PICS!

Here are some pictures over the last few weeks... the zoo, Quinn's 2nd birthday (we celebrated a few days early with my family). Enjoy!

My future Cleveland Indian!

Conor has been obsessed with baseball since birth (or shortly thereafter, it's all a blur). In honor of the hours and hours that many of us have spent throwing him pitch after pitch, playing catch, watching baseball with him on tv, cheering for him at games, patiently sitting through two hour practices, I'd like to say thanks and let you know that it has paid off! Conor not only earned the game ball at his game Saturday (he got the last two outs) against an undefeated team (who is now tied with his team at one loss), he was also nominated by his coach for the all-star travel league baseball team at the park where he plays. Even though we are passing this year (the time commitment is way too intense for our summer plans and his 7-year old self), we are sooooo proud of him.

Spring Break

This past week was spring break. Since we are going to Hilton Head for a week at the end of May, we opted to stay home and just enjoy the week off. Of course, I jammed in more activities than most people would during any period of time where the word "BREAK" is involved, but hey we like to stay busy.

So here are the hightlights...

Conor had golf camp all week at Eagle Watch (our golf club/neighborhood where we live). He loves to golf and is actually pretty darn good for being all of 7 1/2 years old. The golf pro did have to buy the entire group (maybe 12 kids or so) Wendy's after losing a putting bet, which Conor was quite excited about. And he also had to do push-ups once for swinging his club around. That's my Conor.

Riley did an art camp for two days. She came home the second day COVERED in chalk. She even had it under her nose (seriously, she looked like a very pretty little Hitler). And later that night, she had a Daisy scout Pottery Painting activity, and when I suggested she needed to shower/change her clothes, she was astonished. Seriously, you should have seen her. She looked like Little Orphan Riley.

Quinn - well, he enjoyed having the big kids around. No activities for him, but I did attempt to take them all to the movies to see Horton Hears a Who on Wednesday afternoon. No dice. He made it about 30 mins in and got tired of the candy and the movie and we spent the rest of the time in the lobby. Luckily we met one of Riley's friends and her mom there, so the big kids got to stay and watch with them.

Then Friday, Josh took the day off and we took a mini-vacation in Atlanta. We headed to the zoo, then downtown, checked into the Hilton and got the stroller out, walked down to Centennial Olympic Park, toured the World of Coca-Cola (HUGE hit with my kids who thought they had died and gone to heaven in the coke-tasting room), and then to Hard Rock Cafe for dinner. Then back to the room (which, my schmoozing husband managed to wheel and deal us into an executive floor suite) so we had the bedroom and then a GINORMOUS room with a full kitchen, bar, big screen plaza, couches, another bed, etc, where we ordered room service for dessert and watched movies. Such a fun trip. And it helped that it was 82 degrees and beautifully sunny.

I do have some zoo pics to post. Gotta learn how to do this myself one of these days.

Unfortunately, Riley woke up this morning and ran into our room saying "mom, is my eye pink?". Well, I couldn't tell because if it was pink, it would have been under the yellow, crusty goo all covering it. Yuck. So now we have pink eye. I say we because even though only Riley has it so far, we're bound to all have it by mid-week. So we ended the trip with a quick trip to the pediatrician (thank God for Saturday hours!) and some eye drops.

Move over, Zac Effron

There's a new star in town... and it's my very own Conor. As many of you know, Conor is not known for his dancing ability. He is king of the "white boy" dances - the robot, the lawnmower, the sprinkler... it's quite sad, actually.

So imagine my surprise when he did AWESOME in his class musical. He sang all the words correctly and even got the motions and the dancing spot-on. I was so impressed.

One-liners...

Sometimes I feel like I'm living with Larry, Curley, and Moe.

Some funny moments from this week...

Conor (whose friend Ian, recently moved from Atlanta to Kentucky): I miss Ian (long pause with sad face and then perking up), but at least I'm the second-fastest in my class now.

Riley (waking Josh up in the middle of the night - at least she didn't wake me!): Daddy. Daddy. My curtain's messed up and I just can't sleep til it's fixed. (the curtain in question is actually a canopy that was bunched up at the foot of her bed - can you say princess and the pea???)

Quinn (talking to himself): night night.... noooooo.... (re-enacting our typical conversation before every nap and then looking up at me with a big dimpled grin).

I hope they are this funny when they're teenagers, but I won't hold my breath.

An unconventional Easter...

The past week has been somewhat of a whirlwind. On Thursday, Conor and Riley both participated in their school's Boosterthon Fun Run. Quinn and I were at the school all morning to cheer them on. Conor ran 36 laps (almost 3 miles) and Riley ran 32 laps! I was so proud. Conor must have gotten the "running bug" from me. He then asked to run with me Saturday morning, so we got up, got dressed, and went for a jog together, which was so fun. He did awesome and we ran about 3 miles together! This, before his baseball game just a couple hours later!

Josh's mom and stepdad drove over from Raleigh Thursday evening. They were able to catch one each of Conor's baseball games and Riley's soccer games. The kids both did awesome! Josh lost $5 on a bet to Conor that required him to get on base every at-bat, which he did. They ended up calling his game in the 5th because they were so far ahead of the other team... and Riley had an excellent game on Saturday too. She scored for her team and was the most aggressive I have ever seen her play, stealing the ball, assisting whenever she could. We called her Mia Hamm for the rest of the day!

Quinn is - well he's Quinn, inching his way towards being 2. Josh calls him our "cherry on top" and he is... he's always smiling, has huge dimples and an infectious, loving personality. He's rambunctious and active and completely carefree.

Our Easter this year was a little unconventional. Josh's parents headed back home early on Sunday morning. We had our normal egg hunt and Easter baskets, but Quinn had a fever, so we spent the rest of the day lounging on the couch, watching movies and ordered pizza for dinner. It was so nice and relaxing!

I have a few pictures from Easter morning, I'll post them when I get a chance.

Conor, Conor, Conor...

So recently Conor's 1st grade class went on a field trip to see "Seussical the Musical" and Josh volunteered to be a chaperone for the trip, which was a big hit with the kids because they were excited that a DAD was coming... and nice for the teachers, who are all women, and were happy to have someone to carry the coolers with lunches, say "SIT DOWN" on the bus in that scary, deep man-voice, etc. A few days after the field trip, I sat next to Conor's teacher at the pta meeting. She raved about how helpful Josh was on the field trip and said "Now I owe you for letting him come on the field trip in addition to the bottle of Tide."

Bottle of Tide?

Well, anyone who has ever seen Conor play a sport of any kind knows that he plays with a passion... oftentimes this means diving, sliding, etc. He comes home EVERY DAY from school covered in grass stains, dirt, etc. from the pick-up football games he plays with his buddies at recess. Mrs. Kosten (Conor's teacher) and the other first grade teachers have taken to placing bets as to how long it will take for Conor to be on the ground.

That's my boy.