Soccer and Golf

Soccer season ended for E. He loved his team and is bummed that it's over for the summer.

R is still playing for another weekend, and also gets to add golf to his list of sports. He is on a golf team now. I love that they make the kids dress up. He didn't even mind the nice pants...I think he realized how handsome he looked.

Alice in Wonderland

We were supposed to have gone to the beach with playgroup yesterday, but it rained. So we went to see Alice in Wonderland at the Oakdale Theater. It was lots of fun. We've enjoyed seeing these musicals for several years. They are decent performances of stories the kids have only seen the Disney versions of, they are inexpensive ($6.50 per person at the door), and I love supporting Kaleidoscope Theatre.

We were disappointed that none of our playgroup friends were joining us, but it worked out well since with just the three of us we got 6th row seats. The woman at the box office said they save a few seats in the front for performers to use, and if they don't get used, they release them to the public the day of the show. Woo hoo! E: "Mommy that caterpillar has an excellent costume."

Afterwards we headed to our usual rain location for playgroup: The North Haven Library, but found that everyone had gone to someone's house instead. So we soaked in all the great stuff at this new (for us), fantastic library (coming home with five audio books and several written ones), and then headed over to our friend's house.

R is now done with golf camp, and finished up tennis lessons today.He had a wonderful time doing both and wants to do two sessions of each, next year. Next year E will be old enough for golf and will probably do tennis too. I love having athletic kids.

Independence Week

The boys and I went to Maine on Monday afternoon, and had a really enjoyable couple of days. In no particular order, we saw the movie Ratatouille and watched some excellent fireworks over Square Pond. R played some par three golf with Aunt Debbie, Uncle Rob and Uncle Rob's partner Sheila's son Christopher, while E and I played miniature golf with Grandma and Sheila. R was incredibly thrilled to have beaten Christopher, and more importantly, Aunt Debbie.

We also paid a visit to the dollar store, compliments of Grandma, went for a walk to the waterfalls near Grandma's, and had an amazing time at Granny Kent Pond (Grandmother - my grandmother - has a house on that pond where the clan gathers for summer fun). Both boys had an amazing time playing with their cousins. In 1997 FIVE boys were born to my Grandmother's family, so the boys have a bunch of cousins to play with. R also had an excellent time tubing off the back of Uncle Larry's boat, and E had the chance to drive it. Uncle Larry is cool (and only three years older than me).

We all hated having to come home on Thursday, but E had a piano class that I didn't want him to miss. There are only six (very expensive) sessions, and I didn't want him to fall behind. He and I were both very happy to have returned for it.

Memorial Day Weekend

R is getting into fishing. Or perhaps he just enjoys spending time with his dad. Either way, they went fishing twice this weekend. E joined them only once.

Golf was big this weekend too. B took the boys to hit a bucket at a local range, and another day we all tried out a mini golf course in Prospect. It was way smaller than we would have liked, and we will never go there again, but we had fun being together anyway. It's great when we don't keep score.

One cool thing about this weekend was that there was NO soccer.

We didn't have any picnics to attend, which was kind of a bummer. For the last several years I've had people here and I needed a break this year. I had hoped to get invited over to the homes of one of the people I had invited here over the years, but it didn't work out that way. Oh well.

We enjoyed the Cheshire parade. Nagy Papa joined us under a tree along route 10. It's kind of a bummer that the Cheshire Soccer League doesn't walk, but we saw several people we knew with other organizations. Being a spectator is fun because everyone throws candy to us. And we watch right at the beginning of the parade route, before people realize they need to ration their candy if they want to have enough to make it to the end. So the boys came home with lots of candy to add to their stashes from E's birthday.

B and I got to spend a night out for our anniversary (married 16 years!). Nagy Papa watched the boys while we enjoyed seeing Pirates of the Caribbean (which was lots of corny fun) and having dinner at a place called Manor Inn in Southington. We had been looking for an excuse to try this place. B had gotten a take out menu from there once, and it seemed really expensive. But it turns out the portions are enormous, so it is well worth the price. The atmosphere was not what we had hoped for for an anniversary dinner, but we got over that as soon as we tasted our food. Exceptional. We will definitely be eating there again. It was an excellent anniversary.

The end of February

Grandma sent a Valentine's Day package. She sends one every year from her vacation in Florida, and has not managed to extricate herself from the tradition yet.












The boys had a blast with all the fun stuff they received, and immediately ate the individual containers of sugar cereal.












On Friday, February 23rd (my I've been lax with my New Year's Resolution) we went on a tour of Avery Soda in New Britain. They showed us how the machine works and then the boys got to make three bottles of soda to bring home. They also got some cute aprons. We didn't get much of an idea on how the machines and business work; the "tour" was about getting to make your own soda. R and E had a "great" time, but I would have skipped it had I known what it was. It was kind of cool to see the bottles go into the machine and come back out filled up with a top on it, but there was no information about how it happened. Part of the problem may have been that there were WAY too many people on this tour and they split us into two groups. One person doing two groups at once. You can imagine. The gentleman did answer all of my questions, but it was too chaotic. I probably wouldn't go again even if it wasn't. Probably better to go there to buy some soda and ask if we can watch how the machine works.












The boys had a great time in Queens with Grandma and Grandpa the next day. They enjoyed non-stop TV, McDonald's, Toys R Us, pizza (as only New York can do it) and playing with their cousins for a little while. Meanwhile B and I got to enjoy Spamalot in Manhattan, which if I were rich I would sooo be seeing again. It was non-stop laughing the whole entire time. If they sold the DVD I would have bought it. It was a very exceptional experience.












E has been hard at work with the Cars he net from Toys R Us.
He has been making race tracks aaaalll over the livingroom, using whatever is handy for the the side walls. I have been a spectator voting for my favorite many times.










I went to an Academy Awards party this year. I'm the one all the way on the right. It was really fun to get all dressed up. We all looked smashing. I wish the photo were clearer.














Wednesday we skipped our New Haven playgroup. R is getting tired of playing inside and his favorite friend in the group is on vacation, so he asked if we could have a day off. Happily, some friends called and invited us over for an impromptu playdate!

Thursday I took the boys ice-skating. This place lets homeschoolers pay only $4 - including skate rental - any day of the week during their open skate from 12:00 till 1:20. The boys had a great time skating with other homeschoolers, and I got to meet some new grown-ups too.














This past weekend we got our livingroom just about finished. I made the curtains and B finished the plaster patch he was working on behind the couch. I'm just hanging up art now and we'll be done. Woo hoo! Just in time for R's family birthday party!

On a serious note...Saturday morning I sat down to read the newspaper and was flabbergasted to read about the murder/suicide in our town. I had already heard about it from a commercial for the news, but hadn't seen the whole story. So when I read the victims' names I was shocked to find they are our neighbors! The two boys had told me some of their turbulent history when we first met and were sleighing down our hill last year, so when I read those names I was chilled. No matter that R had decided not to play with them because they were exclusionary, I always felt bad for them that their father was so screwed up. And now to see him take so many lives and leave these boys orphaned has blown me away.

This event has really affected me. Not only because my heart is breaking for those poor boys, whose whole lives have been turned upside down, but because I thought I was leaving that kind of violence behind in New York. I know, I know, violence can happen to anyone, but holy cow, two young boys TWO DOORS OVER?