Memorial Day

Happy Memorial Day everybody! I know it was yesterday, but we were too busy having fun for me to stop and blog. Memorial Day is quickly becoming one of my favorite holidays. I can't remember the last time we had a Memorial Day with bad weather. Parades, sun and hot dogs make for an awesome holiday!

The City of Westfield always has a Memorial Day parade that goes practically right by our house. We just have to walk about 30 yards away to see all the fun. The parade doesn't come close to anything like the Macy's Day Parade, but it is still fun. Mainly it's all the War Veterans from our city walking down the street...followed by Marching Bands and Boy Scouts. The whole thing probably last about 20 minutes, but so many people show up for it. I always get teary eyed watching the old men who fought in wars walking down the street with everybody clapping for them.

There is also a lot of free food at the parade! There is an insurance company that gives away free Ben & Jerry's Ice-Cream. The funeral home gives away free hot dogs and sodas, and a bank gives away free french fries! Who doesn't love free food?

After all the excitement of the parade died down me and the kids played around outside for a while and I took lots of pictures of Holly. She looked too cute in her little patriotic outfit and pigtails for me not to take a lot of pictures. Owen wouldn't still still for too long, that's why there is only a few pictures of him.

Later on we went to Scott's sister's house to have hamburgers, hot dogs and corn on the cob! We finished off the night by going to our favorite ice-cream joint (The Scoop) where Scott's mother treated us all to ice-cream. It was one of those days you just wish would never end...

Watch Out American Idol

The other night I was talking to my mom on the phone, and for the first time ever Owen talked to her on the phone! It was actually the first time he has talked to anybody on the phone. I told him to say, "Hi Grandma" and he did! Then she sang "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" to him, and he sang it back to her. It wasn't a huge conversation, but it was a start. Maybe I can get him to like the phone more than his father does.

Owen loves singing "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" these days. I noticed that he knew the song a few days ago when he was sitting at the piano and he started belting it out. I'm sure he learned it at daycare, even though I have sung it to him before. He had all sorts of hand motions that I didn't teach him, so he must have learned it there.

If you turn your volume up you can hear his beautiful rendition of the song. Enjoy!

Holly's 7 Month Pictures

Holly turned 7 months old this past week, so I decided it was about time to get her down to Kiddie Kandids to have her pictures taken. In the past they would have you take 6 pictures. It always seemed like a lot of pressure to find 6 different poses. So I figured I would take a change of clothes to make it a little easier. Now they want you to take 8 different pictures! Let's just say it was quite the adventure trying to get 8 different pictures. Holly did not want to smile for the picture lady. She is starting to get a little stranger anxiety going on. Then I had Owen running around causing a commotion. Finally we settled on 8 pictures though...

This is how most of the pictures looked...she had some big tears rolling down her face.

Overall I was pretty happy with how they turned out...considering how hard we worked to get her to smile. I wish I could have gotten Owen to sit down with her for a picture, but he was more interested in running around and playing with all the toys.

The hardest part was trying to pick which pictures I wanted. I always hate sitting there with the picture girl while she is putting pictures to different backgrounds, changing colors, putting in words and I'm trying to remember everything and what I need. I finally settled on two different pictures that I got in different sizes. I'll have to scan them in sometime so you can see the borders on them.

Now I'm just hoping the year old pictures go a little smoother. I think I will leave Owen at home for them!

Dirty Cars

A few years ago I was walking through our local grocery store's parking lot when I saw a car that look similar to the one pictured. The whole backseat was filled from floor to ceiling with garbage. Everybody walking through the parking lot noticed it. We were all slowing down in disbelief. How could somebody let their car get that horribly dirty? It's actually beyond dirty...it's just disgusting.

I never thought I would see something like that again. But I was wrong. Last Sunday when I was driving to church I saw another car that had the backseat filled to the brim with garbage. Fast food wrappers, papers, empty milk cartons. I couldn't believe I saw another car like that, I wondered if it might be the same one from a few years ago. I thought for sure I would never see something like that again.

I was wrong.

Last night as I was driving home from work I saw a car that had the backseat filled with papers, but it was worse, the passenger seat in the front was also filled with papers! It didn't look like your typical garbage, just tons and tons of paper. I saw the lady in the front seat and she just had a wall of paper around her. How the heck can that be safe? I passed her, but then I wanted to get a better look again. So I slowed down, really slow. I was hoping that she would pass me so I could check out the car again, but she didn't pass me, she just slowed down too. Then I realized she probably can't pass in the left hand lane because she would never be able to look back or to the right to see when it was safe to get in the right hand lane again!

My car is not the cleanest car this earth has ever seen...but I take comfort in the fact that there are worse cars out there. Much, much worse! I would just hate to see those people's homes. And that picture above is one I found on google images...so there is even more cars like that! It seems like they should be pulled over by the police for safety reasons before they get that out of hand. But I guess with all that garbage piled up they wouldn't be able to see the police lights behind them.

I just hope I never have to see a car like that again...twice in one week was too much. It was very disturbing.

Bad Neighbor

We have a problem. His name is Edward. He is the 6 year old that lives next door to us.

He has become quite the little nuisance these past few weeks. As soon as we get home with Owen he hops the fence and wants to play. He doesn't care if we are going in to eat dinner, or if Owen has to take a nap or go to bed...he wants to play. We have to lock our back door or Edward will just open it and let Owen out. Last week, when my dad and brother were here, he tried to open the back door to the house while we were in the car getting ready to go. He was just going to make himself at home after we left.

Another big problem...he is mean! Owen has a ton of little toys that you sit on and scoot around. We put them outside when the weather turned nice. Owen likes to ride around on them...but Edward gets on Owen's big wheel and rams into Owen. I tell him to be nice or he will have to go home. He tells me, "I'm not going home!" He keeps ramming into Owen, so I tell him to go home...he says, "NO!" He is also constantly taking things out of Owen's hands.

I really don't know what to do about this problem. I tell him to go home, he won't. Should I pick him up and chuck him over the fence? I can't talk to his parents because they don't speak English...only Russian! I don't want to cause bad blood between us either...we will probably be neighbors for a long time. Scott tells me just to take Owen and Holly inside, but I don't want them to have to suffer because of Edward. I'm really at a loss for what to do. It would be so much easier if his parents just spoke English and I could talk to them.

Any suggestions?

Mud Bath

Owen had his first mud bath of the year! Hopefully he doesn't have too many more. He is such a boy....

Pictures from Boston

Here are a few of the pictures we took in Boston...

Owen was pretty good riding around in the stroller for most of the day. So we stopped in the Boston Commons to let him play on the play ground for a while.

Our first stop in Boston was at Paul Revere's House. If you are ever in Boston and think you might want to see his house...DON'T! It cost us $10 to get in and there is only 4 rooms to his little house. We walked through it in about 2 minutes, and it looks like every other old house you have ever seen. So save your money.

We ate lunch in Quincy Market. Quincy Market is like a great big food court, but it's not in a mall. It gets packed at lunch time. We were lucky to find a table to sit at.

Parking in Boston. I'm so glad I don't live in Boston.

This was Owen's first time seeing the Atlantic ocean. He thought it was pretty cool.

It was also Owen's first time on a Merry-Go-Round. We were the only ones riding it. Owen had fun for the first few minutes. After that he wanted to get off the horse. I think he was getting dizzy. I know I was.

Casey was really excited to go and see the bar that inspired Cheers. After about a 6 mile walk we finally made it!

Vacation Week

This past week we had some visitors come from Utah! My dad and my youngest brother Casey drove out here in the van we bought from my grandmother. So I took some time off work and enjoyed spending some time with them. We didn't have the greatest weather for the week, but at least it wasn't hot. We spent a lot of time driving around and sight seeing. It was a pretty fun week.

On Monday we took the kids to the local park. As you can see we are wearing coats. It was not a nice day to be at the park, but at least the park wasn't swarming with lots of little kids!

On Wednesday we went to Boston.

On Thursday we took a trip west to see where Alice's Restaurant was. We also saw the house where Alice lived, which is actually a church. If you don't know what I'm talking about you should listen to the song "Alice's Restaurant" by Arlo Guthrie. My parents and I had been to see the church where Alice lived a few years ago. The restaurant where Alice worked is no longer open though, so we thought we couldn't see it. On the way to see where Alice lived we passed the small town of Stockbridge. There was a bakery there that sold really yummy bread. We have stopped there twice to get that bread. Well, this past visit to Stockbridge we realized that the restaurant where Alice worked was right across the street from the bakery! There is just a sign on the building now that says it was formerly Alice's Restaurant. My dad was pretty excited about our discovery. I wonder how many other little things we have missed in our lives because we didn't open our eyes and look?

Friday we took a trip to Newport Rhode Island. We toured the "cabin" where the Vanderbilts use to spend their summers. We got some yummy clam chowder and some ice-cream. Newport is definitely a tourist trap. Casey and I went into the ice-cream shop and each ordered a one scoop ice-cream cone. Nothing extravagant. Casey decided to pay for the ice-cream. The guy working there rung up our order and said it was about $9.50! It was a pretty high price for 2 ice-cream cones!

There is a giant bridge that you have to drive over to get into Newport. To get across the bridge you have to pay a $2.00 toll. While we were driving out of Newport Casey remembered a story he once heard of a couple who was driving across a toll and decided to do something nice for the people behind them. So after they paid their toll they also gave the toll collector a toll for the person in the car behind them. They told about how it made them feel so good. Casey decided he needed to have a spiritual experience so he wanted to pay the $2.00 toll for the person behind us on the bridge. When I pulled up the the toll and gave the toll collector the extra $2.00 she kind of looked at us funny, but she took it. We watched the person behind us drive up and try to give the lady $2.00, but she didn't take it. I'm sure she explained to him what had happened. We drove slowly so we could see the expression on the person's face. A guy who looked like a terrorist drove by in the car and looked at us like we were crazy! We had a good laugh over the whole experience. Casey said he didn't feel very spiritual though.

Casey got to read Owen his favorite book this week too. What a lucky boy Casey is.

When Bad Clothes Happen to Good Babies

Can anybody guess who dressed Holly in this horribly mismatched get-up? Here's a hint...it wasn't me!!!

The Neighbor Boy

This is a picture I took a few nights ago. I had a really hard time getting a picture of Owen playing with his kite he got from his Easter Basket. This one is kind of dark, but the best one I got. Owen is in front, running with the kite. The little boy in yellow is our neighbor, Edward. Lately Edward has been coming over a lot. As soon as we pull into the drive way he jumps over the fence and wants to play with Owen. It's nice for Owen to have somebody to play with, but Edward doesn't like to share. He is always grabbing Owen's things away from Owen and trying to take off with them. So either Scott or I have to be outside to make sure no big fights start. He's a nice enough kid for the most part though.

I can't remember if it was last April or last October when my mom was here, but she started making conversation with Edward over the fence while she was outside. She asked him his name, he said "Edward." Then he asked her what her name was and she said, "Judy." There was a little bit more conversation than that...but that's how he learned my mom's name. Fast forward to last Sunday. Edward was at our house on the back porch. He was peering into the sliding glass door, looking for something.

Finally he said to me, "Where's Judy?"

So I told him that she didn't live with us. A few days later he asked me where she was again. I told him that she lived far away...

"She lives in Utah," I said.

Edward got a confused look on his face..."Me-tah?"

Hehe...I had to explain to him that Utah (not You-tah) was a state, like Massachusetts. I don't think he understood though. He is only in Kindergartin, so I guess I will give him a few more years and try to explain it to him again.

( Scott and Holly enjoying the kite flying)