Mommathon

We went to WonderEve today at Wonderscope and we were there ALL DAY! We got there at 9:45 and didn't leave until 5:15 and the boys enjoyed EVERY minute. Mr. Stinky Feet was there, a musician, a juggler, they got out the StarLab and they have a brand new underwater Lego exhibit...not to mention all the other things they have to do. They even served us lunch and passed out snacks in the afternoon. I definitely got my moneys worth.


Liam in his underwater gear. He also has on a scuba pack which you can't see. Throughout the course of the day, he probably played in the Lego area for at least two hours with whatever child/ren he could find that were close to his age...and they played HARD! Their imaginations were at work. Of course, Colm was right there with them...playing with the big kids and holding his own.






Colm's favorite room...the ball room.


Pizza break!




The magician was awesome! Seriously!

I got this book for Christmas and I must say, she has some pretty good ideas about how to get extra nutrition into the foods kids already like to eat. Garbanzo bean puree in mac and cheese, sweet potato puree in mac and cheese and grilled cheese, dollops of pureed spinach hidden in pizza, cauliflower puree in noodles with butter, sweet potato donuts and pancakes, etc. Her basic philosophy is to hide the veggies or match the colors with foods they are already eating so they don't even notice it's there. I tried the sweet potato mac and cheese today. Liam said it tasted okay it just smelled funny. I am going to try it with beans next to pump up the protein. We'll see if it works. She stole my spinach and carrot juice in the brownies recipe though!

This is a conversation I had with Colm at church tonight:

C: Mom, what's that?

Me: That's the Bible. Father Rich is going to read a story from the Bible. It has stories in it that Jesus wants us to know.

C: Yeah, he's dead. He doesn't need it anymore.

Something like that

Liam and Colm are all set to see The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything. After listening to snippets of the soundtrack and seeing that they clearly enjoyed it, I bought the DVD for them. They have been singing Jolly Joes all day...changing the words...using their best pirate voices..oh, they think they are so funny! AND if you buy the DVD, they include a ticket to go see the movie.

Have you ever seen someone out in public without their makeup and not recognized them? Well, I had the opposite thing happen to me recently. I had met someone over the summer at swim lessons and she never had her makeup on since it was early and she was going to work out. That was how I was used to seeing her. Flash forward a few months and we met again in another situation only this time she had her makeup on. I would have NEVER recognized her if her children had not been with her. How embarrassing would that have been?!

This book read like a memoir which is why I probably liked it. I have been reading a lot of books lately about troubled Catholic teens and their families...not on purpose...it just seems to be the case. Anyways, I liked this book. The ending was a little weird, but the rest of it was definitely worth reading.

Liam LOVES our water machine. (Our water machine is the water/ice dispenser in the frig.) He thinks it is pretty high tech and quite a treat to get ice cold water in an instant. He had some friends over the other day and one of them said he was thirsty. Liam piped up that he could get some water from our water machine. They both looked at him like he was a little wacky when they realized what he was talking about. In our previous two houses we had a frig that had a "water machine". Liam was too young in the first house to appreciate it and in the second house we never had it hooked up because the ice maker made rusty ice. Yuck! So, in this house we got a new frig and had it hooked up...tasty water at the push of a button.

Liam throwing a snowball.


Yummy snow

This was one of the best Christmases I can remember. The boys got what they wanted, but there wasn't a gluttony of presents. We had several parties to go to, but none of them overlapped, so we could go to all of them and enjoy ourselves instead of worrying about where we needed to go next and when we would need to leave to get there on time. It was just calm and peaceful. It was a nice change of pace.

Scroll down for some holiday outing pics and some early Christmas celebration pics. Merry Christmas!

Knocked Up - Sean and I watched the uncut version, which I think means we got the raunchier version. (It's sort of the same type of humor as American Pie.) It was funny though. Just pretend like you're not an adult and that you are still in college and you won't feel guilty for watching it. I cried it was so funny.

My Life as a Dog - This is a sort of coming of age tale. It is Swedish, so you have to read it. I thought it was okay, but it won and/or was nominated for several awards, so somebody out there must think it is really good.

Leila - SUCH A GOOD MOVIE!!! Again, you have to read it, it is Iranian. It is such a good story. A young married couple who is deeply in love come to find out that they can't have children. The husband is the only son and if they don't reproduce, the family line will end. His mother takes drastic measures to make sure the family line continues. It is a great movie for discussion and a real eye-opener as far as cultural differences.

I found another memoir to read. This is the story of a girl growing up in a large Catholic family, her push for independence during her early teenage years and the trouble it gets her into.

We started Christmas a few days early this year since my SIL had to be at work on the 26th. It has been great, though. The boys have had time to play with the things they got before being bombarded with more toys. Colm's favorites are his Spiderman jammies and his remote control car. Liam's faves are his Star Wars T-shirt and his Lego sets.

The boys didn't have school today, so we headed out to enjoy the Christmas party at the American Jazz Museum. We then went to Union Station to look at the train display and ride the Spirit Train. We ended up running into my sister-in-law, her kids and my MIL when we were headed to lunch, so we got to have lunch with them. Quite a treat, since my nieces and my SIL live in Colorado and were only in town for a short while.

This book takes place in a small town in the south and is the story of two unlikely friends, how they meet and the adventures they share.

Colm and I did some Christmas baking today. We made spiced pretzels, chocolate-covered cranberries and chocolate chip cookies with an almond extract twist. The pretzels are my favorite. I can't eat them...if I get started I will eat them all and they are meant to be gifts for our neighbors. We also found some cute little snowman tins at The Dollar Store to put them in.

Every year, we sort of embrace a few books that we read over and over at Christmastime. This year we are reading Santasaurus, Christmas Trolls and Mrs. Wishy Washy's Christmas as well as our oldies, but goodies, Santa's Stuck, Are You Grumpy, Santa? and Who's That Knocking on Christmas Eve?

Yesterday after Colm's naptime, that did not involve napping, I noticed he had something in his mouth. It was gum, but I hadn't given him any. When I asked him about it he said it was old gum. Where did he get it? He told me he got it from a book in his room. (Please, dear God, don't let it be a library book.) I asked him if it was a library book and he said it wasn't. (Heavy sigh of relief.) I asked him to spit the gum out in the trash...I am still not exactly sure where the gum came from.

Since we were STUCK inside today, AGAIN, we had game day. I didn't plan it...it just happened. Before lunch we played dungeon for forever. Basically, it consists of getting "thrown" in the dungeon. Then you get out and put someone else in the dungeon. It also helps to lock the door and dramatically throw away the key. The dungeon can be in the hallway, on my bed, in the closet or just about anywhere. After lunch, one of Liam's friends and his older brother came over and they played Star Wars on the PS3 for a long while. After they left, we played dungeon again and then I taught the boys how to play Crazy Eights, Old Maid and Rummy. It was fun playing cards with the boys. It was especially funny playing Old Maid with Colm, he didn't even try to trick us when he had the Old Maid card. He would get all giggly and start pointing at it in a sneaky way. Too funny.

Lots of opportunities for fun...click here.

It's all done and he loves it! My mom is making him a rescue vehicle quilt and she got him a firetruck clock for Christmas. It will look super great once it is all put together. Oh, and I got him a print of a dalmatian to hang on the wall above his dresser...now I just need the right kind of nails to hang it with.






(Notice how the firehose spells his name)

Thanks to some inspiration from Candy, we had some craft time today. It was icy and icky outside today, the boys were getting restless and we needed something to do! Luckily, we had everything we needed. We used googly eyes, paper sacks, button stickers, bow stickers and I cut out winter caps, boots and mittens. Liam used a silver gel pen to add details to the hats. The boys had a BLAST and they did a great job. I love how Liam made his into cyclops. Boys!

Liam's room is finally done...

He knew exactly what he wanted-from the types of dinosaurs, to where they should be placed in the mural, to the little stream running through the middle of it. It turned out great and he loves it!

Colm's room isn't done yet, but here's a sneak peek...

I should have known better. I knew, based on how things were going at home, that the trip to the grocery store was not going to be the best, but we had to go to the grocery store. Really, it wasn't bad at all; the boys did great. There was one point in the trip, however, where I started to get a little irritated. There was some spilled powdery dishwasher detergent on the floor, so Colm decided to use his hands to spread it all over the floor. So, in my moment of irritation I said something like, "Come on now, Colm, use your head". As soon as it was out of my mouth, actually I think while it was coming out of my mouth, I knew exactly what he would do. He bent over, with his hiney in the air, and rubbed his head around in it. When he was done he looked like he had the worse case of lice EVER!

Finnegan Michael was born yesterday morning weighing in at a little over six pounds. Mom and baby are doing great. I'll post a picture soon!