Ski weekend and new, green walls

Up to the freezing cold slopes in Vermont we all go. On Friday Ump's car was set with boxes and bags and little tiny feet. Nana took Jimmy and Jake and Ump took the rest. After a quick stop at the coffee shop (which kills the ump) we all headed out. Almost three hours later we ended up in the coldest spot south of Canada. Jimmy, Laura and Catherine all took lessons with the cousins and the two oldest are skiing like pros. On the first day after his lessons James and I went on a couple of runs and I was very impressed with how he got around. Of course when he came into an area where he was in over his head he would flail his arms over his head and just fly on by. In Contrast, I would just smash, bang and boom myself onto the ground and fly into snowbanks becoming one with them.
For the second year in a row I mistook the quad lift for the smaller hill chair lift and for the second year in a row I ended up going to the top of the mountain all alone for my first run. I realized this, of course, when i was about halfway up. Projecting myself with way too much confidence, I dusted myself up and pronouced myself ready to ski. Well, as mentioned above I took off for the slopes once more with my James. About a quarter of the way down all confidence I had gained were shashed as fast as you can fall face first into a snow pile. This one hurt, I mean really really hurt. After grunting and groaning I picked myself to the side and felt this liquid coming down my face. In the meantime I am hearing what I think is the sound of an eight year old laughing hysterically. Well, even though I was tasting blood, the liquid was just melting snow ( to my astonishment) and the eight year old was exactly who you would think it was. I went up a couple of more times but I had to shut it down. Someone always feels like he has something to prove.
For Catherine, this was her first time up on ski's. She was adorable with her miniature skisJack was just content being in the sled being pushed down the small hills. He was quite the character all weekend. We were all so very impressed with the impressed with the improvements that Laura and Jimmy have made on the ski trail over the last year. I remember not so long ago carrying Jimmy down the bunny hill when he just wouldnt go on his ski's. Laura, as always, was a quick study and did whatever she set her mind to.
Another thing, I did homework with Jim Jim tonight and shocked is the word about how well he does with division and multiplication. He picked that up in no time at all. It really only seems like a couple of weeks ago he just couldnt understand the concept of what division is...it really was a couple of weeks ago and now he is blasting through it. I did Laura's spelling words with her too tonight and she seems to be doing okay too. The both of them seem to get distracted easily but I can relate to that.
When we returned home after the long weekend the girls bedroom was sparkly new with green paint. Laura had picked out the color and the paint fairy (Aunt Jo) had once again returned to her painting habits and brushed out the worn out color on the walls. Well, the colors werent exactly worn out, they were just the victim of a graffiti artist named Jack. I was worried about how the color would look but is was all for naught as it looked great.
When it was time for the kids to go to sleep we had quite a fight on our hands as they all have napped at one time or another today. They are up talking....but its not bad because they are talking and not yelling at each other...........yet.

Catherine taking over

I was in the living room when I heard this crazed scream from Catherine at the kitchen table. Apparently, she had been trying to staple two pieces of paper together and her thumb got in the way. The staple remained lodged in her skin deeeep and she was bleeding. I had to yank the sucker out of there and there was blood involved. The poor little buggah milked it for a day or two but I imagine it did hurt. As I was tending to her needs Jack was standing on top of a kitchen chair facing the back. Down the chair went with him on it, standing and face first. Luckily, my reaction time was good as I caught him before he did a face plant on the ground.

Bruins Saturday with Jim

Off we went to the Gahden for Jimmy's Christmas gift from Ump. As we often do, James and I jumped onto the train and found our way to the North Station. Once we get there we slip through the lines for entrance and grab some MacDonalds food. This time was a little different because we split 10 chicken nuggets instead of separate meals. Jim Jim seemed to like that idea and he tells me that will now be our North Station tradition. We take the food and find ourselves a seat in the busy area. He, of course, wanted to mow down as many fries as he could get inside his mouth before the threat of losing them to me.
The game itself turned out to be a loss but there were still some good moments with great saves and hard hits. Thankfully, we made the train on time so Jimmy could be on time for his basketball game. He made four baskets.

Two Broads

Aunt Jo's Birthday too

On Saturday was Aunt Jo's birthday party and the cuzzins came over and joined in the
celebration. mmm..chocolate cake. How am I ever supposed to get to slim and slender with all these tempations. There is always a lot of good food around too. Aunt Jo made her famous potato soup that I ate all week and we are anticipating Nana to make her spaghetti sauce too.

Another New Year...ooo boy

2010 here we come. Time just flies by in these parts when you are involved with four little buggahs and all their activities. We are still having fun and nothing much changes except there are no more messy diapers to change. Sometimes thats unfortunate because it was pretty cool to always have a baby around the house. In the meantime, we'll just make do with what we have. For the time being I'll just have to ramble on about the happenings around the old household.

First, Christmas came and went so quickly. It was awesome to have all four of them so eagerly anticipating the arrival of Santa Claus. The kids got pretty much what they wanted. Thankfully, there were no complaints and no one felt slighted. Thats always a concern. Believe it or not, we are still putting together toys in the house. Last night I put together a race track for Jack to run his little cars around. He is starting to talk in full sentences fluidly and its a riot to hear him say his little sayings. He told me the other day not to tell him that he's driving me crazy. He picks up so much so we have to be careful what we say around him because he questions everything. He hasnt broken anything recently...if he did I completely forgot about it. We were going to buy a new TV after Christmas, one of those new LED ones....that is until jack took a pool ball and bounced it off the screen of our existing old TV. That made us think that we might just wait another year for the high end Television. He came into the bed last night and kicked us all night long......allllll night long. He was sick earlier in the week so we're taking it easy on him. We were looking on the computer last night and he saw a picture of Kevin Youkilis and he told me that he saw him at the coffee shop last week. There is a guy at the place that somewhat looked like him. He loves going to the coffee shop still because of his girlfriend that owns the place. I love to listen to him talk about his girlfriend Tricia.

Catherine has been loving her pre-school. Every week she has to come out with a new show and tell that starts with the letter of the week. Last week she took a picture of Kara for K and this week it was the letter L and she brought a picture of Laura. Jim Jim was made because it wasnt fair that she had no pictures of him. She is such a happy go lucky kid, always smiling and inquisitive, our best sleeper. We went to the riverwalk today with the two youngest and walked a couple of miles in the freezing cold. I know its hard to believe but we ended up going to the train and Coffee shop the other day too.

Dear old Laura was sick earlier this week and missed a day of school. Her and Catherine still enjoy the irish step dancing classes. We see them dancing all over the house. Today, we went to the car wash and unfortunately there was no octopus to clean the car so we couldnt scare them. what parents~~

My little Jimmy boy hasnt left baseball behind just because its the winter. On Friday nights he has baseball lessons in a cold old mill building. He just doesnt seem to mind. Its plant, stride, pivot and swing over and over again. I have to admit, cant really wait till baseball season begins. This year we'll have Catherine on one field playing t-ball, Laura playing softball and then Jimmy playing minor league ball. Jimmy has been playing basketball on Saturdays now too. For once he isnt the only one taking shots at the basket. There is another kid that takes more shots then he does and that takes some effort. Last week he nailed two shots from way downtown and he knew it. fun stuff but of course I didnt have the camera with me. Speaking of the camera, I took 10,000 pictures in 14 months. That takes some effort.

Strawberrty Shortcake visited us from Florida in the last week. Unfortunately, it was because she had a funeral. We were still very happy to see her. I wonder if the kids still think she's Strawberry Shortcake. Probably not, but I think Jimmy has a crush on her. He always talks about her. I can see why.......but its blood ya know.

In the back yard we have created a nice little sledding track for the kids to go flying down. Umple Eddie came over one night and made the track for them to use. The snow isnt so easy to glide down before its packed down and sure enough, there was umple packing down the powder for the benefit of the kiddies. I actually went down on it with them last night and was my little bottom very sore. I love how these kids arent wimps in the cold. If you are going to live in this area of the country, you really have to learn to like doing things in the snow. Otherwise, there is only video games and we are not 24/7 video people.....though Jimmy keeps telling me that he wants me to learn how to play x-box with him. I just was never a video game person but I just might take it up. I'd prefer to throw footballs and baseballs with the kids though.

I almost missed it but this is post 301. Thats incredible and is still very fun to do, so very easy also and I'm very glad I decided to do this.