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Holyoke is about half Irish, half Puerto Rican…. so the Irish Catholic came out strong this weekend, celebrating St. Patrick’s Day.  I’ve never seen a town get this excited about St. Patrick’s Day – which is a strong statement coming from a girl who lived in Chicago for nearly 10 years where they drive the river green and went to a college with strong Irish Catholic traditions.  Today they had a 10k race (with about 6,000 people running/walking) and tomorrow they have a parade.

It was the kids’ first race…. both ran the whole way holding my hand. (Insert huge mom smile here – so proud!)  And our first race since having kids!  I think Jordan’s most recent race was an Elvis run 6 years ago and mine was the Chicago marathon in 2007.

Checking out the competition…

(To be honest, Natalie was angry for most of the 2-min race b/c she wasn’t winning.)

There’s nothing like a post-race re-charge like a cookie!

(Elliott didn’t want to run when the under 4 were running… so I went back with him to join the 9 & 10 year old boys.  It worked out perfect b/c Elliott thought we won… the boys darted in front of him so fast that we had the “course” to ourselves).

Back in the game again!

Jordan ran a 45-min (average 7:15 per mile!) and I ran a 48-min race (average 7:45 per mile).  Not so much slower than my 45-min PR when I was 22.

And the biggest thanks goes to our nanny Alison who watched the kids while we raced!

Life in western Mass….

1. is busy (hence, the no blog for 2 months – working a full-time job in the office 5 days a week in a district turnaround environment… and with a hubby who travels every couple weeks doesn’t lend itself to extra time on the computer)

2. is not as cold as expected (we’ve only had a couple snowfalls – and never made it to a ski weekend.  We opted instead for a stay-cation at a hotel 8 minutes from our house in lovely Springfield)

3. has thankfully included a couple visitors (our nanny Alison’s best friend Caitlin was the first to visit – followed closely by Grandma and then Nana and Pop.  The grandparents have definitely spent a lot of time playing in our basement – the kids fav place in the house.  Basements are a novelty in urban life and they are loving the extra space here)

4. has a lot of donuts (and I’m not referring to Dunkin Donuts like you might expect… but Donut Dip in the next town over.  There’s full-size donuts at church the first Sunday of the month, “Donuts with Dad” every 2nd Saturday of the month at the library, and donuts when people come over for a play date!  After the church donut days, we have the kids run home to burn off the sugar – and because they are training for a St. Patrick’s day road race)

5. feels like a comfortable suburbia (= less traffic, = more space, = safer, = more neighborhoody and less anonymous, = more reliance on cars, = SWING SET THAT DADDY AND POPPY JUST PUT UP TODAY)

6.  is definitely different than Chicago.  (We definitely miss our friends and family in Chicago the most – and some big city conveniences like 10 parks within walking distance, a state-of-the-art gym with awesome group fitness classes many times a day, biking to work.)

We’re viewing our time here as a fun adventure – Jordan has a super long list of places we need to visit in the next couple of years.  Although, almost all of our vacation time for 2016 is booked for trips to Chicago, Green Bay and Alaska (for my baby sister’s wedding in less than 6 mo!)… we’re taking the kids to New York City next weekend!

We are officially in Longmeadow, and I’ve been without internet access for a week.  So, a Saturday date night has turned into Jordan and I working independently on our computers at Starbucks – and I have 9 minutes to post.  So, my apologies for the brevity here, but I go back to work on Monday, so I figure something is better than nothing!!

We had a super fun Christmas vacation in Florida with the Linville’s.

A family that goes to Disney together, stays together…

We all flew into Orlando on Sun 12/20 and stayed on the Disney property (the Contemporary – walking distance to Magic Kingdom!)  We went to Magic Kingdom on Mon and Wed.  I’m obviously a huge fan of the fast pass and the magic hour, where people who stay on the resort get first dibs at the park!  We were able to try out a lot of rides and meet a lot of princesses through these…. Natalie met Belle, Merida, Cinderella, Rapunzel, Elsa and Anna.  (Elliott met all but Merida – he opted to ride the train around the park with Dad, while Nat and I waited in line.)

So great to meet you – I feel like we’ve known each other for years! Wanna come over for dinner?

The kids’ favorite ride was Peter Pan’s flight – they are very into Tinker Bell and Peter Pan, from what they know of Jake and the Neverland Pirates.  Natalie’s second favorite was Its a Small World.  Elliott’s second favorite was Goofy’s Barnstormer.  (He literally went on it 10 times – its the most intense roller coaster a 2-year-old could go on… I see Space Mountain and Thunder Mountain in this boy’s future.  Nat, on the other hand, was pretty upset we even took her on it.)

What do you say? Another Dumbo ride?

FEED ME – I’m hungry!

My favorite time was post-Disney, with a semi-relaxing time in Venice.  (When is “vacation” really a vacation when you have a 2 and 5-year-old?!?)

The beach on Christmas day – we’ll take it!

Meet Clara – my newest, most precious little baby (Thanks Mammaw for the awesome garage sale find!!!!)

You are one cool lady

We always say YES to ice cream!

… but I don’t promise to open my eyes for a posed pic! Come on Mom!

Elliott’s budding language skills are too cute – well, at least to Jordan and me.  Here are a couple of the most recent ones I want to remember…

Last Saturday, the absolute first thing he said in the morning:
Elliott: Chase is on the Case!!! (insert dog panting here – My mom had just given him a little Chase figurine from Paw Patrol the night before and he slept with it)

Before bed, after meeting Belle at Disney World….
Elliott: I really miss she.
Me: Oh, Belle?  Why do you miss her?
Elliott: She really nice.  I wish she didn’t need to go eat lunch with the Beast (which is what I told him at the end of the “ride” to his earlier question of ‘Where she going?’)

<REPEAT ‘I MISS HER’ CONVO 2 NIGHTS LATER, AFTER MEETING ELSA AND ANNA.>

I really miss she

When painting….
Elliott: I really good at painting….. ALL ABOARD.  ALL ABOARD.  ALL ABOARD!!!

This Morning….
Me: Elliott, can I have a really big hug?
Elliott: No, my tummy is really tired of hugging.

When Natalie was trying to just play with me at the beach, saying she wanted mommy time:
Elliott: But I a kid too! (x5)

After hosing the sand off Elliott after a beach trip….
Me: Elliott, how did you get so much sand in your ear?
Elliott (while gesturing appropriately): With my finger!
(There you go, I suppose!)

In the middle of the night when sharing a room with Natalie and an “emergency” arises (aka his pillow slides off his toddler bed/cot)…
Elliott: nat…. Nat…. NAT…. NAT-LEE…. NATLEE!!!!!

When anything doesn’t go his way….
Elliott: I not happy the whole day…. Mama, make me happy.

(This was my earlier response to that comment, which I don’t find cute in the least – it hasn’t seemed to work  yet.)
Me: Elliott, happiness comes from within.
Elliott: Huh? What that mean?
Me: That I cannot make you happy.  You need to make yourself happy.  Like play with Paw Patrol.  Or play trains.
Elliott: Mommy, make me happy

I not happy

Other than the last “I not happy,” I can totally see why parents go for a third…. he is so cute and I cannot believe he’s not really a baby any more.  I’m doing my best to “love every age” (which I think I wrote many times early on in this blog), but its getting harder not to miss the earlier ones too, the older that they get.

God bless 2 weeks breaks around the holidays! 🙂

UPDATED ON 1/2/16 (DATE NIGHT AT STARBUCKS)…

The kids love Paw Patrol, which is a show where 6 pups (Rubble, Rocky, Chase, Skye, Marshall and Zuma) go on rescues.  When they get to pick a TV show, they usually pick that one.  We also have a few books – one book finished with saying “puptacular”.  The kids thought this was uproariously clever. Elliott paid me the biggest compliment a few weeks ago – he said I was a “puptacular” mom. 🙂  Oh yeah!

When Jordan and the kids were playing “Elsa” downstairs and I came down to relieve him…
Elliott: “(Just to) let you know…. princesses don’t toot….. they just have fun.”

Natalie turned 5 on Dec 19th!  Grandma and Grandpa came into town for her birthday (that marks six y ears in a row now!)

Call in the reinforcements – Grandma, can you finish Elliott’s train? Blue please. I’m pretty busy with this coral cupcake.

We celebrated with some friends from preschool at a pottery place – with cupcake decorating of course!  I’m uploading these pics from my phone so they are totally out of order.

Below is Natalie’s bestie Nuala – I anticipate a lot of FaceTime calls in the coming months.  They share a mutual love for Elsa, being creative, little dolls, being silly and arguing over their common interests.

Besties!!!

Before the party, Natalie and I had a relaxing time getting pedicures.  Well, pedicures and hot chocolate.  Well, actually, pedicures, hot chocolate and manicures.

A foot soak with my Mom – so relaxing! We gotta get ready for our trip to FL!

Below are Natalie and her friend Vivi from preschool, along with her adorable older sister Izzy.  

Above is Alison helping Elliott frosting a cupcake – with Natalie and Vivi faring very well on their own.

Um, do we really need to interrupt this cupcake eating for a pic?!?

Take 5. AH! SUGAR HIGH!

We are so blessed to have so many great friends in Chicago – we’ll miss you all!

Friends for nearly 5 years – we’ll miss you Taylor!

Cousins!!!!

While in GB for the weekend, we went to Kids Town. Nat loved it and drew a pic so we would remember it. The things across the top are the princess dresses that were hanging from fancy hooks. The purple thing in the lower middle was a princess makeup stand. The stuff on the side is where we all did foot soaks, got our hair cut (so ticklish!), and did our nails. So relaxing!

From May 2014 ( just never published).

Okay, maybe not, but boy, 14.5 months old is super smart!  He is just learning and picking up things everyday.  It’s amazing how much he can communicate, even with a vocab of 3-4 words (Mama, Dada, Naht and glasses – the last one, my mom swears he said twice while wearing Natalie’s heart-shaped sunglasses).

For instance, he loves his helmet, so he often goes over and points to wear it hangs.  On Saturday morning, it wasn’t hanging there – we had left it downstairs under our stroller port with his red car.  I explained where it was and then he went back over to his play area.  He grabbed his ND baseball cap and brought it over to me.  I was excited that he was willing to accept that as a substitute – but, no, I was wrong.  He insisted on going downstairs to get the helmet – which often then means he gets a ride in his red car (which is what I think he really wanted).  Just he and I went out – 30 minutes, to the park too.  Smart little dude.

Elliott wakes up hungry every morning – and just milk won’t do it.  While I’m getting Natalie’s milk ready or making breakfast, I often give him a few O’s in a bowl.  He has been loving them.  Until this morning.  He went back over to the closet, pointed up until I noticed the Mini Wheats (which his sis and Dad eat often).  Guess who got a few mini wheats in  his bowl this morning too!?!

From May 2015. After watching Cinderella, Natalie has been really worried about parents dying.  The other night, she told me, “If you die before me, I will walk you all the way to heaven and stay with you there, even if I have kids.”

The next night, she was crying for more than 15 minutes about a lost lovey (the 3rd mousey lovey – which we’ve since replaced with other pink loveys) and we talked about how the mousey might be in heaven.  She asked, “How would it have gotten there?  Mousey doesn’t have legs!!!  That’s silly”