Mary Poppins

Yesterday we went to see Mary Poppins at the Boston Opera House with my mother in law and the big kids. Poor Kelly stayed home with a sitter (although she was perfectly happy to see us off when we left) - good thing b/c she never would have made it through the 3 hours. The show was good - a bit of slow 1st act (Rory was a total pain in the ass despite the 3000 snacks overfilling my bag) followed by a higher energy 2nd act. You don't see tap dancing a lot anymore, but that's what they did for the chimney sweep number. Rory was dancing in place and clapping along at that part. Shelagh was mesmerized the whole time and thrilled to get a little MP umbrella toy on the way out. We had a yummy meal at the Cheesecake Factory in Boston afterwards and then paid the babysitter a fortune for having Kelly for 7+ hours. Pricey day, but worth it.

2 Irish Guys & a Smiling Girl

Missing Kelly!

Rory and his true love - Ketchup

The girls snuggling at dinner

Kids & their Mimi

Snow Day #6

"I like this project, Mom. It keeps me steady", says Rory as he builds Lego PLO Koon's Jedi Starfighter. He is amazing me...this kit is for ages 7-12 and he's doing it no problem.

The final product with some help from Dad...

And Shelaghs project was Valentines Day cards:

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But, What if the Cable Line Goes Down?

Then, we're screwed!

This is the view from my door at 630am this morning. I'm just sitting here wondering why the hell my work hasn't announced they are closed yet. I mean seriously...I do marketing. Is that really essential????

My coffee is brewed, thankfully, as I got up at 545 to see what the deal was. The snow storm during Xmas week wasn't this bad. There is 1 plow stripe up my street and it's still coming down. State of Emergency not declared yet from the state so Rory's pre-school is still open. Joe will probably be closed since Boston already declared state of emergency last night. Our town school closed last night.

My cable line!!! Seriously, this is bad. It's dipping down over my driveway. It's Top Chef night!!!

Mellow Weekend

It was nice to not have much going on this weekend as we have lots coming up through Thanksgiving (which I'm hosting and already starting to think about in addition to Xmas/Hanukkah shopping believe it or not). Remembering being in the last trimester of pregnancy with Rory at this time of year, the earlier I do things and the better planned I am, the better. The body can only take so much 3rd time around, especially with work getting busier and 2 other kids to chase after.

I got some time to run errands on my own on Saturday and to see my friend who just had twin girls recently. The babies were so good, but I did feel a wave of overwhelmed for her just thinking about doing what you do for an infant times 2. I do think, in retrospect, that infants are easier than toddlers...at least they don't tantrum or negotiate or need choices or need to do things themselves. It's simplified (from a mom who, knock on wood, has had pretty good luck with sleep with both of my kids). We went to an Oktoberfest party and then spent yesterday doing stuff around the house. I cleaned 1/2 of the house (the hard rooms) and planted tulip bulbs (which is the easiest gardening to do by far, by the way). The kids took out their gardening bag and "helped out". Shelagh got bored pretty quick, but Rory really had fun putting the bulbs in and making sure they were point up and not in a straight line. He especially liked piling them with soil and mulch so that "the snow doesn't make you cold, little bulbs and you boom in the springtime" - thank you, Little Einsteins "It's Springtime" episode which had a blooming yellow tulip being planted for inspiring my little yellow lover.

We ended the weekend with a trip to Annas Taqueria, some ice cream at JP Licks, and Family Movie Night featuring James and the Giant Peach. I should have known it would be a little creepy once I saw Tim Burton in the credits, but they did okay and were pretty excited that James was having adventures on a peach.

Weekend of Fun

For not planning much of anything for the holiday weekend we did a lot and had a great family weekend. For July 4th, we went to the late afternoon parade in a town next to us with friends and then watched the fireworks from their neighborhood that night. I have to say I'm not a parade person...I find them kind of boring and am always annoyed when they are TV. However, kids change things. They really seemed to like it and I loved watching them...of course Rory was mesmerized by the fire trucks and antique cars and all that. Shelagh, for some reason, has been asking about soldiers lately, so she was excited to see some at the parade and was very appreciative waving at them and screaming thank you and hi. It was pretty cute. I don't know how they keep such a poker face the whole time (the soldiers, that is).


Saturday we went to the toy store to get a baseball T set for the kids. Shelagh can hit the ball across the yard and Rory, with a gentler touch, did a good job making contact although he holds the bat like his little golf putter. He also likes to play it like an instrument.

Saturday afternoon we went to Kimballs, a farm, golf and ice cream shop in Westford, MA. We drove all the way out there primarily for the ice cream, but I convinced Joe that the kids could handle the mini-golf too. They had a great time putting up in the moutains last month so I thought they could handle it. They did really well overall. A little fidgety by the end, but they enjoyed running right to the hole, dropping their ball inches away and "sinking their puts".

We wrapped up the day with the much-anticipated ice-cream followed by a quick pony ride for Shelagh. She couldn't believe that the horse had braided hair and that he had "pony-tails".


Yesterday we had some friends over for an impromptu pool day. The sun was in and out, but it was warm and the kids swam from 1130 until 4. Miraculously, Rory kept himself busy enough to survive without a nap. We tried skipping his nap earlier in the week and he lost his mind. Live and learn.


I never enjoy travelling on holiday weekends and never regret staying home.

Rainy Day Monday

Even though today is a holiday, I was going to head into work to get some stuff done since I missed work on Thursday for Little Miss Sick Girl. But I woke up to this...dreary, rainy morning.

No way I can get out of my PJs, let alone leave the house. Okay, actually just don't want to go to work especially since it's a holiday and no one will be there.

Update: Rethinking the "stay home lazy all day" plan as it's 57 degrees outside. I think we might go to the playground after nap. Hopefully toweling off the slide will be enough and the fact that it's school vacation week and the first warm day in months won't drive me out of there annoyed. My kids are seriously cranky from being in the house for so many days and this would probably make my afternoon more pleasant with Joe heading off to the PC basketball game.