Flashback Friday

This has always been one of my favorites...

July 2005

Ocean City, NJ

Priorities...

See these people...



this is a group of very cool people. (I'm referring to the rest of the group, not me...althought I was pretty cool swimming backstroke the other day...that is not what this post is about. ;) )

This picture was taken at Drew's swim meet last week. All of the people in this picture drove out to an "away" meet when it was about 60 degrees and rainy to see Drew swim his little heart out for about one minute.

And, for some of the people in this picture, the "away" meet was really AWAY! My cousin and his wife drove in from Michigan with their son and his girlfriend (who live in Indiana) to watch Ben and Jack play baseball Monday night and to see Drew swim on Tuesday night. Can you believe that? I mean, it is not like seeing Michael Phelps swim, or Derek Jeter play baseball. They are 7 year olds!! In addition to that, obviously Jen packed up 3 babies to come see Drew swim and my mom and dad, and Spencer's mom, of course, are fabulous about hitting as many swim meets and baseball games, and soccer games, and school shows as possible.

I want to be more like these people. It is so easy to get wrapped up in our busy lives and forget about what is really important in life.... swim meets and baseball games....not the laundry sitting in a pile at home, or a silly game on Facebook.

Thanks for the reminder.

Creative Parenting...

The boys each have a toy box in their room. The idea with the toy boxes was that it would be a place for them to store their treasures (junk!!). It is full of birthday party trinkets, happy meal toys, "art" and other junk that they have accumulated. I hate all of that junk. They never play with any of it...in fact, they don't even have any idea what is in their toybox, but they are over-flowing.

So, I offered to buy them each a new box of markers, a new box of crayons and give them each a dollar if we take everything out of their toy box and throw it in the GARBAGE!!

Three big bags of garbage later, the toy boxes are empty!! Woo Hoo!!

Dumb, Dumb, Dumb!!!

So, I've agreed to swim tonight in a "parent's relay". It is supposed to be a fun little thing for the kids on the swim team to enjoy....watching their parents look silly. It did sound like a lot of fun last week, when I agreed to do it, at the BAR!, while I was out with a lot of other fun moms. "Oh, you need someone to swim backstroke on your relay team? Sure.....I know how to swim back stroke..... sure..... I'll be happy to join your team...woo hoo....the boys will love it....mom's swimming in a race".


Yup, it sounded like a fantastic idea *that* night.


I now have a couple concerns...


I haven't done backstroke since I was on a swim team when I was 12. I did the math this morning, I was 12 years old TWENTY-FIVE years ago! OMG, that cannot be possible...it's like my silver anniversary of being 12 and on a swim team...unbelieveable!!! Grrr...anyway, I do know how to swim and am not worried about drowning, and I am pretty sure that I won't need to grab on to the lane line ;) but I'm a little worried, ok, a lot worried, about my ability to swim straight. I don't want to look like a big dummy in the pool zig-zagging back and forth.

My second concern, and it's a big one, is that I'm guessing that my tankini/swim skirt combo is not really appropriate swim attire for the big race. I was thinking that I just wouldn't wear the cute mom swim skirt and I'd be ok. I'm not thrilled about going out in public without the "mom skirt", but it will be dark and maybe I'll swim so fast that people won't notice my white, flabby thighs. :)

Problem solved..... until yesterday...... when it occurred to me that there was no way that I was going to swim backstroke across the pool with a tankini top. I surely wouldn't be able to swim straight with one hand swimming and the other hand making sure that my tankini is covering my long, ugly torso with the giant vertical c-section scar. I reallly should have negotiated swimming the breast stroke leg of this race. But, of course *that* didn't occur to me at. the. BAR! So, this morning, I drug my 4 little boys to Sports Authority so that I could try on bathing suits. As if trying on bathing suits isn't fun enough, I had lots of company...Fun. Fun. Fun!!!


So, if you are not doing anything tonight and you need a good laugh. Head over to our pool. You'll find me on the only all-female (did not know that when I signed up!) team. But, don't be late because I'll be going first (didn't know that either!).

I am definitely making a mental note to not agree to anything on "mom's night out at the bar" any more! I'll be sure to update with the results tomorrow...no pictures!!

I got a little carried away....

Today is Charlie's 3rd birthday. I was planning to do a post about his birthday and thought it would be cool to include some pictures of Charlie growing up...to the ripe, old age of 3. But, the boy is just too darn cute. I found way too many pictures and this only brought be up until he turned 2. So, I am posting the pics, but will do a separate birthday post.

July 6, 2006

First trip to the "Jersey Shore" and first hurricane.

6 weeks old

All locked up...poor Charlie.

First time he was denied an "adult beverage"

nice try!

A trip to the zoo...

We went to the zoo today. It was perfect zoo weather. I thought it might not be too crowded because people would be busy doing other things for the 4th of July holiday, but I was wrong. It was pretty crowded...good thing it is a big zoo.

I remember the first time that we took the boys to the zoo. Spencer was a bit disappointed that the boys were not totally enthralled with the animals. They actually were pretty excited to see pictures of the animals on the signs, but were a little less than impressed with the animals.

All ready for their first trip to the zoo.

May 2003

Over the years, the boys' interest in the actual animals has grown, but they do still like the zoo for many different reasons....

Like today, Ben's favorite exhibit was the "blue dinosaur, with no head". Hmmmmm.....

And, Charlie's favorite "animal" at the zoo was a stick.

Our traditional stop for zoo ice cream was also a hit.

Charlie liked Ben's better than his own.

And, when Ben's ice cream was done, he liked Jack's...Charlie is lucky to have such generous brothers! I'm glad he didn't want *MY* ice cream!

Happy 4th of July!!!

And finally, since it is Friday, here is a quick zoo flashback...

Drew, Ben ,Jack

May 2006

Charlie's first trip to the zoo.

August 2006

The Boys of Summer...

How cute are they!?!?!?!

Jack and Ben have been enjoying the summer as members of the "Chicago Blue" team (un-officially the Cubs). There team is doing pretty well. I believe that their record is right aroud 500, but, of course, the important thing is that they are really enjoying it.

"Tiger position"

It is impressive how much the kids have improved in a year. Last year, I think their team only got the other team about about 5 or 6 times. This year, a lot more innings end with 3 outs, rather than the 5 run limit.

Ben and Jack are both doing very well. Jack's favorite position is short stop and he loves to bat. He has great form and consistently makes contact with the ball. The last game, he hit the ball with a little more muscle, which was great to see. During that game, he hit 2 line-drives to 2nd base (the actual base, not the position). I was really impressed...unfortunately, for one of the hits, his brother had singled immediately before him and caused him to be "forced out" at second base. Ben was really disappointed to be called out at 2nd base...it was kind of painful to watch, but that's baseball. Jack still LOVES baseball and talks about it non-stop.

Ben says that his favorite position (of the positions that he has played) is 2nd base. He also has had some really solid hits this season. He even managed to knock one into the outfield in the last game. Ben has a lot of power, but he needs to tweek his form a bit. I think he picked up some bad habits with his form from "cheating" on Wii baseball. ;) I know that I'm his mom, but I think that Ben has the potential to be an excellent baseball player, I hope that he continues to enjoy it.

"Coach Daddy" has also been working very hard as the 3rd base coach and also helps coaching in the outfield. He's really been enjoying being out on the field with the boys. I think he definitely likes this job better than last year when he was the bench coach.....none of the players have asked him to help them get their "pony tail through the hole in the hat" yet this year. I definitely need to go back and add a picture of "Coach Daddy".

I'll end this post with a short video of each of our sluggers...

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Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Go Cubbies!!!