Saturday, January 26, 2008

Saturday Night Date



Jimmy, Laura and Lyn are away skiing for the weekend so I decided to go out on a date to Friendly's Saturday night. She has a pin on her jacket from Grammy Franny that she loves showing around. By the time we left there her sweater was decorated with Chocolate ice cream.

I talked to Jim Jim earlier from Vermont. He has gone swimming and sledding today, playing air hockey with Nana and Jake. Laura has just done the sledding and a short ski lesson.

Catherine is pretty good considering she's all alone in her room. Usually if Laura isnt there she gets weepy missing her. Jack was a little sick last night. He threw up some and tonight was just a little bit cranky. Catherine is still pretty good about going to sleep as long as she gets hugs and kisses and secrets. She tells me "a billion dollars" without telling me the I love you's, but I like it just the same.

I have two days gone out of a three day course this weekend. Its all day and is long long long. Cant wait till this whole bar exam thing is over so I can be healthy and normal, whatever that is. This Spring Jimmy, of course, has baseball but Laura also starts T-Ball and we are trying soccer with her. It was a fight but she has finally got into it. She invites everyone she knows to come see her soccer games.

Catherine was still beaming about her starting school. Its just one day a week but she did awesome.

Friday, January 25, 2008

Bruins

Uncle Ed gave us some Bruins tix for Christmas. We took the train in. Jimmy is usually a pretty healthy eater and turns down junk food. Not at the game though. Starting with Doritos, hot dogs, nachos, chocolate chip cookies........His system was not used to that....you know what happened at 3 am. Of course. was in the bedroom during the night, I should have known better.
But regarding the game. We had a blast. Jimmy was at a skiing lesson until 5, we made it to the train on time. He was so funny talking to everyone on the train about the Bruins. Last year we went to a game where the Bruins came back from 3-0 and ended up winnning the game in overtime. It was an awesome game. It seems like he told that story to at least ten people during the night. He was awesome tonight.
The seats were great, center ice, first row. Of course they won the game. We got the Bruins Claws for Laura and Catherine. We have a secret handshake, like the one that Manny and the other Red Sox use. boom boom boom weeeeee....its pretty cool.
Spring Training is starting soon.



Bruins hockey game against the Islanders.

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Catherine starts School !

Today is a big day in the life of Catherine. Its her first day in pre-school. From all accounts she walked in like she owned the place. Kara checked on her several times during the classes and said she was perfect. I couldnt wait to talk to her about it. She was excited talking to me about it.
Tomorrow night James and I have tickets to the Bruins. We are very excited. They are awesome seats. Lately he's been kind of grumpy and all I have to tell him is how many days we have left to go to the game and that seems to cheer him up. He's doing alot of things which sometimes I feel is real good and other times not so good. We'd rather keep him busy then leave him idle.
Laura is so funny. She comes in and sits in the bed in the morning and carries on this great conversation as a five year old would. She just talks and talks, the facial expressions are priceless. She's happy and laughs alot.
Jack is walking all over the place. He loves his dog Frankie. He sometimes just dives on him and does his improvised bark. When yell out 'ruff ruff' he laughs hysterically. He's mostly a mommy's boy, as is jimmy. He likes giving high fives and having me do the 'claw'.
I have the bar exam next month. The studying is every night after work for about four hours. Its kind of hell and nerve wracking. 34 days and 17 hours left.

Wednesday, January 02, 2008

career ambitions

Laura and Catherine woke me up this morning. Laura tapped me on the shoulder and told me that she wanted to be a hall monitor when she grows up. Catherine yelled "me too, me too".

Sunday, December 30, 2007

More Christmas Pics

Nana and Doe

Hello Hannah Montana
Jack and Frankie


nice follow through
Aunti Jo and the girls


cute kiss



Christmas Eve 2007 , half the crew, the other half were watching football

Friday, December 28, 2007

Christmas in Review




I believe this was the best Christmas yet. The ages are perfect and they got so excited about Santa Claus coming. Jimmy got his air hockey table last week from nana and has been challenging everyone to a game. The first time I played him I let him win, the last time I played he beat me fair. You have to abide by his rules though. He called a penalty on me for hooking and he was allowed a penalty shot. Uncle Eddie gave him two tickets to the Bruins game in January. Laura has a dance pad on the floor that hooks onto the TV. Its an american idol thing. Laura is definitely in her cutest period. She is inviting all the aunts to sleep over but tells them they have to abide by our rules like no eating downstairs or we'll get mice. I love having conversations with her about Santa Claus, or anything for that matter.

I love when Catherine goes over to the dance pad and uses it to shake her booty. She does this thing where she sings "shake shake shake, shake your booty" and then pats her bum bum...the little hussy. I didnt teach her that. Last year Catherine just looked at the boxes, this was her first year understanding things. Jack is ever so close to walking but just wont do it. He discovered his Thomas ride-on toy and loves it. The tracks cover the whole back room.

JoJo, Aaron and Uncle Eddie stayed very late on Christmas Eve to help set up the train and other toys. Every year I swear that there will be no "assembly required" toys allowed.
Lyn was so tired this week. Jack was up most nights and the Christmas Eve annual party required quite a bit of work on her part.

This year marks the first year that all of the kids stayed and listened to me read the Night before Christmas story. Its more for me then them. The kids got tons of toys, they are still opening them up three days later. Only two toys were broken. I'm still so happy about how well behaved they all were.

Christmas day we went over to Patrick's house and then to Kara's after. Grammy Franny ended up with tons of scratch tickets. I swear she won because she tried to give me some money yesterday. She's a serious lady gambler, you cant beat it out of her when she wins. Again at Kara's the kids were awesome. Laura even went over to Jimmy to give him a hug when he let her share a toy. Jimmy didnt really go for it. Catherine and Jack were just grinning ear to ear.

Tuesday, December 25, 2007


It was a crazed Christmas week. First, we didnt sleep much all the week previous because Jack wasnt really sleeping due to illness. Everything went off fine though, including the annual gingerbread house and two christmas parties on Sunday. Jimmy was Joseph, Catherine was a star and Laura was the pom pom girl. I believe that was in the newer testament from the book of big jimmy.
We went to Lyn's family party first and the kids were all excellent. Santa showed up there and Catherine had no problem going up to him. Both she and Laura recieved Hannah Montana dolls. After that party we went to neighbor Penny's party on the hill for some grub. We invaded Thresa and Bill's house after that and descended upon the mattress shortly thereafter.
Christmas and Christmas eve are their own story as the kids were just so well behaved I cant believe it. I'm still waiting for the sky to fall in.
This was such a fun christmas I'll probably write a whole chapter about it. For now, I'll go pass out, gotta work tomorrow.





Aaron and JoJo came home for the Christmas holidays. Jimmy is crazy about Aaron. There is a new air hockey table in the basement room. Aaron was lucky enough to get to play a tournament with Jimmy.



Tuesday, December 18, 2007

four little buggahs

This wasnt easy, but we got it done.

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Basement Room underway

Spent Friday,Saturday and Sunday tearing apart and making the basement livable. Auntie Jo was over every day. We are spoiled. On Saturday we got to put in the laminate flooring. I called Patrick in the morning because I couldnt figure out how to unlock the mitre saw. He said he would stop by....eight hours and a complete floor later he walked out the door.





The kids were pestering me to let them help paint the wall. We gave them cheap brushes and they brushed the walls. At one point I turned to look at the five gallon pail and Catherine was elbow deep in the paint because her brush was out of paint. It was fun to paint with them. Of course we all went to Jimmy's hockey game with Nana and when we got back the walls were painted by Auntie Jo. It took a little while to clean up after. Mostly from drips from the kids brushes. It was worth it to see them have so much fun though. Auntie Jo agreed. The floor looks awesome though. Patrick was a savior once again.
Laura got a little bit of paint on her hair. It suspiciously looks like it could have been brushed on....I have a suspect but I refuse to name her.





Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Snow fun

Jimmy lost his two front teeth in about a months time. Now we call him toothy. he's becoming an old pro at this tooth fairy deal. He loves it. It popped out while we were in Mommy's car and he was sittting in the back seat. I cant believe how small the tooth is.
We are still playing baseball every morning in the street. Last week i threw him a pop fly and he misjudged it and it hit him in the chin. that wasnt good. he calmed down in time for the bus though. The Bruins are winning again so now he is wearing his Patrice Bergeron shirt all the time.
i've started the studying for the bar so it will involve every night after work for about four to five hours. eee gads


Jack has other pictures that didnt make it for some reason.

Before the pipe and nose and eyes...oh well, he was one Ugly Snowman. Carving pumpkins and Frosty lookalikes arent my thing.


Wednesday, December 05, 2007

Stick a fork in me, I'm done

Law School is Ova....call me Doctor (of Jurisprudence)

Saturday, December 01, 2007

December




TEDDY BEAR TEA DAY IN BOSTON
Laura went to the Four Seasons in Boston for her annual Teddy Bear Tea. Mommy and Nana make this an annual trip now and I think I'm invited next year. Laura was drinking hot chocolate and marshmallows, but she didnt like it too much so she switched to water. Lyn ran into Lebron James from the Cleveland Cavaliers in the hotel lobby. He was having a conversation with Laura and got a kick out of her asking her about basketball. Catherine is going to wait till next year to jump into this tradition. She loves her black hat and doesnt go anywhere any more without her back pack



Too much Tea Me thinks


Tuesday, November 27, 2007

The little sneak

I was cleaning out my car today when I came across this piece of paper. It was from last year when Jimmy was in Kindergarten. Even though he took the bus to and from school, he sometimes liked to have mommy or daddy come pick him up from school so he could stand outside school and wave to the other kids to show them how cool he was.


One morning last year, Jimmy asked me if he could be a pickup (he asked most days). If he were to be a pick up we would have to write a note to the teacher saying as much. Well, after i told him no, he went into the back room for what I thought was maybe a quick game of XBOX before school bus time. As we were leaving to walk to the bus stop, I checked inside his school bag to make sure he had all his supplies and such. I pulled out this piece of paper and almost pee'd myself laughing.

Translated it says "Maybe I am a Pickup today".
He intended on giving this to the teacher. He is already forging.

Thursday, November 22, 2007

Turkey Day

Jimmy and Laura, always fans of the the stage, put on a show for all of us. Jimmy did a "Dancing with the Stars" show and Laura did a Tinker Bell exhibition. Jack was a paying customer and showed his appreciation. Catherine did her part in interrupting the proceedings.
The food was great, as always, and I gained five pounds on the day.

Try this link http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=9568227798














HOCKEY GAME***********************

James and I took in the hockey game the night before Thanksgiving. The seats were pretty empty so we got front row seats. At the end of first period I was sitting two rows behind him next to Thresa and Bill (who have season tix) and Jimmy was in the front row behind the glass. A puck comes flying way above the glass, hits the net above and..........of course falls down to the front row and hits Jimmy right in the face.

The Devils lost the game 3-0 and Jimmy is still in one piece

Lost in Translation

Getting ready for work I hear the pitter pattering of little feet coming towards me in a tizzy. Catherine appears before me and here is how it went:

Catherine: "Laura hitted me"
Me: "Ok honey, tell her you love her and you two get along...ok?"
Catherine: " Ok Daddy"

She exits, pitter patters to the living room and then I hear....

Catherine: (yelling) "Lauuuura, Daddy say you BAD girl, you go time out!!!!"

I think she'll go work for the Bush Administration now.

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Turkey Week



Well, I made it into the local newspaper with the most god awful picture of me that has ever been shown or known. Oh well, the kids liked it. I was on the way to school the other night and the radio station I was listening to was giving away free tickets to the Wednesday night hockey game. James and I shall be going tonight. I remember when this was the biggest drinking night of the year.
Laura was telling everyone that Santa Claus was coming after she saw the snow the other day. She went to get some cookies and leave them out for the old chubby guy. I told her it couldnt be Christmas yet because the credit cards arent maxed out yet!! (but they are close)
Yesterday morning, Catherine was sleeping next to me and began screaming that Jimmy was pushing her. She yelled "Jimmy pushed me". I yelled back to her "Push him back". She must have came to, she just started laughing and laughing.
Jack called 911 yesterday. I assured the piggies that all was well. Jimmy did this twice. Jack loves the phone and is constantly yanking it out of the wall.
The pictures came back and Catherine loves the group picture, the only one she would take. She looks likes she is angry and constipated. Nevertheless, she shows everyone the picture. Jimmy's school picture came back awesome as well as Laura's solo shot. Jackie wouldnt sit for his 1 year photo. What am I gonna do with these kids.
If I pass the test one week from Saturday call me Doctor!!

Sunday, November 11, 2007

Green stripe on Yellow belt





James has earned a new belt in Tae Kwon Do. He did a little bit of sparring too. What I love the most about watching him here is the smile rarely leaves his face. Clayton and William were also going for belt upgrades. I got to hold the piece of wood for William to smash.
Mommy, Aunt Jo, Nana and Doe all came to enjoy the festivities. The celebration was at Friendly's where Catherine ate all my clam chowder and made quick work of her ice cream cone.

Thursday, November 08, 2007

Their world today

James He is still keeping the baseball game alive. He takes a roster of all players that will be playing in his game in April. He saw Patrick keeping the scorebook at one of David's games so now Jimmy likes to set up a roster and where everyone will be playing. He asks everyong what position they want to play. Just about every morning before he goes to school we take the wiffle ball out onto the street and play catch. He pretends that we are turning double plays or that he is pitching and has to cover first. He was kind of mad when some leaves covered first base (sewer drain). The cap in the middle of the street is second base.
The Bruins have started though and last night he was up late sneaking peeks into the action.
Laura: Laura is still talking about our plans to go back to NYC next year. She has invited a bunch of girls from school to come with us as well as Erin and Emily and Catherine. She sees Jimmy doing his homework all the time so she has been practicing her letters and copying words that Daddy and Mommy write down for her. She is in Irish Step on Monday nights and she likes it alot. She also does dance on Tuesdays. She is getting taller and thankfully her hair is growing longer. She was getting a little jealous of Emily because of Emily's long hair. Laura has dads curly hair.
Catherine: Still a terror but a cute one. Her recent amusement was to stuff the bathroom sink with toilet paper and we know where the water went. She has been sleeping later thankfully but still manages to come into the bed in the morning. Last night she kept coming out of her bed until I told her that Biddy Baby misses her when she leaves her in the bed. It actually worked. either that or she wanted me to believe it worked. Laura still has some ear issues. I'm surprised the neighbors havent called DSS yet. There is quite a scene when the ear drops go in. She's got a good heart. She always wants to do something for you. If I were a beer guzzler, she would be the one i'd yell to to get me a beer out of the fridge.
Jack: Jack is still smiling away. He's not walking yet. I love it when I come home at night and he is flying across the room on his hands and knees. He screams out. The other day he was on my lap while I yelled for Jimmy to do something. Jack repeated after me but with just a loud yell as if he was saying the same thing to Jimmy. He smiles so much reminding me of how Jimmy was at that age. He's learning the itsy bitsy spider and loves playing games, clapping hands and giving me five. Poor buggah is having some teething problems but mommy's magic potion works wonders.

We got professional pictures taken last week. I wasnt able to attend the shoot (whew) but I heard they went well (not really). I dont think there was a group photo. The lady at the studio felt bad for Lyn so I think we got some free.

Monday, November 05, 2007

First Hockey Game Ever !!

James started his hockey career on Sunday after about 2 years of skating practices. He doesnt skate that fast but he has a lot of fun. I watched him from across the ice and he was gliding around pretty good... for him. All of a sudden I see his number 14 lurking about five feet from the crease, the puck gets shot towards him, he swats at it.....Gooooooal!! He scored his first ever goal in his first ever game. So I wouldnt be an obnoxious parent I had to keep it all in, but oh my god. I yelled out to Lyn (keeping my voice down) "he scored, he scored". We were around other parents or I would have danced. His team ended up winning 7-1.