Time for a check up

Is that bright light at the end of the tunnel a train? Nope, it's Ryan about to give you a check up.The tools came out in an attempt to thwart a nap or lunch or something, and the next thing I know, I'm getting a full check up. Ryan is checking my eyes for a possible corneal transplant and Connor is sneaking in a few random drugs for his own personal drug study. I being of sound mind, wanted to run for the hills, but instead I took my lumps. Mom was also due for her yearly visit, and the kids were more than happy to investigate and look for any monkeys in her throat. It has been determined by this panel of doctors that she has an incurable need to provide yummy treats for the children and her prescription, as ordered, was for both children to receive a frozen yogurt pop and make them stay up late for a week. At least this was Dr. Ryan's orders. Dr Connor's orders was to do what ever Ryan said, and to get Connor his wolverine doll and spend time in the pool, and to get him a drink... what's that on TV? .... (You get the idea) After all this attention, I need to see my own doctor.

Egret in Branford

Keeping Cool

It's about 90 degrees out this morning and Connor has managed to keep himself very cool. Although he is spending some time on the net playing Power Rangers games, my children have suddenly become too cool to allow themselves to been seen without sunglasses. I know they are constantly recognized when we travel, so a disguise is truly necessary. This must be how Bruce Wayne surfs the web at home, no?

When we haven't been dressed like batman on Friday, we went to see "Bubble Mania". The guy that hosts this show was with Ringling Brothers and is very well known, but he lives not more than 20 miles from my house and regularly plays at the Ivorytown playhouse. It was alot of fun. He commented on all the screw ups, but had he not, I would have told you the show was flawless. We arrived a bit early and he was on the stage, clowning around as he set up. This was the part that Connor liked best.... Ryan liked the part where he put a boy into a bubble... (a big boy and a very big bubble). After that we got over heated at the local watering hole and spent the rest of the day cooling off at home. Today (sat) we are going to a tag sale with Gigi. She used to love these things, so I hope she has a great time.

Gotta love Kids...

Ok.. this is worth the 3 minutes to watch....

Ryan, don't get any ideas about you or Connor doing this one!


http://view.break.com/536276 - Watch more free videos

Another Crazy weekend

Items for the weekend:

1) Band Plays on Clinton green
2) Grandma and Grandpa G coming by to go to the Weston Picnic- They arrive Friday
3) Wesbrook Fair - Friday night
4) Tom's Wedding Saturday (Parents off to the Picnic with regrets)
5) Grandparents pool day....

Ready set.....

Lise has been ansey all week... She has really been looking forward to getting out of the house... as you can see here... she prepped for all the running around she needed to do to get ready for this weekend.


Thursday night after work we went to see Shaded Soul on the town Green in Clinton. They were alot of fun and I grabbed a few pictures of the kids having a grand old time...(see below) By 8:30, everyone was spent and we all went back and went right to bed... Ryan woke up at 7:30am.... I couldn't believe it...


On Friday we went to the fair in Westbrook. We had a great time a rode most of the rides. Ryan loved the bumper cars and asked to go on them at least 100 times. Patience, Mike... After a great time spinning , jumping, twirling and driving, Ryan and I had to call it quits but we thought we'd go on the Pirate boat ride.... the one that swings.... Ryan loved the first 5 minutes and then began asking... "when does this thing end?" Connor meanwhile "hit the wall" and was on a sugar exaggerated, overtired hate high that made him completely schizophrenic. He was so happy, he wanted to kill you. We tucked him into bed and he slept like a truck hit him.. and then took a nap the next day to leave his demon self behind and become a little boy again.:)

On Saturday we had a lovely breakfast together (Connor dressed as robin) and then a trip to the farmer's market. (more pictures below!!) After making lunch for the picnic, Lise and I got dressed and left for Tom's Wedding (you guessed it ... below)... We had a fabulous time and really enjoyed seeing people that had been absent from our lives for the last couple of years. I am happy to see Tom so happy and joining a good family... Good Luck Tommy! We got home totally exhausted and passed out.

On Friday we spent the morning chatting and the afternoon on the pool. It was great spending some time as a family and I think Grandma and Grandpa had as good a time as we all did. :) After they left, we had a dinner at the local beach stand and sent the boys off to bed... when I'm headed this instant! Good night.

Click for more Band at the Green

Westbrook Fair

Tom's Wedding

Grandparents visit

House Grind

So with Staycation over, Lise & I finished up a bunch of projects and began a few more... Our front garden was in need of an overhaul and we had put it off long enough, and our front porch was rotting away, so we got that under control first thing...

Before:


After:

I'm glad we're finally able to focus on the outside of the house... we've been fixing the inside so much, it's a little rough out there. Lise has put in a little bird bath and we have the gazebo up ... so I think we're good for a little while. :) I cant wait to be done, but for right now, I think we're ready to finish up our projects until the housing market has come back a bit more. :)

Staycation!

I was asked to take vacation this week ... I'm not a huge fan of being told when to take my vacation time, but the flip side is that I know I'm a consultant, and that I am overhead... etc etc etc... I'm not really complaining... I needed some recharge time.

So this week I took full advantage; I did a few projects and spent some good quality family time in the pool. It was a full blown family "staycation". I couldn't afford a "vacation" and going to Canada this year, so... "Staycation" works for me. We did all the family things we usually do on the weekends and just enjoyed some additional time together. On Friday there was the farmer's market and fresh strawberries... and then off to that Carousel with Superman and Ryan to ride the flying cat / dolphin things... (don't make eye contact with the ride... eek)

On Saturday night there was a fireworks display in East Haven at Gigi's place and we all went and met with Auntie Nee and Louise and Bob for a night of food and fireworks. We had a wonderful, except Connor hit the wall just as the fireworks started and started to ask to go potty every 3 minutes and then not going... ugh. In the midst of it, I was able to take a few snaps.

Fireworks

We all went home and threw the kids into bed around 10 pm... they remained crunchy all week. :)


On Tuesday Connor Started back to summer school. The bus picks him up two days a week, and he is still loving it. I'm really not looking forward tot he days of "I hate school", or the stories that "the teacher hates me". Oh well... Until then, I'll enjoy the smiles and try to mastermind a plan to keep them excited about learning... or break their backs trying. :)

While Connor was at school, I installed a "whole house" fan that blows air out of the attic to and pull fresh air in through all the windows of the house. I am hoping that after all the fireworks ends I can use it at night to cool the house. There are SO many nights where it is 60 degrees out and it's 80 on the second floor, so I'm hoping that getting the fan going will cut my cooling costs. In the afternoons we went to a few festivals in town and on Wednesday, we went to the "water's edge" for their festival. It was expensive and we decided that after getting cool shark tattoos that we'd blown our wad and were ready for a little dinner at the singing bridge...
I should note that it was crazy hot (it got to 113 degrees -Fahrenheit Meike... 113 C would have been a fire up there - while I was up there one day) working in that attic all week and when the kids wanted to go swimming they didn't get any resistance from me (except to finish the wiring I had to redo - another day I'll tell all about that) Anyway... We got some quality pool time, which I posted separately here, for the fun of it...

Swimming

We got an underwater film camera from the Grandparents which turned out great for taking shots of the kids jumping into the pool. There are is a sequence of Connor jumping in, so you can get an idea of the fun they were having. :)

Oh yeah, and we did that too

So many things to Blog about I have to get back into the rhythm of it, because I realise I just try to make up a months worth of entries that I cant even remember half of what we did... the Summers here are SO busy....

We went to a party at out friend Sara and Bobby Clark's place a few weeks back... we had a GREAT time just hanging out and listening to music. They put on such a great back yard BBQ, that I don't have words for it... just amazing...

The part I always enjoy the most is the live band that plays. I know it's people that Sara and Bobby know, but nothing beats a live band to play for your guests. They also had a bounce house and food for a million people. ... and all of it great. We are truly blessed with knowing great families. This year, among the kiddie rides was a "zero gravity" machine, which was a Carney kinda hang by your feet ride that I had to try ... Ryan took this picture of me before jumping on himself... while he was really too small to ride the ride, he had fun just getting into position and seeing what it was like up there. After a few seconds he came back to earth and told everyone that it "wasn't so bad.... but (he'd) been on scarier rides, like driving in Grandpa's race car." HA!

After that we took a ride through Mystic... we miss it there, but love where we are now... we took a stop at Mystic Pizza for a nostalgic grinder. Lise used to stop by for a bite every week when she was pregnant with Ryan just five years ago.... and no, they didn't recognize her. :)

Father's Day came and went with a few surprises... WE had breakfast with the Fannons and had a great time. There is this little all you can eat brunch buffet in Branford that is 40 lbs in the making... you gain weight coming in the door. :) So for Father's day brunch, I had... Ribs, chicken, waffles, eggs, bacon, and yes... cake... big delicious chocolate mousse with peanut butter filling that was fab. The kids loved it too....

Maybe as much as me... don't know... and since it was father's day.... I'll be happy to think we all had as good a time as I did, and that's that. :)

I know that's it's out of order, but I'll mention again that we had Ryan's birthday...
and after that we went to wish my cousin well after finishing his medical degree. Now a doctor and a nurse are in the family and younger than me... good... free check ups for the old guy, I'm all for that!

The day after Ryan's 5th birthday, we headed up to Storrs to join him and congratulate him. I also wanted to see my cousin Greg who I'd last seen in the hospital. His recovery hasn't been easy, but I'm happy yo say he looks way better, and I think he's coming around. :)

During the party, Connor was his usual self and said "hi" to everyone and sat on laps of all the older people. He is especially attracted to people he's never met, which makes him alot of fun at parties and not so cool at the mall....
At least Ryan finds the humor in it...

Break!

Ok... Don't cry... I DO SUCK... I've been blogless for a month and I know it's a miserable thing for those of you that don't view this via RSS feed and for that I'm sorry.



Now on to the Pictures, news etc.


I have been everywhere since the last post. First off we had everyone come to Ct for Ryan's 5th... In the Morning we all headed out for a little breakfast.... This was .... uneventful for us, but I guess a bit eventful for the people at the flamingo place.... (overtired children, adults and no coffee makes for a colorful start to breakfast. )We had Ryan's Karate Birthday party after without any incident. Once batman arrived on the scene, those karate people knew who was boss and put on a great show. The kids loved it and the adults enjoyed the cake. While that was going on I was back at the house, and getting ready for the family party. That went well as well and it ended in a party in the pool.... the whole family in the pool and swimming together... lots of fun for all... Even Grandma and Grandpa got into the act. After Swimming, and eating and lots of running around in sprinklers, jumping on cousins, Aunts and uncles, we got back tot he business of birthdays and Ryan got an other cake and this time we added Lisa into the mix as she celebrated a few more than 30 years of vitality. :) After that we wind down in a sugar-induced crash that was recorded in the annals of history as the first complete sugar-guests-family-induced overload that ended with children passing out left and right. Over tired adults had there own reaction to all that much fun in one day...