Thursday Night Pics

Tommy and his bud Noah
Kate taking up her mom's purse obsession

Kate at gymnastics

What a cute expression

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

Friday night pics

Facial Hair

I can't grow much of a beard, but I like to try to grow one every once in a while. Generally, it occurs over a long weekend and I shave it off before I go to work on Monday. This past Thanksgiving I started my standard long weekend facial hair tradition, but midway (Saturday) through I decided to try the mustache. Right before we were to head out and take the kids to build-a-bear, I converted the beard to a mustache.....here was the result...

{joe walks down the stairs sporting the new look}
Amy: What the hell is that?
Joe: It's my new look.
Amy: Shave it off now, we are going out in public.
Joe: nah, I kinda like it
Amy: Please shave it off
Joe: You don't like it? It's sexy, Tom Selleck style. You know Magnum PI.
Amy: Sexy? The police wouldn't let you within 500 feet of a school with that thing on your lip. Shave it off, it's creepy.


Check out the Tom Selleck cool below

A few videos for you sunday night viewing pleasure

Kate is quite the dancer....

Here is Tommy bouldering. We find it fascinating watching him problem solve on the wall. Which foot should go here, which hand should go here, etc.

Tommy with Coach Pete

Year End CSA Gathering

Last weekend was the year end CSA get together. Cider doughnuts, chili and pony rides...

Climbing

We enrolled Tommy in rock climbing at the local YMCA. We were not sure how a three year old would do in a rock climbing class, but he likes to climb on stuff at the house, so we decided to give it a shot. The results......he loved it!! It is kind of funny seeing a bunch of three and four year olds hanging out in helmets and harnesses. No pictures of him climbing up the wall, but we will try to get one of him next week.

Here is game they played called shark attack, not much climbing going on here, but they were having fun.

We also signed up Kate for mom and daughter Gymnastics. No pictures, but she sure did leave an impression on other moms. I believe they said "My she sure is strong willed". Kate does not like to wait her turn or get off the trampoline when her turn is done.....but she sure did have fun running away from the instructor when the instructor was trying to get her off the trampoline.

Halloween Happenings

It sure has been spooky here on Juneau Ave......

Friday night Tommy and Kate went to the Halloween Party at their school. Here are the kids getting ready for the party.

Tommy was not just Batman, he was Bat-Tommy

Tommy chillin with his bud Richie

Haverhill conducted the Trick or Treat activities on Saturday. The Juneau Ave gang stormed the houses together. Below is Tommy, Mason and Tyler.

Kate with her boyfriend Evan

Tommy in his glow in the dark skeleton PJs

Kate in her her Hallowween outfit

And now some random pictures.....

Papa and the kids

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

Random Thoughts + Cali Trip Report

First, the random thoughts..

• Amy got a new job at the Lowell Community Charter Public School. Started a couple of weeks ago. Everything is going well.
  
• Our kids have a fascination with toilet water. A while back we posted about Tommy and toilet water. Now Kate is into the toilet water. After she eats she likes to go into the bathroom to get toilet paper to wipe her face off. Every once in awhile she feels the need to have it wet to wipe her face off. Have you figured out yet how she gets the toilet paper wet? What makes it more problematic is the fact that Tommy forgets to flush the toilet sometimes. Don't worry folks he only has #1 down on the toilet, not yet #2.


• More toilet fun. The up stairs toilet is clogged. Nope, it's not because it was sloppy Joe night yesterday. It is because there is a comb stuck in there. Tommy is very proud he clogged the toilet. [Update - Joe had to replace the toilet because the comb was so stuck]


• Tommy had his soccer pictures taken this morning. You know the kid in the school photos who is never looking at the camera, never smiles and sometimes is picking his nose. Yup that's the T-Man
  
• And now on to California

A couple of weekends ago, the Fam packed up and headed out west to attend a wedding and visit Uncle Katie, Uncle Johnner and Cousin Ben (ed. note: Uncle Katie is Tomminese) in Davis, CA.

Overall the travel with the kids went fairly well, if you exclude:

1. The moron at the Southwest counter who made us late to the gate which resulted in us being the last ones on the plane, which resulted in us sitting in completely different rows. Not fun being 6'3" , sitting in the middle row with an 18 month old on the lap and a person requiring a seat belt extender on the right. Also, not fun is sitting next to a 3 year old that really wants to sit next to daddy.


2. Kate having a MASSIVE blowout while sitting on Joe's lap and him (and her) stinking like bleep for the rest of the trip.


3. Tommy singing loudly "whistle while you work" and singing louder when we ask him to tone it down.

Points 2 & 3 all happened in the last 15 minutes of the flight, but made it feel like the last 15 hours.

Enough with the travel, on to the good stuff. A couple of points before we get to the pics

• The weather was great. Mid 80s and dry


• We had our first experience with In & Out Burger. Double Double Animal Style with chopped chilies, cheese fries well down and an Arnold Palmer. Yum Yum. We loved it!
  
• Great farmers market in Davis. We hung out there Saturday morning. Check out KT's blog to see the kids getting crazy with balloon swords at the Farmers Market.


• Davis, CA has a Mediterranean micro climate which allows for growth of some non-New England fruit trees. Figs, Olives, Oranges, Lemons, Limes, etc. Eating fresh grapefruit off the tree was awesome

Ever seen a pumpkin growing in a tree. See below. Katie and Jonathan's neighbor have a pumpkin growing in an Orange tree.

We went to this great park in Davis that had a 60 foot slide made of cement. While the cement is smooth enough to slide down with out help, the locals slide on card board enhance the experience. While this sounds neat, it is a bit extreme. Part this feeling is do to the fact that Joe took out Ben while sliding down down this monster at about 30mph.

Greg and Susan's wedding at Solage in Calistoga, CA. It was a great wedding.

A few pics of Kate and Tommy

Head Bobbin Music

Baby Cake No More

She is just Cake

The New Pele

Tommy started Pee-Wee soccer this past Saturday. As a parent we were excited to see our son's first sporting event, but after "Going on a Bear Hunt" we were not sure if he would actively participate or not. It was great. He jumped right in and had a blast. The games were as you would expect. A bunch of kids running after a ball, while a couple would pick flowers or stare at their feet.

Tommy's buddy Jonah was on his team

Teaching sportsmanship

Going on a Bear Hunt

So last week, Tommy and Kate's school (Smarty Pants Academy) had their end of summer BBQ. At the gathering, each class displayed their singing and dancing talent. Tommy's class performed I'm Going on a Bear Hunt. Leading up to the big day, Tommy would run around the house singing "I going on a bear hunt, I have my flash light and my rope BY MY SIDE!!". Apparently he felt that his classmates were not up to his standards, thus he should not lower himself to their standards. Rather than say anything, he sat, looked frightened and stared out into space...I was so proud of him!!

P.S. My favorite part is when he picks his nose.

Tommy's affinity for coins

Get a call from Amy this morning.......

Amy: Ahhh Joe, Tommy swallowed a penny

Joe: A penny?

Amy: Yeah, we were sitting on the couch [Screaming in the background]. I have to go

Amy hangs up the phone

Joe thinking my son choking?!?!

Amy calls back

Amy: Sorry about that, Tommy was throwing up. He did not throw up the penny. Should I call the doctor?

Joe: Not sure. I swallowed a nickel when I was young and I made it out alive.

Amy: You did? What did your parents do?

Joe: Nothing. I never told. them Thought it was best they did not know.

Amy: Your weird. I am calling the doctor.

Amy never called me back. Tommy seemed normal when I got home. Seems like everything worked itself out (or is at least in the process)

Don't forget about Kate.....

Three Year Olds, Quarters & Cars.....Don't Mix

A couple of months ago, Tommy and his friend were playing in the car and decided it was fun to shove quarters in the CD slot. I am sure it was fun for them at the time, but it pretty much killed the radio/CD player. It was not a fast death. Every once in awhile, we would hit a bump and it would start working, then we would hit another bump and it would stop working agian. Then it quit all together. We were forced to play pandora via the speaker phone on Amy's Driod. Not the best quality but it worked. Last Wednesday we decided to invest in a new car audio system, so we would not have to rely on the speaker phone. When we told Tommy that we were going to get a new CD player, he became exicted and explained to us how he was going to put quarters in the new CD player. We eventually convinced him that he should not do this. So now everytime he gets in the car, he states loudly "Don't put the quarters in the radio!!!".

While he understands that he is not supposed to put quarters in the radio, he does not know that he is not supposed to put quarters in the consol covering the shifter assembly.

This afternoon Tommy was playing in the car while we were outside. He was up near the radio, but he kept yelling "I am playing with quarters, but I don't put them in the radio". Eventually, we came back inside to get ready for bed. While I was putting the kids to bed, Amy went to Target to get some much needed ice cream. As I am putting Tommy to bed, the phone rings. It is Amy. She says that she can not get the car into park, thus she can not remove the key from the car, thus she can not go into Target, thus we won't have any ice cream tonight. She comes home and sure enough the car won't go into park and we cannot take the key out of the ignition. Neither of us know much about cars, but we do know how to use google. A couple of quick searches leads us to believe that some thing is wrong with the shifter assembly or shifter cable. The fix looks fairly straight forward, so we start disasembling the consol to see if we can fix it. Note Tommy is in the car with us, because he did not want to go to bed. What do we find......a FRIGGIN QUARTER preventing the shifter from fully engaging into park. Below is a picture of the bent quarter.

When Tommy see's the quarter he says "Mommy did you put the quarter in there".

A few thoughts

• Just watched Julie and Julia. Makes me want to pick a cook book and cook through it.
• Blogging while watching the Bachelor Pad.
• The CSA is in full veggie and fruit form. This past week we based our selections on what kinds of drinks we could make with the product. Yummy cucumber green tea mojitos!!
• We went to York Wild Kingdom (aka The Zoo) this past weekend. It was pretty sweet. The kids had a great time.

So you think you can dance

Kate obviously gets her fantastic moves from her father.

Randoms

As mentioned in the previous post, Joe installed a new fence in our back yard. He had a great assistant. One scoop Tommy, one scoop Joe. Not sure why it took him so long to construct the fence. With this help, I would have thought it should take half the time, not double.





So Tommy is able to go to the bathroom by himself and dress himself. When he does them one right after the other, you get quite the fashion statement. This one is right after he decided to use his outside toilet aka the tree in the front yard. When Joe saw Tommy he said "Son, are you on drugs". Note that he is wearing boxer briefs. This makes the tuck job in the second pic all that more interesting (See the skin).

Kate has the quite the morning routine. She gets up, has her diaper changed and then enjoys the Today Show on her favorite chair with her donut. Then she takes the crazy coupe for a morning drive.