A Day Out With Thomas

Today we ventured up to North Creek, NY to see our old friend, Thomas the Train!

Last year, Seamus got to meet Thomas with his buddy Preston...

And this year, we made the trip with Ethan and Collin!

Yes, tomorrow is June 1st and yet we were bundled up as if it were fall! The rain held off and the sun was shining, so despite the cold and wind we had a great visit to the Upper Hudson Railroad.

The happy passengers!

Checking out a real live fire truck...possibly future fire chiefs?

Seamus and Sir Topham Hatt!

Me, the kids, and my Island of Sodor namesake.

Percy tattoos! Yessss! And Seamus proudly informed us, "Mommy, I have a tattoo now just like you!" Gosh, do I love being such a stellar role model :-)


Seamus and Ethan having some bounce house fun.

All the kiddos!

After the train ride and checking out all the fun Thomas activities, we headed into Lake George Village, one of my favorite places, for some late lunch and more fun.

The kids had tons of fun taking a little dip into the very chilly lake!

What is it with kids and their ability to be completely insensitive to the cold? The water was waaaay too freezing for the grownups, but the goobers had a blast splashing around, chasing ducks, throwing rocks and watching the boats zooming by.

We ended the day in the most perfect way possible - eating Ben & Jerry's ice cream! (Totally canceled out the OTHER end to my day - a parking ticket! Blah!) Thanks for the great day, Weissers!

Let's Go Yankees!

This past weekend, Seamus and I got to experience our first Yankees game together, at the brand-new stadium! We were invited to go by my friend Liza, her son Shay and Liza's sister Adrienne.
I was SO excited to take Seamus to this game. He is a sports fanatic and has proudly worn his Yankees cap almost daily since he received it last year. I, on the other hand, am a total baseball ignoramus, so heed this warning: From this point on, I may have absolutely no idea what I'm talking about.

Halfway through the game, I had to ask Liza how many outs were in an inning.

She told me, and the sad part is, 36 hours later I can't even remember what she said.

Don't say I didn't warn you :-)

The new stadium is really impressive. However, I had no clue that it was built directly across the street from the old stadium. Was the old stadium really that bad? They couldn't have taken the bazillion dollars that went into the new stadium and just spruced up the old one?
Please, someone enlighten me.

Seamus and the giant pretzel that was bigger than his head (so it was a BIG pretzel!)
Our view from the top (very literally from the top - second to last row!)

The amazing thing is that the temperature dropped about ten degrees with every level we climbed. So up here in the penthouse, it was probably about 50 degrees with hurricane-force winds. But we were having a great time anyway! Here's our crew:

Seamus could not have been more thrilled to be up high. I don't think he would have had as much fun if we were sitting on a lower level!

In the bottom of the 9th inning, Seamus had to use the bathroom and the Yankees were losing, so we headed down the stairs and told our friends we'd meet up with them there. Well apparently there was an outrageous ending to this game and Melky saved the day resulting in a win for the Yanks. That's about all I know.

I apologize immensely.

I promise to do better next time.

When we finally got home after our busy day and long drive, I carried a sleeping Seamus in to his room and put him in bed. He rolled over and opened his eyes, and said "Mommy, it was a fun time at the Yankees." And fell asleep again.

Yes, little man...it was a very fun time at the Yankees!

Just Going to the Dentist

Today was Seamus' very first trip to the dentist!

He and Daddy prepped all week by reading this book:

Seamus also got to watch Daddy have his teeth cleaned. And of course, ANYTHING Daddy does is super-cool. So Seamus couldn't wait for it to be his turn!


Look at my little guy in that big chair!
A bib? Sure, why not. Dad wore it. It must look awesome.

(You know what else looks awesome? Those Merrell sandals on his crazy wide feet that cost a bloody fortune, that's what! Sheesh...anyone want to go into the extra-extra-wide shoe business with me??)

Since the hygienist wore glasses during the cleaning, Seamus got pick out a pair of sunglasses to wear as well. Spider-Man shades...score!

He rocked the cleaning - sat perfectly still and opened his mouth wide.


I am NOT a fan of the dentist at all, so even looking at this pic makes me shudder a little...but Seamus didn't mind the spit-sucker at all!

Picking out a prize after a super appointment...Daddy and Mommy are so proud!

Moms Rock

Last week my mom (Nanny) and I got to attend the Pre-K class Mother's Day Tea. I had initially thought I wouldn't be able to go because of a work commitment, but I think I cried and whined about it enough that my exasperated boss was like, "Please get out of here, you ridiculously over-emotional crybaby."

Hey, it worked!

(And of course I'm just kidding. He didn't call me a crybaby. At least, not to my face.)

We had a great time snacking on fruit and cheese and sipping lemonade.

Seamus was VERY proud of this flowerpot that he made with his handprint.

I was sooooo happy to be there and partake in the festivities. It was so wonderful to be able enjoy it with not only my son, but with my own mother as well. This is what it's all about, after all.

In honor of all the beautiful moms out there, I leave you with my favorite passage about mothers:

Once upon a time in heaven, there was a baby who was ready to be born.

The baby said to God, "They tell me you are sending me to Earth tomorrow, but how am I going to live there being so small and helpless?"

And God said, "Among my many angels, I have chosen a special angel to be with you on Earth, who will love you and take care of you always."

The baby replied, "But how will I know my angel? What is my angel's name?"

And God said, "You will call your angel Mommy."

Two of a Kind

Man, do I love these goofballs.

(And yes, they are eating popsicles in the bathtub. We like to keep it interesting around here.)

Our Day in Boston

What a fantastic day we had in Boston with the Leahy family!

Seamus and Grace were thrilled to see the sailboats as soon as we arrived. It was a bit chilly and windy on the walk to the aquarium, but we hardly noticed, because all Dev and I could hear were the kids repeating "I'm so excited!" over and over again!

We got to the aquarium and just a couple of minutes later, we were meeting our new friends! JD and Anne are just adorable, as I knew they would be. We knew the kids couldn't wait to get inside and check out the aquarium, so Jill, Doug, Devon and I made our introductions and we were on our way!

Just inside the front entrance were the penguins. They were so cute, and definitely looked as though they knew how to work an audience! They seemed to enjoy all the attention the crowd was giving them.

New friends!

The aquarium has a huge central tank, and you can walk around it, slowly spiraling to the top. At each level there are new creatures to check out. The most popular feature of the tank, however, were the aquarium staff swimming around in their scuba gear! The kids got such a kick out of the scuba divers waving at them at each viewing window. Jill suggested that next time, Doug could just get dressed up in his scuba gear and splash around in the ocean - the kids would have found that just as thrilling!

Grace and JD seeing how they measure up against a shark!
We also got to see the seals have their teeth brushed and be fed their lunch. Here's Seamus with a little seal friend just behind him.

After a couple of hours at the aquarium, we walked over to Faneuil Hall and had lunch outside. The kids were awesome, and JD told me his hilarious knock-knock joke...I won't ruin it here, because if you meet him in person, you'll definitely want to hear it!

We also were entertained by a juggling street performer and chowed down on some yummy cookies (possibly my favorite part of the day! Yum!)

Then Jill suggested we head to Castle Island, which was a gorgeous park right on the water. The kids had a blast on the playground (minus a few tears from Seamus when he took a face-plant off of the slide) and loved running up and rolling down the grassy hill. We walked along the water and watched planes taking off overhead. The weather was perfect and it was an amazing way to wrap up the day!

Getting a pic of all four of these wacky kids at the same time was not an easy feat! They were full of energy and we had to chase them all down to get a shot - but we were successful!

I was certain that Seamus and Grace would zonk out as soon as we pulled away in the car...wow, was I wrong! They stayed awake for the entire 2.5 hour ride. We were just about home when Seamus began breaking out his extreme silliness, as you can see here:

Yeah...so this is what happens when you keep your kid awake for fifteen hours straight and jack him up on sugar from cookies and lollipops! Free entertainment!

We had a wonderful day and can't wait to do it again! Thanks Jill, Doug, Anne and JD...it was a blast!