Happy Mothers Day

We had a fun weekend celebrating Mothers Day!

On Saturday we had a brunch to celebrate my Mom.  Grammi, Papa and Uncle Dana came over and because the weather was so beautiful, we got to sit outside and relax.  Jay and my Dad put together a nice spread of food and Dana supplied a wonderful cocktail. 

After brunch, Grammi and Remy went to The Worcester Art Museum.  Nate and I went to watch Jack's baseball game where Papa met up with us.

We made it an early night because on Sunday we had plans to go to Canobie Lake (amusement) Park for the day.

I woke up to breakfast in bed made by Jack.  He made me a bagel and coffee all by himself.  He also brought up presents that he made at school.  I'll never tire of those cute little Mothers Day projects the teachers have the children make. 

Remy gave me a book that she wrote herself (her go-to gift these days) and a project of our hands together. 

All the gifts inspired Nate to bring in something.  He told me he would be "Right backkkk" with his gift.  He came back up with another book that Remy had written but claimed it as his own.  "I made this for you" he said.  That made us all laugh.

After breakfast, we all got ready to head to the amusement park.  I had been wanting to take the kids there forever so when I saw the discount "Mothers Get In Free", I thought it was a sign.  I should have known it was actually a sign that the park would be really crowded but we had a great time anyway.

There wasn't a single ride that Jack didn't want to try.  He was so excited and animated the whole day.  Nate was apprehensive at first but then cried for over a half hour when we had to leave.  He went on all the kiddie rides.  Remy was sweet enough (and small enough) to go with him.  She was such a great big sister.  She had no interest in roller coasters so I thought maybe the spinning rides would be fun.  I took her on the Tea Cups once and she was done with that too. 

We had lots of greasy park food and played lots of park games but by the end of the day, Jay and I were reminded of the things we didn't like about parks.  It has HOT in the sun, and being hot waiting in line with other hot people for long periods of time with young kids is not fun. 

Being there reminded me of being a Mom- most things about it are wonderful and have you smiling from ear to ear, laughing like you never had before..then there are also the parts that you wish you didn't have to deal with but at the end of the day you wouldn't change a single thing. 

I love my babies!

Happy Mothers Day to all the Moms out there.

Opening Day

Saturday was Opening Day for Northboro Baseball and Softball. 

Usually, the weather is warm and beautiful and Opening Day ends up being an all day event.  This year, it was COLD.  We made it out for the parade, opening ceremony, home run derby and the game but unlike most years, we went home in between.

The thing that never changes about opening day seems to be the theme of the speech.  This year Senator Scott Brown spoke as well as two graduating seniors from Algonquin High School.  The speeches always tend to be about the impact sports has (had), how appreciative the children are for their parents and how quickly childhood passes.  So....I tend to end up in tears by the end of the speech...every. single. year.

It really is a magical day.  I know someday I'll be that parent telling another parent how wonderful sports (or whatever) were to my children growing up....but I am so glad that day is not today.

April Vacation Part Two

The kids are back in school as of yesterday!  Last week was their final week of vacation until school gets out.  I can't believe first and third grade is coming to an end for my little guys. I look forward to summer and planning a bunch of fun stuff to do.....but I also relish these last few weeks.  Soon enough, I won't be able to get a single thing done again: last week was a reminder of that.

We finished up the week with lots of baseball practice for Jack.  I don't have any pictures since Jay is the one that typically takes him.  Since Jay is coaching, I try to refrain from asking him to capture the activities on camera.  Opening Day is this weekend so I'll be sure to post on that.

While Jay and Jack were busy with baseball, Remy, Nate and I headed into Uncles house to hang out.  The kids had a ton of fun.  Elliott and Dana took us on a walk through town to all of their favorite hang outs. The hit of the day was the duck pond though bagels for lunch came in a close second.

Thanks Uncle Dana for the pictures!

Sunday ended with a soccer game in the rain for Remy.  I was so excited when I got to the field and one of the coaches said he had a tent for "Team Tigers".  I stayed nice and dry but Remy was soaked.  It didn't stop her from playing a fabulous game.  I love watching her play soccer!

Now Nate and I are back into our routine...grocery shopping, playing outside and our visits.   He is still recounting our day in Wellesley as if it just happened.  I think everyone had a great April break. :)

April Vacation- Part 1

The kids are off school this week and so far we have been having a GREAT time.
We started off Monday with a trip to watch the Boston Marathon.  The temps were in the 90's so we spent most of the time hanging out in the shade at Uncle Dana's.

 But we made sure that we didn't miss Auntie Sandra run by!  Here are the girls (Julia, Remy and Autumn) waiting to cheer her on.  She looked fabulous when we did see her. 

Yesterday, we enjoyed a visit with the Langlois family. 

Today, we each got to spend some time with one child.  Grammi took Nate to the park and lunch.  Remy and I went to get mani/pedis at Mamas and Divas then lunch.  Jack and Papa played a round of golf and had lunch at the course.

Its been a great week so far with beautiful weather!

If you don't have anything nice to say....

Once again, its been awhile.  A long while. 

Here's the short reason why: I like to "keep it real" on this blog.  But that means I keep it real with Nate's crazy antics, or the funny report card comments or the happy guy at the soccer field.  I don't want to get into all the difficult things that we struggle with as a family.  And this past year has been a struggle.  Most everyday.  I don't want to write about those tough things. Most days, I couldn't think of anything that I would want to say but that.

I went with the "If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say (write) anything at all." 

To some that may seem cryptic, and I really dislike those cryptic messages or posts on FB, but I'll just have to leave it at that.  I assure you that Jay and I are great, no one is dying and the world isn't ending.

Here are a few pictures to prove it:

Proving that not that much has changed this past year- Nate during his Easter photo shoots:

Proving that the ocean is always a beautiful place to be:

And that sometimes a family staycation is just what you need- even if you have to go in an indoor pool:

So...stay tuned for more frequent updates.  There are plenty of crazy Nate antics to keep me going for a lonnngg time and I'm choosing to write about all the good things that we have and do as a family!

Fish Feeder 4,000

Jack had his "Invention Convention" at school this morning.  He had been working for weeks with Jay on his creation...."The Fish Feeder 4,000".

He designed a contraption that uses a pull string to release fish food into a fish bowl.  It was very cute...and works most of the time.  I think I saw his teacher cringe once or twice with the amount of fish food it releases on to the floor too. 

He was so adorable showing everyone how it worked and so proud when Nate and I (and Jay later) walked in.  He even used the opportunity to request a real fish.  He wants to be able to use the machine at home:).

There were some really cute ideas from his classmates too....
Puppy Multi- a puppy that does multiplication tables up to 18 for you.
Shoe Lace Fixer- special plastic pockets on the sides of your sneakers so you don't have to worry about your shoes coming untied
Homework Machine- You guessed it, you feed the homework to the machine and it spits out the completed version

Jacks favorite was the one his friend made.  Its an Apple App for food allergies.  You simply tell the app what allergy you have, then scan the bar code and your phone will tell you if you can eat the item.  I told the boy that he could make a lot of money on that one.  He simply said "Everyone has been telling me that."

Third Graders...so cute!

Snow Fun

We have been blessed with a pretty mild winter.....I could not take another snowy winter like last year....but with so little snow, we haven't had the opportunity to spend much time building snowmen....or snow dogs. 

This morning we decided to take advantage of the few inches of snow we do have and Remy made this cute little snow dog:

Nate ran around for about two minutes, then headed back in with Daddy.  I'm thinking the fact that he was wearing rain boots in place of snow boots didn't help...someone get that boy some proper boots.  Jeesh.

Remy and I stayed out for a bit longer and had fun writing our names in the snow.  She also made this cute little snow angel.

It was a fun morning.  I'll take that small bit of snow for now but if we could get moving with spring soon I would be a happy girl.

**For those of you wondering- Jack was at Grammi and Papa's.  He was enjoying some time with them before he headed to the Worcester Sharks game with Daddy before the Pats game.