Do These Kids Seem Related To You?

Mr. Whipple would be scandalized.

Our Long National Nightmare Is Over

After eight long weeks in a cast (19 years in little kid time) Henry finally got his cast off.

Yay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

First order of business....taking a proper bath!

Glad to be in sudsy water again.

Loretta seems glad too.

PunkinPalooza

On a crisp, gorgeous Fall day, we DiPfeiffers hightailed it to Cox Farm, the giganticest and funnest punkin' patch I've ever been to. Henry got to milk a real live cow!

The family that hay rides together....stays itchy together.

To see this hayride in its full 3-D glory, visit the Candia's Blog. http://www.roccocandia.com (warning, not for those prone to motion sickness) The beautiful Jessica COX Candia and her sweet little Nicolas on his first farm foray.
This weirdo kept following us around and filming us the whole time.

Freak.

"I'm KING of the haystack!!"
Two of my favorite punkins in a patch.

My son, the gourd percussionist.

Papa's Girl

Just spending some one on one time with Papa...

Those cheeks are hard to resist!

Locos In Motion

The Cast System

We crossed off the calendar days until October 12th, the day Henry could trade in his full-length cast for the sportier walking cast model.

Mr. Depree Clark flashes a winning smile as he readies the cast cutting saw.
Cue the dentist drill sound effect...
And off it comes! Luckily for you out there, this is not smellovision.
The doctor checked Henry's legs in between castings. In this shot, she was squeezing his leg to check for tenderness and he yelped a big yell. She said, "Does it really hurt?" "Yes!!" Henry screamed emphatically. "But I was squeezing the leg that wasn't broken." I tell ya, that boy is an Academy-Award-winning stinkersaurus.
The super-nice Physician's Assistant who recast Henry. This time the boy chose fire engine red!

Henry quickly dispensed with the walking aspect of his walking cast...

I Got Odorous at Codorus State Park.

To celebrate Columbus Day and look at second home property possibilities (how can destitute people afford second homes, you may well ask), a group of us headed out of the city to south central PA. We camped just minutes from Hanover, PA the pretzel capital of Pennsylvania.Todd's early morning bugle call comes a bit early for my taste.Nico fashioned his own fishing pole and went angling.
Sam taught Dylan how to set off homemade depth charges.

Here's the fire pit turned on....And here's the fire pit turned off, many delicious Doughboys later.
"I likes them great outdoors!"

Loretta and Cora at the Breakfast Buffet Bar.

The worker bees making a DEE-LICIOUS dinner.

Meanwhile, back at the tent...

You leave two boys semi-unsupervised near a groundhog hole, and figure...how much trouble can they get into out here? They took off their clothes and filled their socks with dirt. So there.

Henry also somewhat disrupted the Frisbee Golf Course play through.

Lil' campers.

Bigger campers.

Photo of good-looking campers courtesy of Nico the Phancy Photographer.

Auguri Zia Armeta and Zio Armando! My aunt and uncle celebrated their 50th Wedding Anniversary in September! The day before the party, on a homesick whim, I threw the kids in the car and drove to Cleveland to attend the festivities.

They are still such a sweet couple together. I admire all they have gone through. They were actually married by proxy. They weren't even dating when my uncle left Italy to seek his fortunes in Argentina. He sent a letter back asking my grandfather for my aunt's hand. She knew him as a boy from her neighborhood, of course. She knew his family and liked him well enough, so she agreed and they were married by proxy. My aunt had a small wedding ceremony and reception in Italy. She was a bride with no groom. My uncle had a party in Argentina with his family. And a while later, she took a ship to Argentina to meet her husband for the first time. That was fifty years ago. Three kids, several grandkids, and a few GREAT grandkids later, they're still together and happy. Ain't love grand?

My cousing Jena holds the two littlest cousins, Josephine and Loretta.
Zio Adelio and Zio Silvio carve up a little roast pig action.

Of course, it ain't a true DiFranco get together without men singing around the button-box.

Or women dancing together.

The whole fam damily.

Or at least the ones who could attend.

It was good to be home.

Playgroup Graduation Picnic

After two and a half years together, our way-fun playgroup has disbanded due to preschool schedules. Of course, we had to mark the occasion with one last blowout play date at Walter Pierce Park, our usual stomping grounds.

You do not want to mess with Abby and Ellie in a dodgeball game.

Beth and Todd discuss the latest People Magazine news. (not)

Charlotte the fairy princess runs after the ball.
Frank and Todd and their little girls in tow.

Some of the kids on another day. We'll all see each other I know. But it got me a little verklempt to think of all the good times and hard times we went through together.

LONG LIVE PLAYGROUP!

Keeping Up With Loretta Lou She may look like she's sitting still, but she never is for long. The day Henry broke his leg, Loretta learned to crawl, and she's never looked back. We'll get some footage of her up so you can see her crawling, climbing, and cruising.

From the looks of it, I have TWO daredevils on my hands.

Oy.

My Kids Really Like Ribs...

This is Loretta Lou sampling her first ribs the other day.

A love affair begins.Flashback to a 15-month Henry chomping some goat ribs.
Dee-lish!

Little Red Wagon Draggin'

The red sweater brigade to the rescue!But first....a song.
For any of you who know my father, I will point out that it's his exact bemused expression on Henry's face. The "Geez, do I really have to put up with these people?" look. Mama pulls. Kids follow. Papa snaps.

(matching sweaters courtesy of Godmama Athena)