New Hampshire Visit

This past weekend, the girls and I made a quick trip to New Hampshire to give Lee some much deserved and much needed time to himself.  We spent some time with Grammy and Grandpa, some time with Auntie Kathy and Uncle Peter (where we briefly visited with Emily and her parents) and a short amount of time at Ethan and Owen's house.  The girls had a good time, but it was an exhausting trip.  Oh, and Emily puked all over the back seat of my car twenty minutes into the trip home....

Uncle Peter is a "good sharer."

Making brownies with Auntie Kathy.

  

Watching a little "Thomas the Train" at Grammy and Grandpa's before heading back home.

Photo of the Week

This is Janet, one of my oldest friends, with her youngest son Owen.

Reunited And It Feels So Good

As some of you know, Emily heartily puked (three times) all over the backseat of my car about two minutes into a two plus hour ride from New Hampshire to Connecticut. The immediate cleanup was not fun (in a mall parking lot), nor was the more thorough cleanup once I got back home and had Lee to help. But while Emily, her blanket and her carseat really took the brunt of the impact, Lambie (irreplaceable Lambie) was in a bad way. He took a long bubble bath in Woolite, drip dried over night and finally, tumbled in the dryer for a short bit this afternoon. As you can imagine, Emily was very distressed, waking several times during the night to ask where and how he was. After her nap this afternoon, she and Lambie were reunited. Sigh.....

Happy Balentimes Day

Because of everything else we had going on last week, we didn't "celebrate" Valentine's Day with the girls until Sunday. They were very excited to get valentines from Mike and Marie, Grammy and Grampy, Grammy and Grandpa, and Dan and Martha - all of whom scored with cute valentines, candy, kazoos and pocket money. Lee and I, however, scored with Barbies - which they loved so much, they didn't ask to watch television once all day! More pictures here.

Visit with Felix

After an emotionally exhausting week, the girls were able to wind down last Friday afternoon at the Lake with Grammy, Grampy, Uncle Mike, Auntie Kelly and their cousin Felix.  Although Felix might have been a little overwhelmed by all of their love, he handled it well - and even rewarded us all with a few smiles!

Unfortunately, this is the best picture I got of the three cousins together. Emily didn't exactly cooperate.
Elizabeth, in particular, has really taken to Felix and showered him with kisses.

Elizabeth and Emily gave Felix a little break and worked on a puzzle with Grammy.

Pouting.

Laughing at me.

Photo of the Week

Looking for birds (and other creatures) with Grammy.

You Are Loved

This week, we lost one of our favorite family members - Uncle Andy, who was a loving husband and father, beloved brother, and cherished uncle and grand-uncle. Our lives, although better because he touched them, will never be the same. He was featured often on our blog - and as much as our girls loved him, he loved them more. Rest in peace.

Strong Kids Matter

As many of you know, the YMCA is a huge part of our lives. We have been members for as long as we can remember, Lee is a part-time employee, I am a member of the Board, and the girls have basically grown up there, attending Child Watch from a very young age and learning to swim in the pool. Each year, our Y's annual fundraising campaign (which I chaired last year) focuses on kids and all of the money that we raise during the Strong Kids Campaign benefits underprivileged kids and families in Middlesex county. The Y makes the most of every donation it receives and just a small amount can make a huge impact:
- for $5/month ($60), 1 child gets 5 weeks of swimming lessons
- for $10/month ($120), 6 middle school girls get 24 Y Be Fit classes
- for $20/month ($240), 4 kids and their parents get a 5 session gym & swim experience
Although we know that, now more than ever, money is tight, we ask that you please consider donating to the Strong Kids Campaign so that families (and especially their kids!) that are having a tough time can experience the wonders that the Y offers. Click here to make an on-line donation (and please leave a comment or drop me an email if you make a donation - every little bit helps!).

Photo of the Week

Elizabeth, Lee and Emily reading together.

Free Swim

The other day, we took the girls to free swim at the Y. I took a few pictures at the very beginning and then all four of us were in the pool and they loved it. We were trying to get them to use some of the things that they learned in their last swim sesson, but they were much more interested in just having fun. The time went by pretty quickly and we were all pretty tired by the time we got home.

Super Bowl Cupcakes

On Sunday, in an effort to keep everyone from going crazy, we made cupcakes (again!) with Elizabeth and Emily. Cupcakes are great - because they are the perfect portion size for little kids - but they are so MESSY that we can't wait for them to disappear - and we just start giving them to anyone and everyone we can find. The cupcakes we made on Sunday went straight across the street to Sarah and Rohan's Super Bowl gathering, so it was a perfect activity. The girls got to make the cupcakes and frosting, but Lee and I didn't have to deal with messy aftermath (they each got to eat one, right before bath time).

After I made the frosting in the mixer, the girls made their own colors.
mmmm, tastes good.

I know that these aren't exactly Super Bowl colors, but they are the colors the girls picked. And "neon" food coloring was all that I could find at the grocery store.

Beer League Champions!

As most of you know, Lee has been playing hockey basically all of his life. After graduating from college, he joined a local men's hockey league and usually plays at least one night a week. He loves it - he loves to play, hang out with guys, and burn off some stress. And he plays on a pretty great team. Once again, his team took home the League Championship (for the fall season). Here is a picture from the night of the big win.

Photo of the Week

The Great Cupcake Massacre.

Project 365

Some of you may have noticed the Project 365 album on the sidebar. Inspired by Alicia, I decided to give this a shot. I figure that I already take a lot of pictures, so this project will force/inspire me to think outside of the box when it comes to daily ideas for photos. The idea behind Project 365 is taking a photo each day that captures something that happened that day, someone new in your life or something new in your life. It is actually a lot harder than it seems, even though I take a ridiculous number of photographs, so I've found this to be a bit of a challenge. Most pictures that I take are of our kids, so I'm trying to be a little more creative. Let me know what you think!

The Seinfeld Post

Seinfeld was a show about nothing, so this is a post about nothing...which is basically what is going on in our lives right now - nothing. The snow on the ground got a healthy coating of ice on Wednesday, so any attempt to play outside results in someone falling down - hard - within seconds. Plus, it's so darn cold that the girls are literally freezing within a few minutes. Because it's winter, the girls' social activities just aren't what they usually are - no interesting school activities, no parties, no play dates - I feel like I'm going to forget how to use my camera, I've taken so few pictures over the last week or so! We've just been trying to hold it together - basically trying not to become a scene out of "The Shining." And so, we have absolutely nothing to report. So, we're just letting you know that we have nothing to report....