No more crib.

This was such a happy moment for Ryan, but for some reason it was sad for us. This was the crib that all three boys slept in. One by one those milestones go by...

Danielle Kovach, 2010-2011 NJ Teacher of the Year!

Congratulations to my wife Danielle for winning New Jersey Teacher of the Year for 2010-2011!

Danielle's going to be on paid sabbatical after January. She will use the time to perform her duties as Teacher of the Year, which include numerous speaking engagements and trips. She'll get to meet the President and have tea with Joe Biden in the Rose Garden, to attend Space Camp in Huntsville and to be a presenter for the 2010 Teacher's Convention in Atlantic City in the High Tech Hall. The NJEA leased a new car for her since she'll be doing so much travelling.

NJEA.org - Special Education Teacher Danielle M. Kovach Named 2010-2011 NJ Teacher of the Year

Stitches Are Out!

Joey went to the plastic surgeon and had his stitches removed. It was no big deal, in fact they came out when the band-aid was pulled off.

I brought him to work with me for the rest of the day. We ate lunch at McDonalds, and Joey did odd jobs around the office and played on the gym equipment.

Wetdown!

What a great weekend! Saturday was Suckasunny Day (correct spelling) followed by a wetdown to celebrate Roxbury's purchase of a new tender. To those of you that have no idea what a tender is, they used to be called tankers until a few years ago when FEMA decided that the fire department needed to standardize it's terminology, so there would be less confusion while coordinating multi-jurisdictional responses for large incidents. In other words, they were afraid that if someone from New Jersey called for a tanker in California, they would get a water drop from an airplane instead of a truck. So if someone from California asks for an engine, do we get to send them a locomotive?

You say potato...

Anyway, the kids had a good time. There was a lot of good food and plenty of beer, and trucks from neighboring towns came in with lights and sirens before they stretched their lines and soaked our new TENDER.

Drum Roll, Please...

Bang away, buddy! Just keep it in the basement...

It was an interesting weekend. Michael played in two hockey games - his team lost to the Long Island Ice Cats on Saturday and they beat the NJ Devils on Sunday.

At Sunday's game, Joey hit his head on the bleachers and ended up with almost 20 stitches. He toughed it out and didn't even cry while the doctor put in the stitches. At one point he even made us laugh by acting like a monster! After having 3 boys, I guess we've come to realize that a weekend is not complete unless it involves something dramatic like an ambulance ride to the emergency room.

Next Sunday is Michael's hockey jamboree in Stockholm, and Joey's Karate school is having a demonstration on Saturday for Succasunna Day. I don't think Joey will be participating, but we may stop by to lend our support.

Unfortunately, our flag football season is over because of Joey's stitches. We just can't take any chances. However, I'm looking forward to watching many Jets games next to him on the couch!

Appetizer

When all you get from the garden is three peppers...

Make Salsa! Thanks hon.

Pepsi Shootout Hockey Tournament

We spent Labor Day weekend at a hockey tournament in West Chester, PA. Michael's team played well considering we had two games at 6:00 AM on Saturday and Sunday. They lost to Delaware in the semi-finals, but they took third place overall.

We stayed in a hotel that had two pools (the kids loved that) and between games we squeezed in a trip to the American Helicopter Museum. We saw a replica of the helicopter used in MASH, and a retired Apache. The kids got to sit in a few of the helicopters and play with the controls.

First Day of School 2010-11

The bus picked the boys up right on time at 8:46 AM on Tuesday the 7th. We had a great summer with quite a bit of travelling towards the end, so hopefully the kids have a lot to talk about at school today. The house is very quiet right now..

Wise guys

Ok, I get it... the kids want a pool.

Ohio Trip

We had another great trip to Ohio. Dad and I put up the new porch in record time, and the kids had fun at the playground, picking berries and playing with Smokey's cat door. Dad's garden probably produces more tomatoes than the state of New Jersey, and some of his zucchini are almost as big as Ryan. Those are the grillin' zucchinis :)

Down the Shore

We took a quick trip down to Seaside this weekend. It was good to relax and do some crab fishing, but the weekend wasn't exactly uneventful. For the past few weeks, beach-goers have been talking about their shark encounters in the waters around Seaside Heights and Seaside Park. We didn't think much about it until we heard that a six-foot sand shark came right up onto the beach about an hour before we got there. There's a pretty good video of it here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFVeibNMhLg

I guess you can't blame the shark, he's just going where the food is. Maybe he likes fried Twinkies and sun tan lotion?




..And here are some pictures from crabbing. In the first picture, Michael's trying to shoot me with a dead fish that ultimately ended up being used as bait. We caught close to 15 crabs with that dead fish!

Our Newest Rock Band Member!

Froggy

The first of Joey's three tadpoles was released into the wild. It's been over a week since he lost his tail and turned into a frog, so it was time for him to get his own pad.

He now lives in the water retention basin off Eyland Avenue.

Biking at Kittatinny

Michael and I took the bikes up to Kittatinny State Park on Sunday to do some trail riding. We did about 4 miles around the park, found some pretty good fishing holes and watched the planes land and take off at the airport. Afterwards we stopped at McDonalds for lunch.

Lake Aeroflex

We went fishing at Lake Aeroflex in Andover yesterday. There’s a small airport at one end of the lake, and the runway is positioned so the planes have to land and take off over the water. The fishing wasn’t all that great but it was fun watching the planes fly right over us.

Danielle won the “first fish” contest and her reward was an apple pie. Unfortunately, she had to make it herself because she’s the only one that knows how to cook.

Moon Confusion

Michael: Neil Armstrong was the first man to walk on the moon.

Me: That's right, do you remember who was with him?

Michael: (deep in thought)
Me: Here's a clue.. his first name was Buzz.

Michael: (eyes wide) "Buzz Lightyear!"

Franklin Mine

Danielle and I took the kids to the Franklin Mineral Museum on Sunday. It was HOT, but luckily most of the tour was inside air-conditioned buildings. There were some interesting rocks but very few visitors. Local attractions like the Franklin Mine and Wild West City seem to be having a hard time in this economy, probably because they're competing with places like Great Adventure and Action Park.

The kids did some mining and found some willemite, franklinite and calcite. We used our black light at home to see how the willemite and calcite phosphoresce in green and red.

Driveway Driving

It will be 14 years, 8 months and 18 days from today when Ryan will be asking me for the car keys. With any luck, my car will still be running (it's a Honda.. it could happen).

Beatin' the heat wave!

Temperatures hovered in the upper 90's all weekend, but we found some fun ways to beat the heat.

Stephen and Coleen's wedding

Everything went great, from the rehearsal to the reception. Michael performed his usher duties flawlessly, and Joey walked the rings down the aisle and was rewarded with a box of legos in his pew.

The only unplanned event happened when Pastor Foss hurt his knee while dancing. After a quick trip by ambulance to the emergency room, doctors confirmed he tore a ligament and dislocated his knee cap. He'll be having surgery this week in Long Island.