Happy Birthday Aunt Susu!

"I swimming..."

We enrolled Ellie in swimming lessons at the local YMCA. The classes are on Saturday mornings and are group classes where one or both parents participate. There are some friends from school in the class as well. Its hit or miss if Ellie will love it or hate it. The first class...hated it; the second class...loved it; the third class (this weekend)...loved it then hated it. She has learned to kick and scoop with her hands as well as blow bubbles in the water. She doesn't seem to like being on her back in the pool, but does like to jump in (with some help from me).

 On Saturday (after swimming and a long nap), some parents from school had arranged a play date because we were supposed to have some nice weather. A group of us met up at the carousel on the Rose Kennedy Greenway and the kids had fun riding the horses "round and round, up and down". Then we headed over to Christopher Columbus park and let the m run around for a while. It was a little chilly, but that didn't stop them from wanting to blow bubbles or run in circles. It was a nice Saturday, even though it was overcast and a little cold for the middle of May.

Mother's Day

Last Sunday was Mother's Day. We spent the morning at Stone Zoo where moms got in for free and got a goodie bag (if you got there early enough). We had a fun morning where Ellie enjoyed seeing the monkeys, wathing a bear play with a "big bouncy ball", trying t stand like a flamingo, and digging for dinosaur bones. Really.

Happy 31st Birthday Nick!

"Saturday Daddy birthday. My birthday all done. Happy Birthday to Daddy..." - Ellen Harrer

  

Today was a fun day. This morning we had a swimming lesson for Ellie. Then one of Ellie's teachers came over to babysit while we went to the Red Sox game. We had seats up on the Green Monster. Unfortunately, Mother Nature had other ideas and we only got to see a couple innings before a long rain delay. But we hung out at Fenway and had fun.

Then, between the thunderstorms we grilled chicken and hot dogs for dinner. And for dessert...cake!

Happy Birthday Nick!!

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter everyone! Although we don't really celebrate Easter, we did take Ellie to the Charlestown Mother's Association, Spring Egg Hunt yesterday morning. It was a little cold and it was drizzling, so just like two years ago the hunt was held inside of the Charlestown Community Center, on the basketball court. If the weather had been better, the hunt would have been on the Charlestown HS football field (as it was last year).

We arrived a little early and Ellie did a great job being patient and watching everyone set-up the eggs and baskets. She did a little bit of coloring and helped count the jelly beans in the jar (although I'm sure her guess of 13 jelly beans is a little low). After a while, a familiar face from school showed up, Mr. Ron! He sings songs and plays his guitar for the kids at school one a week, but today he was making balloon animals. Ellie was just as excited to see Mr. Ron as Mr. Ron was to see her. Ellie received a pink poodle.

 At 10:00 am the doors to the gym were opened and the kids began the mad dash for the eggs. They separate the kids into age groups (0-2, 3-4, and 5+). Ellie was ready with her bag (a gift from Grandparentals Harrer) and knew exactly what to do (we had talked about it all morning). She went straight for the eggs and picked them up and put them in her bag. She followed the rules of no pushing, no running, and she had to share with younger kids. I was happy that she picked out the brightest colored dress she owns for the day, as spotting her in the crowd of kids was pretty easy! She ended up with a lot of eggs!

 We did see a few friends from school and Ellie was happy to show off her bounty. We sat and opened up all her eggs and looked at her prizes (chocolate eggs and stickers).

Then the Easter bunny came! Ellie was a little nervous, but then warmed up to the bunny and said hi. She then spent some time running around in circles, hopping like bunnies, and talking about the egg hunt with her friends from school.

Ellie saying hi to the Easter Bunny.

It was a great morning and Ellie talked about her adventure all day!

Play Ball!

It is that time of year when the weather starts getting a little warmer, the trees and tulips start blossoming, and almost everyday you can hear the words, "Play Ball". Yes, baseball is back! Granted, Opening Day was a while back, and I'm a little delayed in writing this post. The Red Sox home opener was actually April 8.

I actually went to part of the home opener. I watched the opening ceremonies as well as the first few innings. Later that day, Nick and I went to the Welcome Home Dinner hosted by the Red Sox Foundation. At the dinner, we mingled (along with some of my co-workers) with ownership and management. In fact, I actually had a conversation with the Terry Francona, the manager of the Red Sox.

Then, on Sunday the 10th, Nick and I, along with a couple of my co-workers went to the Red Sox/Yankees game (which the Red Sox did win, although we didn't stay till the end). The tickets were given to us by the Red Sox as a thank you for the work that we had done during this year's restoration phase. In addition to the tickets, the Red Sox also asked me to be part of ceremonies before the game on the field. They had representatives of the consultants and contractors that did the work during the off-season on the field and they read our names and had us on the brand new HD scoreboard screen (see the photos above, in the group photo I'm the short one in red). It was really awesome to be acknowledged by the Red Sox for the had work that you do.

Listen my children and you shall hear

Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere,
On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-five;
Hardly a man is now alive
Who remembers that famous day and year.

The title and the stanza above is from Longfellow's, Paul Revere's Ride and explains why Ellie had the day off of school. Today is Patriot's Day (aka Marathon Monday) in Boston. Today marks Paul Revere's ride and the start of the Revolutionary War.

This morning, Ellie and I actually went down to City Square Park in Charlestown to see the start of Paul's ride. The story goes, that Paul Revere came over to Charlestown and watched to see, "one if by land, two if by see" in the steeple of the Old North Church. He then took off from Charlestown to the suburbs...err...Lexington and Concord and we all know our history from there right?

It was a fun gathering of Charlestown kids hosted by the Charlestown Mother's Association who generiously provided snacks. Ellie even saw two friends from school and spent some time comparing juice boxes and talking about their excitement to see the "horsey".

Eventually, Paul Revere made his arrival. There was a reading of the full poem by some Charlestown youth. There was a short talk by Paul himself about where he was going. Then the National Park Service ranger talked about the horse a little bit. And then, Paul paraded the horse around so each child could get a close look and the "one brown horsey, big" (we've been working on our adjectives, can you tell?).