House of Blues

We were excited to receive an invitation to the VIP (not as glamorous as it sounds) opening at the House of Blues in Boston through Nathan's Guitar Center connections. We'd been to the original HOB in Cambridge when Nathan was in school. It was an intimate venue to see live music but they closed it a few years ago. The new HOB is amazing! It's across from Fenway and really just lovely. We enjoyed an almost Arizona Mexican dinner before heading to the club. I don't know if it was really that delicious or if we're just so desperate for good Mexican food! We then had to wait in the freezing cold for about 45 minutes to get in. I did realize that I'm not young anymore as waiting in line to go to a club has zero appeal to me. We enjoyed an opening act and then waited for The Blues Brothers to hit the stage. I'm embarrassed to say that I've never seen the movie so my reference points were nil. But, wow oh wow, they were fantastic! We snagged a spot about five rows from the stage (standing). Belushi came through the crowd, passing between us. It was really fun. The only downside is that we had to leave 1/2 way through to get home to relieve the sitter. We'll definitely go back!

Yummy Obstacle Course

One of the benefits of having empty rooms is the candy obstacle course. I set up a course to crawl over, under, balance, climb, hop and limbo around the dining room, living room and entryway. The kids placed their candy hearts on a spoon and away they went.

Scat at the Farm

Nathan had President's Day off so we decided to take Maddie and Theo on a date sans bebe. I couldn't believe how thrilled they were! We started with a yummy breakfast at Nashoba Bakery. This is where the bike group that Nathan rides with on Saturday stops for a latte midride. It's lovely, overlooking a creek, and has delicious goodies and coffee. http://www.slowrise.com/

We then headed to Drumlin Farm. It was a bit brisk but sunny. We had great fun seeing the wooly animals, making stamp cards of animal tracks and the highlight - a scat presentation! It really was interesting if you discount the gross factor. Needless to say, we've had a lot of fun with the word scat! It was a lovely morning.

Choo Choo

Theo has a big love of trains. I found a museum where a local model railroad club had set up a pretty impressive miniature train display. Gabriel was still battling RSV so he stayed home with Daddy to get a human mattress nap, and I took Maddie and Theo to the exhibit. Maddie had fun counting the cars on the train (87 was the longest) and Theo liked seeing the little Thomas, Percy and Henry drive by. The best part, for me, was finding a new museum that is free, close by (in Lexington) and a great slice of American history, The National Heritage Museum: http://www.monh.org/

On the Road

Gabriel and I headed off to Arizona to celebrate the wedding of my college friend Heather. I was very excited to have a warm weekend and see family and friends. I have to admit, that it was quite strange to travel with just one! I felt very strange leaving the kids home. Gabriel was such a trooper on the plane. He waved to all the passengers, slept a bit, played with a plastic cup, and just enjoyed himself. We were lucky to get an extra seat and have a nice lady next to us. I even got to thumb through a magazine!

Hamming it up on the plane!

My mom had my aunt and cousin over for dinner on Friday night. It was a great evening!

The wedding was lovely. Heather and Matt so joyful. The reception was at the Desert Botanical Gardens which were having a special exhibit by the artist Chihuly. http://www.dbg.org/ His glass sculptures are amazing and more so interspersed with the desert plants.

The reception was great fun, just to catch up, dance and have a nice night. It'd been 3 1/2 years since we'd all been together.

It was a great weekend though I missed celebrating Mary Ann and my parents missed Maddie and Theo. I even had time to be spoiled - hair appointment, make up done, church, Mexican food, some warm walks - so nice!

I do hate being so far away from all of our family. The travel with young children is just grueling made more apparent on my trip home. I'd booked a window seat but somehow had been moved to the back in a middle between two men! Tears at the airport had no affect on the cold bloodless US Air employees. Luckily, I found myself seated between two of the nicest men. They both offered their seats to me (one guy was 6'4"), I didn't take them up on it. They were discreet while I attempted to nurse out of necessity as he'd downed his one bottle already. And they provided nice conversation. We made it home to two very excited kids and Daddy. They'd had a great weekend of cooking, breakfast at the Charles, movie night and the Museum of Science.

The Big Day

She's six! She bounced out of bed to get to school. A few weeks ago, she wasn't sure if she wanted to have the class sing happy birthday to her. Today, she decided, yes! She did. The day before, she made a lovely crown to wear for the day. After school, she and Theo got haircuts and then we went to McDonald's for lunch. We talked about what she thought would happen during this next year. She'd: learn to ice skate, play soccer, swim better, do multiplication, continue to read, lose teeth and have fun! A yummy birthday dinner of mac and cheese, peas, apples, chicken, and cake and ice cream followed. Presents followed. What a day!

(Note, snow princess party post to follow. Just waiting for Nathan's pictures)

Note to Self

Today, I walked Maddie to school without checking the weather. I thought it quite chilly as I pushed the stroller up our driveway, possibly because my hair was still damp. Well, as I slogged to the school (about a mile away), I realized it was freezing. Like -8 with the windchill! I tried to distract Theo with a game of "I Spy" on the walk home. Almost home, he says, "I spy with my little eye something that is cold." Answer: Theo! We turned on The Weather Channel when we got home to see how cold it was. Not used to having the TV on during the day, Theo says to me, "Are we going to see what Ofama is up to?" I guess he remembered watching the inauguration!

The Land of the Snow Princess

Maddie is six! We were very excited to host a snow princess party at our house with the girls from her class.

The beauty of a snow princess party in January is that there are a lot of options for decor! That didn't stop me from hiring our resident snowflake maker to create some masterpieces.

We had nine girls from her class arrive in their winter princess finery. I hadn't intended for the kids to dress up but I guess there was much talk at school about what color to wear. They look so pretty. Samantha, Millie, Laine, Taraneh, Maddie, Avery, Elyse, Clara, Edie and Mr. Theo obliged me with a photo.

We started the morning off decorating silver jewel boxes. There were beads and baubles and a lot of glue to create the masterpieces.

We then divided the girls into two teams to create their own snow princess. It was great to see them work together. Maddie was the peacemaker brokering compromises so that everyone was happy with the result. She was so sweet to her friend Edie who did not know anyone (she is a friend from Bowen). Maddie introduced Edie to her friends and made sure to stick close to her.

We then played "cold snowball." The girls loved it.

Our last activity was decorating sugar cookie snow princesses and stars. I hadn't intended for the girls to consume the cookies right then, duh. But they did! Theo emerged from his funk to join the girls. He had just finished an hour long tantrum! We didn't think that he'd be upset about the attention showered on his sister. Boy, were we wrong!

Finally, they enjoyed pizza, strawberries, juice and a snow princess cake. There was a lot of laughing, screaming (in a good way) and fun. The birthday girl was very very pleased and the mama was very very tired!

Gabriel loved the balloons!

The happy family all in blue per the birthday girl