Pig Tails

Maggie and her pigtails:

Johnny Appleseed

Nicky's favorite Disney character is the rendering of the legendary Johnny Appleseed.  He carries around a Catholic Missal he calls his Bible with a pot on his head and eats apples daily while singing his favorite song.

 

Here is Nicky's favorite song:

Snow Kids

Jackson is 9!

After not getting a party two years in a row, Jackson was ready to plan something special to kickoff  his last year in single digits. In keeping with his love of baseball, we hosted all his classmates for a party at a local batting cage. Conveniently, his birthday coincided with election day, so he had the day off and we were able to have the party on his actual birthday. They started off with some throwing contests, followed by a home run derby, game of pickle and a wiffle ball game. Then they had pizza and cake and finished up in the batting cages. He had a great time.
 The only mishap was that there was no time to open his gifts, so we loaded them into the back of the van with the leftover cake, etc with the understanding that we would open them at home when I could write down who brought what for thanks yous. How far do you think we got before I started hearing paper tear and oohh and ahhs from the back? By the time we got home there was a huge pile of trash, a huge pile of gifts and cards scatter everywhere. Needless to say his thank you notes were rather vague....

I said, "Let me get a picture" and they all snap into these poses....

He's always been a baseball fan!

Spring and Fall Ball

Back in June 2012, Jackson was named the Most Valuable Player by the coaches of his little league team.  Francis enjoyed a great season of tee-ball.  Nicky loved the diamond dirt.  This fall, Jackson was traded north and he got to pitch his first innings where he threw his first strike out. 

Trick or Treat

Our Halloween plans this year were disrupted by Superstorm Sandy. Sandy hit our area on Monday afternoon/ evening, but because the power was still out and there were still so many trees down, they cancelled trick or treating. We received this news about two o'clock in the afternoon. At this point, we had all been trapped in the house together with no power since Monday, we hadn't showered, everything in the fridge had gone bad, the laundry was piling up and there was no end in sight. Plus it was getting cold! (The power finally came back on Friday night...) So, we got word from Aunt Sarah that they had power and were planning to go out, so we hopped in the car and headed to her house. Normally, I would say 3 hours is too far to drive for trick or treating but, the kids had so much fun with their cousin Kevin, we may have to do it again next year! As an added bonus we were all able to shower and I even brought the laundry. Here are the pictures we took at the house before we left. I will have to keep looking for some that include Kevin and Maggie...

Playground