Project 365 - Day 213

I have been watching the Olympics on and off since it started on Friday night, I have never had what you would call Olympic fever, but I thought it would be fun to watch with the boys. They have really taken to Water Polo! It's like soccer only in the water, we told them, so they like to watch. Here is Shaun and Evan watching the Men's Water Polo beat Romania this afternoon, cheering USA...USA...USA at the TV!

Project 365 - Day 212

David had his first day of Rec camp today. He will go all week from 8:30 to 4:30 and the theme for the week is the Olympics. He gets to swim, and play games and they will even hold a mock Olympics on the last day! It will be a nice trial run for what going to school all day will be like. He was pretty wiped when I picked him up but he LOVED it!

Project 365 - Day 211

I woke up this morning to the sound of our generator running. I Guess we had lost power at some point early this morning. The generator runs power to our TV, but the internet was down so they couldn't stream their shows in Netflix. Instead, the boys decided to chill on the couch and play video games while we waited for our power to return. It was only out for a little over an hour I think, and on a side note, it was the first time we've lost power since we had our generator was installed last Fall, nice to know that it works!

Project 365 - Day 210

Quality time with Daddy!

Project 365 - Day 209

Another lousy day, so we decided to pop in a movie and have a picnic in the living room! Today the boys got to experience the awesomeness that is the Karate Kid!

You're the best...around!
Nothing's gonna ever keep you down!

Family Fun Day at Canobie Lake Park!

This past Tuesday, we packed up the car and headed south on I-93 to Canobie Lake Park for a day of fun!  The Doc took the day off from work so that we could plan a day trip.  The original plan was to take the boys to Yorks Wild Kingdom (since I have a coupon book that offers discounts) but the weather was uncertain and we didn't want to drive all the way to Maine only to have the skies open up on us.  So we made the decision to stay local!

The Doc and I haven't been since our high school days so it was kind of fun to see all the changes at the park.  Rides that were not there the last time I was there are too many to list!  But I will say I was not sad to see that they replaced the Galaxy with the Xtreme Frisbee (not that I would ever go on that one either!).  I only went on the Galaxy one time and that was enough for me.  I didn't even like walking near that ride.  I swear you could see it swaying in the wind and I was sure if someone violently coughed it would all come crashing down.

The new water area was lots of fun.  David and I had a blast going down all the slides and if we let him, he probably would have stayed there for the rest of the day.  Shaun and Evan still had fun but they didn't want to get soaked so they stayed down at the bottom.  We did all the rides that the boys wanted to do except for the sky ride, since it was the end of the day and Evan had already fallen asleep in the stroller.  We gave David the choice of the Antique Cars or the Sky Ride and he chose the cars.  He was so excited he was able to drive it by himself, though he did have a little bit of trouble holding down on the pedal.

We did end up getting rained on.  We had just finished up at Castaway Island (the water area) and headed back to the car to eat the sandwiches I packed.  And as we were heading back into the park we could see the clouds getting dark!  And sure enough after one ride (which finished just in time!) the skies opened up and we ran for cover to the nearby game room where we waited it out.  There were a few bolts of lightning and a couple cracks of thunder and lots and lots of rain, it poured!  But it didn't last long and we were able to enjoy the rest of our day even with a little bit of sun!

The boys had so much fun and still look at the map and talk about the rides they went on, which one was their favorite (Shaun the Mini Dinos and David the Boston Tea Party) and how they can't wait to go back.

Our first ride, on the Ferris Wheel

David took this picture of Mom and Dad on the Ferris Wheel!

David, Shaun and Daddy get ready for the big splash on the Log Flume!

Waving at me and Evan!  We found out after that he would have been tall enough to ride too.  Next year!

David and I after our fun on Castaway Island!

On our way back into the park after a quick lunch, the clouds got dark quickly!

It didn't take long after we made our way back into the park before the skies opened up and unleashed their fury!

After the storm, waiting for the kiddie rides to re-open!

Shaun and Evan wanted to ride on the fire trucks!

On the helicopters!

Jump Around, Evan was so excited to get to ride with David since he just made the height requirement of 36"!

David and Daddy ride the Boston Tea Party together!

That is the splash on this ride!  You get SOAKED!

Just a little wet!

Another ride Evan was excited to try with his big brothers - the Jungle Bounce!

But after a few more rides, Evan was spent!

So Shaun and David have a little fun on the bumper cars before we call it a day!

Canobies newest thrill rid - Untamed.  I wouldn't go on even if someone offered me a million dollars in cash on the spot!

We are looking forward to our next couple of trips before school starts.  The older two also have a trip to Cape Cod planned and of course the Doc and I head into Boston next weekend to celebrate our 10th anniversary!  Looking forward to the busy August before school gets underway, hard to believe it's a month away!

Project 365 - Day 208

With the uncertainty of today's weather a park meet up with David's old preschool friend turned into an impromptu trip to the 7th Circle of Hell...er...um...I mean Chuck E. Cheese!  It actually wasn't that bad  and the kids had so much fun you would have thought we took them to Disney World and that is what is important...I guess! Ha!

Project 365 - Day 207

Guess it's that time of year already! We still have a month before school starts here in NH with a few fun trips and activities planned, but that didn't stop me from starting some back to school shopping this morning. There is something about buying a fresh box of Crayola crayons...

Project 365 - Day 206

Family Fun Day, at Canobie Lake Park, hit a hiccup mid-afternoon when a storm came through. We took cover at one of the game canopies but Shaun wanted to hold his umbrella. Here he is waiting out the storm! Luck was on our side as the storm was quick, with only a few bolts of lightning and cracks of thunder.

Project 365 - Day 205

Safety first!

Project 365 - Day 204

No doubt about it, this kid LOVES to jump into the pool!

Star Wars Birthday Bash!

Summer birthdays are never easy to plan, especially when you have 2 and one is right when school is ending. With Evan's birthday close by in May, it is so much easier to plan one Summer Birthday Bash. So we have made this our annual tradition! This is our fourth combined party and the second one at our new house! This years theme was Star Wars (the previous years were The Beach, Pirate, Mario Bros.) and it was even though it was SO hot (reminded me of David's 1st Birthday) and I waited too long to reserve the water slide bounce house the kids had a blast and that is what counts!

I never go crazy on my decorations but I found these wall decals on Amazon and couldn't resist.  Charlie and I laughed because when you open up our new slider it makes it look like Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker are ready to battle!  Ha!  I also got a few Star Wars table cloths for my food table and a Star Wars birthday banner.

Now onto the menu! I like to feed people and have a tendency to go overboard, but was proud of myself this year and we had just enough food with only a few leftovers!  I love to have leftovers, just not loads and loads of them! With the help of family and friends we had the perfect menu.

Brian's famous Pepperoni & Sausage bread!!

On the menu this year (and thanks to Pinterest for some help with the names!) was Han-burgers and Jabba the Hutdogs (with loads of toppings from caramelized onions,sauteed mushrooms, bacon and chili), Palpatine Pulled Pork, Bink's Baked Beans, X-wings (chicken wings!), Chewbacca Kielbasa, Boba Fruit Salad, Macaroni Falcon Salad, General Greekous Salad and Darth Vader Tater Salad! For beverages we had Wookie Waters, Jawa Juice Boxes, Yoda Soda (lemon, lime & orange sherbet and sprite!) and for the grown-ups we had Adleraan Ales (various beers including some Yuengling we picked up on our way home from our DC trip) and Padme Punch (which was a the Pineapple Lemonade Sangria I had made on the 4th!).

The spread all set up in our dinning room thanks to my friend Robyn!

And of course no birthday party is complete without some kind of game, activity and I had all intentions of putting together a "Jedi Training Course" but it was just so hot that I totally lacked motivation to set it up.  I did have a Darth Vader pinata filled with loads of goodies from bouncy balls to stickers and even a little bit of candy.  And we made Pool Noodle Light Sabers for the party favors.  With the bounce house we rented and the kiddie pool and slip n slide, the kids didn't need any planned activities!  It was actually nice!

Darth Vader pinata!

Homemade Pool Noodle Light Sabers for party favors!

Oh and you can't have a birthday party without CAKE!  Last year I had made a homemade ice cream cake and it was such a big hit, I did it again.  It had 3 layers of ice cream, hot fudge, caramel, crushed oreos and a cookie brownie crust that while tasted delicious was too hard to cut through so Charlie has requested that I come up with a better idea for a crust next year!  I found a Star Wars font online (again thank you Pinterest!) and bough sugar paper and traced the printed out logo I made on the placed it on top of the cake.  Then I sprayed the outside layer of coolwhip with silver spray and added some Star Wars I had picked up at Target. It doesn't look pretty but it really does taste yummy!

Shaun checking out the candles!

Star Wars Ice Cream Cake

Ready to sing Happy Birthday to David, Shaun & Evan

It was a great day, heat and all and the boys were so excited to celebrate with all our friends and family!  I am already looking forward to next year!

Where Evan spent the majority of the day!

Even Mom and Dad got decked out in Star Wars attire!

The bounce house is not just for the kids!

Fireworks that we bought for anyone who decided to stay late!

Watching a preview of the Fireworks show!

Cousins

When the sun was behind the trees, the boys get ready to light some fireworks.

After the fireworks show and everyone had gone home, with the exception of the Mailloux's who were staying with us for the weekend, I gave the kids some glow sticks I forgot I had and we decided to have a little fun in the playroom.  I told them I would turn them into ghosts. They thought it was pretty cool that they couldn't see themselves in the picture, only the light!

Ghosts in the playroom!

Project 365 - Day 203

Harry Potter, Darth Vader and Zane (the white Nijago) all playing together in peace and harmony! If only the real world were so simple.

Project 365 - Day 202

Shaun is super proud of himself - over the last month he's really improved in swimming class. He is going longer and longer distances on his own and mastered the coordination of kicking and scooping!

Project 365 - Day 201

David and Shaun were running around with squirt guns chasing each other and Evan was feeling a little left out. After helping me water the flowers he decided to get even! Don't let his size fool you, just because he is the youngest doesn't mean he can't take on big brothers and WIN!

Project 365 - Day 200

Where is Evan? While big brothers were at music class this afternoon, Evan and I headed to the park that is behind the building. Here is Evan "hiding" from me while I tried to take his picture.

Project 365 - Day 199

David goes airborne!

Project 365 - Day 198

Hot town, summer in the city
Back of my neck getting burnt and gritty...