Happy New Year

Sleepy

The only 15 minutes of silence

Bouncing fun

Plugged in

Bath time

iTouch

Ready for Santa

Who's who?

Watching TV

5 minutes alone....

Xmas Early....?????

Xmas Concert at school

Furr Real

A pic a day

With Blogger's new mobile app I'll be able to post way more often (it's so convenient to post on the go). So this next year I will be posting a pic a day!

6 Flags

We went on an impromptu trip to 6 Flags today.  My neighbor Monika asks us to join them (she was going with her sister, niece and son).  I figured why not...we could use a day of fun!  So we went and we did indeed have fun.   We overcame a couple speed bumps on the way and after a much needed attitude adjustment (yours truly needed it) - the day turned out quite nice.  The girls went on a few rides - their favorite being the helicopter.  We ate some fried dough and ice cream and we also hit up the water park.  That was a bit bumpy to say the least.  They all WANTED to go on the kiddie water slide.  So we went over, checked it out and decided it would be fun.  They started climbing up and got bombarded with other kids literally pushing them out of the way.  I can only do so much - and I did my best to hold out my arms and to give the girls space.  But they decided it wasn't what they wanted and all came down.  No big deal - off to something else.  But then they wanted to go back to the water slide.  I know they really wanted to try it so I'm not going to discourage them.  This time Hannah & Hailey only wanted to go.  So I help them get to the top and then grab Emily so I could walk around to catch them at the bottom.  By the time I got to the end of the slide they were both screaming.  I'm telling you the kids that were there were honestly monsters.  They were pushing and shoving, not taking turns, not waiting in line and not being nice!  (and that's NOT just the mom in me).  I'm sure it was very scary for the girls.  So I get back to the stairs and try to get them down.  Well - with 2 on the top and one of the bottom holding onto my leg for dear life this was quite complicated.  The kids around me WOULD NOT STOP CLIMBING THE STAIRS.  They kept pushing Hannah & Hailey (almost pushing them down the slide) and they wouldn't listen to me saying 'WAIT - I NEED TO HELP THEM DOWN!!!!!!'   Finally the lifeguard came over and even with the 2 of us it was hard!  I swear - this wasn't exactly fun.  The lifeguard had to SCREAM at the kids to stop climbing the stairs and then he started pulling kids off so that I could reach Hannah & Hailey.  

Now you would think I would have hugged them and loved on them and told them everything would be ok.  Reality check ladies...this is life.  And if you don't want it to pass you by - then you better start learning how to deal with it.  I said to them that not everyone is nice, not everyone is polite and sometimes we have to fight for what we want.  That's it.  I didn't give them the go ahead to start swinging next time (though I really wanted to!).  If they want to try new things - that's great!  But they're going to have to realize that it's not always easy. 

After that - we headed over to the wave pool and just hung out there for a while until it was time to go.  They loved it because there were mini waves. 

I think some days I forget how sensitive they are to mass crowds.  It has always been the case and I hope they outgrow it some day - but the truth is...it's just them.  They really don't like crowds and they get too over stimulated.  This was a good experience for them - but when I ask them about it they are just going to keep saying 'there were too many people and I didn't like it'.  But they DID like 'it' they just didn't like the crowds!  Actually - Hailey even said on her way home "Maybe next time there won't be anyone there and we can have the whole park to ourselves!!!!"  LOL 

More fun!

I went out to dinner with some friends on Friday night.  We went out for sushi and drinks...and let me tell you - I needed it!

Saturday Pete and I did the 'divide and conquer' technique so we could get some stuff done.  Then I took the girls up to cousin Christophers bday party.  It was a fun party - Christopher was LOVING all of the presents!!!!  We took our cousin Kaleigh back with us and she stayed here for a couple of nights.  What an amazing help that was!  It was like having a live-in mommy's helper for the entire weekend.  She played with them, got them dressed, read books to them, buckled them into their carseats...you name it and she helped with it. 

Sunday we hung out at the mall for a while (rainy day) and then Monday (after I worked for a couple of hours) we went to Bounce U.  They all enjoyed that of course.  Then Kate came to pick Kaleigh up last night :(    I'm really going to have to steal my cousins more often.  Not just for the help either...I had a blast playing Wii with Kaleigh! 

Today the girls are catching up on some much needed sleep.  They were cranky and tired!  I put them down for naps at 11:30...it's now 2:00 and they're still sleeping.  I'm sure they'll wake up soon but obviously they needed the sleep. 

If I only had the energy to tackle laundry.............

Cousins

Summer Time



5/30/11

5/31/11

Emily

Hailey

Hannah

Raspberry Bush

Kite Flying!

I have more pics to come but they were taken from my cell phone and I'm having a hard time getting them from my phone to the blog....

Emily

Hailey

Happy Birthday..........

The month of March is FULL of birthdays in our family.   My sister and 2 of my brothers all have a birthday this month.  I'll try to get them all on here with pics but that'll take some time.  For now...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMANDA!!!!!!!  3/24  TODAY!!!! 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOEY!!!!!!!!!!      3/20

HAPPY BIRTHDAY PETER!!!!!!!!!!!   3/2

3/23/11 Walk in snow

It doesn't look like snow in the pic - but it was snowing.  My friend Lucy gave the girls a couple of umbrella's she no longer used.  They were all too excited to get to use them to go for a walk!  I thought for sure I'd end up carrying all of the umbrella's after 1/2 way through our walk.  But to my surprise - we walked around the block TWICE and they held them the entire time! 

Just veggin' out

Here's a pic of the girls glued to the TV.  About a week ago they watched Dora the Explorer for the very 1st on TV and this is the result. 

Thank you cards

We LOVE to paint.  And I found some GREAT washable paint at AC Moore.  It's only $1.99 a bottle and we only need 3 bottles (primary colors).  We had fun mixing the paint on paper plates to make all of the colors of the rainbow.  Then - we painted our hands and made hand prints on the thank you cards.  While I was helping one of them do their 'hand stamps' - the others were painting a cardboard box that was hanging around from after the move.  Letting them paint cardboard is fun, cheap and easy for clean up.  And cardboard can handle A LOT of paint...unlike construction paper.  The best part about this project was the easy clean up.  The paint washed right off of EVERYTHING!  Now I just need to get the thank you cards sent out..........

3/12/11 - St. Patrick's Day Parade in Hartford

I took the girls to their 1st parade and even though it was cold and windy - they loved it!

We hung out in front of these doors cuz it was enclosed, warmer and wind free.  There was also a family with twin boys hanging out in here with us!  

Trying out the ground effects...still too windy down here but cotton candy helped!

This is where we watched the parade!  Right up on this wall all wrapped up in a cozy blanket. We are eating a pretzel (and I just realized they are eating in every picture). 

I didn't take any pics of the parade itself!  But it was fun and I can't wait to go to the 4th of July parade!

2/26/11 - girls bday party

(too many pics to look through so I'll update this post later)

Lots of pics coming!

Ok - it's been almost a month since I've posted pics.  BUT I have been TAKING pics.  I just haven't taken the time to put them on the computer.  I'll post them in separate posts so they're not all lumped into one big cluster. 

Bday outfits!

Thanks to Titi for picking out the CUTEST outfits in the world for us!

Cousin Christina

On our way to the mall with Uncle Joey & Kristin. 

Can you find what's so funny about this pic?

A visit from cousin C and his mommy! 

Doctor Doctor Doctor!

Our cousin Sofia sent us these really cool dress up Doctor outfits and we LOVE them!  Thank you Sofia!

HAPPY 3RD BIRTHDAY!!!