A Whirlwind Weekend

After the last few days of school, we headed off to Long Island for a whirlwind weekend of events. I headed down with the family on Thursday to try to ease the pain of traveling on the kids. Daddy met up with us on Friday to partake in all of our adventures.

On Saturday morning, I had planned to run a race with Jen in Bayville. Back in April I fell down the subway stairs and landed square on my kneecap. Let's just say I can't run or walk without pain at the moment so my hopes of participating went down the drain. However, when I signed up, I also signed up Brian. As a good sport, he decided to run. Here are my boys before the race.

The starting line.

Unfortunately, things didn't work out as planned. I can write this blog now in hindsight because the sting won't be as bad. The runners took off and Daddy looked great running. Papa and Grandma surprised us by showing up and we all lined up along the last stretch of road to the finish line. The kids were so excited and Connor wanted to run the last bit with his dad. Well, time started to tick by and the first guy finished in about 16 minutes. A couple more minutes ticked by and all of sudden my phone rings - I immediately knew it was not good news. It was Brian and he got lost on the race course. He missed the last left turn and was not happy to say the least. I ran to the car and picked him up back in town. Unhappy is an understatement. Brian wanted to go immediately home but I explained that the kids were still at the beach. I totally felt for his embarrassment but we had to go to the beach.

I brought him back to the beach and unfortunately he had to answer twenty questions from the boys. Of course, Papa was having a great laugh. Brian walked away and called a couple people to vent while we amused the kids. There were still people milling around for a while until the medals were handed out and Connor really wanted to see daddy get a medal. Once everyone was gone, Papa in a very good natured way told the event coordinator what happened against all of our protests. Well, the coordinator thought it was hysterical and presented Brian with a Physically Challenged Medal. It was funny but let's just say salt in an open wound.


In an effort, to make the most out of the morning we headed to the luncheonette for breakfast and then across to a little farmers market. The kids danced and we started to take Brian's mind off the morning disaster. It was at this point and time that Brian decided he will do another race the next weekend somewhere in MA to redeem himself.
Look at everyone dancing.

Look at all of us in the center of town - enjoying a beautiful day.

We called over to Jen's house and decided to stop by just to say hi. We really hadn't talked much since the race didn't turn out as planned so we were very happy when she told us to stop by. All the kids got along so well and played together beautifully.

Emily got quite a kick out of Olivia and Ava.

Garrett was Ava's protector - seriously the holding hands was too cute.

The kids had so much fun with the girls and I can only hope we can do it again real soon. Sunday morning came quickly and we were headed off to NJ for Luka's birthday party. Here we are ready to head off to the party.

The funny thing about the car trip is that we were going to skip going through Manhattan but heard on the radio it was all clear. Then, we get to Manhattan and there is the Israeli and Colombian parades on two separate avenues = major delays. Well, we made it to the party a tiny bit late but we made it. When we got there, we were just in time to see the dinosaur expert explaining all the fossils. There was even ring toss and finding the dinosaur egg game.

Look at all the little dinosaurs.

Emily seems to enjoy parties as well - how cute is she all dressed up.

After the party, the Bunetas invited us over for a little pizza party and the boys played kick ball and drove the jeep around the house until it was time for bed. Thus, it was time for our clan to head back to LI.

This is definitely my fault but on Monday we went to a very important event and how did I walk away with not one picture. Uncle Kevin graduated from law school - CONGRATULATIONS!!! There was a great ceremony at Lincoln Center followed by a fabulous meal at a little French bistro on the Upper West side. What a fantastic accomplishment and we are so proud of Uncle Kevin. We won't see him all summer because he will be studying for the Bar exam but we are wishing him lots of Good Luck.

The kids did phenomenal with all the traveling and when we got home on Monday night, I don't think it was long before we were all asleep.

Graduation

Our Pre-K Graduate.

Congratulations!!!!

Last Days of School

The end of May and beginning of June brought us to the close of another school year. The boys finished another successful T-ball season. This season they were on the same team which we savoured because it probably won't happen again for a long time. Look at my handsome ball players.
Connor's last day of school is always at a local park. I can't believe I just said Connor had his last day of Pre-K. This year he is the big guy on campus so it didn't take long for the oldest kids to hop up on the roof of the play house.

Violet the clown was back again for entertainment. As you can see, she was able to hold all of the kids attention - including Emily. (Garrett was at his last day of school.)

I couldn't believe that when Violet asked for a volunteer - Connor's hand shot up in the air and guess who was selected. All smiles Connor got up and was Violets right hand man.

All dressed up as the assistant with such a devilish grin.

She told Connor not to shake the toy she had handed him - he was so good interacting with Violet they had the whole crowd laughing.

Connor our future magician.

Here is a picture of all the kids at school - it has been a great two years and after a fun summer it will be time to head off to kindergarten. Connor you are an amazing, caring and fun loving young man...We love you!

Memorial Day Weekend

The long weekend brought us two visitors - Uncle Kevin and Grandpa and we kept them very busy. Last weekend, we went out and visited the pool at the Sports Club to decide if we wanted to join. Since we joined the club, we decided our first stop on Saturday was going to be the pool. There are five pools in all and we are hoping by the end of the summer the boys will be comfortable in the water and even swimming a little bit. As you can see, they got right to work and headed to the first slide.
Uncle Kevin manned the bottom of the slide to catch my little men heading down.

After taking a couple pictures, we were told that the rules of the pool do not allow pictures to be taken. So Grandpa and I had to sideline our cameras. It turned out to be the perfect weather and the perfect day for the pool - we all had a good time including Emily who loves the water.

Emily just loves Uncle Kevin - she was all about Uncle Kevin and really loved to have him hold her. The following day we decided to do our annual trip to Davis Farmland and it turned out to be another perfect day for such a trip. Garrett is a true animal lover and got lots of quality time with the animals. First task was to comb the goats hair.

Connor is a little more hesitant but by the end of the day was feeding all the animals and getting much more comfortable. Connor and I loved this big woolly goat - he looked like a little bear.

At the farm, they have several goats that just wander around the grass. For some reason, they just loved Garrett today and they kept coming over to him. Every time a new goat came up to Garrett he would tell us that he has a new best friend. He was like the leader of the goats today.

Emily was sure to get into the action...letting the animals lick her hands and she even tried to pet some of the goats. Her brothers egged her on and showed her how it was done.

We took a quick break under a tree to let Emily stretch her legs and crawl around a little bit. The whole time we were under the tree, there was a goat hanging out with us. As you can see it was within an arm's reach of Emily and it allowed her to pet him and didn't bother her at all. Then it got up and walked circles around her but was so careful not to disturb Emily. It was so amazing.

We also were at the chicken coop at the right time - we were able to hold some of the baby chicks. Garrett had to hold one of every color.

He was a natural. Connor held one with my help but wasn't a big fan of the way their feet felt.

Last time we were at the farm, we couldn't convince the boys to go on a pony ride. This time they asked to go on the pony. Connor went all by himself and looked like a natural.

Garrett did great too with a little help from Daddy walking along side. I distinctly remember hearing him yell "Yeee haw".

To cool down, the next stop was the water park where the boys were soaked within seconds. They both loved being in control of the water cannons and Connor had fantastic aim.

Emily got into the action too - she loves the water and it doesn't bother her one bit when it hits her in the face.

I couldn't get one good picture of Garrett because he was in constant motion the entire time.
Thanks for coming to visit - we had a blast.

The Sick Days of May

The family has been suffering from a never ending virus. So for the past two and a half weeks, we have all fallen pray. We have been zapped of all energy and have taken it easy for a while. Connor seems to have suffered the worst and was diagnosed with an ear infection. Thank goodness he is almost finished with his 10 days worth of antibiotics.

So now that the family is back on the mend, we will be back with some stories from this upcoming weekend. I can't believe it is already Memorial Day weekend. The only good thing about being sick for the last three weeks is that the weather was miserable - 50 degrees and raining. Currently, the forecast is 78 and sunny for the next couple of days so it is a good thing we are feeling better.

Canobie Lake Park

So there is only one thing I will complain about writing this blog and it is technology. Every once in a while I will write an entire blog and then all of a sudden an error occurs and I lose the whole story. Well, somehow today is my lucky day because it happened to me twice. Obviously, my frustration is at an all time high but here is my third attempt - fingers crossed.

On Friday mornings, Brian and I drive into work together. The first weekend in May I drew the short straw and drove into work while Brian slept in the passenger seat. This gave me the opportunity to listen to the radio which was advertising the opening weekend of Canobie Lake Park located just over the NH border. On Saturday I made the suggestion and everyone seemed excited to go. When we arrived, the weather got a little chilly but that didn't stop us from having a good time. First stop race cars...
There were several rides that the boys repeatedly went on and I thought we would never get them off. The first was the spaceships with shooters - they thought this was the best thing ever. They created their own little story and were yelling to each other about enemies attacking.

We couldn't get Garrett off the boats because he thought it was awesome to put his hand in the water and splash around.

Next stop antique cars - the boys can now reach the petals and Connor is a pretty great driver when he is looking at the road. It shouldn't be a surprise that they get busy looking around and suddenly the car veers into the guard rail.

Emily and I snuggled together and even enjoyed a few rides ourselves. Connor went on the bumper cars all by himself - someone is starting to get independent.
There is a dragon roller coaster which the boys might have rode around 50 times - this is not an exaggeration. Because it was opening weekend, the park was not crowded so it enabled us to get off and right back onto the ride. I know I was feeling dizzy so Brian and I had to switch a couple of times. We had so much fun, I know we will definitely have to go back.

Emily Is On the Move!!!

We came home last night and Grandma had a big grin on her face. She told us to put Emily down by the jungle gym and roll the ball away. Of course, we immediately knew that Emily had started crawling. The night before, Sunday, Emily was trying so hard to get going but was just getting caught by her right knee. After a good nights sleep, she was off and crawling.

Last night, the boys set up some board games for me to play with them. We set up shop on the other end of the family room for Emily. Before we knew what happened, Emily was grabbing cards out of the middle of our slap jack game. Then, within about a minute, Emily was attacking Garrett's game of Trouble - Garrett used his knee as a defensive wall and turned to Emily and said "No sweetie this is my game."

She then followed Garrett into his Star Wars tent and they both were laughing as she followed him in and out the door. Let the adventures begin.