On the front lawn

No.  He is not playing hide-n-seek.
(Yes, he does play hide-n-seek by covering his eyes only!)
No, he did not have a late night.
No, he is not sick.
No, he is not pretending.
He is sound asleep.  In his glove.  During a game.

Yes, apparently he needed a nap.

Next Stop: Fenway Park

Last month brought us back to the Newport area for a family wedding--and when you're in Newport, you're only 1 hour away from Boston, which proved to be too close without making a detour to Fenway Park!  The Red Sox were kind enough to at least win the game we attended which made the whole long day (plus the bleacher climb to the last-row-possible-while still-in-the-park), worth it!  We dragged Steve's mom and his brother, John along with us since they were riding in our car and we had to assist Lillian up all those steps (we didn't consider this aspect when purchasing our last-minute tickets).  Once seated we informed her that she couldn't leave her seat until the end of the game.

After the game, we did actually arrive at our intended destination and enjoyed a beautiful wedding in Newport!

Photo credit: Paul Greenlee

One thumb, two thumbs. Where is my thumb?

Last week, during a rapid fire exchange at dinner, Steve gave Marcus a 'thumbs up'.  Marcus quickly tried to respond in kind by pointing his index finger at Steve.  After some smiles and reminiscing about how Eli used to do this, I gave Marcus another 'thumbs up' and asked if he could do it?  He stared intently as his fist, lifting each finger multiple times and then rejected them as 'the right one'.  Finally, he tried his thumb and held it up triumphantly as if to say, "I found it!"

Unfortunately, I did not catch his first thumb discovery on video and the subsequent requests were accomplished much more quickly, but this little video will give you the general idea.

Hard Work

We received a few more inches of sloppy, wet snow yesterday and after homeschool we went outside to start clearing it off of the driveways and steps.  Lillian entertained the boys by building a snowman while I worked their snowblower(!!)--which beats shoveling any day of the week!  We were only outside for an hour and a half but when I was done I found this sight waiting for me at the door in the garage:

Here is a picture of the snowman that was apparently very exhausting to build (Please enjoy the missing nose-Zach ate it, and the egg eyes!!):

And this picture is just because he is so cute!

A Snowy Valentine

This February has provided us with plenty of unusually cold days and snow!  We started our Valentines Weekend by going to visit our friends, the Nelsons, where we had -4 degree highs! and plenty of snow and sledding for the stout of heart (which most of us finally enjoyed this year...except for Marcus...oh well).  We came home to more of the same (except for the sledding part) and now....enough snow.... I am ready for spring!

Stamping our Valentines for Co-op

Sledding!

The Joy of Silence

Four weeks ago Steve treated me to a weekend home alone!  He packed all the boys up and took them to a small hotel and indoor pool about 30 minutes away from our house.  Steve sent me a few pictures chronicling the boy's adventures....I did not take very many from my own.  It started with cleaning the house Friday afternoon and then sitting in silence enjoy the temporary state of cleanliness for 48 hours.  Ok...I may have had a few friends over for a game night (that never actually progressed into any game playing) and I did go out to dinner, but otherwise it pretty much looked like this:

Which, as any sane person would tell you, is absolute bliss!  Steve had a more action packed view involving much swimming, indoor golf and an arcade.

 And the poor guy was pretty tuckered out by the time he got home on Sunday!

From the backseat

Last night while driving home, a fight  (which I was religiously ignoring) continued to escalate until I overheard this conversation:

Zach: "OWWWW!!  Eli!!  You just hit me in the face for Nothing!!"
Eli: "No!  I hit you in the face for something!!"

Being the great parent that I am, I started to laugh of course, which, was not really effective on teaching them that hitting doesn't solve anything but was very effective on ending the argument.

A Sad Good-bye

We have had an extremely emotional and sad week at our house.  Steve and I made the difficult decision to find a new home for Tek.  We have felt for some time that we are not able to provide for him the exercise and attention that he deserves.  I have been increasingly frustrated with the daily accumulation of dog hair found on every surface of the house.  What surprised me about our decision was how upset I have been over the finality of his removal from our home.  Every night and day I have battled between logic and emotion. He was a part of our family since Marcus was 6 months old and he was the sweetest, gentlest dog.  But even with this battle, each day I took the next steps towards his leaving our home.

The right situation presented itself this Thursday.  An acquaintance from our homeschool co-op mentioned that her family was going to be getting a puppy in the next few weeks.  I told her about Tek.  She emailed me that night that they would love to have him.  They have 5 acres of land.  And a pond.  And black labs are their favorite dog.  And they are 'dog' people.  And we know them well enough that we could go visit him.  How could I pass this up?  But I was heart broken and almost pulled out numerous times, even right up to a few minutes before they arrived.

Tek's new family came and took him Friday afternoon.  It was as horrible as you can imagine.  Zach tried to hide his feelings and kept blinking away the tears.  Our final hour with him we took lots of pictures, and threw the ball for him and gave him tons of hugs and words of praise.  He was a great dog and we love him.  After Tek was gone I grab my boys and we all cried on the couch (well, actually, I cried, Zach tried not to cry and Eli tried to cry since he was sure he should be feeling something since everyone else was so upset).  Together we made tough decisions on wether we wanted to put Tek's dog bed away or leave it out as a reminder.  Thankfully, the boys wanted it all put out-of-sight, which aligned with what I really wanted.

After a few very depressing hours, I decided that we needed to get out of the house so I suggested a rare treat to Sweet Frog, which is a frozen yogurt and toppings bar.  (When the boys are older I feel certain some counselor will tell them that their mother taught them to use food as a comfort when they are upset...but I will let them work that out later.  For now, Sweet Frog was the perfect distraction for all of us.)

So we continue on in our grief.  Tek is very happy and we have seen video of him running laps on his new property.  And eventually, we will be happy too.

Good-bye 2014!

Thanksgiving ended and December began with our family struggling through the flu.  We had almost 4 weeks of sickness in our house.  It began with a cold virus, moved on to an exciting ER trip for Marcus (the kind were they want to helicopter your child to a Washington Children's hospital--but that is a separate story...), then it transitioned to a 10 day influenza flu, and wrapped up with a sinus infection for me.  Needless to say, it was hardly my favorite 4 weeks, but we did indeed emerge healthy from our ailments ready to celebrate the Winter Solstice, Christmas, Zach's 8th birthday and a New Year!

The boys set a 'fancy' table for our Winter Solstice dinner!

After the storm

While I have been trying to decide where to plant bushes and trees in our yard, all of my boys are deciding which type of sporting field we should have.  This Christmas we added a nice landscape addition in the form of a field goal post.  Every mother's dream.  This gift was a highlight for our boys, with their father probably the most excited of them all.  Steve constructed our goal post out of PVC pipes and it has the impressive distinction over the NFL's by being adjustable in height!  You will be happy to know that I have drawn the line at no bleachers in our yard....

A Charlie Brown Christmas

As we prepared for Christmas this year we were frequently serenaded by this version of "Hark the Herald Angels Sing".  I have no idea what he is saying but what he lacks in enunciation he makes up for in enthusiasm!  It definitely contributed to the Christmas spirit in our home. 

(For those of you receive my posts via email, I think you will have to go to the actual blog to be able to view this video.  morningswithzach.blogspot.com)

Another year, another tree

We have learned a valuable lesson from past tree hunting experience, and that is that trees in the field are much larger in your home!  This year we took a measuring tape.  (My father will be pleased to know that the unemotional measuring tape steered us in the right direction!)

Thanksgiving Guitar Recital

On Thanksgiving day, the boys played some of the songs that they have been learning on the guitar! 

Fenway Park

Even though the Red Sox did not cooperate with having a great year, my crew was very excited to get up to Boston and experience the magic of Fenway for the first time.  This trip has been talked about for many years, with the boys anxiously waiting for Eli to be 'old enough'.  Well he finally was(!) and in August this year the older boys and Steve and Uncle Dan made the pilgrimage north!!  The boys were beyond excited about this trip:

Starting the road trip at 5AM!

Some of their loot!

The highlight of the trip was unanimously agreed upon as being when Daniel Nava threw them not one, but TWO balls during batting practice while the boys were on their tour of Fenway!

Shenandoah National Park

Way back in August, over Labor Day weekend, our little family unit went camping.  The boys have been asking for a true camping trip for a few years and we decided to end our summer with it.  

After an incredible amount of packing and planning (really I had forgotten how much work goes into a relaxing weekend of camping!) we managed to lug all of our stuff to Virginia for 2 nights of camping and hiking.  Despite the endless packing and constant vigilance Marcus needed around the fire, I hope we have many more camping trips in the future.

We have a picture of Zach asleep in this same carrier during a hiking trip!

Card games in the tent during a ferocious storm.

We ended our trip with a tour of the Luray Caverns!