Back Home and Memorial Day

We made it back home on Friday around 6pm. We had a great time at mom and dad's house. The kids played the entire time we were there and they introduced Grandma and Papa to "Alvin and the Chipmunks". Grandma and Papa took them to the park with Maddie dog one night while I cooked to the sounds of Mom's new Rome CD and drank their wine! (I must say, they have very good wine!) Thanks mom and dad.

We got to see a lot of Aunt Kristen, which was fabulous! The kids got to see her at Mickey Finn's (always a treat) and I got to spend a lot of time hanging out, too. We were even able to have a "grown-up" dinner at Firkin, thanks to Papa and his babysitting skills. Yep, he watched all three while we went and ate. It was very relaxing and so much fun to hang out with my mom and my sister. The martinis were great, too weren't they?! I found some pomegranate liquor so maybe we can replicate them at home!

We found Kevin much better when we returned home and each day finds him a bit better than the last. He was able to walk backwards yesterday. This may seem like no big deal, but when you haven't been able to feel your foot, it is something you cannot do without fear of falling over. He was able to do it and did not fall, so we are looking at this as further proof that the surgery was a success.

The weather here was nasty this weekend. Saturday dawned rainy and ended much the same way, as did Sunday. There were periods of sun intermittently which allowed the kids to get outside and run around a little. P practiced his casting skills as he is gearing up for another season of fishing and he also practiced riding his bike. He is much improved in both over last summer. K loves to play in her sandbox and spent her time outside doing just that.

Saturday M and I went and bought the new furniture for the living room. It should be here on June 3rd, and I am so excited. We will finally have "grown-up" furniture in the living room! The search was much quicker than I had anticipated and much less painful!
Yesterday we went to a BBQ at a neighbor's house and had a great time. Lots of food, drink, and good friends. K was the "queen" as she commandeered a wagon and had the other kids pulling her around most of the afternoon!
Uncle Johnny called and woke Kevin up this morning with a call from the Cliffs Of Moher (in Ireland). He said it was the coolest thing he had seen and that it was very serene. He'd had a huge Irish breakfast and had been hiking the cliffs for 3 hours. Kevin was excited to receive such a wake up call! I included a link so you can all see just where he was. http://www.cliffs-moher.com/

We are looking forward to his return at the end of the month so we can see all of his pictures from the adventures of the past few months.

Whew!!

We had a great and busy weekend! Saturday found us at our usual soccer game. The coach was on vacation so Kevin filled in. P loved that and said that he was going to score more goals with Dad as the coach because Dad had a louder voice than Coach. Needless to say, P scored only one goal, but we are still just happy he likes playing the game and he's having fun doing it.

After the game, I went to a baby shower with some of the neighbors. It was a beautiful day for the shower, as it was outside in a courtyard of a historic bed and breakfast. The food was wonderful, as was the company, and I was introduced to a new French bakery that makes amazing cakes! (I took the kids there on Monday for breakfast and decided I am going to order the Strawberry cake from them for M's baptism in June. I can't even put into words how truly delicious it is). I did include a pic, so you can all drool over it!


After we got back from the shower, we had a graduation party for our neighbor who completed his MBA. They just finished their patio, complete with a fire pit. It is the ultimate party yard! To top it off, they rented a bounce house for the kids. A great time was had by all!! Especially Kevin, who rolled in around 2:30am. P was so tired from all of the festivities, he was falling asleep while brushing his teeth.

After church on Sunday, we went to a neighbor boy's birthday party at The Little Gym. K was in heaven doing her "'nastics" again, and has been begging to go back every day since. I am sure we will be doing gymnastics again this fall since she seems to enjoy it so much. She has no fear and the higher she can climb/ jump/ swing, the better. Maybe we have a future gymnast on our hands.

Kevin had his back surgery yesterday morning and we got him home last night around 9:30. He is doing really well and has been up and around this morning already. The kids and I are headed to my mom and dad's house for the rest of this week so Kevin can recuperate in peace! Have a great week. And Michelle, I promise to try and get a pic of me up here soon...you are probably the only person who wants to see me instead of the kids and I love you for it!

Happy Mother's Day Weekend

It was a busy, but fun weekend for Mother's Day. K's mom and dad came to visit Saturday morning. They met us at P's soccer game. P was very surprised to see that he was playing against two of his friends from MOPS. When the one little boy scored, P, asked him not to do it again...too funny! He continues to have fun with it, so that's the important thing. K loves to go with her big brother and hang out with the big kids on the bench. M basically sleeps through the whole game.

After the game K and his Dad spent the afternoon fixing our sump pump and hanging new curtain rods and curtains in the living room and our picture window on the stair case. They look great in both spots and now we are in the process of locating new furniture for the living room. Given our track record and indecision in furniture purchases, this could take awhile. At least we are in agreement as to what pieces we are in need of, now it is a matter of deciding on color and style. So, now you know where we will be spending our free time...furniture stores.

Mother's Day dawned chilly and gray, but ended up being sunny and in the 60's by the end of the day. We went to church and then went to brunch with K's mom and dad. The food was good, as was the company. We spent a relaxing afternoon lazing about and playing with the kids. M. has started laughing now and P & K love to try and get her going. M. has been eating more frequently, so much so that I am having a hard time keeping up with her, and she is not happy with what she has been getting either. So, last night at dinner she got to try some rice cereal. She loved it from the start! The other kids were never sure about it at first, but she was all smiles and ate quite a bit. I don't think her little system was used to it though, as she got a little fussy later that night and had to put herself to sleep in the swing. We will try again tonight and see if it helps. I am convinced that a 3 month old that weighs 15 pounds does not need to be getting up twice in the night to eat, so we will continue with the cereal at night in the hopes that she sees fit to sleep, at least until 5:30 or 6am!! Have a great week.

By the way, Kev. is scheduled for back surgery on May 19th. It is an outpatient procedure and should take 30 minutes, according to the doctor. He will be home that afternoon and was told he'd experience a feeling similar to being hit in the back with a baseball bat (nice). He will be on restricted duty for 6 weeks, which means no lifting anything over 20 pounds. Please keep him in your prayers.

Without Sports This Wouldn't Be Disgusting

Kevin and Jason (neighbor)

Quiet Time

Right now, P is watching a science DVD from Popular Mechanics for Kids. He loves these, as he is forever curious as to how things work and why. I can hear them talking about Space Camp. I wonder if NASA still does that. I always thought it would be so cool to go there when I was a kid. I am sure we will be hearing about it soon from him!

K and M are napping!! I wonder how often I will be able to get them both down at the same time, but for now it is nice. I told my mom the other day, I now get it when she said she never had enough hours in the day. This is the first time I have sat down since 6:30am. I am not complaining, rather marvelling at the fact that I was able to get so much accomplished today.

K has strep throat, but a visit to the MD on Wednesday and some good old antibiotics seem to have done the trick. She is back to her ornery self today! I am glad, she was feeling so miserable.

Rainy day for most of the morning, so we spent it going on treasure hunts (I hid some treasure and they found it) and good old- fashioned scavenger hunts. P helped K find some things since she didn't really get the point of a scavenger hunt. We had a few rousing games of hide and seek too! This is K's favorite game. She loves to try and find P...who loves to find new places to hide. They also went exploring in the "deepest darkest parts of the basement", as P says. Basically, just an excuse to get a flashlight and poke around down in the basement.

Kev and his compadres on the cul-de-sac had the usual Thursday Night Cocktail Hour and came up with a plan to have a BBQ tomorrow. As he rolled in around 1am, I didn't know about it until this am and neither did any of the other wives. So, today we have spent trying to get a hold of our various spouses to finish planning what they started. If we left it up to them , we'd get 20 pounds of hot wings and beer. Not quite what we need to feed an entire block! Tomorrow is shaping up to be quite fun. Soccer in the AM, then the BBQ in the evening.

For those of you who know my sister, she just had her 3rd child on Tuesday. They had a boy and both mom and baby are doing great! He weighed 7 pounds, 10 ounces and was 21 inches long. We are looking forward to meeting him in June!

Be watching for photos from the weekend events either on Sunday or early next week.