Wii Love It

Here's some video of Gregory playing with the Wii (not that he gets into it or anything):

My Knight In Shining Armor

In a desperate attempt to get out of the house I let the kids pick where they wanted to go today. They decided on the Higgins Armory Museum in Worcester. I'd never been there before but it was pretty neat. Turns out it was Viking day so we got to see a bunch of guys dressed up like Vikings having Viking 'fights' and playing Viking games. Lots of cool suits of armor. Gregory was especially disturbed by the suit that was missing its helmet, which he expressed by yelling "Oh my God! Look at that poor knight! That's disgusting!"

Here's some more photos:

Snow Day

Another foot of snow today so school was canceled for the 3rd time in 2 weeks. What else is there to do on a snow day but make pancakes? The kids and I mixed up a batch and succeeded in not setting off the fire alarm like we usually do, which always traumatizes poor Gregory. Yay us!

Snow Concert

Here's the video from Rebecca's snow concert. Although there was no snow on the ground, it did flurry for the event. Rebecca is in the front row in the gray sweater, white shirt, and purple plaid skirt. Too bad she's so camera shy (not!).

Are You Friggin Kidding Me Santa?

All that effort for this
Holden held the annual girlscout caroling, Santa arrival, and tree lighting event tonight. Rebecca was a trooper who sang enthusiastically and then waited patiently in line to see Santa. Gregory, on the other hand, had a bit of trouble. He was cold (give me a break - this year it was a balmy 34 degrees - I still remember 3 years ago when the temp topped out at 13 degrees), he wanted to sit in the car, he needed to use the bathroom, etc. With a combination of holding him, encouraging him and wrestling him, I managed to string him along until he and Rebecca got a chance to sit with Santa. My motive? To get a Santa picture so I don't have to shell out $30 at the mall this year for one. When they finally made it to Santa's lap I snapped a quick picture from the side. Then I moved into the prime photo spot right in front of the big man, at which point my camera battery died. My comment to Santa: Are you friggin kidding me?

How Not To Dress A 4 Year Old For Halloween

Glowing Fairy Princess and War Machine

Hope everyone had a safe and fun Halloween. What did the kids dress up as? Rebecca was a fairy princess with battery powered LED lights embedded in her skirt and Gregory was War Machine. That's right, I let my 4 year old dress up as War Machine (for those of you who are not in the know, War Machine is the silver Iron Man type guy from Iron Man 2). I'm not even sure if he's good or bad, although I believe he was played by Mickey Rourke? At any rate, we didn't set out to Target for a War Machine costume. Gregory originally wanted to be a tiger. He wanted to wear his favorite tiger 'costume', an old dress up dress of Rebecca's with black and white leopard spot trim. He's convinced it's a tiger costume and he puts it on and runs around the house attacking people. So you can imagine why I encouraged him to go to Target for a 'real' costume. Well, as soon as he saw the 'silver Iron Man' costume, the tiger idea went out the window. It was love at first sight. At the time I didn't know the difference between the silver and red Iron Man, so I agreed. Before we checked out I had figured out that the costume he had picked was called War Machine, but he was so happy with it I didn't have the heart to make him put it back. I must be getting soft in my old age.

So Gregory's nursery school had a costume parade Friday. They requested no violent superhero costumes so I figured they probably wouldn't appreciate War Machine. Somehow I managed to talk Gregory into wearing last year's Yoda costume. Saturday was pumpkin carving and I was quite proud that Rebecca managed to scoop out and carve her 'challenging' pattern all by herself (and it came out better than the one I did for Gregory!). And of course, trick-or-treating on Sunday night. Greg and I were impressed by the Dad who was trick-or-treating with his kids and simultaneously watching the Patriot's game on his phone. All in all, a successful Halloween. Now I just have to figure out how to stop raiding the kid's candy.

My Morning Jacket and Shellfish

Marshall Point Lighthouse

The family made the trek up to Freeport Maine this past weekend for a wild and fun weekend. Friday night Greg and I, along with Jif, Chris, Kenny, Amy, and friends, all had tickets to see My Morning Jacket open the State Theater in Portland. Mom and Dad generously offered their babysitting services for all 4 grandkids so we could all see the show. Jim James has an awesome voice and stage presence and according to him, MMJ had some revenge to take on the State Theater on account of their bass player who became extremely ill last time they played the venue after eating bad shellfish. Go figure. At any rate, revenge was found in the form of loud music and high energy which made for a great show. Here's their final encore. I'm in the center of the back of the floor in a white tee-shirt. And no, I couldn't find myself.

On Saturday Greg and I took Rebecca, Gregory, and cousin Evan up to Camden with a side trip to the Marshall Point lighthouse in Port Clyde. We experienced some wild, windy weather to the point where the kiddies were somewhat worried about being "blown away" on the walkway to the lighthouse (they later decided the wind was "cool"). We hit up Cappy's Chowder House in Camden for lunch where I ate some extremely good shellfish, before retreating back to Freeport.

Rebecca holds on for dear life

Mom and Dad generously offered to babysit again Saturday night and who are we to squash their dreams of watching all 4 grandchildren at once? So we headed out and hit 2 parties before crashing at Kenny's house at the ungodly hour of 4 AM. I haven't been out that late since college and with good reason - it took me 2 days just to start feeling normal again!

Thanks to Mom and Dad, Jif, Chris, Kenny, and Amy for babysitting, accomodations, and general fun. Love you guys!