Bob's Birthday

Bob's birthday loot

This Saturday marked the end of the flag football season. Our league did a field day with six separate events rather than playoff games against one another. Afterwards we had a tailgate and Bob handed out the medals.



48 Viking cupcakes, I felt like a Patriots traitor!




The flag football princess




End of season tailgate




Medal ceremony



Showing off their medals to each other

Party? What party?

We celebrated Bob’s birthday on Sunday with a trip to The Patriots Hall of Fame and dinner with his family at The Olive Garden.



Can you spot the rookie?




Dad and Matt



 It was a great weekend spent celebrating!

October Weekending

"Hey Mom, you should go to college to become a cheerleader. You would not have to work much except during Patriots games. And you could just wear your underwear!" Matthew told me this during a Patriots game. In his unprejudiced mind I could totally become Patriots cheerleader in my underwear or anything for that matter if I went to college for it. Currently his plans are to go to college to play goalie for the Bruins and to divide his time teaching and being a police officer during the off season.

Speaking of football Matthew had a special guest coach this week – his Grampa! Bob’s assistant coaches couldn’t make it to the game this week so Grampa helped out in a pinch. 

This past weekend there was a library sale and I gathered my pile of books for the winter plus some armloads for the kids. We didn’t have any plans Saturday night so we built a fort with blankets to read in. I wanted us to enjoy some chocolate chip cookies too, that were still warm from the oven, but that turned out to be a bad idea like the time I decided that we should eat pancakes on the beach. This time instead of sand getting everywhere it was little chocolate covered hands.

Naturally I’ve been coercing the children into doing Halloween crafts. I’ve used our ghost shaped cookie cutter on everything from sandwich bread to pancakes. Matthew and I made some spooky Play Doh characters and Sammy and I painted pumpkins. 

It was nice to spend a weekend at home unwinding and making messes.  

Hello October!

There are pumpkins on the stairs, paper bats in the window, and a scarecrow in the yard. That can only mean one thing – it’s October! This past month flew by fast – here are some of things that we have been up to: 

·         Bob and I celebrated our fifth wedding anniversary!

·         Matthew is mayor of our town. No, not really, it just feels that way because everywhere we go in town he runs into someone that he knows from either sports or school and a quick errand ends up in a play date.

·         Sammy is growing a third tooth on the top of her mouth – which makes a total of 2 ½ teeth.

·         Matthew comes off the bus everyday with stories from kindergarten. He is learning about Johnny Appleseed and the ‘school way’ of writing letters. At a sleepover with Grandma and Papa he showed off his Pledge of Allegiance knowledge by reciting it for them repeatedly.

·         Sammy is ear infection free for the first time in a LONG time!

·         Matthew went to his very first Patriots game with Bob. He sat and watched the entire game without getting antsy and they had a blast cheering for the team.  

·         Sammy is saying new words like, “Good Girl” and “Go!” She loves shaking her head ‘No’, riding her rocking horse, and dancing by stomping her left foot 

·         We have been enjoying our favorite fall recipes like harvest soup and pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. 

This is our busiest time of the year – we still have apple picking to do and pies to make, a trip to Vermont planned, plus lots of football and Halloween plans. We're ready to dive in and to enjoy the chaos!

Go Vikings!

Let me set the stage for you. The Vikings (our team) had lost the first three games.  Our team is young, consisting of nine kindergartners and three first graders compared to the other teams which have a larger number of experienced first graders. Our team is prone to crying spells and crankiness. This week we were schedule to play a tough team. At the end of our last game we had seen them warming up with their coach shouting in their faces. 

Look at this nice coach telling his team how proud of him he is

“We need a win,” I told Bob after the last game. I could definitely see an improvement in the team (fewer tantrums from the players as the weeks went on) but moral on the sidelines was starting to dip. The parents were finding it tough to keep their eyes from wandering to their smart phones during the games as the other teams scored a bunch against our gentle handed defense.  

Getting into positions

With this feedback, plus some other feedback from moms stating that we were glad he was not like some of the other coaches we witnessed, (one coach called his team ‘Flag Scavengers’) Bob rallied. He ran a tighter practice with defense drills and backwards running. I heard a lot of giggling coming from the typically gentle handed defense as they ripped the belts off the offense.

 It was overcast and chilly after a night of rain on the day of our fourth game. We had team pictures scheduled at seven in the morning so by the time we got to the field at eight-thirty it felt later than it really was. The Raiders were taller than us and their coach had them play set positions. After each play he barked at his team to line up with their toes behind the line. Bob rotated the kids to different positions so everyone had a chance to be quarterback. Instead of doing all running plays as we have been in the past, he rotated in some new ones like a wide receiver reverse and a couple throw plays. We got the first touchdown of the game on one of the throwing plays. 

In it to win it

 “What’s the one thing we don’t do?” the coach bellowed at his team of five and six year olds. “We don’t stand around!” The kids looked defeated by his words because they had not been standing around; our team had simply outrun them. Their team scored twice in a row before we scored again but our team was catching onto the idea of pulling off the other players flags just like they had done in practice. We scored a bunch more times when we were on offense too. “Use your monster flag fingers!” Their coach shouted to them while Bob opted for positive reinforcement in the form of fist bumps and praise to his team. 

Matt's celebratory dance

Our league does not keep score but judging by the number of touchdowns it is clear who the winning team and losing team is by the end of a game. This was our big win of the season, the game that we will look back on and remember that this was the week that the momentum of the team shifted and the kids really began to understand the game.

Boston is a Busy City!

Written by Bob

"Boston is a busy city!" Matthew exclaimed as we emerged from the Back Bay subway station into a sea of people on the Boston streets during the morning rush hour. He would alternate between saying "Boston is a busy city!" and "Boston is an amazing city!" for the next ten minutes.

To get a jump start on our summer vacation week, I also took the preceding Friday off from work to take Matthew into Boston. He was all smiles as we rode the commuter rail from Grafton to Boston.

Our first stop of the day was Fenway Park for a tour. We got to walk around much of the stadium, including the Green Monster seats. Matthew listened very diligently to the tour guide and shouted out "100 years!" when asked how old Fenway was. For the rest of the day, he re-told the story of Ted Williams' 502 foot home run that hit the straw hat of a man who was (supposedly) sleeping in the bleachers. After the tour was a trip to the souvenir store where Matt eventually relented on "needing" a $80 jersey and settled for a $15 helmet instead.

After Fenway, we ate lunch at Matt's favorite fine dining location - McDonald's. Then, it was on to the Green Line subway and on our way to North Station, home of the TD Garden and Sports Museum. When I was a kid, the museum was in the Cambridgeside Galleria, but it has since moved to the Garden. Matt was very excited to see the jersey of his favorite player, Tim Thomas (he refuses to believe that Thomas doesn't want to play for the Bruins this season).

We also saw a Rajon Rondo made out of Matt's favorite toy (Legos), and a bobblehead as big as Matthew holding up the Stanley Cup.

The highlight of the museum was the behind-the-scenes arena tour. We got to go into the visiting locker rooms for both hockey and basketball. Matthew was once again a great listener, and learned that the biggest locker in the hockey locker room is for the goalie because he has the most equipment, and the biggest locker in the basketball locker room is for the star player so that he can hold post game press conferences at his locker without spilling into his teammates space. 

We got to walk onto the arena floor, where the ice was covered and the crew was still cleaning up from an Aerosmith concert the night before. Matt got to see the banners hanging from the rafters, and pretend he was a hockey player crashing into the boards. We also got to see the Celtics' basketball hoops and parquet floor in storage under the arena.

After the tour, we took a quick trip to the Cambridgeside Galleria to get a birthday present for Mom, and then it was time to take the train back home. As the train pulled away from South Station, Matthew said "This is a wonderful day and I earned it!".

PMC Kids Bike Ride

Matthew rode is his first PMC Kids Bike ride this weekend. 

 He was nervous to ride his bike at first but once he got lined up with all the other kids and saw that a police car was escorting the riders he peddled fast to keep up. Once he got the hang of it there was no stopping him. There were also games and swag bags for the kids plus a family cookout. 

When it was time to leave Matthew did not want to stop riding. “You can ride your bike at home,” we told him. “But I want to ride my bike with lots of people watching,” was his response. 

Thank you to all of our family and friends who sponsored his ride!