Debby's Shower Weekend

Debby's festivities started out on Friday night with dinner in NYC.  Her bridesmaids and I planned to surprise her at Peter and Meg's apartment in the city and then take her out to dinner.  Her fiance, Joe, lured her into the city under the pretense of dinner with a few of his college professors that were in town for the weekend.  On the drive in, he realized he "forgot" a belt and since the restaurant happened to be just a few blocks from Pete and Meg's place, he called to see if he could borrow one from Pete.  Debby ran up to get the belt and when she opened the door, she was greeted with a surprise.  Meg had champagne on ice and Debby's college friends had taken care of the decorations for the evening.

Pete, Debby and I before heading to dinner.

On Saturday, Debby spent the day with her college friends, while I worked with Meg, Amanda (Debby's high school friend and bridesmaid) and Aunt Nancy to set things up.  We had another family bridal shower at noon that day, so my Mom attended that shower while we were getting things ready.  Pete and Dad hauled all of our decorations in and set up a great balloon wall to help partition the room.  We had the shower in the Parish Hall of the Bayport United Methodist Church, which is the church that my dad's family belongs to.  The hall was recently renovated with funds donated by my Aunt Carol upon her passing.  We were the first party held in the renovated hall and I think it was a great choice!  The room was beautiful and the food, catered by Avino's Italian Table, was delicious!

My mom and I had a baking/cooking theme in mind for the decorations, so my dad made a beautiful wishing well fashioned to look like a giant cooking pot.

For the centerpieces, we used white mixing bowls filled with the ingredients for seven layer bars and silk flowers.  One chair at each table had the recipe taped under the seat and that person won the centerpiece.  We also played a game where shower guests had to guess Debby and Joe's age in a variety of photos and another where they had to see how many different words they could making using only the letters in Debby and Joe's name.  We handed out raffle tickets and called numbers for prizes throughout the gift opening.

The shower favors were wooden spoons filled with dark chocolate Hershey kisses, made to look like flowers.  My mom and some of her close friends did all the work to make the centerpieces and favors.

Three generations from the Caponi side of the family - me, my mom, my grandmother and my sister.

Here's a nice shot of me with my mother-in-law.

And one with me and Meg!

The picture below is of Debby with all her bridesmaids and her flower girl, Sophia.

Colleen was on bow hat duty while Debby opened her gifts.  She was a little nervous about having this responsibility, seeing as she had never made a bow hat before, but I think she did a fantastic job!  Debby will have a fabulous bouquet for her rehearsal!

My dad picked Brennan up from Kerry and Phil's house towards the end of the shower, so he could make an appearance and see some family members that he had never met before.  Brennan and Sophia took right to each other.  He is the ring bearer (along with Tyler) and Sophia is the flower girl.  I think they will have a fun time dancing together at the wedding!

Months of planning and work went into this weekend and it was so much fun to see it all come together!  Mom, thank you for everything you did to make it happen!  Debby, congrats and I love you!  Can't wait for the wedding in August!

Weekend in NY

I drove up to NY with the boys last Wednesday in preparation for Debby's surprise shower weekend.  I'll do a separate post on the shower activities, but here is a glimpse of what the boys were up to while I was busy with the girls!  While I was on my way to dinner in NYC on Friday afternoon, my parents took Brennan and Tyler to one of the nearby vineyards that has animals.  Brennan was apparently fearless and was happy to feed goats, pigs, a donkey and this ox!

Peter and Meghan drove back to Long Island with me after dinner on Friday and the boys were very happy to see Uncle Pete on Saturday morning.

Peter and Meg had recently vacationed in Mexico and brought Brennan back luchador (Mexican wrestler) masks.  Brennan loved it and went nuts fighting Uncle Pete.  Brian had trained him well for this moment!

During the bridal shower on Saturday afternoon, Aunt Kerry and Uncle Philip watched the boys.  They took the boys to a pirate festival, so Brennan wore his costume.  The kids had a great time at the festival and Brennan really enjoyed walking on the beach as well!  The weather was beautiful, but on the cool side for June.  I'm looking forward to coming up again this summer when we can actually take the kids in the water!

On Sunday, while I was at brunch, Dad and Pete took Brennan to Meg's parent's home, where they have a chicken coop.  Brennan loved holding the chicks and wanted to take a little white, fluffy one home for himself!

Everyone really pitched in to watch the boys for me this weekend, which was so nice and helpful, since I was up without Brian.  We got a visit in with Grandma and Grandpa Pecorino on Thursday.  And, although I don't have any photos, Brennan got to camp out with Uncle Pete and Meg on Saturday night!  They set a tent out in my parents back yard and endured a night of Brennan's crazy sleeping positions.  Brennan had fun playing with my cousins Sophia and Andrew and we were able to visit my grandparents for a bit on Father's Day.  The boys did pretty good on the drive up and back, but I was happy to get home to Brian yesterday!

Playing at Home, Worms and a Baby Dedication

I've been meaning to sit down and write a few posts, but have been slacking, so bear with me as I cover a lot in one large post.  Brennan has taken a liking to posing for pictures with Tyler.  He often tries to hold Tyler while shouting, "take a picture."  Tyler isn't willing to be man-handled by Brennan for too long, so my window of opportunity for a good photo is short, but I managed to snap this one.  It's funny because Tyler has started fighting back a bit when Brennan comes for him.  A few nights ago, we were upstairs after the boys had taken a bath and Tyler basically lunged for Brennan and knocked him right in the stomach (while he was sitting.)  It seemed intentional, which was pretty funny.

Tyler LOVES to play in the spice rack.  Our kitchen is often a land mind of spices and Tupperware.   His other favorite place is the pantry, where he likes to roll canned goods out.  It amazes me that regardless of where he is downstairs, if he hears the pantry door open, he speed crawls over to try to get his hands on a can of something.

Our church had a baby dedication last Sunday and we had Tyler dedicated.  Tyler was pretty agreeable for the service.  If you are wondering, yes, that is our pastor.

Brennan held his first worm last weekend.  We were walking in the neighborhood and found the worm on the sidewalk.  Brennan didn't want to touch him at first, so I willed myself to pick it up.  I didn't think I was scared to touch a worm until I had to touch a worm.  Ha.  But, I just told myself exactly what I was telling Brennan - it can't bite, it won't hurt me!  And, it didn't.  Brennan was so pleased with himself and told the worm how much he loved him, but by the time we got home, the worm was pretty close to dead.  I thought it was maybe too hot/dry in Brennan's hand, so we sprayed it with some water, but it was a goner.  Brennan didn't take the worm's passing very well.  We buried him and said a few words in memory of our dear friend, Wormie.

The weather has been so cool for June.  It's been such a rare treat to have the windows open when pollen isn't coating the furniture.  I have had mixed feelings about letting Tyler crawl on the deck, for fear of splinters, but gave up on that fear this week.  He has had a lot of fun playing in the sand table with Brennan and so far, he's been splinter free.

He likes climbing on the kids picnic table.

I thought this was a great shot of T-man's adorable face!