Birthday Weekend

Saturday was my birthday and we started our weekend early where John and I spent the day together.  We went to Yankee Candle and then went to lunch at Red Robin.  We had a lot of fun just the two of us its been a while since we spent some time without the kids.

 Saturday as always was full of soccer Aaron's game was first and he has the most fun just playing and cheering for his team, he ended up losing the game but that didn't seem to bother him at all.  Katie's game was next and Grandma and Grandpa Shattuck were able to come and watch. Katie's team ended up winning 3-2 it was a very close and well played game by both teams the whole time it was a good game to watch.  Zach's game was our last and his games are always very exciting to watch.  Zach played his best game yet and almost got a goal but it ended up hitting the corner of the goal post. His team won 1-0.  It was a very long day of soccer so we were excited to come home and rest. I forgot my camera at home so I wasn't able to get any good pictures of the kids this week so I will try and be better for next week.

 Sunday the family came over for dinner and we had a good time.  John's mom's birthday is 2 days before mine so we always have a combined dinner and its always fun to have a reason to get together.

We each opened our few  gifts and the kids love to help pass them out and to open them.

We all went outside to play for a little while and everyone took turns riding bikes even Seany got in on the bike riding.  It was a great day and we all has a good time together. Our weekends are very busy but we love to spend time with the family.

Soccer Saturday

 

This weekend was our first day of all 3 kids having soccer games at different times in different cities, needless to say it was very busy.

We got the news about Aaron's team Friday afternoon and were told  he had a game the next day so it but us in a tight spot and had to make some changes to our plans but everything worked out. Aaron is playing with first and second grade kids which is perfect since this is his first time playing on a team.

Katie is doing really well this year.  Katie is playing U10 Travel which are girls 10 and under.  John is coaching her team and this is his first time coaching girls and it has been a little challenging for him, but he is doing a great job.

Zach moved up this year to U12 which puts him with the best kids his age and they play 8 on 8 which is different from U10.  He has improved from last year and is playing very well so far.

John, Katie, and Zach were not able to be at Aaron's first game because of Katie's game so I was the lone cheerleader for Aaron, and hes a good sport and didn't mind at all and still had a good time.

Aaron did so well in his game.  He played every position and did well at all of them. His team did a good job of following the ball around the field and his team ended up winning 4-0. Aaron didn't get a goal in the game but he tried hard and that's what counts. Its funny to watch 6 year olds play after being at so many of Zach's games in the past few years, but it will be fun to watch Aaron grow as he learns the game.

Katie's game was about an hours drive east and because I was with Aaron and John was coaching we don't have any pictures but she played a very good game and they ended up winning 6-0.  Zach's game was not to far away from where Katie was playing but her game wasn't going to be over in time to get Zach to the field for warm ups so we sent him with one of his friends who is on the team and we all met up at the field as the game was starting.

Zach played well and his team is starting to get there trust in him as he improves each week.  Its such a different and more challenging game than we were use to watching and all of the other parents have been watching for a couple years so we are learning from them as well. It will be a very busy but exciting soccer season for us. Zach's team ended up winning 6-1 and they all played very well together. We are looking forward to watching  all of our kids grow and improve this year and what a great start to our season.

Back to School

The kids went back to school 2 weeks ago and so far things are going well.

 This year is big for Zach because he is now in 5th grade and in Middle School. Things are very different for him but he is doing well so far. Zach was very excited for his first day and since his school starts an hour earlier than the other kids he was up early and out the door before they even got up.

 This year he has to ride the bus to and from school.  We are lucky that the bus will pick him up at the top of our driveway so he doesn't have to walk far on cold days to wait for the bus. He has 7 different classes which is a lot for a 10 year old but he is doing well so far and really enjoying.

 Aaron is now in 1st grade this year and things are a little different for him this year and he has a lot more work than last year so he is still getting use to it.

 Katie is in 3rd grade this year and loving it!  Katie loves school and she has many friends so she was excited to go back so she could see them again.

 Katie is now Aaron's helper since Zach is not at their school anymore.  She does a good job at making sure he is safe and that he gets to where he needs to be.  They enjoy being together and that helps them get even closer.

Aaron and Katie are also riding the bus this year and they really enjoy it.  They too are picked up at the top of the driveway so I can stand in the doorway and wave goodbye each day.  So far this year all 3 are doing well and liking school.  It will be a very busy year for them and lots more homework than they are all use to. We are looking forward to a fun year with lots of fun things to come.

Last Week of Summer

 The last week of of summer John took another vacation week off from work.  We stayed home and had some fun in the state. 

 We decided to head to the driving range one day and the kids had a blast. Aaron loves to just swing his club not caring how far he hits the balls.

 Zach and Katie did really well and they are both getting better.  Zach, John, Papa, and Sean all went out golfing at the end of the week so Zach was ready after hitting some balls.

Our next day out we went to Six Flags and we had a blast! This year Zach was big enough to go on any ride that he wanted and he was very excited for that.  John is not big on roller coasters so Zach and I went on most of the big ones together.  I was very proud of him, he tried many rides and only one really scared him enough not to want to go on it until next year.

The bumper cars was a huge hit with Zach and Katie.  They went on it twice and had a blast smashing into each other. 

We had a fun and busy week going to the beach one day and swimming at Aunt Joyces pool.  We ended our week with the boys going golfing and then we all had dinner with Johns parents.  We had a great last week of summer and now its back to work and back to school.

Red Sox Game

John was lucky enough to get tickets to a Red Sox game again this year so we decided to make a day of it.  We only had 4 tickets and since Aaron has never been Katie stayed home and had a girl night with Nana.

 We had a free parking pass so we drove into Boston and our first stop was at the Boston Public Garden.  We walked around for a while and saw the cool duck paddle boats that you can ride on around the pond. There were so many ducks swimming around we had a good time just watching them. 

 

They have these statues of a Duck with her ducklings and Aaron couldn't wait to sit on them. The boys had fun running around and playing catch with Aaron's monkey, then it was time to move on.

 We decided to stop at Bunker Hill and walked around.  We went and found some info about the battle that took place there.  The boys wanted to walk up to the top and a silly mom that I am said yes lets give it a try.

 We started up the very small stair case and we were all doing pretty good for about the first 100 then it was all down hill for us adults that is.  Both Aaron and Zach were way ahead running back and forth making sure we were still making our way up.  It was a very crazy and dumb thing to do but the view was cool when we did get to the top.  Then we had to walk back down, luckily it was much easier but now we needed to head to the Sox game and that meant more walking.

Once you get into the Fenway park area they have lots of fun things going on in the streets. The boys were able to pitch a baseball and they did a great job. Aaron threw about 16 miles and hour and Zach got about 33.  They had a good time and it was a good start to head into the game.

 We took advantage of getting our picture taken with a guy walking around on stilts. The boys got to throw the ball back and forth to him and they thought that was pretty cool.

 We headed inside to find our seats and they were not anywhere near anywhere we had ever sat before so we weren't really sure how to get to them but after walking up and up (which was not good on old moms out of shape legs) once we got to the top were were shown to our seats.  We had amazing seats right behind home base almost to the roof of the park. 

 We were a little early so we had time to walk around and found this cool Mickey Mouse Red Sox statue and Aaron thought that was the coolest thing he had ever seen.

We also found this cool painted Coca Cola sign.  It was a good game even though we lost.  Our seats were awesome and the it was nice to be able to see the game since we didn't have a blocked view.  Aaron did really well at his first game and we even stayed the whole time.  It was a long day and I was very tired by the time we got home but it was a fun day spent with all of my boys!

Summer Recap

 I have been very slow at getting up the pictures from our vacation so now I'm way behind so I'm going to put a bunch of our summer pictures all at once.

 Most of our summer was spent in some kind of water.  John's parents live near a lake so we spend a lot of time there with them.  Its a small beach so there are never a lot of people around so the kids have the run of it and they like that.

 This year was the first time Aaron was able to make it out to the dock by himself.  He is a much stronger swimmer this year so he had the confidence to get out there.

 He still wont jump off but he did have a good time just swimming around.  Katie and Zach love to swim out there and jump off.  They even started doing front flips and Katie even tried a back flip and she did pretty good until she hit her back on the corner and didn't want to try again.  They are all such strong swimmers that it makes hanging out near the water much more fun.

 One afternoon our 2 cousins around Zach and Katie's age came over and the 3 girls had fun jumping off the dock together.

 Our nephew Seany comes out with us once in a while and the kids love to swim and play in the sand with him as well.

 One time uncle Sean dug the kids a huge hole in the sand and they filled it up with water so the kids soaked there feet for a while, they loved it.

 We also spent lots of our time at John's Aunt Joyce's swimming in her pool and meeting up with some of our other cousins.  They love to swim in the pool and they love to take turns going down the slide.

 We tried to get the kids together with some of their friends whenever possible.  One day when we had some friends over Katie put together a water stand and the kids went out and tried to sell some water to the few cars that pass by our house.  They did really well at making signs and flagging down passing cars and they were able to get 2 cars to stop and buy their water. They had fun and that's what matters most.

 When they were done selling water we set up a slip and slide and they had a blast sliding down the hill together.

Zach was asked to be on the All Star 9 year old summer baseball team so we ended up spending a lot of time doing more baseball than I wanted but Zach had fun even though their team was not very good and they ended up losing all of their game.  We had a great summer and did lots of fun things together. 

Summer Vacation Days ~7-9~ VB and Home

We spent 3 more days at VB and we had lots of fun every day we were there.

We spent most of our time in the ocean water splashing in the waves.

Katie and Zach both have boogie boards so they got to be pretty good at riding the waves by the time we left.













Aaron does not like to get his face wet so he spent most of his time holding onto someone when he was in the water.

Everyone was having a blast wading in the water but the waves were pretty strong and all of us were taken out by them at one time.
             

Aaron spent most of his time playing in the sand and loved every minute of it.  It also made my job easier because I knew where he was and most of the time it wasn't in the water.

A few blocks down from our hotel they had this really cool fishing pier but it coat quite a bit of money to walk out onto it so we just walked around it for a while.

Our second night there we walked down the street where they have a carnival area and we all rode on the big ferris wheel.  My mom really wanted us all to go so even though John and Katie were scared of going so high in the air they were good sports and came along anyway. None of my kids or John had ever been on before so it was fun to be with them for their first ride.  Aaron is my brave one and loved every minute of it, while I had to pry off Katie and John's hands off when the ride was done.

Our last day we rented this 4 person bike and we rode it up and down the bike path that is along the beach.  They have all of these statues in between the hotels so we took advantage while riding our bike to stop and take some pictures.

The last 2 nights we were there we walked down the board walk and saw a bunch of circus acts and of course had ice cream.

 

We had a great time and loved being able to spend time at the ocean but we were very sandy and ready to go home.  It was a great vacation spent doing many fun things.  We loved that we were able to see my family and that we were able to spend time with my parents as well.  We had a long 11 hour drive home and of course we got stuck in NYC traffic so we were very excited when we pulled into our driveway late that night! Except that we were met by a skunk in our driveway and when he saw our lights he ran right to our front porch.  Being very tired and wanting to get out of the car I bravely got out and tried and scare him away which didn't work so the kids all ran around to the back door and luckily he was gone in the morning.  Not such a great way to end our trip but we were very happy to be home again.