Monday, June 21, 2010

HIT tournament

Timmy is playing for the 9 year old All star tournament baseball team this summer. (which takes up the whole summer with tournaments, but is good for him :) )

The first tournament was here in Hudson, where they had three games, plus Rich worked grounds crew and I worked in the food shack. (yes it was a very long weekend!)

Timmy played great!! His first at bat, he hit a triple out to center field. He plays mostly third base, shortstop or first. Here is a short montage from one of the games from this weekend.

I'm sure that I'll post more from the districts and states.

Note, I am an awful videographer when my kids do well... in the short video clip here, you'll see Tim bat. He hit a 2 run double out to center field (we were down and rallying at this point.) Well, you'll se ehim hit and then you'll here me screaming... and no longer actually taping Tim :)
Enjoy!

Monday, May 17, 2010

Happy Birthday, Max!




My Baby turned 5 yesterday. He is my clone and my biggest challenge :) This child can push my buttons like no other, yet he is also mama's boy. He is definitely my clothes horse already. He prefers jeans and a button down shirt to sweats and a tshirt. In fact, when he was going to head for his shower last night, he walked into the bathroom and said, "I looked goooood at my party today!"

We had a mini golf party for him where he invited all the boys from his class and a bunch of friends from his daycare. he had a blast and loved all of the gifts that he got :)

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

too much on the plate...



Sorry, its been a while! Our plates are down right overflowing this spring, so let me catch you up...

Rich and I - Rich is getting up at 4am most days to ride his bike in the dark and still leave for work by 6 (at the latest). He is Mountain biking as much as possible and even got on a sponsored developmental mountain bike team!

I have a lot on my plate at work (all good stuff, just a lot), am playing soccer still (LOVE IT) and am trucking kids around to their various activities!

Tim - Is playing on the minors league (8-9 year olds) in baseball and is doing fabulously. He pitches often because he is really good at it... although he didn't warm up correctly last night and we think he pulled his shoulder! His coach is nominating him for the under 9 all star team this summer!

He is also playing lacrosse and absolutely loves it. This is under-11 and Tim is still the biggest kid on the team. I think that he really likes the more aggressive sports. He enjoys playing attack so he can score goals, but the couple of times they put him at goalie, he was fabulous!

Sam - Sammy is also playing baseball in the rookie league and is doing well. He still sort of gets distracted in the field, but hits and fields really well when he is paying attention :)

He also just made his first communion. He was absolutely adorable and his class did fabulously. Pictures below.

Max - as i said previously, he is a handful. He has started T-ball and is also loving it. The first practice one of the coaches saw him throw and asked him if he had played before. To which Max said nope. Then tonight at practice, Max threw him the ball and the guy caught it with no glove. Had to shake his hand out after that catch!

His 5th is coming up on the 16th and he is having an indoor mini golf party. He is very excited to turn 5. He asks every day if it is Sunday yet!









Thursday, April 8, 2010

Performance improvement plan...

So, I am in the middle of review season right now. Meaning that everyone gets their yearly performance review in May. Our process starts in Feb and last until delivery in late april.

Well, when someone is not performing as well as they should and could be, they might possibly go on a performance improvement plan. They need to do specific things in order to begin heading in the right direction. And they better show significant improvement, quickly.

Well, I've (and his teacher) decided that Max is on a performance improvement plan. He has gotten notes recently from his teacher letting us know that his self control is all but non existent. So now he gets a sheet everyday that rates his morning and his afternoon. He get a check, check plus, or check minus. And depending on what he gets, he may (or may not) come home and put a sticker on his chart to earn a privilege. Well, three days in and we've got 1 sticker on the chart so far.

I'm telling you, if one of my children drives me crazy, it will be this one.

Happy Birthday, Mom!

Happy birthday, Mom! It looks like you got beautiful weather for it :) Enjoy!

Friday, March 19, 2010

Cross curricular fair

Last night was the boys cross curricular fair. Each class in the school has a theme and they work on projects related to that theme. The boys were:

K-1: Ocean Life

2: old American school days



3: endangered animals



They all did very well on their projects, but Sammy continues to crack us up. Each family got a letter from the Pony express. Here is what our letter from Sam said,

" March 1810
Dear Mom and Dad,
I personally think that children today poems are the best, but it is your opinion. I also think you will like the hand flags. Also, you mite want to checkout my silhouette cause I think it is a good looking kid. Also I want you to checkout the pictures from today and the picture from back than. Thank you for taking the time from your day to come see this presentation.
Love,
Sam"

Most of what he is referring to are the projects that they did as part of this study. But he is a good looking kid!

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Wordly Wise

Wordly wise is the vocabulary workbook that the kids use in school. Tonight Sam had an assignment where there was a list of words that they had to use in sentences. I was reading them over after I noticed a word misspelled.

A couple of the sentences had me laughing...

brain: My brain helped me think of this sentence.
Chimney: smoke comes out of chimneys.
flames: Flames come out of flamethrowers.

This reminded us of the time when he was 4 and rationalized that paper came from birch trees, because birch trees are white.

That kid can always make me smile!

Monday, March 1, 2010

Happy Birthday, Dad!

Hope you enjoy your birthday!



Getting the boys out the door in the morning...

... usually takes some amount of yelling and chaos :)

Ok, granted I could probably be a little more organized and could get up earlier to get more done, but I also think that they could do more to get themselves ready :)

Rich takes care of lunches for me before he leaves, which means I'm in charge of dressing, feeding, and making sure we all have everything we need to get out the door. You would think that they could dress themselves, but in the morning, I get "Mom, you didn't get out my clothes for me yet." And my response is usually, you are big enough to get them yourselves." (Of course, this is followed by the, "But you got Max's for him.") Many a time, I have told the boys that life isn't always fair and you will not always be equal with your brothers!!

But even before we get to that point, there is the "Why do we have to go to school, I hate school." Which then gets the response of, "Right now school is your jog, you have to go. Make sure that you get a job that you love when you get older!"

Like I've posted before, sometimes they do try, especially Sammy, to do what needs to be done, but mornings like this one, just drive me crazy because when a child realizes they didn't finish homework and then gets exasperated with me like its my fault, I get a little annoyed and end up yelling at the little things. Not how I want to start my day :(

Luckily, today was a gym morning, so I could go work off that frustration :)

Thursday, February 25, 2010

Hamster balls...

One day when I was at the mall I noticed that there was a large group gathering in this one area of the mall. It was a large pool with these three "hamster balls" in it. So this past weekend, we had a little time so I brought the boys over to try it out. They loved it so much that Tim used all the money he had left to buy himself more time :)



Friday, February 12, 2010

I love Crossfit

Ok, so a post that isn't about the boys, just about me for a bit.

Some of you know that I have started going to a new gym, Crossfit. And I have to say that I am absolutely loving it.

From the pictures on the website, everyone looks fabulous, thin, strong. I'm a newbie so don't know many people, but I can't begin to tell you how nice everyone is. They are all encouraging and friendly. And I'm shocked to see these women who, from looking at them, I think I could break them like a twig. And then I watch them lift 10s of pounds more than I am.

I am especially proud of myself today because I got my form down on the Clean and Jerk and lifted fairly well. I clean and jerked 70 pounds. Last week, I was struggling with my clean form with 35 pounds.

These are short, intense workouts and I can already tell how much stronger I'm getting... now I just need to get to more cardio so that I can work up to that half marathon that My aunt and I are going to run.

Here's a couple of shots of me that they put on the website: (these are different workouts, although I'm wearing similar clothes and making ugly faces in both :))


Thursday, February 11, 2010

sneaky boys?

So yesterday was a snow day for us, they announced it the night before. So I knew that I could sleep in. So in the morning, the boys stayed really quiet for me... in fact, I wouldn't have even known they were in the house.

SO I slept in a little and when I got up I went to praise them for being so quiet. To which Tim replied...

"Well, since there was no snow we tried not to wake you up. We didn't want you to make us go to school."

They figured, no snow, meant school was still on, and if mom wasn't awake to take them, they wouldn't have to go. They even had the TV volume down really low...

Monday, February 8, 2010

Good boys...

I have to say that the boys really are good boys. There was some story from the weekend that I thought I had to post and now I can't remember what it was, but here are these anyway.

This weekend Rich played in charity basketball game for his high school. It started at 8pm but we all decided to go watch daddy be the big man :) Max was really tired, so he spent much of the first half sitting on my lap laying on me. He was facing me though so I asked him if he was gonna cheer for daddy. He said, "Mommy, I'm tired. Just tell that Daddy that he's good." It was very cute.

During much of this time, we kept sending Timmy under the bleachers for the things that we dropped. Now we were sitting near a bunch of girls that were probably Sammy's age, but they had brought signs for the alumni playing. One of them dropped her sign and was totally bummed. I pointed it out to Tim and despite having been under there 3-4 times already, jumped up and went to get it for her. It was very nice.

So Max and I left at half time because he was all done. But the other two stayed and apparently on the way home were discussing the game. Tim suggested that this other guy Diego was really good and was the best one out there, to which Sam replied, "I think Daddy was the best one out there :)". Such a sweetie!

Although, that was the first of multiple nights in a row that the boys were up late (superbowl was great and we were at a party so they stayed up for that). Now Tim has a baseball game tonight... that kid is going to bed so early tomorrow night, whether he likes it or not!!

Back to work!

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

bro-hugs...

funny story that I forgot to post last weekend...

Max and I went to a friend's birthday party at chuck e cheese. Max and his friend were playing a game where they could shoot spiders. At the end, Max was excited about the game and said, "Tiernan... bro-hug" and tried to give him a bro-hug (ya know, where you grab hands and kind of bump chests and pat each other on the back).

Tiernan looked at him like he was crazy, but Max persisted and taught Tiernan how to do a bro-hug. It was so cute!

Report Cards

Yesterday we got the boys report cards. Which is always interesting :)

Tim and Sam did very well. We rarely have concerns about their academics as they always do very well. It is more about the social skills that we look for the boys to work on. For Tim it is talking in class and respecting the rights and opinions of others (have we ever mentioned that Tim always needs to be right? :) ) But we saw that he had improved in some areas, so he was proud of that and knows what he needs to work on.

For Sam, it is about keeping himself from getting distracted. He does his work fabulously and he apparently even helps other kids with concepts in Math and Reading (instead of giving them the answer) but is easily distracted and silly at times. All in all, good reports for both.

Max on the other hand is our challenge. "Academically" he is just fine, he knows his numbers and letters and seems to be writing ok, but it is totally the social skills. He doesn't focus well on what he is working on and he just doesn't pay attention when he needs to be. I'm not surprised, these are things that we work on at home (this child takes forever to eat meals), but I'm not sure how to 'teach' him attentiveness and focus. SO I sent a note to the teacher for some suggestions.

I do think that karate will help as focus and paying attention are things that he works on there. We did talk about what it means to pay attention, look at the person, listen to what they are saying, and keep your body parts still :)

At some point I wonder when is this normal and when do you consider something like ADD or ADHD. I hate to go that route and don't think that we are at that point, but I do wonder about it.

Anyway, back to work!

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Follow up to Sammy being a love

I found out yesterday (not from Sam, from another parent whose child is in Sam's class), that Sam was recognized in front of the whole school for returning the wallet.

Each Monday morning the kids all gather in the cafe-gym-atorium (yes, they use the gym for all three) to say their morning prayers. At the end of the prayers, the principal began to make a speech about a young man who deserves much praise. She called Sammy up in front of the whole school and told the story of the lost wallet (his teacher had told her). And they rewarded him a certificate.

He was funny because when he told me the story this morning, he said that he didn't realize that it was him she was talking about. He forgot all about it :)

Such a love... how much of a sap am I that I am teary-eyed as I type this!

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Sammy is such a love...

BUT here's how the story started...

Rich picked up the boys from the after school program and the first thing that Sammy said to him was, "Dad! some guy I don't know gave me $6 today!"

Rich said, "what?"
Sammy said, "Yeah, I was in the bathroom and" (Ok, right about here, Rich did a double take!)

But here is how the really story went. Apparently, Sammy went to the bathroom and while he was in there, he found a wallet. He brought it out to a janitor that he found in the hallway.

A while later, he and a couple of the boys were in the computer room when the teacher called him back. And there was a man standing there. The man introduced himself to Sam and told him what a responsible young man he was and rewarded him with $6.

I'm very proud of him and the choice he made. And now he sees the making good choices will get you rewarded!

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Post-holiday routine

First I have to say that my lack of posting here is a result of more posting on facebook ;)

But let me catch you up...

Christmas was really good. We did Christmas eve at my in-laws and I have to say we did not leave there with an overflowing car :) And the kids were happy with what they got! I do have to say that I was freezing though. for a couple of weeks around then, I just couldn't get warm. I spent much of the time there on the couch under a blanket with a cup of tea :)

Christmas day, the deluge of presents that Santa left was much appreciated by the boys. We have dubbed this the ER-bound Christmas though as Max got a trampoline and skateboard, Tim got a skateboard ramp, and Sam got a pogo stick. Nothing has happened yet, but they are little boys!

Then, my family came over and we had a nice dinner and played a game after dessert. It was a nice day. But I also realized that my skin was flaring and my blood pressure was up. Called the doc the next day and he put me on the meds that I had been on previously and that helped. Now my skin was another story. It got so bad that I went to the dermatologist on Tues and demanded that he put me on an immunosuppressant that would help. And it is. I feel way more normal now! Skin is still very dry, but gets better everyday!

New years was really low key. The boys have a tradition of each getting a fancy glass of sparkling white grape juice and toasting before bed. But then I was in bed at 9:40 and poor Rich stayed up by himself. Next year will be better!

And now, yesterday was Tim's birthday. How have I been a parent for 9 years already? He has matured so much right before our eyes. He is getting pretty tall (wearing size 11-12 pants and size 7.5 mean's shoes). He is still very competitive when it comes to his sports (sometimes too competitive, but who am I to talk?), but he is more helpful and mature about situations.

We are going a sharks game on saturday night as his party. He is inviting 5 friends and we have seats up against the glass. Should be a lot of fun.

Ok, i should get to work!