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!

The Entertainer

It seems as though the stage fright I spoke of last year is now a thing of the distant past.

We attended my sister Chelsea's (Aunt Chachi) birthday party this past weekend, and had no idea we'd be getting a live show along with dinner!

This child of mine did not sit down the entire night. Grace at least took a snack break!

His signature performance these days is "I Gotta Feeling" by the Black-Eyed Peas. Hearing him shout "mazel tov!" and "shut it down!" is downright hilarious. He even created this crazy heiney-shaking dance move. The kid loves an audience!

Happy Birthday Chachi! Thanks for the fun party!

Friday Funny

Introducing...The "Crazy Pants Dance."





Smile...it's Friday!

Presidential Visit

Today is a pretty exciting day in the Capital Region...President Obama is coming for a visit!

The really cool thing is that he is not coming to visit Albany - New York state's capital. Instead, he is heading a few minutes north to Troy (where WE live!) and coming to the Hudson Valley Community College campus (which is practically in my parents' backyard!)

Alas, I will not even catch a glimpse of the motorcade, because I am at work 30 minutes away :-(

Seamus looooooves Obama...

It would have been such a cool experience to take him to the campus and see the excitement surrounding the President's arrival.

Maybe we'll get our chance another day!

This is the article from CNN that mentions the visit: King: Busy week for the president

Happy Monday everyone!

First Day of School!

Last Friday was Seamus' first day of school...yippee!

I was so excited, even though he'd been telling us for days that there was no way in heck he was going back to Pre-K.

I kept telling him, "Yeah, that's nice...YOU'RE GOING." And then he'd cry.

I'm a super mom.

On the morning of the first day, he cried so hard that the snot was literally dripping down his face. 47 tissues later, he did stop bawling for two seconds so I could snap this picture. I thought that was awful nice of him.

And then he cried some more.

The tears finally stopped when we arrived at Dunkin' Donuts, and he got to pick out a donut...with chocolate frosting and sprinkles! (Check out last year's school post...isn't it funny how similar the donut pictures are??)

One chocolate donut and suddenly all was right with the world!

There he goes to stand with his class!

My little man...I was so proud of him.

He had a wonderful first day! Here he is with the Spiderman umbrella he had been promised by Nanny (and also a Princess one...he had to make sure Gigi got one too!)

Growing up so fast...