8

Joey is 8 today!

Today is our usual crazy Saturday- Joey had a communion activity at the church from 9-12. Vinnie had a baseball game at 10:30. Zachary had a baseball game at 11:30. And Joey has a game at 5:15 pm. I also squeezed a 10 mile run, rounds at the hospital and a trip to the grocery store in there. Needless to say, his birthday has taken a backseat today!

Here is Joey over the years:

His first birthday. Such an easy going, sweet baby.

His second birthday. He was already a big brother to Vinnie, and such an easy toddler.



His third birthday. The year he started pitching fits! So much for the easy toddler!



Happy fourth birthday! Such a fun, athletic boy! He loves hanging out with his big brother Zachary and holds his own with the big boys.

Joey on his fifth birthday. He loves to be around people. So much so that he never wants to be alone! He shares a room with Vinnie, and usually ends up crawling in bed with him every night! He now has 2 little brothers. I can't believe Joey is one of my big kids!



Happy sixth birthday! He is a big kindergartner now, making tons of friends in school.

Joey at 7. He loves to play baseball and soccer, and does really well.

My baseball star at 8. He finally got his own room this year, but will still frequently end up back in the room with Vinnie and Christopher, crawling into the bottom bunk with Christopher. He is a good and loyal friend and is frequently invited to parties and sleepovers. It is a challenge keeping up with his social schedule!

Happy Birthday Joey! I couldn't ask for a sweeter, more lovable kid!

King Tut

The King Tut exhibit has been in San Francisco, so we decided to head on over and check it out with the kids. I have vague recollections of hearing about the exhibit when it last toured the US, more than 30 yrs ago, but never had the chance to see it. Apparently Pete did have the chance to go as a child, but passed it up to go to a water park. (I can't believe his mother even gave him a choice in that!)


The exhibit was really amazing. I checked out some books from the library for the kids to look at prior to us going so they would know what it was about. I think Vinnie was the only one who looked at them, and he was so excited to see pieces that he had seen in the book. Zach and Joey really liked it as well.


Christopher sat in the corner watching iCarly episodes on the ipod touch (I think he has a thing for Miranda Cosgrove). He did a great job of not being a pain in the ass (which is no small feat for him!)

It was amazing all the little trinkets, statues and ornate items they were able to make over 3000 years ago. At the end Pete looked over at me and said "You know what I think about all that stuff? They clearly had way too much time on their hands back then!"

Apparently one of the artifacts was damaged over 20 years ago while the exhibit was traveling through Germany, and that was why the exhibit had not been allowed to travel in the last 20 years. However, after officials in Egypt heard about the idiotic boy in Saratoga, Ca who chose to go to a water park instead of King Tut, they decided to let the traveling exhibit happen once again!


On the way home Vinnie was talking (nonstop as always) and stated that I was the Queen in our house (smart kid). He then asked "If you are the Queen, then what am I?" I told him he was a prince.

"Oh." he said. " I thought I was a slave."

Lucky me

Joey with his leprechaun trap. That is due tomorrow. That I found out about today.

Thanks Joey.

It's that time of year again...

The Super Bowl is a distant memory...

Peeps are on the shelves...

My allergies are going completely haywire...

And we no longer have a spare second of free time on the weekends.

That can only mean one thing.


BASEBALL!!

I love this time of year!

This year Zachary is playing in Majors on the Pirates team.

He started practices about a month ago and had a couple of practice games last week.

They had their first game last night and got off to a great start, winning 9-1. I somehow ended up volunteering as Team Mom (there goes my resolve to keep things simple this year!). No one else would and I felt bad, so there you go. There is a lot of scheduling involved between snack shack, scorekeeping, umpires, field set up and take down. Phew. So far, I have it all under control...


Joey is playing in the AA division and is on the A's team this year. Pete is one of the assistant coaches.

Joey has been practicing for a few weeks, and has his first game next weekend.

Vinnie is in the coach toss division and is on the Cubs. Pete is the manager for his team. (Why yes, he does swear every single season that he only has time to coach one at a time. Somehow, he always winds up coaching two of them anyway!)


Vinnie had his first game last weekend. It is so amazing to me to see how the kids improve each year.
Vinnie is turning into a pretty solid player.

Of course if he kept his eyes open, he may catch a few more balls!


And what about Christopher? He hangs out on the sidelines, eating snacks, running around all the different playgrounds, and rolling around in all the dirt he can.

By the end of the day, he is exhausted!


And what about me? Also exhausted. Here is a glimpse of our typical calendar month during baseball season.
Let's play ball!

41

Do you like the birthday cake I made myself? I laughed as I was frosting it!


Yep, that is how old I am now. Yippee. No complaints here though! I made out pretty good! A dinner out with my family, good cake and some great gifts!

Pete got me a kindle. It should be arriving in a day or two and I can't wait to check it out! My Aunt gave me a really nice Cole Haan cover for it.




Suzie made me this pretty bed warmer. It is filled with corn and you just pop into the microwave for a couple of minutes, then stick in your bed. I hate getting into a cold bed. Even with flannel sheets I would get in and then start kicking and flailing about to try and warm things up. Drove Peter crazy! She also made me a beautiful new camera strap in fabrics of my favorite colors. You can check it out here. Of course it is already on my camera.
Thanks mom for my new black purse! I love it!

Happy Birthday to me! (Do you see the ipod headphones coming out of Zach's ears? He is truning into a preteen overnight, with the attitude to boot. Yikes!)

More Deer Valley!

What is that you say? You were wondering why there were no actual pictures of us skiing on our Deer Valley trip? Although my Nikon camera is awesome, I can not pop it into the pocket of my ski jacket and whip it out for amazing action shots of us on the slopes. Bummer. So I borrowed my Aunts little point and shoot and took pics with that. She sent me the disc the other day, so now I have more pictures to share.

Here are the 5 kids in "the Beast" (aka the Suburban) on our way down to the slopes. Before pulling out of the driveway we did the run down with the bunch. "Everyone show me your helmet! Check. Now show me your gloves! Check. And on and on. That is how we made it out the door with 5 kids and never once had to come back for a forgotten item. We rule.

Peter dropped us off and parked the car. The kids hung out in front of the lodge while I dropped Christopher at daycare, then back for them to drop them off at their various ski classes. Tired already? We are just getting started!



Vinnie spent all 5 days in ski school. He was skiing the blue runs by the end of the week and loved it.

On the last day, after class, Pete took him up for a run. He did well, but apparently talked non-stop the entire way down the hill. No surprise there.



Here is a typical shot of Zachary convincing us that we could do this black diamond run, despite the fact that we couldn't actually see down it and had no idea what was in store for us. We survived.


Zachary whipping down the hill, leaving us in the dust.


Zachary on the gondola. See that smirk? Probably making plans to ditch us somewhere.


Pete and I on the gondola. How about my new snazzy helmet? I never used to wear one, truly believing I was such a cautious, boring skier that I didn't need one. Natasha Richardson's story changed that. (However I am still a boring cautious skier)



We just finished lunch at the new St. Regis. No lodge food for us!


Kelly and Joey had ski school for 3 days, then skied with Aunt Dede the 4th day.


Joey (and Kelly) skied with us on the last day. Such fun hanging with all the kids while skiing!

Zach and Joey in front of the "bear house". This is a private home on the slope (there are many) that the owners decorated. A few other houses do similar things. The kids (and I) love it!

Christopher catching snowflakes and waiting for the big boys to finish school.


Apres' ski, the hot chocolate and cookie version!


The end of another great day! Let's check the skis, get the Beast and head back to Auntie Dede's house and hit the hot tub!

Brotherly Love

Yesterday at Mass the younger boys came home with a small bag of jelly beans along with a "jelly bean prayer for Lent" sheet, explaining how they can earn different colored jelly beans.

I read the task to earn the red bean. -- "choose something to sacrifice that day to earn the red jelly bean. It should be something you would have had the opportunity to have or do that day"

"I would like to sacrifice Vinnie!" Zachary exclaimed.