A mello weekend in the Boro

Well we pretty much spent the whole weekend in the Boro this past weekend. I've been doing a lot of freelance work to get all the summer work done before my mom, Jim and Anna come to visit June 26-July 13th so I can spend time with them while they are here. So I spent a bunch of time doing that in the early morning while everyone was sleeping and then some more during Nap time. But we did manage to have some outside time to do some outside work and play. Saturday Eddie managed to get a few dead trees cut down and clean up, which he has been wanting to do for a while and Alison and I planted some flowers and played with the sidewalk chalk which she calls her "colors" and all her other outside toys. Later that evening we made pizza for dinner and of course Alison loves to help, but we do have to buy a huge bag of cheese because she puts one handful on the pizza and then one in her mouth, she makes a complete mess, but she has a blast and we don't mind.

Sunday was Father's day but it was kind of junky out so we hung out inside and played for the morning and then ventured out to the stores to get Eddie some dress clothes for his baseball banquet which for some ridiculous reason was scheduled for father's day evening. So he left at around 3:30 for that so it was me and Alison for the night. It's amazing how not being able to play outside for long periods of time during the day really effects Alison's mood. We played for a while but she was just so grouchy so she ended up going to bed on the early side and I was able to get some more work done.

So needless to say it was exactly the most eventful weekend but it was nice to get a bunch of work done and spend some time as a family. Here are some pictures of the weekend.

Alison and her "colors"

her beautiful artwork

A little snack break after planting some flowers

One handful for the pizza...

...and one for me!

Alison's favorite "seat"

Happy Father's Day Daddy

She is getting too big. Look at her she looks like a big girl

Fun in NYC

This past weekend we went to the BIG city for a long weekend trip. We left Thursday morning and headed to a town just north of the City on the Hudson River called Tarrytown. We decided to stay here because it was much more affordable and it was a good way to enjoy the city for the day but retreat back to a calmer setting in the evening, a much more enjoyable surrounding for Alison, which in turn was more enjoyable for us. This girl need grass!

DAY ONE (Thursday) We just hung around the hotel. They had a courtyard at the hotel, so we spent some time out there letting her run around. She did great on the ride down which wasn't too bad, it only took us about 5.5 hours (about 1/2 as long as our trip back to Buffalo) but once we got there she just wanted to run, which I expected, so the courtyard was perfect. After running around for a while we headed to the indoor pool for a swim before dinner at the Cheesecake Factory. It was a fun first day. Here are some pictures from our first day.

Alison at the start of the trip. All smiles!

Alison on the biggest bed she has ever seen.

Mommy and Ali in the pool

Daddy and Ali in the pool

At the Cheesecake Factory.
She now loves dipping her straw in the water and then putting in her mouth. And she actually started use a straw to drink, that was exciting.

After a long day of traveling and a full tummy.

DAY TWO (Friday) We headed to the City on the train from Tarrytown. This was Alison's first time on a train and she loved it. Most of the trip was along the Hudson River so she was able to see her beloved water pretty much the whole trip which was only about 40 minutes. We arrived in the city at Grand Central Station at around 11 and headed to the Central Park Zoo. Alison loves animals so we knew this would be a big hit, which it was. Even when she took a spill and fell right on her face and got a black eye on top of her already blackened eye, she cried for a minute and went right back to enjoying the animals. She really enjoyed the penguin exhibit. There was one that was very interested in Alison and kept coming right up to the glass and looking at her, she thought that was sooo neat. We then headed back out into the park for a walk to enjoy the sights and watch the horse drawn carriages. After the park we headed to FAO Schwarz Toy store. She was a little hesitant to go near the man dressed as a soldier at the door at first but after he sang the Isty Bitsy Spider (with hand gesters and all) she was fine. Once inside she had a blast playing the mini piano, sliding down the slide and coloring with "creamy crayons" in the arts & crafts section. The lady at the crayon counter was a little surprised that we would allow her to play with them and god for bid get them on her hands. She kept saying that she thought there was probably more age appropriate stuff downstairs for her, but we had just come from there and there was only "baby stuff" (2 and under) down there, boring! Alison likes the big kid stuff. The Messier and more difficult the better. After that we headed to the Empire State Building and to Time Square. By this point Alison was definately due for a nap but was having a little trouble falling asleep with all the excitement. So I just reclined her stroller seat a little and let her hold her jacket and sure enough off she went and by the time we were in Time Square she was sound asleep. Here we were in the busiest and noisest place in NYC and she is sound asleep. It's funny what they can sleep through. By this point we were ready to go back to the hotel for the evening so we headed back to Grand Central and hoped on the train back north. She slept for the majority of that ride and was well rested when we got back to Tarrytown. Here are some pictures from our day in the city.

Getting ready in the mirror for the big day in the city

a few outfits later, all ready to go.


Alison's very first train ride. She loved it

As you can tell from her lovely "smile"



Just a quick stop to smell the roses at the Central Park Zoo

At the Zoo

"mommy pola bear seepen"

She had to stop and play a little tune at the toy store

So peaceful...

Surrounded by complete chaos!

Alison's first taste of chip dip. She loved it, just like mommy.

DAY THREE (Saturday) The whole reason we made this trip was to go to a Yankees game. This is the last year of the historic Yankees Stadium and as you all know Eddie is a huge Yankees fan and it was really important to him is be able to visit Yankees stadium with me and Alison. So that's where we headed and of course we get the hottest day of the year. By the time we got to the stadium at 10:30 it was around 96° and really humid. So unfortunately we only made it through Monument park and 3 innings of the game. I spent most of the time pouring water all over Alison to keep her cool and reapplying layer after layer of sun block. So we weren't really able to enjoy the game but at least we were able to see the stadium one last time. After we left the stadium we couldn't get back to the hotel fast enough. All we wanted was AC. Once back at the hotel Alison was wiped out and took a 2.5 hour nap. After that we headed into the Village of Tarrytown for a nice dinner at a local restaurant and some playground time at the area playground that Alison spotted from the road. Here are some pictures of our HOT Yankees game.

Enjoying her beloved "Nack cup" while we waited in line to get into Monument Park at Yankees Stadium.

Daddy in his glory.

Here we are at Monument Park.

The closest we could get to the field

The view from the height of our seats but over a little.

Clapping for her "ankees"

Her new "water cup shoes" in the Yankees store, the only place we could find AC.

Here we are in front of the NEW Yankees Stadium, which is right across the street from the current stadium

The NEW Stadium

OLD (Current) Stadium

Daddy and Ali at Yankees Stadium

One tired girl after a day in the heat.

All rested and ready to go out to dinner

DAY FOUR (Sunday) We headed back to Maine. And much to our surprise Alison only slept for a half hour during the whole trip and spent most of the ride calling for "schoo buses", "mocycles" "big tucks" and "tunows"(aka tunnels, a new word learned this trip) and getting very upset at times when we could not make them appear. That was a blast let me tell you. She would also yell "slow down mocycle" whenever one would pass us, that was really cute. We have no idea were she learned that from. After 5.5 hours in the car we were all very glad to be home.

Home at last!

Daddy's Back!

Well Eddie has officially ended his baseball season at Cheverus. So we finally have daddy back. He really loves coaching but it takes a lot of time and it does put a strain on all of us. So we are glad when the season is over. This weekend was the first weekend since mid April that we had him all to ourselves. Saturday we ran errands all day which turned out to be kinda fun since we were all together. On Sunday we headed to Portland in the late morning to go to the Old Port Festival. That was fun but really crowded. They had lots of great food and live music which Alison really liked. We enjoyed dancing around and being silly, so that was fun. After a few hours there we headed back to the Boro for some outside play. So a relatively low-key but enjoyable weekend. Here are some pictures from the weekend.

Here are some pictures of the "new" hit in our house. Alison's helmets. We got them on friday and have a had a lot of laughs since. And even though we have Alison, Milo's still part of the fun. doesn't he look thrilled. It was really funny because it was like he took on a different personality with each helmet.


Here is Alison With some crazy hair. It's finally long enough to put in a tiny pony tail, which she calls her "tail". And when I have my hair in a pony tail she calls it "mommy's tail". When I ask her if Daddy has a tail she just says "daddy's tail hide'n" I don't know where she got that from but it's pretty funny. But this is what her hair looks like after wearing a tail all day.


Here is old crazy hair using the potty and sucking on her toe. Is she talented or what. She could be in the circus!




Saturday morning I snuck out early to take a few pictures of the Lady Slippers we have in our yard, here are a couple of them. They are endangered flowers, but we seem to have about 8 or 9 of them on our yard. I was so excited to get a few with the dragonfly on one of them.


Happy Ali ready to start the day on Sunday

Bubbles another big hit these days! She doesn't quite get that you can't put the wand in your mouth, so she usually gets a mouth full of soap. She doesn't seem to mind though.


Here she is Sunday have a blast digging in the dirt (which used to be our old garden, but will soon be Alison's sandbox)

That's it for now. I'll blog again next week. We are headed to NYC tomorrow for a long weekend to see a Yankees game so well have lots to blog about.