Birthday Boy Zachary!

Happy Birthday Zachary!!  Today Zachary is 7 years old.  Wow, 7 years old!  I can't believe my baby is that old now.  Luckily he is still my little snuggler when his friends aren't around, and will willingly give me hugs and kisses and hang out with me still :)

He is totally crazy about Legos, especially the Ninjago series.  So we made this Ninjago training center cake.  I think it turned out pretty good.  The flag holders were a big pain because they were heavy.  I was looking for a rolled cookie to make those out of, but I didn't want to pay $6 for a container!

 Look at this guy... not having a good day!

 This blue Ninja (is it Kai, or maybe Jay.... I can't remember) is waiting for the next attacker, just in case.

 For his birthday party we went to QZar to play laser tag.  Alan and I both got to play because several friends couldn't make it to the party.  Lots of vacations this time of year!  I actually did a good job playing.  I was ranked 3rd on my team of 20 for the first game.  I swear my laser gun wasn't working properly for the second game.  Yep, that's my story.

 Lucky Sydney even got to invite her BFF Morgan to the party.

 Yum!  Pizza and cake, the ultimate party food.

On Sunday, we invited the grandparents over for some more cake and ice cream.  Grandma Willford brought over these fun bubble guns which really cranked out the bubbles. 

Note how Sydney is watching over Zachary's every move as he opens his presents....  geez, give the boy some space! 

 He was super thrilled to get some new Lego sets.  One of which included a glow in the dark skeleton horse.

Catching up... just a little, and huge sundaes at Generals!

I'm not sure why, but posting to my blog seems like such a chore!  I mean, I take some picture on my camera that I want to share, and then I need to copy them off my camera, to an editing folder.. and then pick the ones I want, and then upload, and then write about them...  and it seems quite a pain that I can only pick one picture at a time to upload!  There must be a better way.  If there is, pleast let me know what it is.  I guess that's why I hardly ever do it anymore.  So much easier to shoot a picture up to Facebook :)

As I have been rolling through summer here, I ran across some fun pictures on my iPhone that I thought I'd just upload.  I have a fun new app called Incredibooth, and I just love making pictures with it.  Here are some of me and Sydney...

Here is me and my Mom from when we were camping together a couple of weeks ago.  I guess I like to finish with the "tongue" shot!  haha

Last night we celebrated the longest day of the year with some ice cream.  It was actually a double treat because we were also celebrating the great job the kids have been doing on their summer workbooks.  Yep, I'm one of "those" Mom's that make their kids do homework during the summer.  It's really two fold - it's good for them to keep up on their skills, and if they start to bug each other (wrestling, punching, fighting) to the point that I can't take it anymore, it's a great productive distraction!  The worksheets are part of a book that is focused on their particular grade, so it's really just a review of what they did at school, and it doesn't take long at all to do one page.  Last year we only got maybe the first 20 days done, so I'm hoping to keep up with it more this year.

 We went to Generals Ice Cream in Whitehouse.  We had bought a Groupon for 4 large sundaes (only $7!).  Wow, those sundae's were huge!!  The kids both got dirt sundaes, complete with gummy worms.  Zack pretty much ate almost the whole thing.  I don't know how he did it because he is usually the one who can't finish his dessert at home.  My boy is growing up! :)

 I'm not sure how they managed it with a spoon, but both kids got chocolate syrup all over their face.  It was a nice treat on this 90+ degree hot summer day!!

New Normal Music

Just in case the audience of my blog has exceeded 3 people (haha!), I'm just getting the word out about my new favorite music station - New Normal Music.  It plays all the newest alternative rock.  Great selections, and when the DJ is working, he'll play your request right away.  So awesome.  What a great way to pass the hours here at work in front of my computer :)

First Grade Farm Field Trip

First Grade Farm Field Trip... that's a lot of F's!  Here's another to describe the day... FUN!   It was also a hot sunny day on the farm, but no worries, it was mostly all fun.
Here's the class getting ready to explore the farm...

 This baby lamb was just the cutest!!  I could have taken him home with me :)

 The kids got to feed the lamb and goats with a bottle.  The goat practically climbed out of the pen trying to get the bottle!

 Here is Zachary and some classmates.

 They got to hold a super soft bunny.

 They fed some bigger goats and horses graham crackers.

 But perhaps the best thing about the field trip was a ride behind a tractor.  Not a slow tractor, but a gator!

 This train went ripping down the dirt roads.  The kids had a blast. 

 A beautiful peacock strolled around, not really noticing all of the visitors.

 We got to milk a cow... yep, I was in line for that too!  Why pass up an opportunity like that?

 Here is a group shot.  Miss Millenbaugh is so nice, I just love her. 

 The barn had a straw maze in it and at the end were two slides.

We also got to hold some chicks, eat snowcone/slushies, and learned about honey bees.  What a fun day indeed.

Sprinkler fun

 It's starting to get a little warm around here.  Beautiful weather - time to think about yards, yard work, and sprinklers!  Tonight was the night we turned on the sprinklers and made sure everything was working.  This is a favorite event for the kids to join in.  Doesn't matter that it's only 70 degrees out, they want in on the action!

I'm not sure how they could stand it - I was cold just watching them!

It was especially fun since Alan had just mowed the grass an hour earlier! 

Success!!  We helped! :) 

Really?

Sometimes I wonder about my family. Is my fashion sense really that bad, and I passed it on to my kids?? This morning Zachary got dressed and was totally oblivious to the fact his tshirt was on backwards. This was not a regular tshirt, it was a polo shirt with a fake undershirt with it. So he had buttons half way up his back. Even when shown himself in the mirror he didn't realize it. Then there was Sydney who showed up at the chess match in her pajamas (a tshirt and pj shorts) because "Daddy didn't tell her to get dressed". Really? She was quite embarrassed that she had forgotten to get dressed, but I still took her grocery shopping with me :)

Chess club

I got an exciting call yesterday from the Chess Club coach.  Both Sydney and Zachary are in the chess club at school.  It was something I heard about, and when I asked the kids if they would like to join, they were both very excited about joining, even though we had never even played chess!  Well, they have been to 3 meetings so far, where they learn to play better.  Don't they say that chess takes an hour to learn and a lifetime to master?  Or something like that - anyways, the kids seemed to pick right up on the game and enjoyed it.  So I got a call yesterday from the Chess Club coach and he called to make the comment that Zachary is a "natural" at chess.  The coach has coached many students for many years, but he has never run across talent like Zachary's as a first grader.  He told us that at our small match coming up that he would be "1st board", which I guess means he's the best player.  Also, he asked me in a very serious tone if we would be interested in "taking it to the next level".  Sounded pretty intense to me!  I'm game, so I asked about it.  He invited Zachary to take place in a K-8 chess championship tournament that is happening this weekend.  I was so super excited (and darn proud!!) to hear this news.  We are going to give it a try and see how he does.  Hopefully it will be a positive experience for him (heck, he could even bring home a trophy!) because from what I have seen at home, he doesn't like to lose.  Fingers crossed!!

Boston Marathon Race day... aka, Patriots Day!

It's Patriots day!!  We dropped Alan off at the Hopkinton State park at 7:30 this morning.  It was already in the 60s when we dropped him off.  Then the kids and I went over to the town of Wellesley to watch the race. 

Since it was sunny the kids hid under our blanket to shield them from the sun - so they could continue playing their games until the runners came past.

The elite runners came through 1 hr and 5 mins.  By the time the rest of the runners came in it was at least 80 degrees and lots of people were walking. We saw Alan and he was really sweaty, but still running at that time.

 

After seeing him we drove over to a parking garage for the T and rode into Boston to see Alan at the finish line.  We actually did see him at mile 26 and he was looking good.  We met him at the family meeting area.  He finished in 3:35.  That was 20 minutes slower than what he trained for, but it was really great considering the heat.

After the race we went over to the Boston Museum of Science.  Alan was a bit sore!!  After that we went over to the Sweetwater Cafe to meet up with the other runners.  Unfortunately we got lost and ended up at the other end of town.  We decided just to go back and look for it again, and this time we found it.

We had a great dinner of burgers next door and then Alan got to hang out with his new runner friends.

Boston - Sunday

Sunday was our day to visit the Boston Marathon Expo and pick up Alan's race bag.  It was a beautiful day to be out and about in the big city!

Here is Alan getting his bib.  It was exciting for me also because I got to pick up my friend's bib, and everyone thought *I* was running since I also had a bag.   That made me feel pretty important!  The worker even said "Good luck!" when I got the bag :)

 

 We all posed in the car that would be starting the race.  Pretty nice car!

 The kids and I tried out every PowerBar and sports drink in sight.  The kids had so many samples in them they could possibly run a marathon themselves with all of that caffeine.

One of the booths had a "wheel of fortune" and Sydney won a box of rice!!  It was so cute, the kids really thought we were going to have it for dinner at the hotel :)  The rest of us won chip clips.

After the expo, we headed over to the Natick mall.  The destination was the American Girl shop.  Sydney has been saving her money, and now she was glad she had - she bought two things which was $60!  She was so excited about her purchase.  And I was proud she saved her money for something she really wanted.

Now Zachary on the other hand, the spender in the house... he is broke and couldn't buy anything at the Lego store.  Too bad he just spent his Easter money on Beyblades!

After another long day of wandering all over, we had a yummy italian dinner at the restaurant right down the road from our hotel.

Oh, and bad news - Zachary's stuff animal (baby penguin) was missing after the room service came through.  We are guessing he got wrapped up in the sheets of the bed, but the hotel never did find him in their laundry.  Looks like we'll be replacing him next time we go to the Zoo!