August

Summer went by too quickly. In July, the boys and I visited Canobie Lake Park in NH where the boys' dislike of rides was fully confirmed. We had fun watching everyone else ride the rides and it was a lovely day.
In August, we celebrated Mimi's birthday at Southwick Zoo. A great day, beautiful weather, yummy cake and much fun.

Summer wound down with lots of playground fun, ice cream, trips to CJ's for ice cream, trips to Dairy Queen for ice cream, Friendly's ice cream (are you seeing a pattern?).

Summer was completely wrapped up by Hurricane Irene. We had power until 3 days later. Go figure. We lost the top of a tree at the back of the property. All in all, we fared very well. So long Summer, we barely knew ye.

Newest Member of the family

Roughly a month ago,we increased our family by 1. He's small, ginger and ornery. For a day and a half he was called "Pencil". That was later replaced with "Corn on the Cob". A week later his name was amended to "O'Toodles". Half of our house called him Corn on the Cob and the other half called him "O'Toodles". He's been to the vet and he's officially "Corn on the Cob O'Toodles".

DTV

DTV like MTV but better. Enjoy!




It's the Doherty band version of "Funkytown".

First Day of School

September 2nd, 2011
Jason and Kevin attended their first day of preschool. As they attend just one day a week, we call it playgroup or playschool. Day 1 - Kevin jumps right in while Jason cries off and on for 3 hours. At the end of the day, he's loving it.

I met the boys at the car at home and when I asked the boys how they liked their first day of playgroup, Jason answered, "It was great. I cried." Kevin said, "I liked it." They each had an after school snack: a chocolate chunk cookie and milk. Kevin's comment, "This is the best cookie I've ever had."



Here are some pictures of the boys with their Mario backpacks and Mario lunch boxes. Jason has Mario vines while Kevin has Go-Kart Mario. Below, Jason is playing on the school slide while Kevin drives Roary the race car.

Happy Grandparents Day!

Happy Grandparents Day!

Kicky and Jumpy hope Oma, Mimi, Papa and Opa had a nice Grandparents day.

Love to all,

K + J

July

We kicked off the long July weekend with the Kickster and Jumpster spending the day with Mimi and Papa while Mom and Dad had an afternoon luncheon and a nice day of wandering around the House of Seven Gables and Ye Olde Pepper Company candy store. A lovely day for everyone.

The next day we visited the Franklin 4th of July festivities which were much fun. There was a children's parade, rides (Kevin rode, Jason cheered him on), food, slushies, and an afternoon of fun with their good buddy, Drew. Drew, Beve (Drew's grandma) , Kicky, Jumpy, Mom and Dad all went for ice cream at the really yummy, Rick's ice cream shop. The boys had a great time. Kicky and Jumpy jus tlove Drew to piece and haven't hit it off with anyone else the way they have with him.

The boys fell asleep on the way home and good thing too as the night brought no rest thank to neighbor's fireworks. Pretty to Mom and Dad, fearsome and scary to Kickster and Jumpster. Poor wee guys - they do NOT like fireworks. Odd given their parents love of them, but there it is.

On Sunday we drove to the Buzzard's Bay 4th of July parade where we saw Kicky and Jumpy's Uncle Barry take home yet another trophy for his amazing Pirate Ship float. The boys were beat from teh drive and the heat and weren't their sparkling selves but later insisted that they had a great time. The actually did have a great time playing on Uncle Barry's pirate ship that he has in his side yard. Later we caught the end of an old fashioned baseball game with the Mudhens and then home for more colorful yet stressful fireworks from the neighbors. Teh boys watched some of the Boston Pops and enjoyed the music and watching the musicians.

July has been a hot one. Really hot. So there's been a lot of ice cream, popsicles, and eating out at various family friendly restaurants tha thave kid's nights. We have a pretty solid list and know what works for the boys.

We've been amping up the boys' adventures in order to help with some of their shyness and reluctance to try new things. We attended the Barnstable County Fair. What a great day. Lots of animals - blue ribbion winning rabbits, llamas, hogs, horses, lambs, cows, etc. The petting zoo had all kinds of interesting and exotic animals.

We watched a puppet show, the rides, met Ronald McDonald, at ice cream and fried dough. Kevin watched a very neat train set for 45 minutes. Yes, 45 minutes. Jason and Joe bailed after 15.

Hope ya'll are staying cool!

Love,

Kathy

May (still catching up)

Oma, Opa and Auntie Diane came for a visit in May and played with the boys, taking them on numerous adventures and planting an herb garden. Everyone had a great time.

June kicked off with an early Father's Day and birthday celebration for Opa. We visited the zoo a few times and did some fun day trips and visits to the library. There was an aborted attempt at potty traning where I was more motivated than the 2 people that it required the most involvement from. Oh well. The month was rounded out by Joe starting his new job. Again, the boys have adapted amazingly well to an evolving schedule at our house. June flew by and before we knew it...JULY!

April and then May

So, April ended with a bang. That banging noise was the sound of the other shoe dropping as I got layed off. Joe was now doing the job of 13 people instead of the jobs of 4 people.

(Kevin sums up Mom's opinion of being layed off.)

We knew things were bad. We both felt that the new parent company was bad news so it wasn't unexpected. But it was sudden.

Not a great way to end April but you can't have the highs (our anniversary, my Mom's birthday, my brother and sister-in-law's anniversary) without the lows.

In fairly short order I found new employment. It's a different schedule and a longer commute but everyone has adapted.

And, from the photos you see here, you see that we all survived, sense of humor intact. Between jobs I had a little down time playing the Wii with the boys and lots of cuddle time and all was right with the world. May came in like a newly employed lamb bringing along with it a visit from Oma, Opa and Auntie Diane. That story I will save for the next post as it's late and I must to sleep.

G'nite

April and Easter

Shame on me. No posts since April and yet so much going on.
Tsk tsk tsk.

Here we are at the Haggerty's on Easter. Cindi, Rob, Joey and Molly hosted us this Easter with a lovely meal. They organized a fantastic Easter egg hunt for the boys. Kevin found the golden egg which meant an extra special goodie basket.

Here is Kevin waving the golden egg high above his head - a big victory wave.







Here are the boys using the binoculars that the Easter bunny gave them.

Cool dude Jumpy

Big smile from the Kickster

Spring

At the beginning of the month we visited Castle Island so that we could watch the planes land. It turned out to be a beautiful Spring day. Both boys enjoyed the airplanes. Kevin made friends with a little boy at the playground while Jason enjoyed his time throwing rocks into the ocean and yelling, "It's a beautiful day!"

Enjoy!

Kevin gazing out to sea.

Jason throwing rocks. Look carefully and you can see the rock sailing through the air.

Kevin, annoyed by me taking his picture.

Joyful Jason at the beach.

Belated March Post

Just a quick post with some photos from March. Jason is showing us his cool dude look in Calvin Klein sunglasses. Below that Jason is clearly expressing his love for ice cream. Kevin gives Mom a big hug. One of his new "things" is to say "I'm a boy. You're my Mom and I love you." Then he gives me a great big hug and throws his head back laughing loudly. I love this game.

If he were to ask me for a pony afterwards, I'd probably say yes.

:)

Mr. Peanut

Jason was given a doctor's kit for Christmas. The stethoscope serves as more than a piece of medical equipment. It's also a tuba, a trombone and a monocle. When Jason isn't busy being a baseball player, a football player or Shaun White, he likes to pretend to be Mr. Peanut. Here's a quick clip of Mr. Peanut. That's a cane in his left hand and his "monocle" in his right hand.

Post by Jason

In a cleaning mood, I moved all the photos that Joe and I have taken lately to an external drive. Those photos are currently inaccessible so today's post will be brought to you by Jason. He's been a busy boy with his camera. Enjoy!

Jason captures Mom and Kevin making a robot.

Still making the robot.

Here's the robot (a lego one).

Different day, different toy. Toy airplane

Mimi and Papa on TV last weekend.

Dad took this one today. No NASCAR race so we played with Kevin's slot car race track and held our own race, the Doherty 200.

Jason captures Mom baking cookies last weekend.

Dad, up close and personal.

Dad waves hi to Jason.