Scenes from Easter 2008

Ducks lost

Easter at school

Mo got a chance to look for Easter eggs yesterday at school - all the parents had to fill ten plastic eggs with some treats. I think they were training for Sunday. I really haven't spoken to the Easter Bunny yet, so we are a tad behind schedule as far as basket preparation. That lazy bunny.

St. Patrick's Day

Saturday brought the annual St. Patrick's Day parade, and quite a few inches of rain as well. I guess you can say it was a downpour, but that didn't keep us from marching down the main drag with our Bonnycastle cohorts. It was one of the few days I get each year where my dear wife overlooks some of my over-indulgences. In other words, she lets me drink a lot and tries not to give me a hard time about it. God love her - she took care of Mojo all day while I prepared and participated.

We really don't have much of a parade presence as a group. We have an old 40's style milk truck pulling a wagon that has the club name taped to the side. What ever members we have on hand walk to the side of the wagon handing out candy and green beads to the on-lookers. It's more fun seeing what other participants come up with, and seeing how many Irish descendants participate in the event (i.e. the Ryans will march down the street, followed by the McCartys, followed by the Fitzgeralds, etc.) Kristin and Mojo watched the parade street-side, but the rain got too much for them. They packed up before I had a chance to see them.

Kristin (my Rock) met the babysitters, Grandpa and Uncle Joes, at our home at 5pm, then met me back at the club, where we had some corned beef sandwiches and listened to a live Irish band. We had a fairly big party of friends present, but there were not so many other members there. I think that made it better - it was like we had our own private party.

Betty's owlspinetree blog does a better job describing the party. We had a very nice time and hope that we can keep this tradition going for years to come.

Last night we had a small gathering at Mojo's Aunt Kathy and Uncle Scott's house for some excellent crockpot corned beef, cabbage, potatoes and carrots with onions. It rocked! Many thank yous go out to them for a tasty St. Patty's Day dinner!

For those family and friends who will not be with us this weekend, have a very Happy Easter. Here's a cute picture of Cousin A and Mojo, and another of Mojo and her constant mess of toys, both taken a week or so ago.

Happy St. Pat's

Down by the Beeeeeee

She actually does it a little better, but there's a lot of pressure when you're on camera.

Enjoy!

Down by the bay

Momo is a singer. She loves music. Last night while giving her a bath I realized she is paying attention to the lyrics. One of our household favorites is the song Down by the bay. I'm not sure of its origin, but I know Raffi made some money by recording it, and we have a Raffi book based on the song, so I'm going to assume he had something to do with it. We sing it all the time. We also play a version sung by children on my car stereo, over and over and over again. We noticed that Maureen kept singing "Bee" which we determined was Bay.
So, back to the bath; I started the song:

Dad: Down by the...
Mo: Beeeee (meaning Bay)
Dad: Where the watermelon...
Mo: Go (meaning Grow)
Dad: Back to my...
Mo: Home (no interpretation needed)
Dad: I dare not...
Mo: Go (meaning Go)
Dad: For if I...
Mo: Dooo (meaning Do)
Dad: My mother would...
Mo: Ayeeee (meaning Say)
Dad: Did you ever see a Goose kissing a Moose? Down by the...
Mo: Beeeee

She keeps surprising us each day.

What a difference a year makes!

Final games of the season

The Ducks suffered two losses last night in a disappointing dartball doubleheader. I had flashes back to grade school kickball as I missed the board several times and felt the hidden grins and heard the soft snickers of my peers. Only this time, my peers were not eighth grade boys, but a group that included a couple of women in their seventies (this does not include my mother in-law.) Based on my performance only, our team name should be Don's Wounded Ducks. Though, I believe my inability to play sports well has made me the humble man I am today-- can you imagine how much more of a jerk I would be if I were athletic? I hope my team spirit and willingness to man the board keeps me from being traded next season. I have time to train over the Spring and Summer months - perhaps we can buy a chicken and I can chase it around our back yard like Rocky did in the movie Rocky. (Or was that Rocky 2?) But, as I mentioned, we didn't need those games anyway as we sealed the deal on winning the prize for the second half of the season.

Saturday brings our fine city's St. Patrick's Day parade and our celebration later Saturday night at the club. Now this is something that I'm good at - drinking and enjoying myself! There's a 60% chance of rain, but we'll have a good time rain or shine. Stay tuned for coverage of the Dartball Tournament in two weeks. Maybe I can figure out how to broadcast it live over the blog. On second thought, maybe not!

Happy Birthday Aunt Chrissy

Today is my sister Chrissy's birthday - Happy B-Day Aunt Chrissy!! The tradition in our family is to call a sibling on his or her birthday and sing the (Happy Birthday) song in our best Grandpa voice. This is not an easy achievement because our Grandfather had a loud, gravel-y voice. I can only get a few "happy birthday to you"s out before launching into a coughing fit. Degree of difficulty is a 9.65. I guess I'm the designated Grandpa these days, or maybe I'm the only one who thinks it's important to keep mocking him in this manner. But its more of a adoring tribute of a mocking, if you know what I mean.
Maureen is feeling much better - she is taking antibiotics to get over an ear infection and a sinus infection, and she is taking drops for double pink eye. She loves the taste of the medicine and asks for more after every dose. We have to wrestle her down for the drops but it doesn't hurt her and she seems unfazed afterwards.

Snowbound

It snowed, by some accounts, up to ten inches last Friday. I came home from work and haven't left the house since. Kristin and Maureen haven't left the house since Thursday. No shoveling, no sledding, no nothing but family togetherness for the whole weekend. We were considering getting Mo out in the snow for some low-impact sled riding, but she had a touch of the crud and we decided not to chance it. She vomited a tad last night and tonight she is oozing from both eyes. It's Sunday night and most of the snow melted off my car, the sidewalks and most of the driveway. I should be able to hop right in the car and drive off to work without much effort (yay, rah!) I think we should have the nice weather to get everything totally melted this week in time for the St. Patty's Day Parade.

Recent photos

Temper temper

Mojo has been throwing a few temper tantrums lately, and has taken a few swings at me and Kristin. She is definitely starting to learn where the boundaries are with us - and we are trying to learn how to deal with a very stubborn one-year-old. They are very hard lessons learned on both counts. Feel free to reply and share some parental bits of wisdom.

Ahoy!

Arrgg!