunately they all passed before he got to meet them...before we got married). Just an amazing night with almost all the people that I love in one room and GG as the Center of attention as always which made it even more great. After the party & clean up we made a critical stop at White Castle for late night snacks for the hotel crew then headed back to figure out where the after party was at which ended up being in TT's room. We were a little worried about parting in the hotel because there was a sheriff in the lobby when we got back from the birthday party. We knew the night before there was a lot of noise in the hotel from another group of people but we didn't think the sheriff dept would be on patrol but they were. Eventually I decided to just talk to the front desk to figure out if it was cool or us to be hanging out or not and it turned out that the people and sheriff were cool and didn't mind us hanging out as long as we're weren't running the halls and being super loud (like the other people were) so we were all set. We ended up having a great time hanging out with all of the cousins drinking and eating it was a night to remember.
Before heading out we had to take a few pictures with the birthday girl… I love that lady more then anything else!
I can't believe I got a picture of both boys with GG this is definitely a prized possession.
GG and Mike...I love the face!
The trip back home was pretty uneventful the only issue was that when we went to return the rental car it seems like they had charged us more than three times the amount that we agreed on. But after some looking around and talking to Mike it looks like Mike signed up for some additional services that we didn't need which made us pay extra. I was very upset but Mike was just ready to get onto the plane not much we could've done anyway since he signed the agreement. We figured that he must have just been flustered when he got off of the plane since he was tired and delayed so much he didn't even pay attention to all the paperwork… That is exactly how they get you. Better luck next time. On the way back we found out about Mike's grandfather having a surprise 90th birthday party so Mike made plans to go back for that. Once we got home it took a few days to get the boys back in the routine for by the weekend we were all back to normal ...I think :-)
For some reason I had been wanting shrimp and grits for about three weeks so I've decided to make me a batch even though I'm the only person in the house that likes groups and one of three that likes shrimp I made a huge batch anyway and loved every bite of it.
So not even two weeks after we return Mike is heading back to New York for a quick one day trip. Somehow I was able to convince him to take Shaun along… Mainly because Shaun is still free and also because I felt like at least one of the great grand children should be there for the birthday party as well. Thankfully Shaun did very well on the plane Mike said, he didn't cry not even one time which is amazing!!! That made me feel a lot better about sending him off because I know Mike was very nervous about being with Shaun by his self for a day but in the end it seemed to work out. I know it sounds crazy to go for one day but Mike doesn't have any more vacation time and he doesn't want to miss the party which I agree so we just made a way for him to go for the day and come back the next day...it sounded good in theory. The reality is that once Mike got to the party and got busy with whatever he was doing somehow he forgot about the actual departure time and when he was arriving back at the airport he realize that he was about 40 minutes off which meant he wasn't able to make his flight. And not only was he late to the airport but the airline was making a big deal about him flying with Shaun without my permission because it look like the way the ticket was booked he had a one way flight which I guess is an indication of possibly kidnapping a child. I remember we had the same issue when we went through Amsterdam but I didn't know the same type of procedures existed for the US but I'm glad they do. Eventually he was able to sort that part out but the other issue was that his parents had already started to head back home and they had to turn around to come pick them up because they were not able to get rescheduled for the next flight until the next evening. And since traffic is so crazy in New York/New Jersey it took his parents about 1 1/2 hours to turn around to get them and only then was Mike just finishing up with the airline getting all of the rebooking figured out. So much drama but eventually it worked out. I guess the good part is that they got to stay an extra day and hang out with the family... it sure wasn't planned that way but I guess things happen for reason.
The Cutaia family at the 90th birthday party for Pepa
