Holiday Memories

One of our favorite things to do this holiday season was to sit around and sing Christmas carols together.

Or something like that...



The Bruce Springsteen rendition of "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" got a lot of play time in our house.
I don't know about you, but I think Bruce might want to consider wearing Lightning McQueen underoos during his next concert performance.
Really adds to the stage presence, don't you think?

We Wish You A Merry Christmas

And a very happy and healthy new year!

Whether you’re decking the halls, dashing through the snow, or rockin’ around the Christmas tree, we wish all of you a wonderful holiday!

The Two Graces

The first Grace in my life was my grandmother, Grace Theresa Romeo. We called her Nana.

Nana loved to bake. She was famous for her chocolate chip cookies, that always came out square instead of round, no matter how she placed the dough. For every single holiday, we would have a cookie-baking day at Nana's house, with all seven grandchildren. Each of us had a special job in creating the sprinkled cut-out cookies. I was the eldest grandchild, and my job was to use a thick pastry brush to sweep an egg wash over the cookies before the younger children attacked them with multiple varieties of sprinkles.

I can still feel that pastry brush in my hand, and remember the exact spot I would sit at her small kitchen table. I remember searching through the dozens of metal cookie-cutters and finding all the holiday-appropriate ones to hand out to my cousins...and sometimes slipping in a Santa at Easter or a turkey for Christmas, just to hear everyone giggle about how silly it was.

As we got older, sometimes the little jobs we had would change, but one job that always remained the same was Nana's - rolling out the dough with her wooden rolling pin.

She was an amazingly special person and a huge influence in my life. All she ever wanted was to be around to make it to my wedding...which she did. She passed away nine months later. My only wish is that she could have met my children. I'm very fortunate to have in my possession that very same wooden rolling pin. Only now, I use it with the second Grace in my life.

And every time we use it...
I can only think of how...

The two Graces would really have enjoyed baking together.

Elfed - The Sequel

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Snow Day

Umm…

I understand about the need for security objects…

But is this just getting a little out of hand?

Sunday Funday

Today we went to Herkimer to spend the day with our friends the Weissers!

We get together every month, but our October visit was on the first weekend of October, so it had been a long time since these goobers had seen each other!

So naturally they had to start with band practice…to make sure they still were able to get their groove on!

Best buds…I have a feeling that the idea from this post is not as far-fetched as we might think!

Sometimes if we bribe them with candy, we can get them all in one picture together :-)  In fact, they grabbed these lollipops and then all sat together willingly on the step to eat them.  Hooray!  Four kids in one photo!

Nap-deprived, sugar-loaded, and super silly reindeer in front of the Christmas tree!

Hope everyone had a fun weekend!  Have a great week!

Happy Turkey Day

We are counting our blessings today, especially for having so many wonderful friends and family. 

Happy Thanksgiving from my little gobblers to yours!

We Love A Parade

Here in upstate NY, the city of Schenectady is home to the largest night time holiday parade in the Northeast.  The hospital I work for happens to be in Schenectady, and all employees are invited each year to march in the parade.

I thought the kids would have a blast doing this, and I was right!

We all got decked out in our Ellis Medicine sweatshirts (Nanny included!)

My personal favorite float…the Bombers Burrito float!  Bombers makes burritos that are quite literally the size of a football, and I may have eaten one or two in my lifetime :-)

We were marching in the last division, so we hung out on the street corner to watch the first parts of the parade.  Grace had a blast shaking her pom-pom and dancing!  This parade was almost as good as Halloween….every float that went by tossed out candy!

Seamus was still a tad under the weather from his virus, so he hung out in the wagon and stayed warm.  Once we marched the route, we sat on the side waiting for the grand finale…Santa! 

This was Seamus’ face as he glimpsed the Big Guy coming around the corner!

All in all, it was a lot of fun and I’m glad we got to experience it.

Now, a question for POLPs out there…do you notice your LP kids having a significant sensitivity to loud noises? 

We had a little bit of a tough time at the parade because there were so many fire trucks in the lineup, and each one that went by would blast its siren.  Seamus spent most of the parade with his hands clenched firmly over his ears.  He has had this aversion to loud noises for as along as I can remember, and Grace doesn’t seem to be bothered by it.

I seem to remember a couple of other POLP families mentioning a similar aversion with their kids.  Just wondering if there’s any kind of correlation?

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!