Mairead's Birthday Party

On August 1, we had a birthday party for Mairead and we lucked out with a totally beautiful day-- much better than last year when we had torrential downpours and backyard flooding! We were very thankful for the weather since we had a pool party planned. Thanks to everyone who could come and to our family for doing so much to make it a great day. The slideshow to the right includes more pictures if you have time to check it out.

My sister, Katie, made an awesome cake for our 'fish' themed party. Mairead loves fish (blub, blub, blub) and when we settle into our new place, we want to get her a little fish tank. Katie had some great ideas for the cake-- how cute are the little fish and bubbles?


When I was little, I had this cute little house and little 'boys,' as I called them, to go with it. I loved my house and my boys (very foretelling) and spent hours playing with them. My mom found the house and the boys, and she decorated the house to look like our own house in Weymouth. Mairead loved her gift and I loved it, too. She won't remember living in Weymouth, so it was such a great idea to make a little house to look like her first home. Thanks, Mom (aka, Nana).



Brian MADE Mairead a little wooden bench and in the back of it, carved a Celtic knot very similar to the ones on our wedding invitations- how amazing is that? I was SO impressed- what a great gift from her godfather! Jack tried to get some of his uncle's beer, but he is not old enough. You should be at least 10-12 months old before having some beer.



Mairead was a little confused by all of the singing and attention, but don't worry, she loved both! She kept repeating, 'birthday' after people said it to her. Very cute.


I love this one of Katie and her godson, Ben. We can't wait for Katie and Steve's little girl to join our family, too!

My mom found this outfit in St. Thomas-- it has little fish embroidered on it- perfect for the theme of the day!

Again- thanks so much to everyone who came to the party. And thanks for the generous gifts- I will get out thank you notes after the dust settles for us. Thanks to our family for the cooking, cleaning, babysitting, etc, that went into getting ready for the party, too. And thanks to Mairead for being such an amazing birthday girl!

Blog slacker

I know, I know... birthday party pictures still have yet to be posted. I have to apologize for not updating very often. Our life is CRAZY right now since we are living half in Weymouth and half in Lowell. We have a lot of work to do in Lowell to move furniture, paint, put in carpet, etc, and our house is Weymouth is FAR from packed. The movers are coming one week from tomorrow, so things need to get done one way or another!!! I promise to be better at updating once we live in only one house.

Some quick updates--
We spent Wednesday and Thursday in Maine with the Estees and had a GREAT time. Mairead loved the beach- she spent half the time chasing seagulls and telling them to 'shoo.'

The boys turned five months old the other day-- where does the time go?

The home inspection appears to have gone well-- here's hoping the P&S is signed early this week.

The bedrooms in Lowell are primed and waiting for paint- we are getting there!

Mairead had a blood draw as part of her two year physical (of course, she hated it). She kept saying, "No, no! No thank you!" How cute and sad is that?

It is going to be a tough week for us since the kids will spend their last night in our home in Weymouth in the next few days. While I am happy to be moving, I am going to be a mess when we put Mairead to bed there for the last time. Not to mention, one of my BFFs (Jenn) is moving to DC next weekend, and I am still trying to find a home for my cat. Lots of goodbyes this week.

Mairead has decided that Ben's name is 'Buddy.' She says, "Hi Jack," but not 'Hi Ben." I think it's because we very often say (to either baby), "Hi buddy!". So, she thinks they are Jack and Buddy, and has said 'buddy' a few times.

Our family is doing SO much to help us and we are so appreciative. I don't know what we would do without them!

Thanks for checking in with us- I will post pictures when I have a chance-- and when I find the cord that connects my camera to the computer...

Happy Birthday- Part 1

Mairead's birthday was on Wednesday, July 29 and we had such a great day! Mairead shares her birthday with our cousin, Michelle; and our friends, Mark and Alysha, celebrate their wedding anniversary that day. My cousin, Katie, has a birthday the day after, and on August 2, Mairead's new friend Brielle was born. Today is my friend Jennifer's birthday, so it was a week of happy occasions!

One of the highlights of the day was when Mairead received a long distance birthday wish from her friend, Will. Will lives in California, but he and his mom called to say "Happy Day-Day" to Mairead. Will has excellent phone conversation skills. Thanks for the phone call- we loved it!

My mom took the boys for the day so that we could spend some time with our special girl. We took her to Davis Farmland in Sterling, MA, and we all LOVED it! I completely recommend it to you other moms and dads- it was a fantastic day! There were animals to pet, swings, play houses, ducks, and a sprayground. Mairead was never so happy in her life-- it was so much fun!

This is the little 'splash pad' at the spray ground and it is an area just for little ones. She had so much fun there.

We did eventually move over to the 'big kid' spray ground, but it's hard to take pictures when water is spraying everywhere! She had a great time running around with the other kids. Toward the end, she had so much water and chlorine in her eyes that she could barely see, but she still kept going!

She also loved the petting zoo area. You know how much she loves animals, so she was pretty much in heaven. Some animals are kept in pens or cages, but some are just roaming around! They were all very friendly. Whenever we walked by an animal, Maired would yell out the sound that they make. There were sheep all over the place, so she was yelling "BAA!" for a good part of the day. She ran right up to the pen where a bull was kept and reached in to touch his face. Seriously- this child has NO fear. One of the staffers was holding a snake that kids could touch. Mairead grabbed the snake and said, "Ssssss." We need to work on being gentle.

When she saw the goats, she just plopped herself down and talked to them. Hey goat... How you doin'? Say hi to your mother for me...

We had such a fun time there- we will definitely go again! I can't say enough about the place- I think we had as much fun as Mairead did!

She's TWO!

We have had a busy and exciting week since my last post- our baby girl is now a two year old! I have tons of pictures to post from our trip to Davis Farmland and from her birthday party. She is exhausted at this point and we are taking it easy today-- some blocks, some Little People, some coloring, etc. This kid has been busy! Today I also plan to write my birthday letter to her. I decided that each year on her birthday (and now the boys') I will write a letter to her so that she can read it when she is older. This year, I'll write about how much fun we are having with her and how beautiful and smart she is. I'll talk about how well she handled the new additions to our family, as well as all of the craziness of selling the house, living between here and Lowell, etc. She takes everything in stride and is the most amazing daughter that anyone could ask for.



Just an update on non-birthday items-- we got another offer on the house and these people seem much less crazy than the first buyers, so we are cautiously optimistic that we will be selling very soon. No matter what, the movers are coming on August 17 and we will officially be Lowell residents. We can't WAIT to live in one place and to get settled. This summer has been nuts- the house showings, baptisms, birthday parties, my oral surgery, a trip to NY, an offer that fell through, another offer, a new job for Dave, and eventually, a new home in Lowell. We have needed and received SO much help and support from all of you. We could not get through all of this stress without our family and friends!

NY Trip Part III, and her last day of being ONE!

First, let me say how amazed I am that today is Mairead's last day as a one year old. Tomorrow is her second birthday! So, today is our last day with three kids under two.... now we will just have three under three... piece of cake. We love our little girl to pieces and are having so much fun with her every day. Of course, I will be posting lots of birthday pictures and some sappy mom comments about how big my baby girl is getting!

For now, here are some pictures of our trip to Adirondack Animal Land while we were in NY. Grandma took care of the boys so that Dave and I could take Mairead and Rachael for a special day. We had a great time! Mairead loves animals and pointed them all out to us, along with yelling the sounds that they make. Ducks were among her favorites... Quack, quack!


She had no fear of any of the animals. If she didn't know what they were, she just said, "Hi, dog." Kind of like Mark Wahlberg, for you SNL fans...


Once again, half the day was spent with Dave chasing after her.


See what I mean about no fear? You can see the top of her little head amongst all of the deer who were vying for some crackers.


Rachael did a great job showing Mairead around and giving her a ride in the stroller. Mairead is lucky to have a cousin like that!

Thanks to everyone in NY who made our trip a great success! I promise to update with pictures of my TWO YEAR OLD soon!

New York, Part II

As promised, here are more pictures from our trip to New York. I still have one more set, but this group covers our day with family and friends at Grandma and Grandpa's house. They were generous enough to host a BBQ for us so that all of the cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents could get together. It was the first time that the twins met most of their New York family, so that was pretty exciting!

We had a gorgeous day and it was so great to see everyone. Thanks to all of you who took time out of your busy summer schedules to spend the afternoon with us!

Mairead loved playing in the 'puddle' with her cousins.


This is Noah- believe it or not, he is not even a year old! He is super cute!



Cousin Rock spent some quality time entertaining the twins.


Mairead found Grandma's Friendship Garden that has millions of rocks to play with.

Mairead and Noah taking a leisurely float.

Nathan and Noah discovered each other's toes!

Aunt Sue was a big hit with the babies. They were laughing their heads off at her.

Mairead showed Grandma her coloring skills.

Then she practiced a little more on her own. She LOVES coloring. She asks all the time, "color? color?"

The boys were incredibly well behaved and very social for the day.

Mom spent some time blowing bubbles with Mairead and Emily.

Again- thanks to everyone who spent the afternoon with us- it was so great to see the next generation of cousins playing together.

4 Month Appointment

Last week, the boys had their 4month checkup at the pediatrician, and they looked great! According to the scale in the office, Ben edges out Jack at 14lbs even. Jack was 13 lbs 15oz, so he is only one ounce behind! Not bad for a baby who was an entire lb behind his big baby brother at one point! They are in the 25-27 percentiles for height and weight now... they still have a way to 'grow,' but at 2 months they were in the 12-15th percentiles, so they are doing great! The doctor was very happy with their development, too. She said she would never even think of looking at them on the preemie developmental/growth charts- they look and act like 'normal' 4 month old boys. Great news!

Just a few recent pictures-- Jack is modeling the cute little pirate outfit that Ms. Pat gave to him.


And here's Ben in his matching outfit. Cute, huh?


And here's more fun with cereal and fruit. Ben has much improved the whole act of keeping food actually in his mouth, so that's good.


Jack LOVES eating. He laughs and shrieks at us the entire time we are feeding him.

I guess all of this eating is paying off- we're so proud our our little preemies! They are a long way from 4lbs 9oz and 5lbs 3oz!