An Artist should photoshop their canvas, dont ya think????

Catherine drew this picture with her and mommy and daddy.  As sweet as she is, and she is sooo sweet, I had to send her back to the canvas to add more hair onto daddy's head.  I'm sensitive you know.

Jack's first Bruins game

     We got there early.  To make amends with fans they gave free concessions during the game.  My stomach still hurts from eating all the garbage.  For him, didnt matter so much.  He loves the escalator and being taller than daddy.

     I dont know who this lady was who sat right next to Jackie when i stood up to take his picture.  He didnt seem to mind.  I think he was going to ask her to hold his drink.

What a great game to make your first time to see the Boston Bruins.  We got the tickets from Umple Eddie and Jackie was up to go.  We took the train into North Station and arrived in plenty of time....you wouldnt think so because Jackie wanted us to leave two hours before it left.  He kept telling me we were going to be late, lets go daddy, daddy we are going to miss the Boston Bruins game.  So, I finally gave in and we went real, real early.  But we got some Dunkin Donuts food and coffee and before you knew it the train was there. 
When we got to the North Station we did the customary(for Jimmy and I)  trip to MacDonalds for some Chicken Nuggets and sat with the common folk out in the station.  When we finally got to go in he was soooo excited.  There was hardly anyone in there so we just sat there and Jackie just took it all in. 
The game itself was more defensive with a great fight in the first period.  The third period was winding down and Jackie was saying that the bruins were going to lose.  Then all of a sudden, a tie scoring goal.  The whole place erupted...He had no idea what hit him.  He was screaming, jumping and just loving all of it.  The game went into overtime as we made our way to the platform for the train.  We held out as long as we could but that train wouldnt wait for us. 
On the train ride home he just wouldnt stop talking.  He was so excited and repeated the story of the last goal out load over and over again on the train.  He was so excited while making the phone call to Aunt Jo that the whole train heard him.  Thankfully, they all thought it was cute, as it was.   

Colored Ice balls and more sports

About a month and a half ago, my good friend Dee (Alpahabet Dee to the kids) told me to try getting some food coloring in water and pour them into balloons, leave them in the yard to freeze and get them the next day for the kids to leave multicolored ice balls in the driveway. Well, i ended up getting some smallish balloons and doing just that. It turned out to be painfully slow and we adjusted it by finding a couple of latex gloves and filling them. The weather hasnt really been cooperative until now, boy is the weather cooperating now. The gloves and balloon balls are waiting for us under the white birch tree for peeling tomorrow. I just checked on them and the gloves seem to be taking some good freezing.
Sometimes, more than sometimes I think, I get excited about these things more than the kids do. If the kids werent around I'd probably think of doing something like this. Of course, that might be viewed as being a bit strange by some. It is great to be able to have the kids as an excuse to do something so fun. They did get into it and poured the colored water into the balloons I was holding. They make everything so fun. Laura got the red color, Jack green and Catherine purple. Who would have thought red and green made purple!!! Jimmy was there to supervise the event and the kids were crazy enough to want to come outside in this 16 degree temperature to place them there. Its a good thing they are so mature because i'd try to do something like make a middle finger ice hand. See, its a good thing the kids are around.
Laura still whispers to me that there is an empty milk jug in the garage waiting for us. We unloaded two of them last night. That cap goes flying across the garage.
Tomorrow, there will be basketball games and a swim meet. Today, Laura had a basketball game that her team won. She was on the free throw line with about a minute left in the game. She had been pushed when she was shooting and got two free throws. She told her mommy that the girl pushed her before she could push her back. Well, here she was with the first free throw and threw it up there. I was watching her as her face was utter astonishment when the shot went in. It went SWISH but her face was priceless. I asked her after the game if she was surprised the shot went in. She just laughed and laughed because yes she was. It was great and the team ended up winning....by one point!! She tries so hard and runs up and down that court with alot of vigor. Tomorrow, she swims in both the morning and afternoon meet and Catherine is swimming too. Swimming is the sport Laura absolutely loves. She smiles the whole time and is so goofy with all her fellow goofball swimmers. I think Daddy get so excited about these sports. Jimmy has a basketball game in the afternoon too. His team is so funny. They always end up getting behind and make these crazy comebacks. He's gotten so much more confident driving to the hoop. Tonight we had a one on one game in the driveway. Did I say it was 16 degrees outside. He was doing his best dog and pony show with the ball before taking a shot. I said okay Jimmy, its time to shoot and get the hell out of here. The ball was like a 23 inch frozen projectile and a couple of times it went flying by my head. My shots were lucky if they made it near the backboard. For the record, I beat him!! I'm not going to let the little buggah beat me. Because usually he does.
  ****Well, we finally did get two good ice hands...one of them fell apart though.  The weather today hit about 30 degrees but the gloves were stuck in the sun.  When we went to pull it open I realized there was an air bubble underneath the surface and the red hand leaked all over me.  We ended up with the green hand and a couple of red ice balls.  Which I am very excited about....for our first attempt.  Its going to get better as time goes by.  I think next week we'll try again with more rubber gloves and different colors.  It was pretty fun!!

Lost the pointer finger.  I guess we could say the the green man lost his pointer finger and the red balls are the clots of blood that came out as a result.  Yes, thats sick enough.

Just some photos

 Clearing out some December-January photos off the ole phone camera.  some are duplicates but still worth another look.

                                       Fenway park at night in the winter from teh 406 Club

Fenway Park is great any time of the year

       My friend Mike invited Jimmy and I to Fenway park on this cold January day for the Annual Boston College Baseball dinner as a winter kickoff to their season. I had been talking to him last month about Jimmy having some health problems that may or may not affect his baseball game. Mike's son Brian and his other son Joe actually played for the BC Eagles. This was an awesome night with the new manager of the Boston Red Sox, John Farrell, being the guest speaker. Brian had arranged so that Jimmy might possibly get a chance to go meet Farrell. Jimmy saw him come in and at one point we headed down to wait for him to stop talking to some people. I didnt know what to expect and wasnt really sure if we'd have a chance to get a picture with him. Boy was i surprised when he actually approached us and started chatting up Jimmy. What a great guy. 

  

Looks like we made it

     Someone thought they were being funny last month sending me information on how to win tickets to see Barry Manilow on Broadway....well, I guess I showed them....I didnt enter the contest, but I bought the tickets just the same.  Barry was once again spectacular and we even touched hands....a crowning achievement in my life I must say....probably his too

          After the concert we waited by the exit door to see him come out .

     We hit a steak house (Morton's) before the concert and then Times Square aftter.  After midnight there are just as many people there as around noontime....ahhh...i love new york

'Steak' the snowman

Ahhh, it warms the cockles of my heart to pull up in front of the house and see a lovely little fellah like 'steak' the snowman. Yes, they named the snowman 'Steak'. Its like you get that feeling inside that makes you crack up laughing when you first see it. And then you laugh some more when you see the picture. We are definitely not known for our handsome snowmen...or pumpkins if you remember correctly.

Hating to leave my little angel at home

It is very hard to leave in the morning with my little angel waving and blowing kisses to me in the window. I hate leaving them behind. Cat usually walks me out to my car and tells me she loves me forever, likes me for always as long as i'm living my baby she'll be....aaaahhh....today it was a bit cold and she didnt have her shoes on so I just let her walk me to the door. She's so damn cute....

And how can it get much better then Jack ,AKA Pablo Picasso, made this great picture of he and I walking through the flowers.

     Catherine saw his picture on the blog and she wanted to draw a picture to add here too....its of her on the swings...so cute...

Friday for Cat

We have been getting used to Catherine flying all around the house doing her crazy gymnastics.  The balance beam is still a staple in the living room and even seems like it has been there forever.  I do like to see them having so much fun on it.  Cat keeps working and working on different routines and its almost scary how she does some flips and moves on the carpet.  Tonight we had to go get a birthday present for one of her best friends and then after we went and got mommy some chinese food.  While we were there we saw some interesting duckies in the restaurant.  Very different I must say.

The teeth are flying out of here

Big, Big, Big day in the family. Today, Jackie lost his first tooth. That tooth has been loose for about two weeks and he was absolutely obsessed with it. He would tell anyone that would listen. He even tried to limit his meals to snacks because he was absolutely terrified that it would fall out while he was eating and then he would swallow it....Oh the drama....Well he again said he shouldnt eat dinner, maybe he was right...but then the drama ended......Today at around 5:30pm while eating dinner the tooth finally came out. Aunt Jo was here to join in on the festivities and the historic moment. What a joy! He is so excited about it and can think of nothing else. I'm sitting in the kitchen listening to him and Catherine talk about it. Jack tells Catherine that he is trying to go to sleep but his eyes keep staying open because he knows the tooth fairy is coming. Catherine tells him that she's lost 17 teeth already so she knows what she's talking about. Jack then asks her if the tooth fairy ever goes to see Santa Claus if his teeth falls out. Catherine then tells Jack that the tooth fairy lives near Santa Claus so its easier for him to go to see him. He was so excited he called umple Eddie and nana earlier to tell them all about it. I thought he was talking to nana until i realized he was having one hell of a conversation with her voice mail.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year to all.....The kids were allowed to stay up late. At around 10pm they got all their hippie gear on and charged down the street making noise, blowing on the kazoos and waking all the neighbors up. It was pretty fun....Catherine was sick so she had to play her music from the front door....Jimmy is a bit too old for all this shananigans....Lyn thinks I"m going to make Laura weird....I think its the other way around....They had a great time. The kids all displayed their art on the wall too. All by hand and with no help from a computer or an electronic game...imagine. Poor Catherine looks so sick here.

Oh Noooooooooooo....two of him

     Just a little bit of fun while i'm waiting for the website to allow me to put my own pictures on here.  Blogger is having some technical difficulties so there will be a wait time on Christmas pictures

Christmas 2012

  For whatever reason this lovely blog wont let me put pictures in but i was able to pump in this video.  There was lots and lots of gifts for the little turkeys.  As usual, Cat would lift up every gift she had and yell for us to look cuz she loved it.  Jack loved all his trucks and rough stuff, Jimmy was heavy on video games and Laura lots of girly stuff and her hippie afro wig that she loved.  We saw it on her list to Santa and knew we had to get it.  I hope at one point I can put in alot of pictures

The simpler things....a milk jug

     Did you ever do some things when you were a kid and then one day, maybe twenty or thirty yearslater you remember it and become a kid all over again???  Yes, that happens to me all too often.  One of those things was seeing an empty milk jug on the kitchen counter.  After rinsing it, I got the overwhelming temptation to put it on the ground and loosen the cap, just like I used to.  Once on the ground you wait, wait and then SMASH it.  If you dont fasten the cap just right it flies out like a projectile across the room..ohhh the memories.  Well, who better to share this with then my little hippie Laura.  So Laura was nearby in the house and I called her into the garage and shared this little bit of destruction with her.  She loved it!!!!  Now, every time we have an empty milk or cider jug we put it aside in the garage and get away from all the other creatures for our own secret acts of destruction.