St. Patrick's Day

This morning found me up at 7am. That in itself is noteworthy. I got up to put the corned beef into the crockpot. Corned beef. Ew. B loves the stuff, but I think it's gross. This is the first year I made it. He was so happy to see me preparing it that he went to the store and brought me home a green carnation before going to work. I didn't wear it though because I didn't want it to get crushed.

Since I was up anyway I made the boys green eggs and they had that along with the Irish soda bread B had made over the weekend.

Then we got dressed and headed to bowling. I'm thrilled to be bowling again. I joined a league in September. We bowl every Tuesday morning. It's probably 1/2 retirees and the rest are closer to my age. No one younger though.

I bowled with my mom and aunts when I lived in New York way back when. I was pretty good then, and am extremely happy that time and fat haven't seemed to make a difference now. My average is the second highest on the league, at 153, and my team is in first place. Today I bowled a 156, 214 (!) and a 142. This is my second week in a row bowling over 200. Woo hoo!

The boys come to bowling too. For years I've sat on the sidelines or in the car when it's cold, and driven them to all manner of sports and classes. This year I decided they could sit for my sport. They hand out on benches on the other side of the place and read/play with R's DS/play with action figures/do workbooks stuff to earn TV time, and basically keep themselves busy without too much complaint. R is taking a baby sitting class next month, and I told him they could stay home after he's done, but for now they have to go and suffer through my bowling. Although sometimes they do ask my dad to comb by and watch them so they don't have to go.

After bowling we came home and the boys went outside to make themselves a fire. That's something they are so into these days that I've stopped taking pictures. Although I don't think I've posted one here. OK, here's an old one.

While they did that I spent a really good portion of the day looking through tons of books in the basement and filling 9 plastic grocery bags with disposables. I still have a lot to go, but they really did fill up my trunk.

When B got home we had our corned beef (ew). The boys liked it well enough, but next year if I make it again I'll be making something else for myself.

We ended the day by going to the movies. The theater in Wallingford sells all tickets for $5 on Tuesdays and B has been hating that he misses them all the time. So we agreed that we'd go at night so he can join us. We saw Race to Witch Mountain. We knew it would be coming out so a couple of weeks ago we watched the original (borrowed from the library) to enjoy before the super effects ruined the the enjoyment. Good decision, that.



The boys enjoyed both versions, but of course, like the new one better (duh). I liked the old one better (duh). The new one was fun, but lots of explosions and a little more over the top than necessary. I guess it's what kids expect these days. My favorite part was when the two original kids showed up as adult characters on this one. I'm so glad I saw Kim Richards' name at the start of the film, so I knew to look for her. The boys liked that too. And B was so glad he got to join us. It did mean getting into bed close to 10 though.

Holiday Highlights

Wasn't sick this year - woo hoo! - so there was cookie making happening. We actually ran out of tins to store them in! Here's our cookie station:

Crafts for gifts:

A weekend visit to Maine for Grandma's annual craft day with the "boys of '97", as R refers to them, also included a visit with Uncle R (my brother) who brought a box of Halloween clearance finds, some of which he gave the boys. He was amazed at how E falls right in to character for each item he puts on.

Our annual family outing was to see A Civil War Christmas at the Long Wharf Theater in New Haven on a weeknight. It was a little difficult to follow with jumping story lines, actors playing several different characters, and no clear sets helping to define what was going on, but we did share an interesting critique on the way home, and shared our favorite parts. The Long Wharf Theater is a fantastic venue that we look forward to returning to.

Had a huge snow storm which dropped about 10 inches the first day and another three the next night.

Woke up to all that snow, cleaned it all up, and drove down to New York to visit B's family. Here are six of the seven male cousins spawned from the three male sons born to my mother-in-law:

Picked up my deliriously happy sister in New York after visiting with B's family. She got engaged during her two-month hiatus to Columbia to meet up with her till-then mostly pen-pal man.

E had lots of fun introducing his new Hess truck from his grandparents to the ones they had given him in previous years:

Mom arrived with matching pajamas for the girls this year:

Decorating gingerbread cookies that Grandma had brought was lots of fun:

We had lots and lots of game playing going on the whole time my sister and mom were here:

My cousin stopped by on her way from her home in Philadelphia to her family in Maine on Christmas eve. It was a disappointingly short visit, but an extremely enjoyable one.

We left the camera near the fireplace so that Santa could take photos of the room with his presents there. Fantasy is still alive and well in this household.

R's favorite gift was the Nintendo DS that B and I gave him. I hope I don't end up regretting that agonizing decision.

This year the only present E asked for in his letter to Santa was a box of 40 flavors of Jelly Bellies. He wrote Santa that he could surprise him with the rest. Santa was very excited and did a fantastic job. Here we have a mask with parts you can put together however you like. Then you choose a mouth based on the voice changer you want to use. So you choose a face, then choose a voice. E said it was his favorite present.

He also desperately needed a new knight costume. His was way worn out from all the Renaissance Festivals we went to this year. He was extremely excited that this one came with a helmet.

After opening all the presents and enjoying eachother's company for a while, we went to the movies to see Bedtime Stories:


We really enjoy movies in our family, and this was a great one. It was a wonderful, kid-friendly story. All six of us thoroughly enjoyed it. I have really enjoyed growing up with Adam Sandler. I wish he would show this side of himself more often. And I loved seeing his buddies from Grandma's Boy, SNL and others my sister pointed out.

I have to admit, I have a hard time letting the photos do the talking. There is so much to fill in that I will surely forget over the years. But this is so much faster. And hopefully I chose photos and wrote enough to spark my memories.

This was the best Christmas I've had in years. All of us were so much more relaxed this year than we usually are. It was wonderful.

Early December

Friends came by to play in the snow.

We went to see Bolt in 3D. This movie was exquisitely beautiful. I can't say much about the story, although the boys seemed entertained. I was too busy simply looking at it. It was so well directed and the use of the 3D aspect was not at all gimmicky. When watching it flat you would not likely be able to tell it had been made for 3D. I'm so glad we saw this. It reminded me of admiring the beauty of the backgrounds in Disney's The Aristocats in my History of Animation class in college. Candy for the eyes. Disney rocks 3D.

I'm very happy to have gotten my birdfeeder back up. I haven't seen as many cats around as I had, so I thought I'd give it another try. The first day we filled up all those feeders the boys and I spent hours watching and counted 14 different kinds of birds. I wrote a list, which of course I can't find now. That's fine though, the fun was in the writing. We consulted my identifier book and listened to my chirping identifier and have since been enjoying watching immensly. Here are a Downy Woodpecker, male Cardinal, and a Carolina Chickadee.

We had a good long visit with friends we haven't seen in WAY too long.

E managed to pry out the ice R had prepared in the buckets Thanksgiving weekend.

R is very pleased with the Electronics class he took at the Green Street co-op we joined in Middletown. He is looking forward to taking it for the next 14 week session too. E is looking forward to continuing his music appreciation class.

The boys practiced their letter writing skills:

Thanksgiving Weekend in Photos

We started the day watching the parade on TV, and remembering how fun it had been to do it in person. The boys are happy to have seen it live, but also very much like it in a nice warm house in our pajamas.

Nagy Papa came over for dinner. “The men” all enjoyed some baseball in the backyard while I had an easy going afternoon in the quiet kitchen. We enjoyed a viewing of White Christmas after dinner, which only my dad and I had already seen. Good food. Good company. Great day.

Friday night the boys had a sleepover at their freinds' house, and B and I went to see Four Christmases. It was about as good as I expected. But it was great to be out with B and in a movie theater with only grown ups!

Saturday was a great day to finish up the last leaves from our Sweet Gum tree in the front (which is always last to bloom and last to fall). B spent some time reorganizing the shed for winter. We also finally planted our hollies between us and our neighbors. Our outside looks great in winter!

R decided it was too nice a day to help us out with chores and instead made himself a fire. After he talked B into letting him make a fire ring with stones, in a spot in the grass which was already bare, and dragging those stones down from the front of the shed to do it, he went into the woods and found plenty of dead wood for an excellent fire. Then he sawed it all up and lit the thing. It was awesome. “Only two logs were already cut for a fire. I cut all the rest myself.”

R had also spent some time filling buckets with water. He even used the tub from the garage that I had taken the Christmas lights out of. “I'm filling them with water so they'll freeze and then I can crack the ice with a bat.”

All that time E had been inside playing Jumpstart Adventures 3rd Grade (computer game), but he came right out when R told him there was a fire. E had a really hard time not being allowed to participate in fire maintenance, but loved his 30 minutes or so when R finally went inside. He took it well when I told him Dad would be coming inside soon, so he'd have to stop adding sticks. Even R was surprised at how well he had kept it going.

Well Sunday morning (this morning) there was ice. R couldn't get any out of the smaller pails because “it was stuck”. But he really enjoyed the nice sheet that came off the Christmas lights' tub. He used B's sneakers to stomp and slide on it.

I also came across this today:

B told me that E read the whole thing to himself very, very quietly. Quietly enough that he himself could concentrate on his own reading.

I am actually feeling hopeful that my boys may still be readers :-)

An easy going Independence Day Weekend

We saw some fireworks in Waterbury. Nagy Papa came with us. Here are the boys watching from the top of the car. We really enjoyed the show and the boys went back and forth between the top of the car, and coming down to light sparklers during the show.

The rest of the weekend was lazy for me. Other than a bunch of laundry I didn't do much but watch a lot of Waltons. B got a lot done though; he's not very good at sitting still.


On Sunday we had fun seeing Wall-E. It's rare that B gets to join us at the movies, and he was happy to this time. It was a wonderful movie, that I highly recommend. It was touching and amusing, with a great social commentary. I will say though, that kids under five were asking questions all over the theater, so if you have young ones, leave them home; it's over their heads.

This is one I won't mind seeing again. It ranks right up there with Over the Hedge.

Happy Mother's Day

Mother's Day was wonderful. Everyone got up early to make their cards since Saturday had been such a busy day and they couldn't get to them. (I had spent several hours alone at the Scholastic book sale – ahhh.) They brought me my cards and presents in bed.Every year each of my children paint a ceramic tile for me. I look forward to the day I have enough to surround a mirror with.

I enjoyed a yummy breakfast of eggs, tater tots, bacon and english muffins, compliments of my loving spouse. They had even bought me my own 1/2 gallon of orange juice with lots of pulp, since I'm the only one who enjoys it that way.

After breakfast I dragged everyone back to our king-sized bed where we watched an episode of The Waltons. It was hard to keep B from doing anything around the house. The man needs to learn how to relax.

We all got dressed then and headed out. First stop: Sweet Claude's for ice-cream. Yum. Then we headed to Sleeping Giant State Park, where we walked the Tower Trail; a park maintained trail which leads up to a castle on the top of the mountain. B really likes the idea of hiking since he enjoyed it during our vacation, so I thought it would be fun since I had heard about the castle. I am pathetically out of shape. It took us 50 minutes to get to the top. From the top of the castle we could see all the way to Long Island Sound. Well worth it. Next time we'll do it when the park isn't so crowded though.

We took 30 minutes to get back down, practically running, since we had a dinner reservation in Southington I really wanted to make. And we did, exactly on time. We ate at Manor Inn, which is too expensive to eat at often. We were all bummed to find a special Mother's Day menu, since Chicken Parmesan wasn't on it, but the veal was just as good.

On the way home B and I got to talking and something he said reminded me of a movie I hadn't seen in a long time. So we stopped in at the video store and ended our day watching Dennis the Menace together. It was just as funny as I remembered it and the boys thought it was hilarious.

What a terrific day. I hope, if you are a mom, that your Mother's Day was as wonderful as mine.

The first week in April

Okay, so we are officially into the second week as I post this, but we've been so busy! So I'll just summarize some highlights of last week.

Monday of last week was so long ago that I can't really remember what we did all day, since there is nothing on my calendar. The evening says "7:30 Senor Pancho's with L" though. I had a nice time visiting over margaritas with my friend.

Tuesday morning we saw Growing Up A Slave, a live production at the Bushnell Theater in Hartford. From the Bushnell website:

Growing Up A Slave was derived from slave narratives transcribed by the Federal Writers' Project in the 1930s. Three characters share their dramatic accounts of slave life, their food and eating habits, clothing, religious and superstitious beliefs, music, the auction block and the dire consequences faced by runaways. Throughout the accounts, the spiritual resources of these oppressed people pulsate. The human spirit triumphs. Appropriate for grades five and up.

Often theaters will abridge shows for schools to bring kids to see in the daytime. This is exactly what this show was; it was also offered in the evening at a higher price. Typically I would spend the money to see the full program, but this time around I thought that they might water it down a bit. Wrong. They talked about a girl defending herself against a rape. That definitely went over E's head, but I think it's time to start talking about this sort of thing with R (age 11).

Overall the show was quite good. They left time at the end for students to ask questions. I was surprised at how little "grades five and up" actually know about slavery. We have been soaking up knowledge about it since Martin Luther King, Jr. day in 2007. We've been spending extra time on it recently since we plan on stopping at a real Virginia plantation, and The National Civil War Museum, on our drive down to the Great Smoky Mountains for our vacation.

This week we also watched a video from the library about the US civil war. I don't remember exactly what it was called, but it was a perfect 30 minute summary of the basics; exactly what we needed. I also took home several books from the library on the topic, and R chose out this one for us to read together.

That boy really does love ships; I knew he'd choose this book from the library basket. I only wish that during our drive to the Smokies we were passing closer to the Mariner's Museum in Newport News, VA so we could go see pieces of one of these fabulous ships, called the Monitor. Luckily it's only about 40 minutes from Colonial Williamsburg though, so we'll eventually get there.

Wednesday brought playgroup, which was fun as always. We were happy that indoor soccer is over and we had a week off before outdoor starts. That evening B and I (the boys stayed home with Nagy Papa) went to the CT Homeschool Network Take Action Forum to discuss and learn all about SB 162, and what we should be doing about it. I left there feeling a lot better about what I need to do. More on that another day.

Thursday we headed up to White Memorial for our monthly class which has resumed now that spring is here. I have a very good friend who has been very sick and I was thrilled to see her again after four months! We had a great time catching up, and E was just thrilled to see his best friend Q again. The younger kids' class was first and they headed out to the woods with a checklist of things to notice.

After that we went to my friend's restaurant for some pizza and blue soda, and I returned R in time for his class, which he says was the best one yet. They used microscopes and I have been told that we absolutely have to get one ASAP. (OK, I have put that on the list for when we return from vacation.) Here is the drawing of what he saw under the microscope.

Thursday night I had my womyn's circle, which is always rejuvenating.

Friday we had a full day of TV watching. Another fun thing we plan to do on our vacation is stop by the Davy Crockett Tavern and Museum. So we started out with Shelley Duvall's version, which E loved. Then we moved on to Disney's version which both boys got a kick out of. I figured it would be fun to start with the tall tale, since not many people know much else. But we at least waited for B to get home to watch the A&E version, so he'd know the real facts too.

This one E refused to watch. He's only seven, after all. R really enjoyed it though, as well as B and I. It was nice to have all facts filled in. Surprising though, that the Disney version mentioned Crockett's standing up against what would become the travesty of the Trail of Tears, while the A&E version said nothing about it. We'll get the facts at the museum. It was cool to see some of the museum staff speak on the documentary. We are going to see if they still work there when we go.

Over the weekend the boys all had lots of fun while I mostly stayed indoors making all the reservations for our trip, and planning fun things for us to do. E started outdoor soccer. And at one point I looked out the window and saw R doing this, which I later found out was him making a boat (notice the headphones for the audiobook). Eventually they took their boats and rode their bikes to the Farmington Canal Linear Park and floated them down the stream there. Unfortunately though, they did end up getting stuck in some brush in the water, and they had to leave them behind. I was glad that they enjoyed the experience, rather than the boats themselves, because they honestly did not seem too upset over losing them.

They stopped at Brooksvale Park where our friends live (their Dad is the park ranger who did the maple syrup thing back in March) and ran into our friends. They hung out and visited for a while and had a terrific afternoon. Weekend actually. I'm glad B loves spending time with our boys as much as I do.

Craft night in Maine

Grandma hosts two craft nights per year; one for all the girl cousins, who have been doing it for many years now, and for the past two years, one for the boys who were born in 1997 (and E, even though he's younger, because "he's my grandson"). So we headed up to Maine on Saturday after both boys' basketball was done, and arrived near bedtime.

Sunday morning found us at a diner having breakfast with E's namesake, and Aunt Debbie.
Sunday afternoon was filled with crafts.
Unfortunately, like last year, one of the cousins couldn't make it. Different cousin at least. Everyone had a wonderful time anyway, and Grandma found out that her thought that no one was really into it, was far off the mark.

My sister and I did some shopping and had an enjoyable lunch at Applebees during the crafts, since it's strictly a drop-off party. We arrived back early enough to ensure that we got a photo of all the attendees.




While in Maine, we also enjoyed the 12 inches of snow which had fallen before we arrived. The boys love going down the steps along side the house, down into Grandma's backyard. It's a good hill and the bumpiness is enjoyable; at least that's what I hear.











They also worked hard to make a tunnel in the plowed snow, and were very proud to get it done before we had to come home.

Grandma ventured down into her backyard to explain to the boys how her new pier is going to look when it's done.
We enjoyed some shopping with Grandma on Monday, and then when Aunt Debbie got out of work at four, a movie. We went to Smitty's, where dinner is served before the movie, and enjoyed some pizza, chicken nuggets, chicken quesadillas, and french fries before watching Enchanted. Heads up to parents of little ones, the ending of this movie is scary. It was very contradictory to the tone of the rest of the movie, and the previews gave no indication that it would end this way, so if you have kids who are sensitive to that sort of thing, beware.
We enjoyed it though, although it wasn't as funny as the boys had hoped. "They took all the funniest parts and showed them in the advertisement." A good lesson in marketing.

We also enjoyed some fun with my nephew Mikey. The boys had a blast playing with their little cousin, and E loved when Mikey wore E's Sponge Bob slippers as long as he did. What a cutie. I'm so glad he enjoyed being with the boys as much as they enjoyed him.
His dad, my brother, had gastric bypass surgery while we were there. I got to see him in the hospital, and other than a grouchiness which demonstrates the disappointment that his idea that the whole thing was going to be a walk in the park was wrong, he is doing fine. Unfortunately though, bringing him his belongings meant that we got a late start home, and missed R's soccer practice. Not ones to waste an opportunity, we stopped into the West Farms Mall, and got some Christmas shopping done for B, and a quick heely around both floors of the entire mall, before continuing home.

I've learned the beauty of listening to audio books while driving to Maine alone. I can listen to whatever I want since the boys watch the DVD player, and the three and a half hour drive zips right by. I still have two discs to finish though! Ender's Game has been great so far. I will probably pick up the next one (it's a trilogy) in book form.

B was making hamburgers when we arrived home, so when they were done we all sat and visited and recounted our weekend. We all had a really enjoyable time.

Mr. Bean's Holiday

Yeah, we went to see it today. I knew the boys would love it, and I was right.

Man, it was funny. It was what Mom and Aunt Debbie used to call a "Friday night movie". You know, when you're all worn out from your week so you get some fast food and see a really silly movie which makes you laugh at how dumb it is. It was great.

We had hoped to go to the Bronx Zoo with some friends, but that didn't work out. So instead we were going to go to Old Sturbridge Village for Homeschool Day, and hopefully run into a lot of people we know, but it was pouring out this morning. I'm hoping that Tuesdays will end up being a stay-at-home day for us, with an occasional play date thrown in, but since we already had plans I knew the disappointment would make staying home torture. Plus on Tuesdays all seats are $5.

A new camera!

Today my camera arrived in the mail! I found the same exact camera that I had, used, on ebay, for a very reasonable price. I'm thrilled to have found it, because I can use all the same memory sticks. Plus, I've always just been happy with it. Woo hoo!

Today started with the free movie, Madagascar, at the Waterbury movie theater. We had two friends with us today, whose mom had appointments which were easier to go to without kids. The boys loved having the company, and afterwards we came home and had some fun time together before going to playgroup.
We also received a phone call today from good friends of ours. Seems the plans they had for today fell through, and they needed to get out badly enough to be willing to make the 40 minute drive to join us at our playgroup. What fun! E is always please to have these friends join us.
The kids were playing in the woods behind the park today. There is a cool rope swing back there, which they have played on in the past. Well today, apparently a beehive got disturbed because two kids got two stings each, and two kids got one each. It was pandemonium for a while there. Burt's Bees Res-Q Ointment is fantastic stuff. It makes "boo boos" stop hurting pretty quickly. I'm glad I had some on me.

What else? Post office, raw milk pick-up, BJ's.

B and I finished season two of Lost. What a fantastic show. We can't wait till season three comes out on DVD. Too bad it won't be in time for the TV broadcast of season four this fall.

Yesterday we saw our last Kaleidoscope show for the summer. We got there nice and early to score good tickets, and were disappointed to land in row UU. Not too bad though, and during intermission we moved up to AA. Afterwards, since it was the last show of the season, I sprung for lunch "with the characters". The boys couldn't have cared less about meeting them, they just wanted to eat there. It was fun.

Last night my printer bit the dust. My fingers are all black from accidentally breaking the print heads. Argh. It's all under my nails and looks pretty gross. And another thing to shop for! I am blessed that money is not an issue though, and I can afford to get these things as I need them.

Got to keep looking on the bright side :-)