Another One Down...How Many to Go?

So Alex lost another tooth today, this time in computer class. At this rate all 4 front will be gone by Halloween. You should hear him say his S's! Don't mind the shiner forming under his right eye, he walked into a display at K-Mart after school.

Canobie in the Rain

Bob and Gail has given us passes to Canobie Lake Park for Christmas the past two years. Last summer we saved them until some time in September and had a great time. The park is half empty and the weather was decent. This year September flew by and before we knew it we only had 2 weekends left to use them before the park switched over to Spooky World. We decided this would be the weekend to use them, then along came all the rain. We ended up going today, in the rain, and had a blast. It sprinkled or misted most of the time but the crowds were minimal. We did more rides in 2 & 1/2 hours than we normally do all day. The kids had a blast! Here are a few shots.

By the way we'd love to get a group of people together to go to Spooky World one night, anyone interested?

It's Never Ending

Seriously people, I will be raking up acorns until the New Year. They've been falling constantly and with the wind and rain it's been insane. Allen and I were in the kitchen Friday night, and they were hitting the roof about 20 at a time. This picture is basically a two square foot area. That's it. So there are probably another 4 bags to be raked. Anyone want to help?

Look How Cute He Is!

Just had to share!

I hate these little suckers!

Anyone who's ever been in our yard in the fall knows we have acorns. Some years are worse than others, this year is horrible. The tree in the center of our yard is loaded with them. I know, I know everyone says cut it down but it is great during the summer for shade. So we live with the acorns.

I started raking acorns on Saturday because they were out of control. Raked again on Sunday and got the bulk of the main part of the yard 100% acorn free. That took 5 BAGS! Yes I have 5 bags of acorns at the end of my drive way. No I am not exaggerating. Now I get out of work yesterday and come home and they are everywhere again. I rake another 1/2 bag. Go out again this morning, they are everywhere. I rake another 1/4 bag. The kicker is the top half of the tree is still loaded with them. This is insane! To boot the whole time we are out there we are dodging them because they drop out of the tree constantly. And not 1 at a time more like 6. I take my life into my hands every time I got out in the yard. Now whats worse than acorns? Squirrels! Honestly I think we have about 20 that live in our yard.

I could just kill 2 birds with one stone and cut the tree down, then the squirrels will start to leave because they don't have anything to eat. We will have to ponder that thought.

Soccer Season Begins

The Y's soccer season started last week and of course Alex and Rachel are playing. If you're interested in seeing them they play at 9 am on Saturday mornings at the Methuen Y. They've got a great little team and really enjoy soccer. This is them with one of their teammates Madelyn, who happens to be the daughter of a girl Allen grew up with.

Lessons in Rachelese

So Rachel has this tendency to switch letters around in words. It's really strange because she only does it occasionally and really sticks with it. She can say spaghetti with no problem but calls oatmeal oatameal. Even when we correct her she still says it that way. Now most of the mistakes are really cute but the other day she had us laughing on the floor. Here's a breakdown for the next time you talk to her.

Word Rachelese
Cucumber Cumumber
Marble Narble
Oatmeal Oatameal
Tinkerbelle Twinkerbelle
Massager mafagger

And the grandaddy of them all

Butterscotch Buttercrotch

Now you can all laugh!

Pulled Pork Recipe...Yum!

I was just thinking the other day I should post about my crock pot and how much I use it, and wa la Jenn does exactly that. Great minds think alike. So here's a great Pulled Pork Recipe I wanted to share.

Ingredients

Pork Loin (I usually buy one that's a couple of pounds so I have left overs)
1 contained of Kraft Hickory BBQ Sauce
1 onion sliced thin
2 tbls. vinegar (you can use flavored...last night I used balsamic and it was yummy)
salt & pepper

So just dump all the ingredients on top of the pork loin in your crock pot, set to low and cook for 8 hours. Sometimes mine cooks for more than that since who really works only 8 hours. Turn the crock pot off and take out the pork loin. At this point I use 2 forks and pull off the fatty layer. I let it cook with it on so it adds flavor but I certainly don't need to be eating it. Then shred the pork and dump back into the crock pot. Stir it around and let it sit for about 20 minutes or so while you make your side dishes. Then serve it on rolls. Yummy and super easy!

Alex Loses His First Tooth

Alex has had 4 loose teeth for about a month now. He refuses to wiggle them so they it has not progressed at all. Well this week he bumped into another kid at recess and one of the bottom ones popped. That little sucker was just begging to be pulled out. Of course Alex would have none of that. He still would hardly even wiggle it. It got to the point where it was leaning over in his mouth. This morning while eating cereal it popped out. He is now anxiously awaiting the tooth fairy. He may be a little bummed when all he gets is a gold dollar. But knowing Alex he'll probably be ecstatic.

Rachel in The AM

So Rachel is no peach in the morning. I should say she's no bowl of sunshine prior to 8 am, after that she's a doll and a love. The problem with that is weekdays the kids are woken at 6:30, so everyday Rachel is a grump. She usually sits at the kitchen table, wrapped in a blanket, and growls and whines at everything that is said. The kitchen is too bright for her, it's too cold, too early to eat, etc. etc. etc. Here's a shot of her this week.

You can win $10,000!

So who doesn't love money? The Y's Annual Reach Out for Youth Raffle is coming up at the end of the month (the 25th to be exact) and surprise, surprise I'm selling tickets. Tickets are $100.00 each and only 400 will be sold. You can split one with a friend, or 3 friends or even 10 friends if you want. Grand Prize is $10,000, 2nd Prize $2,000. 3rd Prize $1,000 and lowly little 4th Prize $500.00. You don't have to be present to win but you can have some fun that night since it's being held at everyone's favorite neighborhood bar the Claddagh.

So if anyone is interested let me know, it goes to a good cause and is tax deductible. Technically it's not but if you write donation on the memo line who's really gonna know?

I Tried to Kill Alex tonight.....according to him!

As you all know dinner in our house is usually not pleasant and sometime torturous. And that goes both ways. Between the kids whining and crying about what I make and us having to listen to them I'm sure we are both miserable. Tonight was particularly bad.

I made your all American dinner, shake n bake pork chops, applesauce, peas and Parmesan noodles. Nothing gourmet by any means but a decent home cooked meal. It's good for you. With a glass of milk we have all the food groups accounted for. I know as a kid I loved Shake n Bake. One of my favorites. No reason why the kids shouldn't like it, right?

So I make dinner while they are in mourning over the loss of their beloved Mary Poppins tape. I didn't tell them what I was making since I didn't want to listen to them complain (By them I mean Alex). I make up their plates and call them to dinner. Rachel takes her seat and says hmm... this looks good. Ooh applesauce. Alex is immediately horrified. I don't eat that, he says pointing to the pork chops. You don't or won't, there's a big difference. I mean are you a 6 year old vegetarian or just giving me a hard time? I tell them how wonderful the pork chop is dipped in the applesauce. Rachel loves the idea, she's a big fan of dipping anything. Alex not so pleased, why would you mess up perfectly good applesauce with yucky pork chop. So dinner commences.

After 10 minutes no bites of pork chops have been taken on either side of the table, though Rachel keeps professing her love of them. I insist that the next bite they both take must be of pork chop. No problem, Rachel downs a bite, yum. Alex wants a new fork. Why you ask? So there is no gross pork chop residue on the fork he uses for the rest of his meal. Are you kidding me. I give in, here's a second fork. Take a bite, please. Finally he does, begins to fake gag, tried spitting it out, tears are flowing along with this is gross, so yucky, I can't believe you are making me eat this, are you trying to kill me. Are you kidding me? It's a pork chop! I hand him a glass of milk. Wash it down before you die.

So it continued, dinner took 45 minutes. Yes 5 bites of pork chop (he actually only ate 2 bites), a small pile of peas, applesauce, and noodles. In his defense he did eat everything else on his plate, where as Rachel ate 4 bites of pork chops, the applesauce and 1/2 the peas, no noddles, they were too spicy according to her. I believe the spice she is referring to is parsley.

I think I may give up and just feed them PB&J every night rather than endure this And I know that somewhere my mother is laughing!

The Demise of the VHS

We have several old movies on VHS, most of them classic Disney flicks like The Three Caballeros, Mary Poppins, The Rescuers Down Under etc. I bought the bulk of these way back before Allen and I were ever married, before DVDs became popular. Well wouldn't you know that most of these movies are the ones the kids, Alex in particular, love. Over time some have bit the dust, either worn out or eaten by a bad VCR. Today such an event happened.

I picked Alex up from the after school program at St. Monica's around 3:30 and headed home. I told them since homework was already done they could watch a movie and have a snack while I did some housework. Within minutes of settling down Alex appeared in the kitchen, Mary Poppins tape in hand, with a good foot of tape dangling out of it. I tried my best, got the tape back in, but it plays all jumbled now. After explaining to the kids that it looks like it's broken and couldn't be fixed tears sprung from Alex's eyes and Rachel insisted Daddy could fix it. Love those Daddy's girls!

Alex apparently has inherited the movie musical gene from Allen and Gail because he loves them. Bednobs and Broomsticks, Mary Poppins, old sing along movies etc. Whenever the Sounds of Music or Wizard of Oz are on we let him stay up late and watch part of it. Needless to say the Mary Poppins VHS biting the dust was very upsetting to him. Lucky for us all Amazon has them on DVD so we already ordered a new one. Throw in a cheap copy of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and the kids going to be in heaven.

It makes up for the next post!

Happy Anniversary, Ladies!

Just about 10 years ago we adopted our 2 cats, Bruin and Seminole (Semi for short and quite frankly she's getting to be the size of one!). So here's to the 2 of them and here's a snapshot of them so you can see just how big they are now.

1st Day of First Grade

Well here goes Alex's first day of first grade at Saint Monica's. Whew! The summer went by so fast. Alex is excited to start school again and he misses his friends. Should be an interesting year. From what we hear Mrs. Sylvia is tough but really good. Here's a couple of snapshots from this morning. Love the shiner on his left eye! Check out the warm weather uniform.

Allen's Love of the Polar Caves

So Allen is a good sport and does stuff he doesn't particularly enjoy for the sake of the kids, then again don't we all. I mean who really enjoys Chuck E. Cheese and places like that. One place Allen is not really fond of is the Polar Caves. It's not that he doesn't like the history of the place or being outside in nature it's that he's claustrophobic. Last year when we visited the Caves we skipped a couple that were a bit too daunting for Allen. This year he was a trooper and made it through them all. Here's a fun picture that shows how much Allen enjoyed the Caves.

Camping!!!!

So we haven't really camped since the summer of 2003. A few nights in the yard is all the camper has seen and that was only in the last 2 summers. It's been locked up tight in the corner of the yard just begging to be used.

The kids are now old enough and sort of listen (do they ever really listen) so we decided to give it a go this summer. We spruced up the camper some with some much needed TLC and some gadgets that would make our lives a lot easier.

Originally we had 2 long weekends planned but with gas prices and some work issues it didn't work out. So we had this 4 day weekend at Harbor Hill planned for Labor Day. Harbor Hill is out favorite camp ground. It's right in Meredith near Lake Winnepesaukee and close to pretty much anything we want to do. It is super clean and the owners are great.

We did some day trips Polar Caves, mini golf, Fun Spot, outlet shopping (great deals at the Nike outlet got he kids 3 pairs of sneakers for under $30.00). Dad stopped by on Saturday and spent the day with us. Overall it was a great weekend. Here are a few snapshots from the weekend.

The Blog!

It was a very tough decision but as you can see I updated the picture at the top of the blog. I loved the old one but well, it's over a year old and the kids have changed so much. So this latest and greatest picture is from our recent camping trip. Specifically it is from the Polar Caves. More pics from camping to follow soon. Lovin' the new camera!