Mr. Jacob and one of the fake mustaches in his collection.

Ben and Mr. X

LEGO Creationary fun!

The Warrior Penguin greeted me when I got home from work!

Cool kid

And sometimes you have to be brave and wear your Yankees gear  to the Beerworks!  And have a blueberry beer!

Rain out.  This was the closest we got to Fenway. Our rain gear made the day though and kept us dry on our way to Boston Beerworks!

April Birthdays!

We celebrated three April birthdays yesterday - so me, my mom and Kate were the birthday girls.  We had a nice day complete with princess dominoes, a Yankee victory over the Red Sox, and Jacob's new sunglasses (which he is very enamored with!).  Here are some pictures from the day:

It's great to be 7!  The youngest birthday girl looking cool and confident!

Jacob enjoying his new shades!  

Birthday treats for all ages - 7, 41 and 60!

Family Swim!

Everyone got in the pool today.  Earliest swim of the season for me!

Enjoying our first moments of school vacation week!

Birthday card from Liz!

The kid cleans up real nice...

Here is Ben on his way to the Spring Concert.  Ben's third grade class played three songs on their recorders.  Way to go Ben!

Handsome boy!

Easter and the Golden Egg

We went up north for Easter and celebrated at my mother-in-law's.  Aunt Stacy, Grampy, and Grampy's sister, Sharon, also joined us.  Aunt Stacy and Grammy collaborated with the Easter Bunny to put together an epic egg hunt.  The eggs were hidden all over the front and back yard, positioned both high and low, and you "had to look with your eyes" to see them.  That seemed like the best advice to offer Jacob and Ben when they were searching and scouring the landscape for eggs.  The most sought after egg was the golden egg with its mystery treasure hidden inside.  After the egg hunt we sat down to a delicious meal.   Here are some pictures from the day:

Looking for eggs.

The golden egg dance!

Found another one!

Tallying the bounty!

Easter dinner.

Grammy and the boys mid-hunt!

Relaxing after that hard work!

Aunt Stacy!  (Photo taken by Ben!)

Race #2 for the boy!

Jacob ran in the Todd's Trot race today.  It is a 5K road race held in honor of a Durham resident who tragically died during his freshmen year at West Point while running in the try outs for the military academy's marathon team.  The race was extremely well organized and attracted 400 runners.  They also had an extensive post-race selection of snacks and refreshments (which we all enjoyed - maybe not the best race etiquette!)

Jacob did a good job and finished 61st overall and 4th in his age group.  He averaged a 7:03 minute mile. The overall finisher kept up a blistering pace and finished the race in 15:35 for a 5:01 minute mile.  Imagine being able to run that fast!

I am proud of Jacob for competing in these races.  I need to start taking some pictures though to brighten up these posts!

It's racing season again!

Jacob took part in his first 5K of the season and ran in the Pursuit of the Holy Grail race in Epping.  He did great and finished 28th overall and third in his age group.  He averaged a 6:54 minute mile.  I am very proud of that boy and can't wait to see how he does at his next race.

Look who finished 28th out of 463 runners!

Message of the day...

Yesterday Jacob wrote a message on our whiteboard, it said - "Hay is for horses."  Today Benny wrote a message -

Help others - Benny's message of the day!

January - the month in review

January was a busy month for us.  Work was busy and the kids were involved in several activities.

Basketball was in full swing for Jacob.  He played on the school team.  The team had a game or practice 4 days a week.

Benny's schedule was actually the busiest of all of us with ski club, basketball and Chinese lessons.  Plus that kid's social calendar was full of birthday parties and sleepovers!  George joined Ben each week at ski club and the two of them enjoyed exploring the trails and terrain parks.

We also celebrated Benny's ninth birthday in January and had a sleepover party with 5 of his buddies.  We started the party with some tubing at a local ski mountain and then enjoyed Legos, pizza and a Star Wars movie.  What else could a bunch of young boys want?  That same weekend we had the family party for Ben and celebrated with my folks, in-laws and sister.

Benny at ski club.

Benny off the jump!

Getting the birthday party crew to the ski mountain for tubing!

There they go!

Benny.

Kid party.

Benny and Grampy at family party.

Blowing our the candles at family party!

Need to get back to this blog....

Here is a picture of the boys taken at Redhook yesterday evening.  After doing some serious shoe shopping for Jacob - he needed waterproof shoes, George and the boys decided a snack and some relaxing was needed.