Mothers Day

It was a tough Mothers Day, to be honest. In some ways it was nice, because MJ and the kids were so sweet with their cards and gifts, and I also got to spend the day with my dad. But I suspect I will always feel a significant amount of sorrow on Mothers Day, because I almost always spent it with my mom.

The day before, we met Grandma and Grandpa for lunch to celebrate:

On Sunday, we'd made plans with Karen and Patrick to spend the afternoon at a minor league baseball game with Pepere. It was a really nice little stadium, and the kids had a great time with Braxton and Bryson. Pepere taught Sweet Pea how to score baseball, and now she wants to score all of Little Man's games.

In honor of Mothers Day, the stadium offered pictures for families, and I was happy to take advantage of it. Surprisingly, the picture turned out really well!

While we were together, we had a belated birthday celebration for CC (with a pan of brownies that she made herself). Pepere gave her the backpack she's been wanting, so she was beside herself with excitement. And Karen and Patrick and the boys gave her a box set of one of her favorite book series -- now she owns it and can read it whenever she wants!

My dad and I stayed up late talking, and it was bittersweet. I'm so glad I have him. And I'm so glad I was lucky enough to have my mom.

Happy Easter

He is risen!

We've had a quiet day today. We went to early Mass (which was shockingly packed for 7 am!) and came home so the kids could tear through their Easter baskets. MJ and I played tennis for a bit. And since then, we've been slowly unpacking and doing laundry from the trip, while the kids enjoy their treasures and we all just relax. 

I insisted on a nice picture after Mass, though. It's the price these poor children have to pay!

I literally have no plan for dinner. Dessert is covered, though: I made my mom's cheesecake last night (CC's request for her birthday, but it had to chill overnight). I thought I'd completely ruined it, because when I took it out of the oven it was literally sloshing around in the springform pan! But sure enough, it seems solid after 12 hours in the fridge. Fingers crossed it's edible!

Happy St Paddy's Day!

The kids were more than happy to don green this morning, some more than others.

May the road rise up to meet you;

May the wind be always at your back;

May the sun shine warm upon your face, 

The rains fall soft upon your fields,

And until we meet again,

May God hold you in the palm of His hand

Final Christmas

The holidays are officially over, because we've finished all our outings and visits and gift-giving occasions. Even the candy is gone! Our final event was a Christmas/birthday celebration at Patrick and Karen's house, where we celebrated our Christmas with them, and also Pepere and Aunt Karen's birthdays.

The kids couldn't wait to open their gifts, of course! We gave Braxton and Bryson the game Grounded for Life, which they'd had so much fun playing with our kids at Thanksgiving (plus some PlayStation gift cards so they could buy games for their new console). They gave Sweet Pea a new case for her Kindle that she'd really been wanting, and CC received a new ballet leotard that she loves. 

But Little Man thought he'd hit the jackpot when he opened his gift and realized that it was an enormous Nerf gun! The girls were groaning, but he was jumping up and down with excitement. Uncle Patrick was a good sport and even let him have some target practice.

After a yummy BBQ dinner, we played a fun White Elephant game that I'll definitely have to use the next time we have a large group over for Christmas! Most of us ended up with candy, but Sweet Pea snagged the coveted $5 bill. And everyone laughed when Little Man got stuck with fruitcake at the very last minute (although Memere took pity on him afterwards and traded).

We wrapped up the evening by singing Happy Birthday to Pepere and Aunt Karen, and then we gave Pepere his gifts: a baseball book and a new Duke jacket. It was a great day all around!

Happy New Year!

MJ and Amber conceded defeat around 9pm, but the kids and I made it to midnight with hot chocolate, tuxedo cake, an impromptu painting craft, and a few old episodes of Modern Family. 

May we all be blessed in 2025! (And please, God, let the children sleep in. Yawn.)

Merry Christmas!

What a whirlwind day! But it was beautiful and chaotic and merry and bright.

Big gifts were silks for the girls (which they spent all day on), a 3-D printer for Little Man (which we haven't even opened yet -- I need to dedicate some serious time to it), plus Legos, sports wear and athleisure, books, arts and crafts, and so much more. I was excited to give my parents a "Family bouquet" I had a local watercolor artist paint, and the kids couldn't wait to give MJ his new sandwich press.

In the afternoon, Grandma and Grandma came over with more presents and treats (yay for Munson's hot chocolate!), and Grandpa and I even gave each other the same book! 

Then we had a wonderful meal and more cookies, and spent the rest of the day enjoying our gifts and each other's company. Even Amber got a new toy and a huge cinnamon-roll-looking cookie, which she devoured despite being sick during the night (after swiping two sticks of butter yesterday and eating them, wrapper and all).

Now we're all happily exhausted, and the kids are snoring in their beds. Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

Christmas Eve

Finally ... all the preparations are done and excitement is high! Memere and Pepere are here, and we all went to Grandma and Grandpa's for a lovely dinner after Mass. We enjoyed lasagna (for the adults and Little Man), Chick Fil A nuggets (for the girls), and of course Grandma's signature Christmas cookies for dessert!

Then it was back home to decorate cookies. Hey, better late than never! And this way we were able to include Memere and Pepere. 

By 8pm, the kids were in bed, and I began my death-defying trip to the attic to get various secret items. (Our pull-down attic access broke earlier this week, and I wasn't entirely sure the ladder would hold me, but it did!) Working as a team, MJ and I and my parents got everything ready for the morning, and headed to bed before Santa made his appearance.

Cookies with Grandma

We continued our tradition this year of each kid having their own day to bake cookies with Grandma. It's so sweet! The kids love that special time at her house, and they're so proud of "their" cookies. And this year, like every year before, they've chosen to make the same type of cookies.

CC went first, and made molasses cookies.

Little Man made sugar cookies with the cookie press (or "cookie gun" as he calls it).

And last but not least, Sweet Pea made thumbprint cookies.

The kids each came home with a good number of samples. All were delicious, and all quickly disappeared!

(Special thanks to Grandpa for being the photographer.)

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas ...

We got our tree up in good time this year! A full week before Army-Navy -- that's pretty good for us. We went to a local lot and picked out a good one in short order. Sweet Pea named it Brenda for some reason, and insists on referring to "her" by her name.

It was Little Man's turn to put the star on the tree (something he'd been reminding us about for days), and he was very proud that he could (barely) reach without any help. Then again, he had the benefit of a stepstool which gave him quite a boost. But at least we didn't have to bring in the ladder from the garage!

Between various dance rehearsals and other activities, we got all the ornaments up. The house is looking festive and ready for Christmas!

A Wonderful Thanksgiving

We had such a nice Thanksgiving! It was small, compared to previous years -- Jon and Susan were in Texas, and Grandma and Grandpa were spending it with Grandma's sister and some friends. But Memere and Pepere were here for three fun-filled days, and Patrick and Karen came over on Thanksgiving afternoon with Braxton and Bryson, plus Karen's mother, Lou.

The day before, we were a mad flurry of activity as we cleaned the house and baked the pies. Sweet Pea insisted on helping with the pies, which was no surprise -- she loves to work with me in the kitchen. But I was very pleasantly surprised to learn that Little Man loves peeling apples, potatoes and carrots! He was very enthusiastic about it. "I'm skinning them alive! Ha ha ha!"

Thanksgiving afternoon was full of warm conversations, laughing, and good food. We celebrated Bryson and Braxton's birthday with carrot cake and cheesecake.

Bryson unfortunately broke his ankle the day before, so he was on crutches and wasn't able to run around playing football or Nerf guns like usual. But the kids had a blast playing their new favorite game: Grounded for Life. It's a kids' version of Cards Against Humanity, and I don't think I've ever heard so much giggling! One of the prompts was, "In the event of a zombie apocalypse, I would grab ______." Bryson's card said, "Training Bras," and the kids hyperventilated with laughter for a good 15 minutes. 

The next day, we went with Memere and Pepere to see the Wicked movie, which we'd been looking forward to since we saw it on Broadway last fall. It was really good, and the singing and theatricality gave me goosebumps! But I still haven't figured out how it was just the first half of the story and was almost 3 hours, when the entire show on Broadway takes less than that.

The rest of the weekend was filled with leftovers, football, and more games with Memere and Pepere. Amber didn't manage to steal any food, which I believe is a record (although she almost got the blueberry pie). The weather was beautiful, and the company couldn't have been better. It was truly a wonderful holiday!

Halloween 2024

Happy Halloween! Presenting the Energizer Bunny, the Queen of Hearts, and a Minecraft Enderman:

For the second year, CC made her own costume, and was very proud of it. I didn't help her at all! She decided to be the Queen of Hearts, and then convinced her friends to go as other Alice in Wonderland characters. Patricia was Alice, Scarlett was the Mad Hatter, and Clara was the White Rabbit. It was such a fun group! They all came here to get ready, then trick or treated in the neighborhood.

Sweet Pea got the idea to be the Energizer Bunny from her cirque friends, and it certainly fits her personality. She and I spent quite a bit of time making her drum -- comprised of cardboard, duct tape, and paint -- and it had a hole in the back for her to keep her candy in. Her friend Charlie decided to be a battery, so they were the perfect pair. They started trick or treating in Charlie's neighborhood, which is adjacent to ours, and eventually finished here. Several people said that they had the best costumes! 

And for the second year, Little Man trick or treated with his buddy Brennan in that neighborhood. Brennan's mom reported that they finished surprisingly early, but Little Man was pleased with the amount of candy he collected. He carried it around in a cardboard chest he made to resemble Minecraft chests. There was so much creativity this year!

I made a char-BOO!-terie board for dinner. It was hard to find plastic insects this year, but I added edible eyeballs, which I thought was a fun touch. The kids were so excited to go trick or treating that everyone completely forgot about the Halloween cake for dessert! So we'll have that tonight instead.

Jack O'Lanterns

Jack O'Lanterns were fun this year! The kids are getting more and more independent in their carving now, so our jobs are mostly relegated to grunt work (MJ scraping out the insides) and design finesse (me doing fine-line work). 

Sweet Pea saw a cute idea online that she wanted to replicate. Yes, that's an airstream trailer being pulled by a car! The downside is that she had two pumpkins to carve.

Little Man and CC like to match their Jack O'Lantern design with their Halloween costumes. Little Man's theme this year is "Minecraft," and he was telling everyone how easy it is to carve Minecraft designs, because there are no curved lines. He settled on a Creeper's face, and bizarrely carved the face out before the inside was even scooped out, which made MJ's job a little trickier.

CC's costume is the Queen of Hearts, and originally she wanted to carve the phrase "Off with their heads!" into a pumpkin. But then she realized how much work it would be to cut out all those letters. So she settled for a pretty heart with a crown over it.

Now we're ready for the big event tomorrow!

Spooky Amusement Park

Last year we went to our local amusement park's annual Halloween celebration, but none of us enjoyed it -- it was extremely loud and crowded, plus the employees who dressed up in freaky costumes and jumped out at people in the dark were too much for the kids. Little Man was convinced the roaring chain saws some characters were swinging around were real, and the entire night was just unpleasant.

This year we decided we'd go during the day, so we could enjoy the decorations without the crowds or noise. It was much better! And we took Sweet Pea's friend Charlie as her birthday gift.

Charlie had never been on most of the big rides there, and was a little nervous about trying them. But after she overcame her nerves to go on the first big one, she was ready for all the rest! At the end of the day, she couldn't decide which ride was her favorite because she'd loved them all so much.

I think this is definitely a fun new Halloween tradition!