Philly - Night One!

The last blog was really cool except that my cute little captions (no comment from the peanut gallery) keep getting deleted so no one could tell what we were doing. The only thing that appears not to get deleted is at the top so.................yes - this section will be rather wordy! We had a great night today in Philly - a few observations. Philadephia is (and this is a consensus on the part of the H-W family) is filthy and gross. It's cool and there is lots to do but it is disgustingly dirty and there is more litter than any city we have ever visited. Now it's no shock to anyone that I am in love with Washington DC but we are truly spoiled by it and I was not expecting the degree of homelessness and dirt we have found in this city. We went into Central Philly for dinner and to walk around and we saw no less than 300 homeless people - it is heartbreaking. I have to admit to being stumped on how to explain it to the kids!

We found this wonderful Italian restaurant right by the Convention Center and had a phenomenal dinner - it is the type of place that has a great atmosphere and is loud enough that we don't really disturb too many people. The portions were huge, the service great and the prices reasonable - it would be a favorite if they had one near us!

We also walked around a bit and decided what to do tomorrow. The plan is (and God knows it can change in an instant) to go on the Trolley Tour - it takes you to 20 sites and you can get off and visit or just stay on and see everything in 2 hours. We are going to stop at a few spots and make sure we are off in time for a special dinner at "The Melting Pot". Yes - it is a totally fondue restaurant that Molly is incredibly intrigued by and is reasonable enough for us to indulge in some fun!

I'm still going to add my captions but you will likely not see them! GNM - ILY!

Waiting for dinner!Hungry kids!Self Protrait of Molly!Lizzie was SO tired but she rallied when she saw the pasta and meatballs!Pasta for everyone!We have no idea what this was but the kids thought it was cool!Dominos - when I said that there were Dominos my entire family looked for Dominos Pizza!Big kids and Daddy by City Hall - they loved the neon clock.Tubby time - Annie broke out in an awful rash from the chlorine in the pool so she soaked in a tub for a long time!

Day One - Philly, Harding-Wheeler style!

Apparently H-W style means beginning at 6 a.m. SO we got to the hotel at 8:45 last night after a realatively easy drive with the exception of Ellie screaming for no reason for 45 minutes- checked in - got the kids a snack and started getting ready for bed. At 1 a.m. Molly and Ellie were the only H-W children asleep. Finally we got everyone in only to have Lizzie wake up at 4 and chuck toys at Ellie until she also woke up. Got her back to sleep until Ellie woke for good at 6 a.m.

Some pictures to tide you over!

It takes a really long time for me to upload pictures on this computer but my parents convinced me to blog anyways! When your fans want pictures - how can you deny them? So I have no Halloween pictures yet - too many to upload and hoping to get my laptop back before I leave for Nashville on Tuesday! These are just fun - Mommy pictures - as Molly calls them. The correct defintiion of that is best explained by my daughter who says that "My mommy takes pictures at the weirdest times - like she just looks over and says that we are the cutest thing ever and she needs to get a picture of us - even if we are in our underwear or look really bad that time. Sometimes she takes pictures when we are sleeping - even if we have drool in our mouth - eww!" I love my Molly-girl!

We lucked out this weekend because Patrick was at a football game and Karla had some things to do so we got to hang with Abby, Katie and Tyler! My nieces and nephew ar the easiest, most wonderful kids I have ever experienced. They just go with the flow - eat what I give them, play what the kids want to play and humor the babies with lots of attention! I love having them with us - sometimes I wish that we could hide so that Auntie couldn't take them back!

Thank you again to Papa for letting me use his computer to keep blogging - what would we do without our Papa!

Annie with the sun shining on her her beautiful baby face!
My Molly girl loving the warm fall day!

MY handsome boy playing football with Mommy. He was not thrilled that Daddy was incapacitated but he made do with me.

Sweet Katie with those big blue eyes - what a beauty! She loved spending some time with Annie but Uncle BOb was the real hit!

Our sweet girl - I love that smile!

Abby was leaving our house to go to Irish Step Dancing and had to get into her Halloween costume. She was the most beautiful Snowflake princess I have ever seen!

My goddaughter - the most beautiful princess!

Annie can not get enough of Tyler - she adores him - always has! Since the day she was born Annie has wanted to be with Tyler whenever possible.

My beautiful baby girl literally stopping to smell the roses!

Annie loving on Tyler!

I was going to post this adorable video of Katie talking to Abby and Molly yesterday but I uploaded it for 2 hours and finally gave up when it was still not done.

Bob and I just got back from a nice dinner out thanks to Auntie Meg who came and babysat for the chickies so that we could go out. Come to think of it we used a gift card that Auntie Meg got me for my birthday, too, so she really rocks!

And finally - the biggest news - Molly got the Citizen of the Month Award at school this month! She is so proud of herself and so are Bob and I - she works very hard and takes being kind and helpful very seriously. Miss Kelly is certainly bringing out the best in Molly - she loves school and everything that goes along with it - it is so exciting to see her so enthusiastic and motivated to do well. So that's enough for tonight! GNM - ILY!