January photos!

It's been cold here in New England, like can't go out to play cold sooooo we've been creative.....dress up, tent in the playroom, find all the old toys and make them "like new again". Alexis is getting into the dress up thing. She can work those heels like a 25 year old. I can't and Brooke can't but she can!















Here you see Brooke as our cheerleading skunk.....












We've also been doing some baking..cupcakes, cake, muffins. Good eating but it requires ALOT of swimming to keep it off the old hips.






























"Uncle Joe" came to visit and watch a game with Daddy (they won this one I think).












Here we have the tent made from a sheet, the easel, the tv and the couch. I can't take all the credit for this idea, they did it first at school.











This is the playroom at 10am on an "indoor" day. Whoo hoo!!












Papa John brought some movies and was invited to watch in the tent.












Alexis can do puzzles all day. 24 piece, 60 piece, 150 piece. She loves them!!













Can you believe my baby will be 2 on February 22nd? I can't, she's such a little comedienne she keeps us all laughing constantly. She's a cuddler and an independent. She's so cute you just want to hug her all the time but, of course, you can't.

Wow - a little nice goes a long way!!

So I caught up with a friend from high school, Ashley, the other day for coffee. She was one of the "trouble makers" I used to hang with. She now works for a spa here in town as the Mind Body Spa Director. We had a nice chat about Marblehead and all the people who are still in town. Then she offered to give me a tour of her spa, which was right across the street.
It was beautiful and frou-frou and all the things a spa is supposed to be. Which of course means too expensive for me. Then, she gave me two comp passes for a massage and a facial!! 60 minutes each! Being the tacky person I am I checked the web site and each treatment goes for $115!! I am beside myself psyched. Isn't that nice? So I'm plugging her spa. It really is beautiful and if you are up for a treat check it out:
http://www.exhalespa.com/boston1738.html
They have locations in California, New York, Chicago and Dallas.
That qualifies as a good day for me!!

Whirlwind life

I've been living large lately.
Last Thursday, aside from being PJ day at the kids school (see pictures below), I had my book club with Anne (my MIL). We read The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand. Do not read this book. It was 720ish pages and 600 of them were describing buildings. We both muddled through it though and, now, I'm glad I did but I still wouldn't recommend it. You know what I mean right?
Anyhow, we got a great evening out together and managed to solve *some* of the world's problems. Can't ask for more.
Then - Sat. night was John's company Christmas party. My mother sat OVERNIGHT for the kids. Yes, overnight! We stayed at a hotel. First time since we had kids that we stayed overnight! We literally were the first to arrive at the party (the open bar started at 6:30pm) and the last to leave (the bar was rolled out the door before we left!). We sat at the "sales" table and all the guys and their wives were fun people. The band was incredible "Johnny Ray" and something but they were amazing! I think the lead singer may have sung with the Wiggles on their Christmas album but I can't be sure. That is a good thing - really.
We danced and ate and drank and danced and then slept until 7:30am!! Then we went out to breakfast and were home before Yia Yia hung herself. Papa John stopped by to relieve her and so we basically stepped in for nap time! Overall a very relaxing weekend.

What a pain in the butt

So here's yesterday:
4:30am up and off the gym. Good for me, right? Get a cup of coffee from the wicked cool coffee maker (see previous post) and I'm off.
Driving along, sip coffee - aaarrrghghhghg!! Yucko. Tastes like, what is that, what is that, SOAP! Why would the coffee taste like soap you may ask? Well the dishwasher (which is just over 1 year old) broke so we've been cleaning things by hand and *someone*, who shall remain nameless, tends to be a little heavy handing with the Dawn. Whatever - still getting to the gym early and happy about that.
Swim a mile, go the locker room to retrieve the shampoo I left out. Gone. WTF. So annoyed. OK, use the generic "body wash" that I think is probably not supposed to be used in my hair but, seriously, I pay $9 for the hair color so who really cares. Still happy the gym thing is behind me, trying to look on the bright side.
Now, I think, it's 6am and the McDonald's has that awesome coffee from Paul Newman. I'll treat myself to a coffee. Drive up, speaker not working, drive to window, 2 guys playing with the cash register pretend not to notice me for like a whole minute which seems like nothing but not when the ignorers in question are literally 5 inches from you. Finally, they open the window like no big deal. I order, drive up to the next window and watch another guy sssslllllllooooowwwwwwllllllyy (slowly) make my coffee. I'm telling you it's like he'd never done it before BUT nice when he got to the window. Drive off - sip coffee, mother of God it's cold and tastes stale! Now I can't really turn around because I'm just getting on the highway. My calm veneer is gone and I am full blown annoyed thinking up the note I am sending to McDonald's when I get to work.
Which I did.
Which got a lame computer generated response but I'm over it now.
Honestly, it's the small things that'll kill ya.

p.s. I know I swore I'd stick to kid stuff but I find I can't, they've been way too good and healthy lately, knock wood.

Vacation in India

John's sister lives in Holland with her husband Binno and their two kids Ava and Mark. They were lucky enough to travel to India over the New Year and go to the Emperor's ball! Binno graduated from MIT with an Indian gentleman who lives there (just to clarify the connection somewhat).

This picture she sent us made me so jealous!! How awesome to be relaxing like this and just enjoying the view while no one smashes their food into your clothes or needs their butt wiped.

Here they are outside of some big building. Just kidding Jane, even us ignorant Americans know what the Taj Mahal is. We have one in Atlantic City too you know, hee haw!!

Great pic, huh? Again with the jealous. They'll be coming this summer so we can get all the details then but I predict a lot more jealous in early August.

Cool things

We got this coffee maker for Christmas and it is awesome. You don't have to deal with the filters and the mess of a regular coffee maker. You just fill the tank with water and select a little coffee container (see pic) and that's it. It's like having Starbucks in your house. Totally awesome. It does tea too. You can run water through for cocoa. I'd highly recommend it. You can get them at BJ's and a lot of retail stores or at their website www.keurig.com

Another cool thing I just discovered is that you can watch a 2 minute recap of any NBC show that you may have missed (I missed Friday night lights premiere last night). Really great if you missed a show and want to stay up to date. Check it out at www.nbc.com

Photos are in!!

I finally got my bazingo into motion last night and organized the pictures. I had some motivation as I got a digital frame from my mother (which is currently showing the photos you will now see). There are many more pics at our shuttfly account which is listed on the right. If you are checking this site (Carol!) and have any good pictures from Christmas please e-mail them OR add them to the collection at Shutterfly.

Enjoy!

Poppy & Lexi have a nap on Christmas day (just kidding, in fact Poppy stayed awake the whole day!!)














The girls got chairs from Poppa John for Chrismas (along with a digital camera and tinker toys) and HUMONGOUS dogs from Yi..., I mean Santa.













Brooke is a master slinky thrower. Mom & Dad not so much. Lexi is very aware of the camera anytime we are taking pics. Notice that?














Lucky girls - good looking grandmothers means alot!














Brooke got a Dora computer game from Yia Yia which is a BIG hit. Aren't my children perfectly behaved? Yes. In cyber space.













Yia Yia was visiting on New Years and determined the riding toys (from the dump) were just not cutting it so she ran out and got new fangled bikes for the kids!














I know you saw this one sort of but it's too cute to leave out.



















Happy New Year !!!

Feelin' the love

I have been planning my high school reunion with my friend Susie. It's been quite the eye opener. First of all, no matter how terrible I was in high school (which was pretty awful) no one seems to be holding it against me. A bunch of people I never thought I would talk to again have been e-mailing me. It's really awesome. Definitley a load off my mind that I didn't know was there, or sort of knew was there but didn't acknowledge. Anyway, you get the idea. Cathartic! That's the word. Definitely cathartic.
Yia Yia took Brooke to the Disney on Ice show on Sunday. She had a blast. Yia Yia did too. They came back loaded down with toys and shirts and full of tales of cotton candy and spinning Disney princesses.
Lexi and I went to the YMCA swimming. Having her alone was a treat! She is soooo funny. She cracks jokes. I swear to god. She will do something she shouldn't and then look at you sideways and just start laughing at herself. She can swim like a fish too (with swim jacket) and she doesn't care if she gets water in her mouth, she just laughs. It was great.
New Years eve we have a tradition of making our own pizzas and ice cream sundaes. I think next year is going to be the year the pizza is cooked right, cause it wasn't this year (burn-o-rama). It was fun though. The kids thought it was great. And the ice cream sundaes, well really, you can't get that wrong!
In the new obsession section (mine) HBO's The Wire. Unbelieveable television. Check it out if you haven't seen it. You can get last season on HBO on-demand. If you can't handle swearing then skip it.
Happy New Year!!