Summer is coming

Spent a great weekend in CT with Mormor and went to a wonderful wedding of my best friend.  Koen & Tessa are growing at such an amazing rate, I really can't keep up!  I thought Tessa would be a 2T forever, and now her legs and arms are so long she looks like a first grader.  She will start kindergarten this fall at Thoreau Elementary school where Koen is now.  The two of them will hop on the bus together and head off to school.  WOW!  

Here are a few photos from Otter Cove and from the wedding.  

Taking a walk around the river and goofing around!

 Friends!

All dressed for the wedding!!

Blizzard of 2013 - After...

Thanking God we did not lose power.  Both my Mother and sister are without power.  My Mother for the third time in what feels like about 1 year.  She lost it for 7 days during Sandy and 10 days during the other storm earlier in the summer.  Poor thing.  She is safe with the neighbor tonight, though.  Thanks, Bruce!  Not sure where my sister ended up, but crossing fingers she and her family are staying warm tonight!

Not surprisingly, the kids had a ball in the snow!  Lisa plowed us out and a few of the neighbors.  There are lots of angels on the street helping out the elderly and those without a snow blower so everyone gets out safe.  I am thankful for that too.

So, we ended up with 29 inches of snow, essentially 2 and a half feet!  The drifts are up to 5 feet and the piles of snow are up there too!  Here are a few pics from the day.  Tomorrow is supposed to be super bright and sunny so I will get out there and see if I can get some even better photos.

Almost lost the mailbox!

 Koen taking a 30 second break from playing.

 Snow on the roof is not too bad!  YAY!

 Mud Room Door

 Front Door

 Lisa hard at work!

 Tessa helping dig out.

Blizzard of 2013 - First Look

Well Hello!  Here we are waiting for the EPIC Blizzard to cover us in SNOW!  Since it has been snowing since 10:30am we decided to go out and check out the progress.  The kids were squealing with excitement!  (me too, for that matter)  Here are a few of the photos so far.  We wanted a before and AFTER view on the onslaught of snow.  As of 6:45pm Concord, MA had about 4 inches.  We are hoping for 30 inches by tomorrow noon!

For all those in the Northeast, stay warm and safe!  For the rest, enjoy the snow photos!  We will post more in the morning!   

Getting Ready for the Snowball battle!  Nothing better than a snowball maker.

SNOW FALLING!

If we only had a freezer for these!!

A new year

Well,  I thought 2012 would be a better year for posting but alas, having 2 kids, 2 cats, a wife and full-time job proved to be too much.  I see many folks are able to accomplish "a post a day" with 1 photo and limited commentary...  Not sure I will be able to keep up with that, but my goal is to try a once a month post.  Wish me luck!

So, as a follow up to the camping trip. last year, yes, we had a blast and kids always have fun outside! We decided to hold off on buying a camper due to, first off money, plus storage, plus with busy schedules, how many weekends would we REALLY be able to go.  I am guessing it will get worse/busier as the kids get older and have soccer, gymnastics, skiing (hopefully), dancing, track (our little runner Ko), etc, etc.  We will certainly do it again next year, though.

After our 4th of July camping trip we had a GREAT week in Provincetown with the Family Equality folks for their annual Family Week festivities.  Here is a photo of the fam that was taken by a photog at the event - Song of Myself Photography on Commercial Street.

The kids spent lots of time in Falmouth over their summer break boating & beaching with Nana & Papa.

September found Koen in Kindergarden and Tessa in her last year of preschool.  Fortunately they both enjoy school for now and we are thankful to the wonderful teachers that keep them interested!  Koen is writing up a storm and Tessa loves reading and learning.  Yes - she is still a history buff.  The other day she wanted to discuss, the French Indian War.  Not sure I know a lot of 5 year olds that have such a fascination with history.  We surmise that she will either be a history teacher or a tour guide  on the Freedom Trail or on the Lexington Concord trails, although she claims she wants to be paleontologist.  The jury is still out for Koen...  Artist, architect, runner extrordinaire, or a pilot (my wish).  It certainly will be fun to watch them continue to grow and learn about what interests them.

In October the kids had a blast preparing for Halloween.  Tessa was a Dalmation and Koen was, of course, Rudolph.  His love of Rudolph is so sweet.

The kids had fun playing on the local Concord soccer teams this fall, and we loved the physical outlet it provided.  Perfect play date!  Being outside with friends running around.  What could be better?!  Spring soccer is just around the corner.  I know Koen will be excited to start again, but Tessa will probably stick with gymnastics.  Time will tell.

In November little Miss Tessa turned 5!  I can't believe Koen will be 6 in less than 4 months!

Christmas was wonderful this year.  Although it was the 10th anniversary of my Dad's passing, we were able to spend a good amount of time with my Mom (Mormor) down in Old Saybrook which is always relaxing.  The kids had fun experimenting with decorating Christmas cookies.  Yum!!  Here is a Christmas photo of the kids.

We, like most of Massachusetts, have been battling colds, cough, pneumonia (Koen, but he has recovered) for what feels like 3 months, but I suppose it has only been 2 months.  I really hope we will all be feeling well in 2013!!

One of the wonderful joys for me is the kids love of music!  We love to listen to the radio as a family and name the songs as they come on.  Tessa has become quite the artist identifier!  She can name the latest artists, Katy Perry, Pink, Nicki Minaj, Philip Phillips and the oldie but goodies, Billy Joel, Elton John, Michael Jackson.  BUT yesterday, Lisa said said Tessie was listening to a song with her best friend Lilly in the car and said...  Isn't this Michael McJagger?  LOL  Now that is a new one to me!  What a cutie.

We will keep you posted on the adventures of Koen and Tessa and please do keep us posted on all your 2013 happenings!!

An experiment

I am bursting with excitement tonight because we are turning a planned tent camping weekend into an ADVENTURE!!!  As many of you know, I grew up camping in a pop-up all over the country and overseas.  Well...  We decided to try one out this weekend with the kids instead of using the tent like we usually do when we camp.  The kids are soooo excited and honestly it feels so luxurious compared to a small tent for 4 which comfortably sleeps 2, really.   Cross your finger all goes well!  We can't wait!  Here are a few photos from this afternoon...

A wedding and a photo

Went to a wonderful wedding this morning!  Alex & Roger tied the knot!  I have to say I think it was the most fun wedding ever!  At the Coolidge Corner Theatre with a personalized video (hilarious, I might add), a stage, cupcakes and a wonderful reading.  We are so happy for Alex & Roger and they are just toooo cute!  With everyone dressed up, we decided to take a photo which I can't stop myself from posting.  These three are up there with Alex & Roger in the cuteness factor.  :-)

3 years? Really?

Yes, Really!  It has been three years since I've posted to this blog!  I looked at the dates I last posted and realized that right after my last post we started to seriously contemplate moving from Dedham and then all hell broke loose with getting Dedham ready for sale and finding a new house.  THAT is why I stopped blogging, or at least i think that is why...  As I am sure you know now, we moved to Concord, MA.  Against my will of course, I wanted to move to Arlington, MA but that didn't happen.  Ended up really loving Concord, just not the commute to Boston.  Well, the kids are giant now, 5 and 4.  Here is a photo from our most recent trip to Washington DC back in April.  We had a great time and the kids were such troopers with 8 hours of driving each way!!