BYOB

Often, after stories, the kids will ask what certain letter combinations spell. Molly typically spells a real word from the story, Hudson will choose random letters and Myles will fall somewhere in-between. Tonight after Shawn read to the kids Myles asked, "what does YOB spell?". Shawn replied, "nothing but BYOB stands for bring your own beer". The kids all laughed and thought this was so funny. Myles then said, " well my teacher must really want us to bring beer to school because she is always is telling us to BYOB". This brought us all to hysterics.  As I continued to bust a side laughing, I suggested, "perhaps she is saying MYOB which stands for mind your own business".  Myles responded...."yeah, that is it Mom, Ms Kerry wants us to mind our own business, not drink beer!". Shawn chirped in, " got to love him, though I AM worried about that one". I am still laughing from this dialogue but glad we made it clear that Ms Kerry does not want him to bring daddy's beer to school.

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Family and Friends Sledding Day

Yesterday after Molly and Myles' basketball game we finally had the opportunity and the weather conditions to try out some great sledding at the school where they had their game. It was SO much fun that we went out and bought a tube and went back again today. In fact, we were there for nearly 3 hours today. Combined with yesterday's 2 hours we are setting records for ourselves with outside time during the month of January! After we spent time with friends sledding we went home and tried out our neighbor's Luge. Oh yes, this brought more fun! At this point the kids were starving so we capped it at two runs each, but had a ball. Our neighbors 4 year old, lil' Molly (as we call her) was asleep, but Hudson, Myles, and Big Molly all had a run on it. Mom and dad got in a run as well. Good times had by all. Now the kids are all bathed and in pj's and watching a movie by the fire. Life is good.

A Cozy Friday Night

Last night we took it easy and kept it simple.  For dinner: Spaghetti O's and Meatballs with a chocolate milk shake.  Nothing healthy.  Then we did some good old fashioned coloring and played Hi-Ho-Cherry O!  We watched Care Bears the movie and built an assume maze from the new blocks (from Aunt Barbara) for the Hex Bugs.  If it was not for the Hex Bugs I would have thought we stepped back into the 1980's!  It was simple, it was fun and it was time for me the kids to chill while daddy played b-ball with the boys.



Hex Bugs                                                                            Our block maze.




Another Snow Storm

It snowed again last night so today I was home with the kids.  Myles had his first sledding accident last night when the snow began but that did not stop him from hitting the slopes again today.  He was outside with his cousin Hailey all day in the snow.  Below you will see a picture of his wound, I believe he hit the side of a pine tree, I suppose that would make sense since we live in Shadow Pines.  Tomorrow is Friday so one more morning of chaos as I get the kids off to school for the last time this week and as Shawn and I try to get ready for work.  We both are pretty busy these days at work as spring semester just began at URI and Shawn is trying to catch up from his time spent away from work late last year.  We love home days.

Ouch!

That "ouch" does not stop him from sledding!

Our backyard 

Our patio set. "Picnic anyone?"

Loving snow days with the kids.  Wish I did not have to work!

Feeling Annoyed

So, what has this world come to when we start to be annoyed with the weather?  We have no control over the weather, but we do have control over where we live.  So, why do we live here in RI?  My dad used to call this the Ft. Lauderdale of New England.  Well, not anymore!  So, the family has talked.  We have seriously all come to agree on one place we would all be willing to move.  We have decided in about 5 years, when the economy turns around, we should all head west.  Now, this could change tomorrow, but as of today Shawn, my mom and dad and I all agree on Denver, CO.  My parents' dear friends live there and Shawn has some friends there as well so I figure my friends could be their friends!!  We would have a relatively moderate climate all year, access to lots of jobs, and all the benefits of a big city that Shawn so misses.  He has actually said we would move to Boulder, CO but right now I am open for any place that does not have this much snow!!  It will be interesting to see where we are in 5 years!!!

Our Naples, Florida Family Vacation

We just returned from Naples, Florida on Saturday and we returned to what seems like a state other than RI.  Are we in Minnesota or back in Ohio?  There is snow EVERYWHERE.  This weeks forecast includes more snow to come, in fact as I write this it is snowing.  I did not blog while on vacation because frankly I was either having too much fun with the family, exhausted from the day's events or a bit tipsy on Mojitos (our new drink of choice).  We all had a spectacular time.  I believe that none of my children cried the entire week and I saw nothing but happy active children or peacefully sleeping children.  I would chalk this vacation up as a 10 out of 10.  Shawn and I had two nights out to dinner (thank you mom and dad for watching the kids), my mom and I had two shopping outings thanks to Shawn who watched our children, and  I was even able to get in exercise with my mom three days!  It was 75-80 most days and just a wonderful week. 

My two favorite quotes of the week were:
Hudson: "I need something to drink, and the answer to your next question is WATER".
Molly: "I would rather be sitting on a bench eating".  She said this after we allowed her and Myles to join us for our power walk.  About 15 minutes into the walk she made this announcement.  It still cracks me up when I think of it.  I really thought she was going to say that she would rather be sitting on a bench resting NOT eating!  Too funny.

Myles was a ball full of happiness all week as he is a swimmer and he was in heaven with our own personal pool and hot tub.  Though he did not have one specific quote that cracked us all up he did repeatedly tell us that "he loves his family"~ what a sweetheart!!!

Sunday, January 16th
A pool and playground day

Monday, January 17th
Corkscrew Swamp and a beautiful rainbow in our front yard

Tuesday, January 18th

Clam Pass Park

Wednesday, January 19th
Naples Botanical Gardens

Thursday, January 20th
Pool Day and Shopping Day 

Friday, January 21st
Naples Zoo 

Molly is a Rock Star

Molly did just great in surgery yesterday.  The girl is amazing, very good at this surgery stuff.  She did get sick afterward again and was a bit tired, but she is back at school today with a smile on her face.  Speaking of, she gave Shawn and me a good chuckle yesterday morning.  We were getting ready to start our usually morning chaos (with the added stress of her morning surgery), and the television was tuned into the news.  They began discussing Captain Honors of the USS Enterprise.  Shawn said, something like "unbelievable that guy worked so hard, went to Annapolis and blew it over a few videos, what was he thinking?  He is finally in charge of his own ship and now he is going to lose it all."  Molly looked up at me with a very serious face and said, "Mom, Dad said a bad word. He really should say boat and not ship."

Doesn't that just crack you up?  Perhaps the ear-tube they left in makes "P's" sound much like "T's" or perhaps I just have the cutest kid ever! What a great way to start the day. I loved it!

Molly's 4th Surgery Tomorrow

Our Molly has had too many surgeries for a girl of 6 years old.  She has had her tonsils and adenoids removed and ear tubes put in, elbow surgery, and her ear tubes taken out- so we thought!  Two weeks ago when getting a strep test done for all the kids we found out that they missed an ear tube.  It gets worse, the surgical report says they extracted a tube from the left AND the right ear.  But, the right ear tube is still there, yes, it was NOT removed.  So, after a long talk and a visit to the ENT last week (he was very apologetic) my poor girl has surgery again tomorrow morning at 9:45am at Hasbro Children's Hospital in Providence. While the surgery is very noninvasive it does sicken me and Shawn that she has to be "put under" again with anesthesia.  She tends to wake up very nauseous and upset.  I am praying for a smooth day tomorrow and for this saga to be O-V-E-R and most importantly for our little girl to be done with surgery and back to her happy and healthy self. 

Mamma Mia!

Happy New Year Everyone.  We spent our New Year's Day at the Providence Performing Arts Center seeing Mamma Mia!  This was a family gift to our family and my parents who do so much for us.  Kind of a way to say "thank you" for all the times they met the bus, picked our kids up from school, joined us for a visit at the doctor's office, folded our laundry, made us dinner and generally just took great care of us as though we were ALL their very own children.  We had a spectacular time despite Hudson coming down with a tummy ache on route to dinner.  We skipped dinner, raced home, Hudson fell asleep on the way home, carried our baby in asleep, put him in his bed, crossed our fingers he would not wake up vomiting, and Mamma Mia....he made it through the night and slept a womping 14 hours!  Apparently, our craziness during Christmas vacation finally caught up with our little man.   He woke up feeling fabulous!!  Happy New Year Everyone.