Peyton's Birthday (yep, from way back in May)

Peyton's birthday was a Mad Scientist theme! Since her and our good friends' son Alex are in the same class and their birthdays are 2 days apart we decided to do a double birthday party. The Ariri family was gracious enough to have it at their home and it was a blast to plan.

The invitations were created by my computer savvy husband. We created an "I.D. badge" for each child and asked them to bring it with them as it was their "key card" to get into the lab. We rolled them up and put them into test tubes
along with a fizzy experiment they could do at home. We encouraged them to come with their craziest Mad Scientist look too!







Upon arriving to the "Lab" the professors were given a "retinal scan" and their "I.D.badge/keycard" scanned for entry. (we used glow sticks to wave across their eyes and pretended to slide their card on the side of a laptop). We set up the laptop to a text to speech site and had it say "Welcome to AP Labs Professor (child's name)" as each kids I.D. was "approved".



We had "lab aprons" for them to decorate upon arrival and made boxed lunches for the kids to eat in the "cafeteria". The cake was a Mad Scientist of course compliments of our friend Rose, and we had awesome green and purple swirled cupcakes topped with sanding sugar! To top the party off we had two "Mad Scientist" come to do a show for everyone. At the end of the show each child got to make slime to take home.
There were LOTS of friends and family there and even though it was blazing hot (thank God for the snow cone machine Mr. Frontino brought) everyone had a great time.







Peyton and Alex got so many presents it was crazy. We want to thank everyone for their generosity. She still has some that we are saving for a rainy day...which happens here A LOT by the way.



THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!

The final DOT.

After another Saturday spent in the DOT it is official (sniff sniff) we have our PA drivers lic. It was raining, it was crowded, and it was another long wait. Ah, but this time we were smarter. Although it appeared to be a long wait and our tickets even said it would be Jason and I thought by some miracle maybe they move faster than they do in CA and wouldn't dare leave our seats the week before. This time was different, we learned from our mistake and Jason went inside to pull our numbers and scoped out the waiting room while I stayed in the dry car with the girls. He came back to the car and confirmed just what I thought, another long day waiting at the DOT. We ended up driving across the shopping center to pick up lunch and eat in the car. A long while later we went in and took care of business. We tried to keep our CA lic. telling them that we own a home out there and reside there part time (LOL) and the guy said no deal. You can not hold dual lic. in separate states. So much for that.

Now to register the car!

The DOT drama continues!

It's Saturday early afternoon and the Corsetti family piles in the car for a fun and exciting adventure to the DOT, DMV for those of you back home. Just like any DMV in Cali the place is disgustingly crowded with a wait time of forever. We grab our numbers, 153 and 154; and we take a seat. We hear a voice calling number 103...uh, hold the phone...did you just hear them call 1...0...3, we have 50 people to go before us! Thankfully people are impatient and leave so realistically we only have about 35 people in front of us. Over two hours later it is our turn and all is forgiven as we reach the counter. Oops, spoke too soon...
As we happily hand over all of our forms and announce our request for a PA drivers lic. we are told the system is down. Say what??? That's right the system is down, apparently it happens. They can enter some of our paperwork but we will have to come back and repeat the whole waiting process over again. Are you kidding me! Uh, nope; they are not. We did what we could then left the stupid DOT and headed over to Cici's for lunch. The only good part about that whole trip was that we did not hit traffic coming home because it was so late in the day.

Guess where you'll find us this Saturday?

O...M...G!

OK I am having a moment, crazy moment, irritated moment, confused moment, frustrated moment, humorous moment, what in the world moment; and I have to get it out. But since I live way far away from everyone and it is 10am here which means it is 7am back home I can't call anyone either! So here goes...

I just got off the phone with the PennDot (Pennsylvania Department of Transportation) who connected me to the Drivers License Center to find out how to transfer over my CA. lic to PA. I must visit a PennDot Photo and Exam Center within 60 days with the following:
Current License (which I must surrender...so sad)
Social Security Card
Proof of ID (US issued birth cert. with raised seal, cert. of US citizenship, cert. of Naturalization , or valid past port. If the name is different on any of the documents then you must provide one of the following as well: marriage cert., divorce decree, or court order.)
2 Proofs of residency (acceptable forms are utility bill, lease agreement, tax records, W2, mortgage doc., or CURRENT WEAPONS PERMIT)
Check or Money Order for $28

Sounds pretty simple right? Not for me! Since there are no utilities in my name, I have no tax records for the state, no mortgage doc. we'll- not for PA anyway, I do not own a weapon (are you kidding me with this one!), and the last time I checked "Mommies" aren't issued W2's.

That KILLS me...I can show them proof of a weapons permit (holy crap where am I living) but a regular ole' credit card bill won't do! So I have to travel back to the 50's and have my HUSBAND take me to the DLC (drivers lic. center) so he can tell them I live here too.

To get information on how to register the van I had to speak with a completely different office. Guess what...yep, I have to have my PA lic. before I can do anything with the van LOL.

Does it strike anyone else odd that they have different centers for license and registration? That means TWO trips of loading and unloading the girls in the van to stand in lines at places that are "boring" cause there's "nothing to do here". We'll at least it's not raining today (YET).

Pittsburgh We HAVE Arrived!

We made it safely and the Corsetti family is reunited once again! Too bad we can't say as much for our belongings. The moving company (who I may name publicly later if they don't make things right) LOST the hardware to Addison's crib along with many other losses and damages, but for now our poor baby sleeps in a play pen. The van (transported by another company) also delivered the car with some damages. We'll at least the family is intact right?!?!?

I cried pretty much the whole way here (and few other times since then). The girls did fabulous on the flights! Once we landed in PA I began to cry again and Peyton asked me why I was crying. I told her I wanted to go home. Her wise little 7 year old response to me was...This is your new home. Could somebody tell me when this child became so wise?

We have settled in nicely, as far as unpacking and all. We are still on the hunt for people to talk to on a daily basis LOL. Peyton has met 3 girls, one down the street, and two at church; who will be in her 2nd grade class with her. She is very excited to be meeting friends and can't wait to meet the rest. Unfortunately it rains A LOT here so she has only seen the little girl down the street once. So far we have done a lot of shopping and unpacking, and shopping. Everything that is going to get unpacked is unpacked and we can start moving forward. Here you can see our lovely view through the pile of boxes.



And this is a little love note was packed in one of my boxes...



We have explored a little and gotten lost a lot. There are many streets with no signs and even though each street has a name it is also called some color belt i.e "green belt" and there will be a sign with a green circle letting you know that. It makes no sense to me and Jason has not found anyone who knows why it is that way either. Getting lost is an easy thing to do around here. I don't mind it too much, after all that is how you discover your surroundings. EXCEPT when it starts pouring rain, thunder, and lightning...then it sucks to be lost.

Have you heard the phrase "Steeler Country"? It SOOO is! Everywhere you look! Even in the schools LOL. They have flags and banners everywhere you look. There is even a Steelers gift shop in the Grocery Store!!! Crazy. We just couldn't resist...we bought Addison a little stuffed football that chants and cheers Ha ha ha.

That's it for now. I have pics of Addison's first haircut and birthday to post later.

Our love to everyone.