Congrats to Uncle Sean & Aunt Jenny

The wedding weekend was lovely, even if the rain was not. It was a little cool and rainy but we muddled through and still had a good time.

We started the trip on Thursday morning and drove 4 hours to Manasquan, New Jersey to stay with my Aunt Gail (Izzi's Great Aunt). We spent the entire afternoon and early evening on the beach. When we drove into town it was about 105 degrees (heat index) and even with the A/C on in the car, we were drenched with sweat when we arrived at Gail's. We quickly threw our bathing suits on and headed to the beach in Spring Lake, NJ and it was at least 15 degrees cooler there with a fabulous breeze off the Atlantic Ocean.

My cousins, Colin and Curran, both showed up with their wives and children and we had a great time catching up with family. We spent the night at Aunt Gail's house and finished the trip to Massachusetts on Friday morning. Aunt Gail followed us up and we arrived within a few minutes of each other.

We got to Massachusetts around 2pm on Friday and jumped into the hotel pool, again to cool off after a hot drive in the car. Then we had the Rehearsal and Dinner that night.

Saturday we had the whole day free since the wedding didn't start until 6:30pm. Mommy had plotted out all kinds of cool stuff for us to do that day, to explore the area. Unfortunately, all the cool stuff was outside. And it was raining. A lot.

So I got to go to a Dinosaur Fossil place with Grandpa and Daddy for a little bit that day, while Mommy went shopping with the girls. Then when we all met up again, Mommy & Daddy took me over to the Yankee Candle Flagship store. Boy was it HUGE! And so cool inside! They had a nighttime room with stars all over the ceiling and Christmas trees and villages and trains all over the room. And it SNOWED in there every 4 minutes. But it was a warm snow since it wasn't real.

They also had a huge toy store and we bumped into Santa and Mrs. Claus!!! He talked to me for a long time and helped me make a special butterfly out of a pipe cleaner and some tissue paper. It was so much fun, and I told Santa I'd been a good girl so far this year! Just 6 months to go!

The wedding took place at Magic Wings Butterfly Conservatory in South Deerfield, MA. It was a greenhouse type room/area with tons of trees and waterfalls and ponds and gazebos and benches and beautiful lights. And they have over 4,000 butterflies in there!!! They were everywhere, landing on people's heads and shirts, floating all around us. It was really cool! Mommy was a little bit afraid but I told her butterflies don't make any noise so she would be safe.

I had a very special job in the wedding ceremony. Uncle Sean & Aunt Jenny asked me to be a flower girl along with Jenny's niece, Abby. I had so much fun getting dressed up like a princess and everyone said I did a really good job.

After the ceremony, we headed to a restaurant called Chandler's (at the Yankee Candle flagship store) for the reception. I was really really tired by that point and was kind of in a bad mood but I made it through to the end and even did a little dance party with the other kids.

On Sunday, we didn't get to split the trip up so we had a long 9-hour drive back to Edgewater. Thankfully, Mommy & Daddy had purchased a new portable DVD player for the trip so I watched movies most of the time. They also gave me dramamine so I didn't get car sick. That worked like a charm. No car sickness and I was drowsy and watching movies so the ride was peaceful (at least that's what they said).

Congratulations to Uncle Sean & Aunt Jenny!

Flower Girl

We're leaving tomorrow for Uncle Sean's wedding. What? Yes, Uncle Sean is getting hitched. His wife's name will be --- Jennifer Egan. Weird for me, but I guess I'll cope. I gave up the name 10.5 years ago so I guess I can pass it on. At least the name is being passed on to a reputable lady :)

Jenny & Sean asked Isabelle to be a flower girl in the wedding. I will post pictures as soon as I can. She is wearing a beautiful Lilly Pulitzer dress that her new soon-to-be Aunt Jenny bought for her (see pic on the left). It's white cotton lace with a hot pink flower applique on it, simply gorgeous. (That's a picture of the dress to the left, not a pic of Isabelle in the dress -- she hasn't gotten THAT big since you last saw her!)

When searching for white sandals, I found a pair with little white butterflies on the shoes. The wedding ceremony is at a place called "Magic Wings" which is a butterfly conservatory so Isabelle will be playing her part.

We've been practicing her flower girl duties all week, we hope she's up for the task. Worst case scenario, I will walk down the aisle with her if she's scared to go it alone. She'll have another fellow flower girl in Jenny's niece, Abby, who is 5 years old. But Iz tends to get a bit gun-shy when she doesn't know people so we'll just have to see how the whole thing goes down.

We're looking forward to the long weekend with family. But we are dreading the 8-hour car drive home on Sunday. On the trip up to Massachusetts, we're splitting the trip in half by driving to my Aunt Gail's house tomorrow in New Jersey. We'll hit the beach (it's supposed to be 100 degrees tomorrow!!!) and then finish the trip on Friday. But we have to the trip home in one straight-through drive to get back to work by Monday. We bought a portable DVD player with headphones and have 15 movies along for the ride. Hopefully we can make it work.

Congrats to Uncle Sean and Aunt Jenny! We can't wait to see everyone.

Ravens Magic

Izzi found a Ravens football toy in the house yesterday and she came into the kitchen while Ed & I were making dinner. She said...(and i quote)...

"Mommy! Daddy! I just took this RAVEN and I squashed it into a STEEWER head. And then I squashed it into a COLT head. And now they are DEAD!"

So, she's a true Ravens fan, even at 3! She may not be there with the Orioles yet, but hopefully she'll get there one day.

Oriole Magic

Uncle Don and Aunt Susan treated the whole family to a day out to Camden Yards on Mother's Day this year. Here are some pics from the day. We had great weather and a fun day together. Too bad the O's lost.

Thanks for my Dugout League subscription again, Uncle Don. I got a great new lunch box out of the deal, and that super cool lariat in the pic below.

Overheard in the Wonderful World of Iz

I walked into the living room tonight while Ed and Isabelle were working on a special art project. Right when I walked in, Ed said to Isabelle, "Do you have any more fairy balls over there? I need fairy balls to stick right here."

I turned around and walked out of the room, ha ha.

Healthy Habits

Isabelle was heading to swim class with Ed on Saturday. Before she left, I asked her what color lollipop she was going to choose today (the kids get to pick a lollipop on their way out if they have a good class).

She got a serious look on her face and said, "Well, actually, Mommy, I'm not going to take a lollipop today. Because lollipops don't make us healthy."

Maybe the Easter Bunny should pack apples and oranges into her basket this year instead of candy!

Where are you going? Where have you been?

Things have been so hectic the last few weeks, I've neglected Izzi's blog so I apologize. Some updates on the Siler's antics...

• Ed has been hard at work on his Masters Degree. He's taking online classes and thankfully has a one-month breather this month (April) until his next class starts in May.
• We have been hard at work doing some very long overdue home improvements, mostly focusing on the outside right now. We tore down the dilapidated old fence (destroyed by the double blizzard of 2010). The new fence is ordered and that will be started (hopefully) this weekend, weather permitting.
• We also ripped out our old dry-rotted wooden porch and spent two days this past week building a new one. It's low to the ground, so it's more like a wooden patio, but anything over 8 inches above grade required a building permit, so we skirted the system and built a low deck. We're hoping this will improve our summer dinners al fresco since we'll be above the wet sloppy yard that we always have in Edgewater since we're so close to the water.
• I signed up for a 10-week intensive online writing course (Fiction). I'm in week 4 right now and trying to keep up with all the homework, critiques of other student's writings, and balancing that with a full-time job and family life. There just aren't enough hours in the day sometimes.

As for Isabelle, she's as spunky as ever. We're in a consistent mode of dress-up at this stage. She is always wearing a princess dress, or Minnie Mouse ears, or a queen hat, or whatever. She acts out full episodes of her favorite cartoon, The Backyardigans, which typically requires Ed & I to play one of the parts. Of course, Iz always gets to be the nice characters while Ed & I take the spot of the wicked witch, or the mean Giant, or the ugly Beast. I guess it goes with the territory since she is an only child. I do really think that she's heading for the theater one day, if she keeps up this active of an imagination and playing out stories, we might have a budding artist on our hands. Too bad she can't keep a tune to save her life when she tries to sing.

We recently discovered that Isabelle has seasonal allergies. She had a pretty severe allergic attack about a month ago. We thought it was a pesky cold but then one day she woke up from nap screaming that her ear hurt. We took her to the Pediatrician who told us she ruptured her eardrum. Then we got her an emergency appointment at her ENT who told us the eardrum was fine (thanks, Pediatrician, for freaking us out). She had an ear infection in one ear (the ear where the tube has already fallen out on its own) and then the other ear was really full of fluid, but the tube was doing its job draining everything so that one was not infected.

We have to go back in June for a follow-up. If her ears have not fully drained of fluid at that point, then we are looking at another surgery this summer. They will remove the one tube, put two new ear tubes in. They will also remove her tonsils since they have to put her under anyway. We knew her tonsils would have to come out one day but they like to wait until kids are 5 or older now, unless the tonsils have repeat infections. Thankfully, Isabelle's have not been infected (yet) but they are HUGE and referred to as "kissing tonsils" because they actually touch each other in the back of her throat. This leads to sleeping problems b/c she cannot breathe efficiently when she lies down. Plus with the allergies, she was really having some sleeping issues.

She is now on daily allergy medications (one oral liquid, and one nose spray). We'll see what the ENT says when we return in June. We don't have an appointment date yet, they are going to call us when the June books open up for appointments.

Anyway, sorry for the long post. Wanted to update everyone on the goings-on around here. Things are not going to slow down anytime soon but I'll try to post more regularly. What we have coming up...

• Our film-making contest (48-Hour Film Project) is coming up in two weeks (April 29-May 1)
• Ed starts his next Graduate class in May
• Uncle Don & Aunt Susan, Uncle Sean & Jenny come to town in May
• Jen has to travel to Denver for work the first week of June
• ENT follow-up in June -- surgery in June???
• Uncle Sean and soon-to-be-Aunt Jenny get married June 11

I'm tired just typing it all!