All good things must come to an end

The day has finally arrived, must to my dismay. Tomorrow I will return to New York. While I never tire of the bustling city and adorable kiddies, I am very sad to leave home. This summer has been amazing and it could not have been better than spending it with my family. I'm going to write about a few highlights, starting with July (in chronological order)

1. Top of the Town: Shortly after coming home from New York, I went to a Berico work party at Top of the Town in Arlington. This was my first time meeting the people Michael works with, and they are great. Top of the Town offered an amazing view of DC. It was beautiful by day and night.

2. Riley on the Move: Another highlight was when Riley started crawling. While this picture is not of her first time crawling, it was pretty soon after. Now she not only crawls but can pull herself up into a standing position from just about anything. I predict she will be walking by the end of September.




3. Lake George: Lake George, as always was spectacular. With no internet, TV, cell phone reception, or phones at all, it is the most peaceful place. Dad and I fished by day and ate fish by night. Mom has a way of cooking our small and largemouth bass in a way that even people who do not like fish love it (fried) . At one point Dad and I were out on the lake an our boat died. Luckily a really nice couple found us, tied a rope to our boat, and tugged us across the lake to the marina. It actually ended up being a fun experience, even though we lost some fishing time.




4. Quality Avery Time: Home would never be the same without Avery "the ham" Tullo. Between cracking jokes, collecting sticks, running around, and kissing Riley, it is rare to see Aves sitting down. In the picture on the left, Avery is going for a walk with Poppy to the stop sign. On the right she is testing the lemonade.

5. Sweat shop: Since life is always crazy with full time work and full time school, I tried to get a lot of prep work done before going back. Since I didn't find out what classroom I was getting until a few days ago (more on that later), I could only really prepare very "teachery" stuff like for the bulletin boards. Since I laminate everything, I set up my own sweatshop of workers which mainly consists of Mom, Dad, and occasionally Rachel and Chris (if 2 minutes counts). Thanks so much for all your help!

That concludes my July highlights. I will get to August soon...I promise it won't be another year =)

Italian Pride

I got this dress for Avery in Little Italy. At 15 months she already has so much Italian pride!

What does a ghost say?

Avery has perfected the ghost face!

Beach (part of ) Week

Today is my second day of work this summer. After one week off I somehow have found myself at work already and it is a little distressing =) However, my kids are 4 and 5 years old so they are such babies. They are ridiculously cute and I'm sure it will take no time to fall in love with them. (Maybe I already have!)
Here are some pictures from Central Park. The first ones are from the north woods. The second ones are from the reservoir, which is a block from my apartment, at sunrise.
I hope everyone is enjoying their summer!

Rachel does New York

Rachel came to the city for a conference at TC. Luckily I finished the semester at the beginning of the week and took a day off to go sightseeing. On Tuesday we went to Ground Zero, had lunch in Chinatown, and dessert in Little Italy. When we went out for a slice of New York style pizza that night, we ran into one of my friends, Derek, and went to show Rachel the amazing view from his apartment. Later that week we went to the Rainbow room for a spectacular view of the Empire State building and the skyline during the day, sunset, and at night. We called it a night after taking the ferry to Staten Island and back. The next morning we got up and headed down Broadway for a walk and window shopping along the way to Crumbs Bakery. After a few hours in Central Park we went back to my apartment for a short rest before heading to Broadway to see Avenue Q! Rachel headed back to Virginia today and New York misses her already =)

Happy Birthday, Mom! I hope you have a wonderful day. You are the best mom ever and I can't even dream of a better one. I miss you very much.