Back to Newport for a few pictures!

Everyone who knows me knows that ever since the first time I visited Rosecliff Mansion in Newport I joked with my dad that I was going to get married there. It is gorgeous -as you can see - and has a heart shaped staircase and veranda overlooking the ocean. When I met and married Bob dreams of a reception at Rosecliff flew out the window in exchange for the quickest way to get married and be able to live and start our life together. Molly - our middle child is on the quiet side and makes little trouble in the scheme of things but sometimes she feels a bit forgotten in our day to day chaos of keeping things together so I was looking for a special Mommy and daughter activity for us. When I suggested Rosecliff she lit up and threw on her best Hannah Montana t-shirt. And now I remember why I LOVE these days together with her. She is bright, funny and just beams when being given individual time with one of us - on top of that she is intuitive and gracious.

Molly - girl near the overlook behind Rosecliff.
I'm not sure if you can see the wall of rocks behind Molly in this picture but she thought it was the greatest thing. Ever since MOlly was under a year old she has had a thing for rocks and nothing has changed. She collects rocks from everywhere we go and whenever I suggest getting a gift for someone at one of our stops Molly will usually decide instead to pick a perfect rock for the person - my parents have been the recipients of Many Many Many rocks and this time Daddy was the lucky recipient of a rock, pebble, twig and leaf from Rosecliff.

My girl making a wish in the wishing well - she wished for three things according to her.
1. The camp rock dolls for her birthday. 2. Caroline to get here before her birthday so she can be at her party and 3. a brother for Peter (can you say fat chance on that one?)

Molly loved all of the flower gardens.
The girls out for a date at the mansions - she kept looking up at me and saying "isn't this fun, Mommy?"
This is Molly in the rose garden outside - at one point we were looking around and talking about how beautiful the garden was and she turned to me and said "yeah, Mommy, just like our beautiful rose garden at home." We have 2 rose bushes with 4 flowers each that are surrounded by weeds. At another point inside the house I was telling her about how I wanted to get married here when I was younger - I asked if she could imagine getting married here and her response was "Or I could get married at our house in our beautiful back yard."
Molly and the mansion - she loved it and all of the clothing displays inside.

The moral of the story for me that day was that big dreams are great but being happy with what you have is the key to happiness. My daughter is just amazing and she doesn't even realize it.

I love the way Molly sleeps -she always finds the weirdest positions - this is just one of those positions that I found funny!


The kids and Grammy with their ice cream.
I love how Abby eats ice cream with such gusto - it reminds me of the pictures of my cousin Eileen when we were little - there was always more on her chin than in her mouth!
Katie playing on the floor and looking adorable.
This is Julia exasperated because she had to leave the dolls she was playing with to go talk to her parents on the phone. When Auntie Jane finally let the poor kid hang up she looked at me and said. "Why do they want to talk to me - I'm only in Newport with my counsins!" Wait till she's a mom - Newport will seem like Africa.
Grammy and Annie on a sleepy morning!

Abby Cadabie in the pool looking cute!
My girl in her 2 piece bathing suit from KK sunbathing!
Papa and the girls warming up after a long swim!
Uncle Ed finally found an effective way to get the boys out of the pool.

The boys were not thrilled when Annie emptied their bag of tickets but we thought she was adorable! BTW - the kids ended up with a collective 4,806 tickets - that's a lot of video games.
More of Annie and her tickets.
Annie in her cute little ladybug bathing suit - she loved being down at the pool with the big kids even if she wasn't in the pool.
Annie's new smile - she cracks herself up - this was her screeching at the kids to come play with her.
My sweetie pie looking goofy!

I loved these pictures of the kids in their matching pajamas - what a gorgeous brood we have.
Tyler and Peter in their incredible hulk pajamas - they both wore them 2 nights in a row.
The girls in their HSM pajamams - I think they look a little bit alike in this picture.
Silly faces and the end to my Newport pictures - pathetic I know. I actually have a bunch from the first few days but downloaded them to a different computer and have no idea how to get to them now.

25 days left until school starts - is that possible?? Our uniforms switched this year so get your eyes ready for strictly red shirts and khaki pants - yikes! I would have preferred navy and khaki but at least they gave us time to buy the right stuff this year! Peter is apprehensive about starting school but Molly is chomping at the bit - probably because she knows her teacher (Peter's from last year) and Peter doesn't know his.

Big weekend in our house as the kids get ready to switch bedrooms - Molly and Ann are going into Pete's room and he is going into their room since we now have to make room for another little girl and Pete currently has the bigger room. There will be painting and decorating galore at the H-W home this weekend so if you're bored stay away or we'll put you to work. We do have a little surprise for the kids in the form of a room at the Marriott for the night - my docs strongly suggested my not sleeping in a newly painted house at this stage of the pregnancy so, Oh darn - we'll have to go sleep in the most comfortable beds on earth and swim till our hearts content!

I'm off to curl up with my new book. If there are any Neil Diamond fans out there I strongly urge you to get his new CD - I am obssessed with it!

1 more day until Auntie Beth gets home and 9 days since Pete sucked his thumb!

GNM - ILY!