Winter Playground

The weather called for freezing rain, but instead the sky cleared up, the sun came out, and the wind was still. So we bundled the boys up and headed to the park for some fresh air. What a great twenty minutes or so of winter fun!

Winter Playground

Merry Christmas!

Casey, Gavin, and Liam happily opened their gifts from St. Nick this morning. Despite many chants of "Open it!!!" from Casey, they mostly unwrapped their gifts by themselves. Here are photos from the morning.

Christmas 2009

Silent Night

Happy Holidays!

From Silence

Nighttime at the Gardens

Casey, Gavin, and Liam love to talk about the time of day. Mama, it's daytime. It's nigthttime! Sun go bye-bye. It's turning daytime, now, Mama. When we're eating dinner, our conversation turns to where we went that day. If we went to a playground, someone will say It's nighttime at the Farmhouse (their favorite playground of the moment.) The other night we decided to show them a familiar daytime place, The Gardens, and see how they would react. Despite the close proximity to bedtime, they boys were wide awake with energy to burn.

December

Speed Turtles

For the past few weeks, the boys have enjoyed swimming lessons every Tuesday at my gym. Today I brought the camera and decided to film their antics.

Happy Thanksgiving!

This Thanksgiving we visited Brian's brother Keith and wife Stephanie and their two daughters Alahna and Sophia. Grandpa David and Grandma Fran also visited, and we all enjoyed a nice dinner. As always, the boys loved playing with their cousins!

Thanksgiving 2009

Hop aboard our train

This Halloween, Chrissy had an interesting idea of making train costumes. Each boy had his own car: Gavin, the blue engine, Liam, a green box car, and Casey, the red caboose. Essentially it's another version of the cardboard box costume. Maybe this getup was a little too much for these conductors. They'd rather play with trains than be one. We managed to catch one picture with all of them in their train outfit. Choo choo choo!

Halloween

Pumpkin Picking

For the third consecutive year, our family successfully picked a pumpkin. The proof is in the pictures.

pumpkin picking

Tractors, trains, slides, and big wheels...

Casey, Gavin, and Liam exercised their energy this season climbing into, onto, and out of all sorts of things. Sliding, swinging, and pretending to drive have also kept them busy this fall. Here's a collection of pictures from our adventures.

Fall Activities

The balancing green

This fall, we joined Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens. It's a great place for the boys to run around in inclement weather yet still maintain a feeling of being outside in a lush garden wonderland. Chrissy and Brian also really enjoy it too. We seem to be collecting memberships like the zoo, children's museum, aviary, but this one seems to be the most "adult" of all the places. We're lucky the boys like it so much!

Botanical Gardens

Fall Farm Fun

This October, Casey, Gavin, and Liam were excited to visit two farms. We actually have a CSA membership to the first farm we went to, so it was great to see where all those mysterious vegetables and berries came from! Everyone also appreciated the chance to see baby chicks, a couple of cows, pigs, and goats. At the second farm, the goats were very friendly to all of us, especially our clothes! Nibble, nibble!

Fall Farm Fun

Apple Picking and more

The boys enjoyed their first opportunity to go apple picking with their cousins Meghan, Erin, and Laura. There was also more fun at home with Grandma Marcia and Grandpa Terry joining us for dinner, as well as Erin showing off some dance moves.

Home & Apple Picking

More Children's Museum Fun

Today we took a trip to the Boston Children's Museum with cousin Laura, Aunt Liz, and Uncle Mike. From golf ball down ramps and shoots, construction zone, water play, everyone had a great time. Here are some pictures from the outing.

Boston Children's Museum

More

Cousins

This weekend we drove to Boston for Brian's work convention. The boys enjoyed the opportunity to play with their cousins Meghan, Erin, and Laura after school.

Boston trip--backyard play

Exploration Time at the Children's Museum

We have a membership to the Children's Museum which we love. It is a great place for activity, many places to explore, objects to see and touch, and sounds to hear. In these pictures Casey, Gavin, and Liam didn't stop to pose because their play was too fun.

September

For your amusement

Today we visited an amusement park, a first for Casey, Gavin, and Liam. Each child has his own personality when it comes to thrill seeking. Casey prefers peace and didn't like the whirl-around. Liam didn't care for the airplane or the boat (no pictures as we all went on that together. Gavin was game for anything. He was quite happy to try all rides that he could get on.
However, the big winner for all three boys was the motorcycles. Much fun!

Amusement Park

Block Party

This weekend Brian's brother Keith, wife Stephanie, and daughters Alahna and Sophie visited us. It happened to be the same weekend as our block party. Casey, Gavin and Liam enjoyed partying with their cousins!

Block Party

This home is under construction

This week we've had a contractor crew working on our backporch to relieve multiple old house problems. Liam, Gavin, and Casey were fascinated by the sound of the jack hammers, and later on the cement mixer provided much excitement as well.

Wiggles

Today we all went to see a concert/show for children called "The Wiggles Go Bananas." They are a band geared toward toddlers and preschool age kids, so it was just our scene.
Liam tests out the pushy seat while Casey and Gavin feel more comfortable with Daddy.
Oh, so happy to be able to see a show!
Well, at least Liam is!

Pool Plunging

This weekend we headed to the pool at Chrissy's gym for some swimming fun. We met up with our friends Eric and Devin and their daughter Grace. Casey, Gavin, and Liam enjoying playing Spiderman along the walls of the pool while Grace loved to climb up the ladder and down the slide. The boys, having tried it once, had enough for now. Here are the pictures from our adventures.

Pool Pictures

Late June

Our friend Eric lent us his really fancy camera this past week, so Chrissy took all sorts of pictures trying it out. We also met up with some friends of ours Becky and Dave, who happen to have two sets of twins!

Late June

Play during the vacay

This past week our family took a vacation to the beach with our good friends Steph, Al, and their son Sam. We also visited with Al's family as they joined us for the joint trip.

Picasa June

Chrissy loves to take nature pictures, and the following pictures she managed to catch during a spare moment here or there.

Scenery

For it's Three strikes and you're out at the old ball game

Today we ventured out to our first MLB game. Casey, Gavin, and Liam loved riding up and down the escalator at the ballfield, as well as running up and down the stairs in our section. They managed a few bites of their lunch (mac and cheese). Yet when it came to watching the game, well, let's just say they're not full fans yet.

Take me out to the Ballgame

Children's Festivities

Today Casey, Gavin, and Liam met up with some friends for a playdate at a Children's Festival. They started the morning by watching a production of The Runaway Bunny and Goodnight Moon. Then we all walked together to the carousel and took a ride. Later we enjoyed the goats and sheep at the petting zoo.

Carnie Folk Dancing

Fun with Daddy

Today Chrissy played around with her camera, testing out an old external flash. Everyone became an eager subject.

Picasa May Album

Cinco de mayo con los tres amigos

We all love balloons. In this video, Gavin, Liam, and Casey show how they ride the balloons. This is our take on the rodeo theme.

Three naps at once and other time saving techniques

As you may have guessed, it takes some time to raise three children. There are meals to prepare, food to buy, places like the park and the zoo to go, as well as some fun playdates. So Chrissy hasn't really figured out how to do all of this plus update the blog in a timely manner. But I think I figured out a trick. I think from here on out I'm just going to add links to our Picasa album. Really, it's just the pictures I want to share, and I've got tons of pictures on my camera and hundreds more on the computer, just waiting to share just like the piles of laundry taking over the closet in Casey, Gavin, and Liam's room.
Click on this link, and you'll find a recent album of our adventures climbing playground equipment. As you can see, we like to climb up, down, and all around!

Park Phun

Green slide Day

This weekend Brian got out of Dodge for a golf trip, so Chrissy packed many picnics to take advantage of the sunny spring weather. Here Casey happily gets ready to slide.
Liam joins the fun.
The bottom always flattens out. Casey gets his scootch on.
Casey coming at ya.
Liam gives the twirly slide a whirl.
Casey prepares to launch.
Gavin, meanwhile, protects the tupperware.
He even takes it down the slide with him.
This is a typical Liam pose.
Walking in the tall grass.

A couple of cousins

This weekend Chrissy's sister Liz visited with two of her daughters, Meghan and Erin. Here the girls surprise Gavin, Liam, and Casey with Percy, James, and some additional Thomas trains.
Casey is eager to find the toys in this bag!Meghan, below right, helps show Casey additional trains as Gavin, Brian, and Liam look on.
Casey tries out the recycling train.
Erin inspects the recycling train for Casey, making sure it runs properly.
Time to build the track! Gavin, Casey, Liam, and Brian learn the basics of train track design from two experts: Erin and Meghan.
I think this was the crazy eight configuration.
Later on we visited the zoo. Here, Meghan and Erin are standing in front of the leopard exhibit. If you look closely, you can see the spots of the leopard behind the glare in the glass window.
Liam's favorite animal to see is the tiger.
The lions had a funky roar. Casey tried to imitate them, and I must say, he does a pretty convincing growl!
Time for a portrait! Meghan, Liz and Erin smile for a picture in front of the zebras and ostriches, which seem to have disappeared.
This peacock became excited during our visit. With some loud cackling or cawing it spread its iridescent plumage.
Here we stopped to smell the flowers on a blossoming tree. Okay, maybe just Erin. Meghan is too busy fixing Gavin's hair, while Casey and Liam discover the joys of marching along.
Gavin loves the bears! He was so excited for his cousin Meghan to help him get a closer look. Erin, meanwhile, is ready to see the other bears.
Caught in the web! The opportunity to climb was too much to resist. Here Meghan is almost at the top while Erin stays with Liam and Gavin.


Meghan and Liam enjoy a walk on the shaky bridge!
Erin has fun in and out of the tunnel slide.
Gavin wanted to be next to Chrissy at all times this weekend, so getting a picture of just the cousins together became a very difficult task. So Chrissy joins the crew of cousins for this shot. From left: Meghan, Casey, Chrissy with Gavin, Erin, and Liam