MARCH

Our life has been a whirlwind. Last post was February and now it is May and I am just taking March pictures off the camera. I don't know where the time went.......seems to be happening a lot lately.
Patrick had a game all the way in Oswego. We should get used to this if he is going to keep playing hockey, huh? I called Teresa and told her we would be in town. She came to the rink to watch Pat play and catch up. It was great to see her. We chattered away just like we were in college.



Guarding the goal. Pat requests to be goalie when he's tired. Smart guy ??
My man......#16.
Lizzie loved Teresa. And vice versa. They are a perfect pair. After hockey we all went to the Sub Shop, a must stop when we are in Oswego. It was fun seeing an old friend and catching up.
They are a little out of order, but I am too lazy to fix it......here a few from the St. Patrick's day parade. It was cold but fun.

A March snow day is freak thing......but it happened. Megan came over for the day so the kids were really excited to have someone to play with.


Patrick is finally done with hockey. Well, sort of. He has Valley Spring Hockey, but that is only every Sunday for five weeks. No biggie compared to the rest of the season. He and Dad went to his banquet dinner at Cici's Pizza. I wasn't allowed to go, because I take too many pictures and make Patrick embarrassed. I told him I was getting a picture of him and his trophy, no matter what.
My two leprechauns, ready for mischief!!
Patrick and Daddy were out, so Elizabeth was left to help me make cupcakes for Daddy and Grandpa's birthday. She's a great helper, especially when it comes to clean up time :)
We made some YUMMY frosting!!
Happy Birthday Daddy and Grandpa. We had a great steak dinner to celebrate.....joined by Linda, Aunt Di, Uncle Danny, Uncle John, Aunt Heather, Leah and Davis. We threw in a little celebrating for Uncle John, since the fool's birthday is just around the corner!
Of course all the kids had to help blow out the candles to Daddy and Granpa's cakes.
Since it was Daddy and Grandpa's birthday's, I didn't take Elizabeth to dance class. Aunt Heather and Leah were nice enough to pick up Elizabeth's costume for her dance recital. I think it is hysterical......the girls look like they should be peddling cigars around a casino floor!
We did get the girls to show off a little bit of their dance.......what they could remember. It should be awesome, come May!

Double Piggy Backs

The kids are getting bigger by the minute. I think they might have out-grown double piggy back rides.

Getting Ready For Spring

Even though it is still cold and snowy out we know that we are close to Spring. We went to Pop Pop's today so that Patrick could help Pop Pop make a birdhouse. We took pictures of each step so that Pop Pop can use them as examples for the directions of his birdhouse kit.
Elizabeth isn't old enough to do the birdhouse mostly on her own, like Patrick can, so she was left to entertain herself while I took pictures and Pop Pop helped Patrick build his birdhouse. She didn't destroy anything or hurt herself, and I didn't have to keep re-directing her, so she did a great job. She got lost in Liz Land, talking to herself and making up pretend stories in every corner of the shop.
Pop Pop's Liz Biz.
Patrick and Pop Pop with the finished birdhouse. Everyone did a great job.
Proud of his finished product........and excited for the jelly beans I was bribing him with to be a good listener :)

A Caring Boy

Patrick has been extra caring lately. He is really a sweet kid but lately we have noticed that he is paying extra attention to those around him.
Patrick and Elizabeth are playing so nicely together lately. They seek each other out and entertain each other for hours. They are friends, which is awesome.
The kids had a play date with their friend Jacob today. And a visit from Jacob's new sister, Zoe. Patrick and Elizabeth were both intrigued by Zoe. Patrick was especially gentle and really into asking all kinds of questions about Zoe.

Not Loose For Long

There was much drama at the breakfast table this morning.......Patrick was unable to eat because of his tooth. Since he just showed us yesterday that it was loose I didn't think that it would be bothering him that much. He can be a bit dramatic. He was pretty frustrated with me telling him to put the spoon of cheerios in the back of his mouth instead of the front. I was pretty surprised when, while brushing his teeth, Patrick's tooth fell out!
Patrick was excited to check out the hole his tooth left......and then a little freaked out when he saw it was a little bloody! And then the excitement came back when he realized that the tooth fairy would be coming tonight.
Our big boy! The tooth fairy left him $5.00 (just because it was the first tooth!) The next teeth, I'm sure, wont be worth so much. In Patrick's mind he should have gotten $1.00. And then $2.00 for the second tooth, $3.00 for the third, and so on. I don't think so pal!

Happy Valentine's Day

There weren't too many Valentine's festivities in our house tonight. The kids got lots of extra hugs and kisses from us, had a heart shaped cookie cake from Wegman's and each got a small treat because there are such good kids. We didn't get to spend too much time together though because Elizabeth had dance class.
While Daddy took Elizabeth to dance I helped Patrick with his Valentine's gift.......a quick sand jungle play kit. He LOVED it and was so excited to show Daddy how it works.
The kit came with a hippo and a LION!! Pat's favorite. It was really cool to play with the quick sand and watch the animals slowly sink.
Even Mom and Dad were amazed by the quicksand. Too bad I didn't realize that it is just cornstarch and warm water. I would have bought a tube of animals at the dollar store and a whole box of corn starch.......and been $5 richer :)
After dance class Elizabeth was really excited for her cookie cake. It's a Louer favorite. Doesn't she look cute in her fancy tu-tu??
The real big excitement is that Patrick discovered that he had his first loose tooth. Dad and Liz are checking it out.
Wiggle wiggle wiggle. Wonder when it will fall out!?!
So Pat's gift was the quick sand and a new Transformers book. Liz got a Tinkerbell paint set and a new Barbie book. We read each book before bed.......and gave out even more hugs and kisses!

Shuffleboard

Daddy and Elizabeth had a blast tonight playing together. Daddy was teaching Elizabeth how to properly play shuffleboard.......with the Penguin Shuffleboard game the kids got for Christmas.



Note the serious concentration. We don't see this a lot from our Silly Lizzie. Daddy is a good teacher!

Let's Go Valley

Patrick played in his first official hockey game on Sunday against West Genny at Shove Park. He had quite a cheering section - Liz, Mommy and Daddy, Grandpa, Uncle Dan, and Aunt Jaime all came to watch the scoreless game. He did great and had fun! And, scored an awesome, across the ice goal. We were so proud.
Stick down, ready to play. Watch out for #16!
The speed demon is off!
Liz was loving all the exploring to be done while Patrick played his game. She was all over the place!
Lizzie Lou had a hard time staying in one spot. Those bleachers are fun!
Grandpa bought Liz some popcorn. That made her sit still for a bit.
Patrick got to play goalie. He did pretty well.

See how he knocked that kid right down?? J/k. Pat's not the enforcer of the team.
The format of the game is three minutes on, three minutes off. Pat's waiting for his next turn.
Pat getting right in there, going after that puck!

Lining up his shot...........
He had lots of smiles for me and the rest of the family. He was checking to see that we were watching and cheering frequently.

What Happened To January???

I don't know where the month of January has gone. We have obviously been busy. The month started out with Brian having a flu so I was solo parent for a few days. Rather than go back and try to remember dates of our adventures I am just including them in one big -I - wonder - where - January - went post.
Lizzie Lou excited and ready to go to Megan's birthday party at the zoo. The kids had a blast. Patrick took off from the party - he conned Uncle Dan to taking him around the zoo to see the animals. They missed half the party but had a lot of fun together.
Uncle Bill somehow got free tickets to the Princesses on Ice show so we were invited to go with Megan, Uncle Joe, Aunt Peg, Ciochi, Will, Sarah Jane, and the English's. Elizabeth LOVED the show. She was so well behaved and had a ton of fun. Good thing the tickets were free because Mommy dropped a ton of money on all the other fun stuff at the show like popcorn, lemonade, a light up spinny Tinkerbell thing, and a sword for Patrick. Liz suggested remembering to get something for Patrick. She is such a lovey sweetheart.
All the girls waiting for the second act.

Patrick's teachers told me that he would be getting an award at a Monday Meeting at school so of course I told Brian and we showed up to watch our man. It is the second award he has gotten this year. This award was for doing his personal best in the month of December. This is quite a feat because it is hard for a kid to do their very best when they are so excited about their birthday and Christmas!
Notice the sour puss?? Patrick scowled the whole time he was on stage. I thought it was because he was embarrassed to be up there. Nope, he told me he was embarrassed because I was taking pictures. And so it begins.
More scowling.
Patrick and Davis are buddies.
We went over Aunt Heather and Uncle John's to exchange Christmas presents and hang out. Aunt Heather, brave soul, made cookies with the kids. She is a better woman than I. I was twitching from the potential mess that could be created. Everyone got to help add the ingredients.
Everyone got to help stir and put cookies on the trays.
And everyone got to help eat. Yum yum, warm cookies!
And then Aunt Heather let all four kids lay in her bed to watch Snow White. This scared me too......I was thinking about the sinister doom my kids could cause unattended. But they did great! And the grown-ups actually got to talk about grown-up things without spelling out any words! A good night for all.
Pat and Liz were playing so nicely one night. They went from using the baskets as boats to having a restaurant for their friends (can you see them on the couch with their tea cups). They had these nice table set up so I had to let them have their dinner on them. This is a HUGE treat. We never eat messy food in the living room. The kids were very careful and loved their pretend .
The drinks still needed to be in sippy cups though :)