Wow! What a weekend!

We had a lot of fun between the festival, John's t-ball game, Matthew being baptized, playing in the new pool, the Willowick parade and of course Father's Day! Lots of visiting and meeting new people.

John and James had a blast at the festival. They enjoyed the rides very much. I feel bad we didn't get to go back today, but after the parade I was pretty much tired of being in the sun. We hung out in the pool in the backyard. It is a Little Tikes pool that has a basketball hoop attached. The hoop can be blown up but it is very tricky when keeping the air in it as you plug the plug. At least the backboard stands up pretty good.

Tomorrow starts swimming lessons. I hope this motivates James to get potty trained. This whole process is really exhausting me. I remember with John we had to tell him over and over. With James it is the same thing only James moves at James speed which can be a lot slower that Mom's speed - especially when Patrick is trying to get into the bathroom for a better look. I think I will start adding "James gets potty trained very very soon" to our evening prayers. Maybe he'll get the hint. It seems like we are going through pull ups like water. Maybe we just go to underwear full time - I just don't like the thought of him peeing and it getting my furniture wet and I already had to deal with a bowel movement in the underwear. Not fun. I'm hoping God will help me out with the next two and it goes a lot faster and easier.

Take me out to the ballgame!

We had a great time at the Captains game. The boys were wonderful and I found my monkey leash for Patrick which was a godsend! We got there just in time for the national anthem. Our seats in the handicap section were right behind a mini-concession stand that serves popcorn and drinks - thank you ticket seller man! - and a section away from the bathrooms (my request). The Captains won the first game 7-3. We left after the first 1/2 inning of the second game. Matt showed up which allowed us to stay a little longer otherwise I was out of there after the first game. We won a little cooler because we had the game program with an autograph. We won a beachball perfect for our backyard pool. We got interviewed by the local TV station (Channel 3) about the value of supporting the Captains. Little do they know we have friends in high places so there is a true value to the free tickets and parking! The interview is to air sometime next week. I'm so glad we did it! I hope I can take them again soon!

Ahh peace and quiet

Everyone is laying down right now. I don't know if there is a full moon or what but the kids are getting on my nerves today. John is starting to instigate trouble with James and Patrick and I have had enough! I'm taking them to the Captains game tonight at 5:05pm. I think everyone will behave. Patrick might need some room to move and I'm sure Tom will want to see what is going on. I laid down for a bit as well so I will have the energy for this one.

Today at Target was part fun and part nightmare. The kids were good through BJ's and then we went to Target because Tom needed to finish his bottle he started before we left the house. I bought the kids pretzels and brought in their water cups. They were good until they finished. Patrick was crawling all over and Tom was not cooperating with his bottle. There was an older couple having a coffee and when I went to retrieve Patrick and he started kicking I didn't get the smile I usually get from strangers - it was a look of "it sucks to be you". Thanks. The kids were packed up in the cart and we were off to look at the toys!

I hope this rain moves out here soon! I would like to open up the windows and get some fresh air! I'm tired of having everything closed up. Yesterday was fun even though it was hot. We hung out in the backyard pool. Once I brought toys out for the pool the kids seemed to enjoyed cooling off. Tommy loved when I squirted the boys with a squirt gun. His laugh is a little too familiar - like James and Patrick - more trouble on the way!

Good Weekend

It was a pretty good weekend. The only downers were that Tom was sick and I dropped my cell phone into the sink full of water.

Tom started running a fever Friday afternoon. I really thought it was heat related. He was pretty good (99 ish) on Saturday so we went to our former neighbors surprise 60th birthday party. By the time we got home it was back over 100 and as high as 102 last night. He was pretty good today. It did climb into the 100's but the tylenol did its job. I am taking him to the doctors tomorrow fever or no fever just to see what is up. He has had some loss of appetite as he hasn't been finishing all of his bottles. I'm hoping for a good night tonight. Despite all of these he still is pretty content and talkative.

The cell phone really bummed me out. I was dumping water out of my new soft cooler and I had placed my phone into one of the pockets. I immediately got on ebay and found the model phone I had 3 months ago before I dropped that one in the water. I'm hoping to get it by the end of the week and activated. It will be weird not having a phone let alone I use the clock on it all the time.

We had a great time visiting with our neighbors. The girl I grew up across the street came in for the party with her family. She has 3 boys that are just about the same age as my boys so they had a lot of fun together before and during the party. My boys enjoyed our backyard pool we got out Friday night.

Friday night was actually cool because after Matt got the pool all set up I went out and grabbed some cold beer and it felt so refreshing to drink it after a hot day. I haven't done that in a long long time :-)

Time to get some rest. Taking everyone to the doctors tomorrow will require a lot of strength. I hope whatever Tom is fighting off goes away quickly. I would like to go to the splash park some more this week and Tuesday night the Lake County Captains are playing a double header. I think it would be fun to take the boys. I know John and James will enjoy and hopefully Patrick will be good and watch it too. That will require a lot of energy and popcorn.

Today's highlight brought to you by -

James! We went to the mall. I wasn't sure if I wanted to go to the Farmpark or the mall. They were calling for rain and I didn't want to deal with getting wet when going from the cows to the horses at the Farmpark so the Mall won out. Turns out it didn't rain but we had a great time. I decided I was going to go to Sears and look for some inexpensive "Summer" wear for me. I haven't splurged or updated my wardrobe in god only knows how long. The kids were great while I looked and it helped that I didn't have to look too hard and I knew what I wanted. They even did great in the jewelry store. I decided I needed some new earrings. With all the testosterone flying in the house I needed something girly. The kids played for a while in the middle of the mall. We splurged some more at Disney. The older boys got "Cars" beach towels and sunglasses. We had lunch and we hit the road a little after noon. Patrick ended up falling asleep on the way home - no shocker there. Tom was sleeping too when we got home. I decided I would let James stay up for a littler longer. Lately he has been playing in his room for an hour or two and then falling asleep and being a bit difficult to wake up. He was totally fine until dinner. He was eating away when I looked at him and his eyes were starting to close. I said "James are you ok?" With his eyes closed he said "no mommy, my eyes hurt". Just then his head went forward because he was falling asleep and he hit his head on the table. I felt bad that he hit his head but at the same time I was breaking up on the inside - my eyes hurt - too funny.

Oh that James!

Yesterday my cousin Ashley came over with her newborn son, Matthew John. I will be his godmother when he is baptized at mass next weekend. He was born on April 4th. He is a beautiful baby. I took pictures but I haven't got them off the camera yet but will post them soon. John and Patrick both seemed to enjoy meeting the baby. James was very shy. When Matthew and Ashley arrived James was in the basement and wouldn't come up even though I had his lunch on the table. Finally I went downstairs and brought him up. I think James shyness stems from when Ashley watched him in January and sometimes in February when I had to go to work or take John to school.

Matthew is a big baby. He and Tom are probably just a 1/4 inch apart! After James' nap he came down and asked "Where's Ashley?" This is something he did quite often when she came over in February. I explained she went home right after he went upstairs for nap time. I then asked him if he enjoyed seeing baby Matthew. His eyes closed in a hurtful look and said "he didn't say hi to me." Later in the evening Matt was asking James - "Who did Ashley bring over?" James replied "John Deere" - you see Baby Matthew was wearing an outfit that said "John Deere".

Here are the pictures of the boys:

Good thing they are cute!

The funny thing about are house there is something always going on that I could blog about. Most times I don't have the time or I forgot all the details and don't blog about it.

Today James was napping, Patrick was up after only a 2 hour nap I was holding Tom and Matt and John were watching TV. Patrick went into the kitchen and was quiet. Matt was like where is he? I said in the kitchen thinking I'm enjoying the peace but I better go see what he was up to. I had placed my pizza crusts on the table to cool - normally I do not because of Patrick but today there was a lot of stuff on the counter. Well good old Patrick climbed up on John's chair and I found him eating the cooked crust like it was a large cookie. When I came in he was happily smiling and chewing. Normally I would grab the camera but I needed to save dinner! Here is what my crusts looked like after Patrick got a hold of them:

You can really see in the first picture the mouse like pieces missing.

Later I decided since its a bath night for the kids that they could play in the sandbox. I'm not sure what happened but I'm guessing Patrick dumped some sand on James. Then the next thing I see is James scream and dump sand all over Patrick. That was the end of the time in the sandbox. Luckily I brushed the kids off well enough that the tub did not absorb most of the sand.

Good thing they are cute!