Happy Father's Day!!

Happy Father's Day to the two dad's in my life . . .

My father; aka Papa, Daddy, Kikki, Kip, Kippy . . .

And the father of my children; aka Mark, Dad, Daddy, Marky and Marky-Mark . . .

Both great examples to the five future fathers we are raising!

And . . .

We celebrated Mark's birthday last month as well.

He looks good for 30!!

All of my men . . . 

Grocery List?!

The boys often complain that I don't buy anything "good" at the grocery store.  I do admit that I try NOT to buy too much junk, not because I am averse to it being in the house, but that I'm averse to it being in my trunk (if you know what I mean!).

I do try to make an effort to ask the children before I go to the store if there are any special requests.  And, honestly, I do try to remember them.  But, as more often is the case, I forget.  I really just forget.  Or, it could be that I avoid that aisle entirely.  At any rate, "I don't buy anything good!"

So, I mentioned that I leave my grocery list out for all to add to.  And so far this method has worked for me; primarily because no one has truly taken advantage of this fact.  Until now. . . .



The waffles, eggs and poptarts are my entries.  Mark added in the olives, hummus and rice cakes (he's trying to be good!).  The flaming hot Cheetos washed down with the four types of ice cream are courtesy of Patrick and Conor.  Followed by the chips with "lots and lots" of French onion dip!  Oh my!

And like any good mother with five growing and starving and skinny boys, I bought it all.  Just please don't ask me to get on the scale any time soon!

Seven Springs

We spent the New Year's weekend skiing at Seven Springs.  Great food, great friends, pretty good skiing and lots of relaxing was had! 

I do have to admit that although skiing in the rain has it's advantages (empty mountain, no lift lines, slick slopes), the soaked-to-the-bone aspect was a little less than pleasant.  Thankfully, it was warm!

Some pics from the weekend: 

Top of the mountain

What's a lake doing up here?

Liam navigating the chair lift

Rowan in his favorite position, on the ground!

Conor shredding up the terrain park

The guys chillin'

By the way, a thousand piece puzzle and two OCD women do NOT mix well; we will leave it at that!

Happy New Year!

Ready to Join the Circus?!

My, oh, so talented, husband . . .

And my, oh, so talented, son . . .

This was the half-time entertainment at my house for the Ohio State Game.  Yea, Bucks!

The Lunastix that Santa brought were a big hit.  Maybe we can forgo college!

Eat your heart out Chris!!

"The Worst Fifteen Minutes"

We were "busy" taking our Christmas card picture this weekend (although that does not mean you will get our card before New Years!).  I would like to say that we had the boys in matching outfits, had a theme, or even some composition to the picture, but no.  Instead, we threw the boys outside with a moments notice to take our annual picture.  Thus, the boys are wearing a mish mosh of clothes, Rowan has face painting, and no ones' hair is combed. The boys are squinting from the sun in their eyes.  The puppy looks like a blob next to Patrick's black pants.  But, it got done. 

Thankfully, we have digital now, so that 45 pictures later, we were able to salvage one decent photo and simply delete all of the others.  (Remember having to process all that film to throw away 90% of it?)

I make the whole process, despite the lack of planning, sound so smooth though.  The boys fought.  Liam cried.  Rowan wouldn't stand still or even look forward.  Liam cried.  Conor could barely open his eyes.  Liam cried.  Patrick yelled.  I cried.  And Mark comments that "this is the worst fifteen minutes of the whole year!"

Unfortunately, I thought the whole thing went well!

I guess I have hit some lower fifteen minutes.

Here are some of the rejects: