Old Friends and New!

We love going to Delaware for Seamus' checkups and getting to visit our old friend, "Happy Donald!"
Another successful visit with Drs. Bober and Mackenzie! Seamus had super awesome checkups with both docs. He has some pretty significant bowing of the legs which they are keeping an eye on, but it has not worsened since May so they are happy with that!

And of course, the bi-annual trip would not be complete without snapping a picture with our favorite red-haired clown.
We also look forward to spending time in the House itself...the huge, beautiful staircase...
The awesome pirate ship in one of the playrooms...
And the fantastic decorations, no matter what the season.
We also had a special treat on this visit. Seamus and Grace were asked to be a part of a photo shoot involving a therapy dog named Chase! The photos are for Chase's holiday cards to all of his clients, so we are looking forward to seeing some of the final pictures.


The other special treat of this visit was getting to meet the Greene family!

We had a wonderful visit with Jenn, Jason, sweet Simon and adorable baby Jude at the Wilmington Museum of Natural History.

Here's Seamus with SuperCroc...that thing was intimidating!
Simon is definitely on the move...it was not an easy feat to get him in a picture! However, there's not much cuter than seeing that cutie run around his sweet smile!
"Simon, stand right here!"
Checking out this cool fish tank - both Dory and Nemo were inside!
Our crew - I temporarily adopted Baby Jude and couldn't give him up for this picture! Such a snuggly boy...ohhh, it was very dangerous for me!!
After the museum we headed out for some lunch, which involved the following:
Heading out into the pouring rain,
getting four kids into carseats,
driving to the Concord Pike,
getting four kids out of carseats,
running through the rain into Panera only to find that it was mobbed,
walking back out into the rain to discuss our next move,
packing four kids back into the carseats,
leading the Greenes to our next choice of restaurant,
which included taking a wrong turn on the Pike,
3 missed calls between me and Jenn,
and a seriously life-threatening and probably illegal U-turn into a throng of incoming traffic.
And a partridge in a pear tree.

Whew! But we made it in one piece, and Jenn and Jason assured me that they weren't sorry they drove all that way to meet us lunatics, and we had a great lunch!

Thanks so much Greene family! Hope to do it all again in May (minus the U-turn!)

Sock Hop ‘09

Last Friday night, we hit the Hop once again!

It was the annual Sacred Heart Sock Hop, and this year we went all out with the costumes!

My “Fifties Girl” and “The Fonz!”

  

 

Rockin’ the hula hoop contest!

 

Grace helping Poppy with the DJ responsibilities!

Big moment of the night - Seamus won the costume contest for Pre-K through 2nd grade boys category!

The kids had a crazy good time – we all did!  I love our school and all the amazing families who help make these great events possible.

A couple of videos – watch out for the intense dance moves!  (I was totally the uncool mom out on the dance floor with my camera…but I had to catch some of this!)

They Vant to Suck Your Blood!

Oooh...I have some spooky little vampires taking over my house!

Halloween! The anticipation is almost too much to handle. The decorations, costume planning and creation, the parties, the trick-or-treating rehearsal...wait, what's that?

Oh, you're telling me your kids didn't rehearse?

Well. Mine did. They walked around the house with their jack-o-lantern buckets, banging on the walls and yelling "TRICK OR TREATING! TRICK OR TREATING!"
And then Devon and I had to put stuff in their buckets...like old pens and paperclips. I think they knew after a while that we were trying to pull the wool over their eyes, though, because I heard Seamus saying to Grace, "I think the other houses give us CANDY."

We had a great weekend, attending a super fun Halloween party with our buddies from school.

And having a Halloween version of puppet theater.
The big day finally arrived! All day we watched the wind gusting fiercely, breaking small tree limbs and knocking over patio furniture. We had plans to trick-or-treat around 4pm, and right up until then, the rain held off.

Here they are! My sprinkle cupcake and Batman!
We hit the first few houses and all was well...until the skies opened up and it poured on us! We managed to make it to 5 or 6 houses, which luckily was enough to satisfy the kids. They were ready to head home and enjoyed handing out candy to the other brave trick-or-treaters who didn't mind the pouring rain.
So a bit of a bummer that we didn't get to enjoy a full night out, but we still had a great time and they are already talking about next year's costumes (note to self: get started on the costumes NOW.)

Hope you all had a spooky good time!

Wii Will Rock You

Before we had children, I swore to Devon that we would NEVER EVER EVER have video games in the house.

"They rot your brain!" I'd say, sounding like somebody's elderly grandmother. I held strong to my convictions...but then Nintendo had to go and create something insanely awesome like the Wii.

Ugh, Nintendo, you're killing me here! I was trying to be all tough and stern! But I caved...and we got a Wii from my parents for Christmas last year.

Although, I have to say, it is kind of hard to classify the Wii as a video game, when you basically can't sit down while you're playing. We try sooooo hard to encourage physical activity, and it's hard not to love a game like this that makes you work hard and even sweat a little. We don't have too many games yet, because the Wii Sports alone keeps us all quite occupied. I enjoy it very much...if I ever get a turn with all these Wii-hogs in the house!

Tiger Woods in training! He is a seriously good Wii golfer.

Seamus and his Mii.

I think it looks just like him!
I can see the concentration in that stuck-out tongue.
Look out for this one, she's a wild thing.
Take cover!!!
Gracie and her Mii...I love the little bow in her hair.
Any other Wii fans out there? What are some good games? We like the active ones!

Our Fall Family Tradition

This past weekend was our annual family picture-taking day in Vermont. For those who do not know, every year since 1982, my parents have driven to Manchester, VT to take a picture of me and my two sisters on a fence outside of the (now gone) Jelly Mill store and restaurant. And when I say, "take a picture," that is a total lie, it was more like 3 or 4 rolls of film.

The awesome thing about this is that now we continue the tradition with Seamus and Grace. Here are a couple of shots from the day!

It was so freezing out! Some years it's close to 80 degrees, some years we have snow. Last year, when I first told you about out tradition in this post, I promised I would eventually share some of those old photos of us on the fence. My sister kindly scanned some of the pics and sent them to me, so we could then share them with you...but be warned! We cannot be held responsible for the crimped hair, bad perms and matching outfits :-)

The photo that started it all...me in 1982.You can usually tell what year it was by what type of hairdo my mom was sporting, but I'll have to get some clarification on these...probably 1987?
The three of us then...
And now!

Lil' Punkinheads

Yesterday Devon and the kids had the day off for Columbus Day, so they decided to have some fall fun!
They went to the nursery and bought Mommy a big, beautiful mum, as well as some pumpkins...

Which they turned into these!


Are these not the cutest things ever? My Aunt Maureen and Uncle Jon sent these kits to the kids, which are Mr. Potato Head pieces for your pumpkins. The kids absolutely love them and they turned out so adorable!

Anything that keeps that icky, stringy pumpkin goo off my floors is also a big bonus!! Thanks Aunt Maureen and Uncle Jon!


Please excuse the ragamuffin-look of these children...they had just gotten up from a nap. I was trying to take pictures of the pumpkins, and they were all like "Please, Mommy, take our picture!"

And I said, "No way, you guys look like a wreck." (You think I'm kidding!)

But those darn preschoolers can be so persistent! So they got some more proud shots with their pumpkins. Sure do love those ragamuffin lil' punkinhead kids :-)

Apple Festival '09

One of our favorite fall events is the Altamont Apple Festival.

As soon as we enter the gate, there is a woman selling these styrofoam and pipe cleaner spiders on a stick...for a buck! Can't beat that for all day entertainment (meaning: an all-day sibling stick-poking extravaganza.)

The little buckaroos also get to take a rip-roarin pony ride - and Mommy gets to totally destroy her new shoes in the mucky swamp that the ponies were walking around.

But what's a pair of shoes compared to the happiness on those little faces, right? I'll just have to remind them when they're older and making the big bucks...Kids, Mama needs new shoes!

Face painting by clowns is always a blast...except I'm pretty sure I could have painted a better baseball myself, and I wasn't the one qualified to wear clown shoes and a big rubber nose. I guess clowning standards are not what they used to be!

Every year at this festival, I buy the kids a winter hat from a lady who makes the nicest fleece hats. The plan was to get one for Seamus to match his winter coat, but he had other ideas! He spotted the Yankees fleece and just would not accept any substitutes. I guess he is pretty passionate about it though, because here's how we found him at 10pm that night!

Dreaming of a big win for the Yanks!