Irish football this season has been nothing short of amazing. We completely forgot what it was like to truly cheer, cheer for old Notre Dame, but it didn't take us long to remember! With all the fun of football, what we had really missed most of all was some good ol' tailgating... so back in October, we decided to bring it back, suburban style. We gathered some good friends, through some good eats on the grill, and were blessed with some seriously good weather!
Brigid and Liam, sitting in a tree...
Julianne and Cathleen (get these two some sunglasses!)
Brigid, Liam, and Kara waiting for a pass
Tim getting an upper-body workout
Post-tackle, stealing the ball from Brigid
Kara really gave Liam a run for his money!
A pass to Marc
Cue the "Peanuts" theme... I think Lucy just may yank that ball!
Time out for some monkeying around
Joergen and TJ hanging out inside
The night ended with another Irish victory, and two boys who slept soundly!
Hurricane Sandy may have slowed down our Halloween, but she surely didn't stop it! After a couple of days off because of the storm, school reopened on Halloween Day-- just in time for Liam's first school program and party. Since our township asked residents to postpone trick-or-treating for a couple of days for safety reasons, the festivities at preschool helped give the kids an outlet for celebration... something I think they all needed after being cooped up (in the dark!) for a few days.
I was able to take the morning off work to join in the fun, but with Daddy was still away on his trip, I learned the hard way just how much time it took to get two off-schedule kids up, dressed, and out the door in time (with one in costume, no less) for school. Oh, and never mind getting myself ready for the day! We barely made it in time for a quick class photo before the program began.
The Halloween program was in the school chapel, packed with parents and younger siblings anxiously awaiting the arrival of their 3- and 4-year olds in costume. Pirate Liam proudly came in and took his seat on the floor with his class, ready to sing the songs he had been practicing for weeks.
I stitched together some video from the program... just please forgive my shaky camera, as I was trying to juggle both a camera and a wiggly toddler! But these kids singing their little Halloween songs was just one of the cutest things I had ever heard.
After the program came the "parade". The kids were too adorable strutting their stuff and showing off their costumes for the audience.
That really was enough excitement for one day, so I honestly wasn't that disappointed to have to wait two more days for trick-or-treating. That gave the boys some time to settle back into their routine and to have something to look forward to on a Friday night.
We had to bundle up a bit for trick-or-treating, because post-Sandy weather was cold. Joergen's costume was not the most substantial, either! Our little matey-- wearing his hat!-- getting ready to collect some treats:
I couldn't believe they let me get their picture before we left-- and that they both actually looked at the camera!
Our first stop is usually to Aunt Doreen and Uncle Sam's house, and this year was no exception.
The boys were so excited to discover that two of their best buddies were also trick-or-treating in Aunt Doreen's neighborhood: Raleigh and Kaelyn!
After making our rounds, we returned home to warm up and sort out the haul. Liam carefully checked each wrapper to determine whether or not it was "safe", and all the unsafe treats went in a bag for the Great Pumpkin. His safe pile is on the right in this next photo and was actually much larger this year than the unsafe pile! We were so grateful for our neighbors and friends who put aside special treats just for him.
When Liam and Joergen woke up the next morning, they were thrilled to see that the Great Pumpkin had taken all of their unsafe treats away, and in their place had left them a new Play-Doh set and a Spider-Man toy! They really are champs about saying goodbye to so much candy, and a visit from the Great Pumpkin was an exciting reward.
A couple of weeks before Halloween, Nana and Grandpa came to visit (and to babysit while we went to Jen and Pete's shower... wedding time is just around the corner!). On Sunday, we took advantage of the beautiful weather and spent the day outside having some classic fall fun together. We decided this year's destination would be Sugartown Strawberries in Malvern, and this one will definitely remain on the list for next year!
We got lost in a hay-bale maze:
Posed for some silly pictures:
Picked (and hauled) a great big pumpkin:
Waited patiently for our turn on the hayride:
And then had a blast on our hayride!
After a great day running around the pumpkin patch, we had a yummy dinner at Victory together before having to say goodbye to Nana and Grandpa and heading home to carve that pumpkin.
Joergen was already in bed (what else is new?), so Dad and Liam went solo on the task. The most time-consuming part was definitely scooping out those guts!
Liam really wanted a MAD pumpkin, so we did our best to do just that:
The best part was when we turned out the lights...
...and saw the look on Liam's face!
The week before Halloween, then, was Liam's first preschool field trip to Merrymead Farm, which is actually where we went pumpkin-picking last year as a family. He was so excited! And especially excited that it was an all-school trip, which meant he got to play with his best buddies Emmy and Kaelyn too:
The 3 Muskateers
I took the morning off work to take Liam on the trip and was so glad for the chance to meet some of the other kids and parents that Liam talks about so much every day!
Mrs. Tenney (Liam's teacher), Liam, Joseph, and Liam's "best friend" Neil
The field trip included a trip through the corn maze, which was seriously the most challenging maze I had ever been in. I wandered around that thing for a good 15 minutes, thought I found the way out, and was humbled to realize that I had come back out the entrance. Sigh. At least the kids had fun!
Mrs. Tenney attempted to get a class photo, but these were the only 3 who stayed put long enough to have their photo taken... and even that left a bit to be desired!
On Sunday morning, Anthony left for a 4-day conference at the National Harbor. On Monday, Hurricane Sandy paid us a visit. Yikes!
First and foremost, we are all fine-- dry, warm, and safe. We know we are incredibly fortunate in that regard, as this was one of the most devastating weather events in history for the mid-Atlantic region... and I would be lying if I said this storm didn't scare the living daylights out of me. Between worrying about my own home and children, worrying about Anthony's safety in DC, and then worrying about all the implications for my students and staff at Villanova, I was a nervous wreck! Because Liam picks up on pretty much everything these days, though, I knew I had to keep my game face on.
After Uncle Tim left to go back his base in NJ on Sunday afternoon, I took the boys to campus for an emergency staff meeting to prepare our response plan for the hurricane. I figured this was probably our last chance to get out of the house for a while, and both kids pretty much ran out the door at the very suggestion! They were clearly happy to have a change of scenery, and I was happy to let them run around and play with some of my students for a while.
After the boys fell asleep on Sunday night and as I was busy preparing for an inevitable power outage once Sandy came to town, the phone rang-- Uncle Tim! By the grace of God above, his training program was put on hold until after the hurricane, and he was given permission to leave until Tuesday. And truly, it could have only been divine intervention to have postponed that training, because his program is otherwise utterly relentless! Tim let me know he'd be back at the house in a couple of hours and we would weather this storm together. I literally cried out of relief.
On Monday, the four of us did our best to pass the time while the effects of Sandy began to rage outside. Since we weren't sure how long we'd have power, I let the boys go "swimming" in the bathtub while Uncle Tim supervised (and did his best to keep the water in the tub-- good luck!). We played games and watched movies. We made "dinner" for lunch to make sure we got a hot meal. We were thrilled to still have power at dinner time, so we made "dinner" for dinner too! We watched as the winds and the rain got progressively worse. Then our neighbor's tree, the big beautiful one right along our property line, split like a banana before Sandy even made landfall. So we told the story of the 3 Little Pigs and reassured Liam that the big, big storm was no match for our strong brick house. We maybe even believed it.
After we got the boys to bed (together in Joergen's room, where the noise machine would help drown out the sound of that awful storm!), Tim and I headed down to the basement to check for any water damage. The walls in the utility room were a little damp, but otherwise fine. Tim found a little puddle of water on the window sill, which I snapped a picture of to show Anthony later:
and then...
Blackout.
We made our way back upstairs, lit a candle, and just stared at each other. The storm screamed outside, and we decided there was nothing left to do but just try to get some sleep.
The next morning, I woke up at dawn to check the basement again (dry! hallelujah!), and went back to sleep. The boys slept in until 8 am, which is a miracle in itself, and we went downstairs to survey the damage. Poor Ms. Susan's tree took another hit-- unbelievable!-- and there were roof shingles all over our back yard. I was pretty sure they weren't ours.
The power was still out, so we got busy keeping busy! We checked in with family and friends, and after learning that Aunt Doreen's power was in tact, we ran some stuff over to her fridge. We made up some games to help burn off energy indoors. Behold the Game of Lap:
Joergen spent an impressive amount of time throwing beer koozies down the basement steps (this pic was taken the day before when we still had lights, but the game continued relentlessly throughout the outage):
We snuggled for warmth under blankets:
We did many, many other things too to try to stay busy. We played balloon volleyball. Liam and I made an outfit for "Bony", his toy dinosaur skeleton, who was cold without heat (!). We struggled and strained to put together a puzzle in the fading daylight. We sadly said goodbye to Uncle Tim, so grateful for his help and our time together.
At dusk, I packed up our pajamas and toothbrushes, took the boys out to dinner (Liam: "Look Mommy, Old McDonald's has lights!" Ugh. Desperate times...), and drove in a rather roundabout way to avoid all the closed roads to Jen and Pete's house for our nighttime routine. The boys fell asleep in the car on the way home, and I returned home to find our porch light on. Our power, and most importantly our heat, had been restored. Thank you PECO!!! I am in awe of the way they've been working to get everyone back up and running, and couldn't believe ours only took a day.
On Wednesday morning, life began to return to normal... for us, anyway. Back to work, back to Aunt Doreen's, back to preschool. Oh, and Happy Halloween! Ms. Susan's poor tree is still a mess:
While I was making breakfast, I noticed the guy who replaced our roof 5 years ago walking around the yard, completely unprompted. He came by just to check on us and our roof and make sure we were doing okay. He confirmed the roof shingles weren't ours and said he'd come back next week to secure a loose something-or-other on the side of our house free of charge, and then plucked every one of those shingles from our backyard and took them away. He's amazing.
And best of all, Anthony came home that afternoon! Normalcy is a blessed and beautiful thing. I handed him the kids and crawled into bed.
We were truly lucky to have been so minimally impacted by the storm, and just pray for all those who are now working to put their lives back together-- especially in New York and along the Jersey shore.
Dad's birthday was last Saturday, and we were blessed with beautiful weather and a whole day to spend together to celebrate!
His number one wish for his special day was for us to go to "Boo at the Zoo" at the Philadelphia Zoo. We had never been before, and learned an awful lot about what we'll do differently next time. (Lesson 1: Go Earlier!!)
Liam and Joergen were excited to try out their Halloween costumes for trick-or-treating at the zoo. Well, let's be honest here... Liam was excited, perhaps enough for the both of them! Joergen was just a good sport.
Before we left, they were kind enough to let me take their picture on our next door neighbor's front steps. With Hurricane Sandy on her way, we weren't sure we'd have another nice day for a picture anytime soon... and as it turned out, we were right!
When we finally got to the zoo, we were stunned by the number of people there. How did we not see this coming?! We had to park literally a mile away, and the zoo was crawling with kids of all ages in costumes of all kinds. Liam was especially excited to see Iron Man, Batman, Superman, Super WHY, and many of his other favorite superhero friends.
Captain Liam, ready for action!
First Mate Joergen
It didn't take long for Liam to make a little pirate friend. They excitedly greeted each other (although they had never met!) and immediately brandished their swords for a friendly fight:
We enjoyed a picnic lunch at the zoo, and with Joergen distracted by his apple slice, I even got him to wear his pirate hat for a minute!
Liam practicing his most ferocious pirate face. ARGH!
On our way out of the zoo, we stopped to pay our respects to the hippo mural-- and Liam offered him a toothpick:
Back at home, we were super-excited to have a special guest join us for Dad's birthday celebration... Uncle Tim! He got the weekend off from his crazy training program and was able to come stay with us for the night. We went ahead and gave the boys dinner, and then we all gobbled up some of Dad's traditional birthday treat: pumpkin pie! This was my first attempt at an eggless pumpkin pie... and it was awesome. I'm not kidding, folks, this stuff is the real deal. It even passed the Dad Test with flying colors.
Make a wish!
Liam, Uncle Tim, Joergen, and the Birthday Boy
Team Derry
We were so happy to have Uncle Tim there with us!
The birthday celebration continued after we got the little guys to bed. We ordered a bunch of food from the Cheesecake Factory, turned on the Notre Dame game, and did our best to keep the screaming and cheering to a minimum so as not to wake the boys. Notre Dame 30, Oklahoma 13! The Irish are 8-0!!!
Now seriously, Anthony... what could be a better birthday present than that?!?!
