First things first, in the last post I had a picture of a lurching lighthouse that walked in the St. Patrick's day parade. I couldn't quite figure out what the significance was so I started asking around. Come to find out there is a teeny tiny light house between Jamestown and the Mainland that had been deactivated back in the 1940's. Apparently it has friends that rely on donations to for upkeep. So naturally they decided a great way to advertise was to have a "float" in the parade with absolutely no information period to clue in the drunk public. The light house is 53 feet tall which is still tall, but not compared to the almost 200 feet of the standard light house. Just to give you a visual:
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| Basically just the top part of a normal Lighthouse |
Anyway, moving on. I had been wondering what back story was on this stump of a lighthouse every time we cross onto the mainland, so two birds - one stone. I am sure you were sitting at the edge of your seat wondering just what was the deal with that scary lighthouse in the parade! Mystery solved. Well, maybe not solved, but at least semi-explained. Or rather, all you are going to get. Ok, next...
Easter! That is what is next! The kids were gearing up for Easter like it was Christmas. Are we decorating? Is there presents? I was trying to lower expectations by casually saying I hoped the Easter Bunny got our change of address card, and when the kids said they hadn't sent him one well, let's just say I took advantage! hee hee
First thing we had to do was dye the eggs. Normally I am firmly in the "dye the eggs in your underwear" camp. Keep in mind that was when we lived in Florida. Not really an option here in Rhode Island. So I figured we would give it a shot clothed. It worked out. Although the kids did end up with brightly colored arms and hands. I had boiled the eggs earlier in the day. Before going on a long run, I asked Jim to turn the pot off cover the eggs once they began to boil. That is it. When I returned from said run, I found the eggs in the pot in the sink - no water. When I began to put the eggs back in the carton I couldn't help but notice that several (read almost half) were severely cracked. When I questioned Lilly about it, she said that daddy drained the water. So I asked Jim why had he done that when I had very clearly asked him to turn the heat off and cover the eggs. No mention of draining. He said he thought he was being helpful, first mistake. So I asked him just how he drained the eggs and of course he said he just tipped the pot over and poured the water out. (HEAVY SIGH) so off we go to the store for another dozen egg. Thanks honey!
Seriously though, we had a nice Easter. Lucy was the first one up and promptly announced she had been outside and didn't think the Easter Bunny had left any eggs. Lucky for me she had not looked in the refrigerator to check for the ones we had dyed so I had some time to run out and hid them. Jim couldn't believe she remembered that we did that before anything else, mainly because he had forgotten that we did that before anything else! So while he distracted them, I did a quick job of hiding the eggs without being seen which is no easy task in a house that basically is all windows on one side. That done, we led the kids outside in order for them to find the newly hidden eggs. Of course we had the annual She-Found-More-Than-Me fight, which is always nice. Ahh, nothing like tradition. So after we pried the kids away from the candy - we were ready for church. We were trying out a new church, not the best time to do that, but hey you get what you get and you don't fuss a bit right? All in all it wasn't so bad. We weren't told we couldn't come back, so that is good. Afterwards we had some friends over for an Easter Egg hunt in the back yard.
I think it ended up being about 20 kids and we basically just dumped a bunch of eggs in the backyard and let them go. We divided up the ages into divisions and whomever found the most eggs in their division got to have a hollow chocolate bunny. Cheap, but effective. I had also purchase a bunch of candy bars for the adults to do a candy bar search, but as is generally the case, I got stuck in the kitchen and it never really happened. So on top of the candy that was in the basket, we also had 15 full size candy bars in the house - NOT GOOD!! In addition to the candy bar hunt that didn't happen, we had grand plans of doing an egg toss in keeping with the fabulous Easter afternoon we had spent last year at our friend's house in Niceville. However, we weren't really feeling it with this group, so we nixed it.
The next week found us packing up our meager belongings and moving into our real house for this crazy year. Thankfully Nanny (my mother Susan) volunteered to fly up and help out. We have been so lucky that she has been able to help us with almost every one of our moves since we returned from Arizona. And we don't even have to pay her! Usually nephew Ward helps out too, but since this was in the middle of the year, he couldn't miss school even though he graciously said he would. Thanks for the sacrifice Ward, nice try.
Nanny and I had a half day to take in the sights of Newport before the dirty work of moving began. So I took her to see one of the Mansions in Newport. We decided on the Breakers. It was the "summer cottage" of the Vanderbilt's. Not to shabby! After seeing this house and of course the Biltmore, I have come to the conclusion that these people had more money than sense (way way more money). I told mom she had to make additional trips up in order to see any of the other 20 or so Mansions on the tour. Back to work!!
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On a side note, the game was great!! Cold, but great. Sox didn't win but everyone had a good time - well not Jim. He spend the entire time in the bathroom. We stuck around for the singing of "Sweet Caroline" because the kids have been singing that basically non-stop since our arrival in February. They can't wait to go back. Lucy was bummed because she didn't see any "Cracker Jacks like in the song." Cotton Candy seemed to lessen that sadness.
Our hotel in Boston was really cool. I did not get any photos, but we are going back in June for a few days so hopefully we will get to do some sight seeing. We took the subway to the game and if you ask the kids what was their favorite part they are bound to say riding the train. There is a train that basically rides around Newport and Ben BEGS to ride it EVERY time we see it. Eventually he will catch us at a weak moment.
Thursday morning we are up early to get Nanny to the airport. Afterwards we are going back up to Massachusetts to visit with Jim's cousin Patty and her family. Jim is still feeling pretty poorly and I beg him to call his cousin and at least give her a heads up as to what is going on with the viral situation. He says he is "sure she will want us to come anyway". Yeah, right. We take our time getting there, make a few stops at some Outlets which are a complete waste of time to do with the children. COMPLETE WASTE OF TIME! All we end up with is a bad mood and no one buys anything. I had one mission to buy Lilly a bigger size jacket and I was unable to do so. I had left my purse hanging on the back of the dinning room chair at home and so I had no money, no id, no credit cards. The outlet is only about 30 miles from our home, so maybe I can carve out some time to get back up there without anyone. Jim realized later on that we could have gone back to Fenway Park to take a behind the scenes tour of the stadium. Us and about 60,000 of our friends. While it would have been cool, as you will see in the next paragraph - probably a good thing we didn't do it.
About ten minutes from Patty's house we hear the unmistakable sound of someone puking. Not really wanting to turn around, we discover Ben has succumb to the bug! GROSS!! There is nothing worse then trying to clean up puke in the car. Lucky for me I had packed additional clothes for all the kids and had plastic bags and plenty of wipes. We get him cleaned up (and more importantly the car) and continue to Patty's house. As we pile out of the car, Jim tells his cousin what has been going on and he actually uses the phrase - full disclosure! Seriously. Neither I nor the kids have ever met this particular cousin and Jim had not met her husband or seen any of their children before so this was going to be a huge test of her hospitality. She graciously allowed us to stay and we settled in for what we hoped would be a vomit free visit. Ben rebounded nicely and was up and running around so maybe it wasn't the bug after all. A little later he was standing on the deck getting ready to go in the back yard and BAM! Another explosive episode. I plead with Jim to cut the visit short. I fear I am not making a good impression on his cousin. What kind of mother would allow her sick child to play with others. Jim even let Ben get in the hot tub! Boy oh boy I was on pins and needles by this point. But Ben holds it together, thankfully. Lilly on the other hand gets out of the tub and immediately pukes! Ok, let's do a review - Lucy, Me, Jim, Ben and now Lilly. Yep that is all of us! No one left to get it but Patty's and her family. So I am helping Lilly get cleaned up - that is basically all I did was clean up puke all day. I notice that Ben has laid down on the couch and so I go over to find out if he feels alright and he pukes all over Patty's couch! This is the last straw! I completely loose it. Ben has gone through all of the extra clothes and now we are dipping into the box of clothes that Patty is giving us. I am MORTIFIED!! Allow me to reiterate - I have never met this woman before in my life and two of my children have puked (one multiple times) and now all over her couch and floor. Needless to say Jim finally decided that yes, we should leave - you think? It was unfortunate because I really enjoyed talking with Patty and the kids, in between puking, seem to be having fun with their cousins. Thankfully there are no pictures of that visit. Hopefully next time.
I call Patty the next day to again tell her how sorry I was we ruined their couch/floor/day. I also wanted to see if anyone in their house had gotten the bug. Thankfully they seemed to have been spared! So we go about unpacking boxes the rest of our spring break until Sunday afternoon Lilly comes inside and for some reason I look at her stomach. She has about 20 bumps scattered about. I ask her if they itch she says no. I go through the normal questions of where have you been, bug bites, blah blah blah. All answers pass the sniff test, but I just have an uneasy feeling. So instead of taking her to school on Monday we go to the Doctors. The Doctor takes one look and says "Chicken Pox". I just start laughing and then I realize that he is not. What?! Chicken Pox?! Are you kidding me?! They had to do a blood test to be sure - which Lilly was a trooper doing by the way. We still don't know for sure because it can be up to 2 weeks before we get the results back but just to be sure - no school for the week. So I am on the phone to Patty AGAIN to warn her of the possibility that we no only left a serious stomach virus floating around her house, but also the Chicken Pox. Oh yeah, she really wants to spend more time with us!
After three days I take Lilly up to the school nurse to let her take a look at the Pox because they aren't scabbing over, more like fading. She says send her back to school. YEAH!!
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| Poxy |
Indoor soccer wrapped up the last weekend of April. There were no great pictures, but I will share the lest blurry of the ones I have.
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| Lucy was by far the most aggressive player on the team |
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| Lilly really enjoyed playing Goalie |
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| Ben with the power shot |
On a final note for April, (I have kept you from your life for TOO LONG) I will leave you with a nugget that was one of my favorites. Jim and the kids decided to hang up a swing in the tree in the backyard. Of course that meant someone (not me) had to climb up in the tree to get the rope on the branch.
We have a 5 rung step ladder (useless for most purposes) so I was curious of how he planned on getting down. His response was "the Fire Department". The kids of course agreed. Instead we chose the not at all safe and certainly not something we would want the kids to do much less see option of standing the before mentioned step ladder on top of our metal patio table. I swear I could see Lucy's little brain positively whirling with possibilities.
Until next month.
