cute picture

Just got this picture from Catherine's school from her Halloween party.

Short week

Finally this morning Laura looks good enough to head off to school. Lyn thinks that she had the swine, I'm just glad she's better. Saturday night into Sunday was horrible. She was so sick overnight. We are still recovering from a sleepless night but all is well today.
The other night I went and had a long overdue massage from cousin Rachel. It was awesome! I finally got some relief from some leg problems, at least temporarily. The very next morning Jack was in the living room playing on the bay window. I did my daddy duties and kept telling him to get down. when he didnt listen he had to go to his room. Not liking that option he took a metal car and threw it on the ground. The only problem was that my foot was also on the ground. He broke my toe!!! So now it hurts to walk for a different reason. Poor me. He's lucky he's cute.
James has been worrying us because he's been asking some serious questions about that big guy that lives in the North Pole. When we come upon these issues for the first time its always stressful. There is no easy way to handle it, i suppose. Yesterday, Jim and I went to the football field with two footballs and went up and down the field scoring touchdowns and kicking field goals. He's got a pretty good leg for kicking I must say without bias. Charlie and Jimmy are inseparable. Those two goofy kids are constantly goofing on each other with the goofiest jokes and silly words. Its good though that its all innocent fun. Last week in school, he won two small crabs to bring home and take care of. We got a tank with sand and water and these two small crabs in them. They are not moving too well. I dont give them much time before the funeral.
While Laura has been recovering from being sick she's been thinking about playing four square. She likes to beat up on her brother in that game. I was quite impressed last week when she and james were on the front street playing tennis and she was returning what he was hitting at her. She's getting so tall. Her schoolwork has improved so quickly this year. Its incredible how well she reads these chapter books.
My little Catherine has been enjoying her preschool class. she's making lots and lots of friends and is full of smiles when she gets home. We had alone time this past weekend. She gets this big smile when she does something special or gets something like special time with Dad or mom. She likes to dance her irish step and show us her gang signs.

Holy Crap

I took a night off of work because.....who knows, I think I just needed it. Well, this morning the little terrorist came in as usual. He's a cute little terrorist though. After he was pleading his case for a trip the coffee shop and how he NEEDED to go there, I asked him to get Laura for me. Laura was in the living room with a blanket and was sitting quietly because she has been under the weather too much lately and with all this swine stuff going around we dont want to take any chances. Lyn left it up to me whether to send her to school so I wanted to talk to her and see how she was. Jack came into the room first and behind him was Laura.....HOLY CRAP !!!! When did it happen. I cant believe how tall she is!!! The time is flying by. This year she has grown and grown ....and then grown some more.
She lied down with Daddy and sold her dramatic illness. Of course Daddy bought what she was selling.
Motrin made things alot better a little while later. I even had her dressed for school but on the way out the door I changed my mind. Normally, I would have sent her in but because of the piggie flu it changes all that. Either way, she's here with me today.

Happy Birthday Aunt Paula

Happy Birthday to Auntie Paula over the house on Saturday night. Lyn made a pork roast and they made Paula some stained glass for her present. Cake and ice cream were great. They also made a video that just wont seem to get on the blog.

Oh my Jack

Sometimes, he can drive us batty. He doesnt like to go to sleep and when he's awake he is usually yelling at the top of his lungs. Not angry yelling, just yelling. Last night he was again coming out of his bed every minute or so while mommy was on the couch studying and daddy was trying to sleep before work. I heard all the commotion happening while mommy kept trying to tell him to get to bed, get to bed, get to bed. I'm awake while he is negotiating coming up with every excuse under the sun. He just had to have some water, go pee pee, have a snackie and then the list went on.
I was lying in the bed and I saw the little sucker come sneaking onto the bed and lie beside me, as if i wouldnt notice. He takes a pillow, holds it up high and plops it down on the bed making it just right for his head to rest on it. As always his legs start moving and he just keeps kicking. While he's doing this his hand is reaching and reaching under the clump of pillows as he puts one over his head (mommy hates that). His hands are still reaching under the pillows for something and he wont stop furiously moving around looking for whatever it was. I'm still pretending to sleep while I reach my hand underneath the pillow too. His hand meets mine and he holds on. He was just looking to hold my hand. When he found my hand he put his other hand there too so I held both his hands and he stopped beebopping around. I know its a boring story but I know this stuff isnt going to last forever. I held his hand until we both fell asleep.

Guess where we went today

I guess we are predictable. For many years we have spent countless Sundays heading out to the river walk to sing on the stage. No matter what happens after that we end up going to see our good friend Black Gordon. This Sunday was no different.

Before we left we were getting ready to leave and Laura reminded me to grab the camera. Oh that girl always thinking for me. We packed all the goodies up in the hillbilly minivan, grabbed the backup white trash camera and went for it. The backup camera has certainly seen better days. Its a Kodak digital camera with duct tape holding it together. I went to the kids school last week for their Halloween party and brought it. Its a good thing they aren't at that age yet where Daddy absolutely embarrasses them. Maybe next year.

We went for a nice walk down the river walk. There were crew races going on while we were sitting on the stage. The kids began their impromptu concerts and also the stage races. They all brought their donuts and hawaii'n punch drinks and we actually sat down for about five minutes on the park benches.
We just made it to the trolley before it was about to take off. After a short trolley ride we hung out around the drained canal where the kids liked throwing leaves in the canal and just hanging around. After that we hung around the fake trolley with some other kids and their expressionless parents.
I was wondering if we should add some other locations to our repertoire. I don't know about that though. This hasn't really gotten old yet.

I guess I liked this picture of Laura so much I put it in twice. It seems wrong to delete its so beautiful~~

Soccer season done

Laura's futbol season ended with my little angel playing goalie. she was a very agressive goalie and carried the offense when she played forward. All went very well. Next sport is basketball, starting in two weeks. What will we do until then???

Laura was thrilled to have Jimmy come to her game. Sometimes they are at each others throat but other times they are best friends. I had to bribe Jimmy and tell him we would play catch during halftime. He was very good too cheering on his sister. Catherine also went. Doe was on his second leg of soccer games this Saturday morning after he went to Erin's game in the morning.

The little sneak

We have been trying like hell to get Jack to go to bed when the other kids go to bed. Sometimes it works, other times....well. Anyhow, he knows that when he is put into bed he is to stay put and not move. Not come out for his twentieth time for god knows what reason and he is not to go into Mommy and Daddy's room.
Last night was no different. He was put into his bed, tucked in and Lyn went into the living room to study/watch tv. At some point she did the obligatory check of all the mosters to see if they were okay. Something was not quite right on Jacks bed. Lyn hates it so much that Jack has taken to my bad habit of sleeping with the covers pulled over my head. She looks into Jacks bed and what does she see. Covers pulled over a clump. Presumably Jack right?? A closer look shows that Jack, in an attempt to conceal his flight, clumped up some blankies, grabbed a teddy bear and then covered it all to fool mommy into thinking he was in bed. A teddy bear. Can you believe how elaborate a hoax this kid pulled off. I think I saw this crap in the scene from escape from Alcatraz.
After a frantic search he was found under the covers in our room, where he was not supposed to be, accompanied by a Matt Christopher book. He had passed out. Lyn had put out the garbage (as all good wives should) and the first thought that went through her mind is that he must have snuck out while she was outside. Alas, he was found but not before his legend grew again.

Halloween 2009

With Policemen, witches and superheroes we headed out on another beautiful Halloween night. Umple came over and went around the hood with us and ran into a childhood friend he hadnt seen since middle school. Aunt Jo worked overtime on this All Saints day eve to give out our candies to the little ghosts and goblins. The most impressive costume of the night had to go to this little girl who dressed up as Jackie O. It was so original. After the long circuit of goodies Jimmy went and hung with Charlie and other buddies at the neighbors till about 11pm. About a quarter mile away, we didnt have to worry about what he was doing because we could hear him from our house.

A little bit of football on the lawn before the crew took off for the night.