Mother's Day and Beyond

Last Sunday was Mother's Day, and we started off the weekend by going to breakfast on Saturday morning. We went to the Pantry and we all got some delicious food before taking the trio to Home Depot to make tulip holders. All three of the kids got to make one, Helena gave hers to Grandma Murphy after picking out a purple flower to put in it. Katie picked out an orange flower and gave her project to Grandma Huddas. Seamus got Mary a red flower and gave his holder to his Mommy. When we got home Grandpa and Grandma Huddas came over with their trailer, and Grandpa, Seamus and I went to pick up 4 yards of wood chips and two bags of sand (for the sand box). After about an hour or two of work Grandpa, Helena and I went to get 4 yards of wood chips and two more bags of sand. Our estimate of materials may have been a little off. We proceeded to work outside on landscaping the entire day, but we got it all done, which was nice. The next morning we woke up and gave the kids a small breakfast before giving Mommy her card we made for her and going to church's Mothers day breakfast and service. After church we went to visit Grandma Murphy and Grandpa Murphy at their house. The kids had a good time visiting and playing with Uncle Ed. After we got home,the kids relaxed to a movie. We ate some dinner and Mary and I worked on filling out the forms for the kids playing soccer in the fall. At this point the kids were running around and playing, and poor Lena was running through the kitchen and talking to Katie. She wasn't really watching where she was going and ran full speed into the cabinet. She had a huge bump on her head that oddly was the shape of an ice cream cone. After a lot of tears, some ice, and singing songs she stopped crying. We checked her eyes with a flashlight and asked her how she was feeling a few times and decided we didn't need to take her to the "head doctor" like Lena and Seamus thought we would need to. After a weekend of having Katie and Seamus make it through extended excursions without potty related accidents, Mary decided to step up the training for Helena. Mary made Lena a chart where every time Lena uses the potty, she gets a sticker. After 5 successful potty trips Lena gets a prize. Lena's first prize was to get some toes painted purple. Katie got her nails painted pink as a prize for waking up dry. Lena's second prize was Mickey Mouse sand toys. It seems to be working because she is filling that chart up with stickers. After a long week of work where Mary had some meetings for late nights, we finally made it to the weekend. Saturday Mary went to Uncle Steve's graduation from U of D Mercy. After a morning cooped up in the house on a rainy day the kids and I met everyone at Dave and Buster's for dinner. After we ate we were successful enough in winning tickets to get a Princesses and Tinker Bell pencil case for the girls and a Buzz and Woody 'Toy Holder' (lunch box) for Seamus. Today we went to Great Lakes crossing to get some shoes for the kids. Katie went up 1/2 a size to 9 1/2, Lena went up 1/2 a size to 8 and Seamus went up a whole size to 9. We stumbled onto a good deal at the Sketchers store and found a good deal at Kmart and ended up getting six pairs of shoes today. On the way out of the mall Helena wasn't watching where she was going and walked right into a sign at Burlington Coat Factory. I think we discovered who the accident prone one is...


Seamus showing Mary where to read the card to him, Katie and Helena


Helena showing off the lovely picture of me on Mary's card


Helena's Potty Chart


Helena a few days after her mishap

Easter 2011

Easter Sunday, like many other holiday's for us, was quite the busy day. We woke early so Katie, Seamus and Helena could look for their Easter Eggs hid around the house. That Easter Bunny is so tricky, so it took us about 15 minutes for everyone to find all their eggs. The eggs held such treasures as jelly beans, chocolates, bouncing balls, money (5 moneys to be exact)and stickers. The Easter Bunny also got Seamus a little toy car and the girls Minnie Mouse hair ties. After the egg hunt, we ate breakfast played, and got dressed for church. One big difference this holiday is that we had one child who did NOT wear a diaper the whole time. Katie pretty much decided out of nowhere about 4 days ago she wanted to use the potty, so she has been ever since. After a brief church service of over two hours, we got our baskets blessed and headed to Grandpa and Grandma Huddas' for Easter lunch. And believe it or not, the Easter Bunny left the trio Easter baskets to find there too! We all then ate traditional Easter food and introduced the kids to the game Rock Band. Katie, Helena and Clay played the drums, Uncle Steve and Seamus played guitar, I sang and Mary walked away to get away from my voice. We sounded great! After we Grandpa and Grandma Huddas' house we made stop #2 of the day at Mary's Aunt Carol and Uncle Pete's. We all got to see some of Mary's family we don't get to see very often, and the kid's were excited to see Aunt Kathy Soup for the first time in a while. After that we went to stop #3 to see Grandpa and Grandma Murphy. There we got to visit with Conner, uncle Tim, Uncle Ed, Uncle Dan, Aunt Kathy and the rest of their Murphy Kids. After dinner and too much desert it was about time to get home. It's always nice to see so much of the families on the Holiday's, but it completely tuckers out the kids. Who am I kidding, I think it tires out Mary and I more. Everyone fell right to sleep after we got home, and Katie impressed us by having no accidents through all of our stops in just Big Girl Underpants! The next day I was off work and got a relaxing day at home with the trio. That day Katie and Seamus both went the whole day in underpants with no accidents. Seamus was such a big boy he even woke up dry after nap and bed time! Maybe by the next holiday all of us will be potty trained. My God...it will be beautiful.


Helena, Seamus and Katie looking for eggs Easter Morning


Helena with one of her Easter Eggs


Seamus with his Easter basket


Katie with her Easter basket


Thank you Easter Bunny!!


Seamus finding his Easter basket at Grandpa and Grandma Huddas'


Drew and Clay helping Lena find her Easter basket at Grandpa and Grandma Huddas'


Katie finding her Easter basket at Grandpa and Grandma Huddas'


Seamus eating his chocolate bunny


Katie eating her chocolate bunny


Lena eating her chocolate bunny

Good Friday

Drew and Clay Dyeing eggs

Today we went over Aunt Becca's house to dye Easter eggs. Clay, Drew, Katie, Seamus, and Helena all had a great time while Uncle John did his best to sleep in the other room since he worked last night. Sorry John! We attempted to do some decorating but I think we all ended up with more dye on us than on the eggs. Aunt Becca set up an Easter egg hunt for the kids too!



Dyeing Eggs



Egg Hunt

In other big news... about a week ago Katie decided that she was going to be potty trained. Since then she's been going on the potty non-stop and has only had one accident since last Saturday! I wish Pat and I could take the credit for it but really it's been all her. She just decided she was ready. She's been so excited to wear her princess underpants! She even wore them the whole time at Aunt Becca's today. Way to go Katie!!! Now if we could just get the other 2 on board. Seamus is good about going if we force the issue. He rarely initiates wanting to go on his own. Helena on the other hand, still wants nothing to do with potty training. I told her when she turns 3 she'll need to be potty trained and she told me she'll wait until then. The little stinker!

Road Trip

This last week was Spring Break for Mary and I, so we decided to go see Aunt Kathy Murphy in North Carolina. In fact, we have had this trip planned since around Christmas. We left on Saturday morning to start the first leg of the trip, needing to get to Charleston, WV where we booked our hotel room. We took about 9 hours to get to the hotel because it seemed every time we stopped, whether we had to buy food or pre-packed it, it took us an hour to get back on the road. The kids did really well in the car, good thing we had our DVD player to entertain them when there was a long stretch on the road. On Sunday we drove into Charlotte NC, to Aunt Kathy Murphy's house! All three of the kids wanted to drive straight through the night (Seamus even offered to drive his car the rest of the way), so they were very excited to be there. We got the tour of the place, set up the air mattress and the trio's sleeping bags and pillow pals, then spent some time relaxing on the veranda(balcony). The next morning we woke up to find that Helena ended stealing half of Aunt Kathy's bed. Later that day we all went to a drive through safari called Lazy Five Ranch. Helena acted like she was scared of the animals until we took them out of their car seats so they could climb all over Aunt Kathy.


Seamus, Helena and Katie trying out their sleeping bags


Seamus, Helena and Katie relaxing on the veranda


Emu at the ranch


Water Buffalo at the ranch


Llama Face at the ranch


Giraffe at ranch


Katie and Aunt Kathy at the ranch

Afterward we went to lunch at a fried chicken and biscuit place called Bojangles. We had to keep it authentic southern, before heading back to the house. Aunt Kathy was nice enough to cook us all a delicious dinner for the 2nd night in a row before we gave the kids a bath and put them to bed for the night. The next morning we woke up and found that Seamus raided the Aunt Kathy bed during the night. We then luckily got stuck in traffic after stopping for bagels on the way to Hilton Head Island. We were lucky because it brought us a different direction and we avoided a massive power outage that closed the roads that we were going to take. We then spent 3 days right off the ocean in a sweet suite with 3 balconies all facing the ocean. We walked around the beach when we got there, and the kids had fun finding shells, sand dollars and avoiding beached jellyfish. The next morning Seamus woke up at about 6:30 in the morning, so he, Mary and I checked out the sun rising on the ocean. That day we went to see a Light Housein Harbor Town, and stumbled upon a nice area with shops and restaurants called the Sea Pines Plantation. The last day we were able to spend some time in the actual ocean because the weather warmed up enough. The kids brought their sand toys, and Katie built a princess house from sand, Helena was finding shells , and Seamus made a Sponge Bob house. Really they all were just filling their bucket with sand and water. We then managed to run and play in the waves until they were freezing. They then got a second wind to swim in the kiddie pool before we had to head back to Aunt Kathy's house.


Aunt Kathy, Helena, Seamus, me and Katie putting our feet in the Ocean on day 1 on HHI


The Family on the beach


Seamus, Helena, Aunt Kathy, and Katie looking for sand dollars


Sun rise day 2 at HHI


Morning in the hotel room


Portrait time at the beach


Seamus and Daddy at the light house


Helena and Aunt Kathy at the light house


Katie and Mommy at the light house

When we got back to Charlotte, NC Aunt Kathy had a lot of "help" making desert and then dinner. After we ate, the kids had a bath and watched a bit of a movie before bed time. The last day at Aunt Kathy's house, all three of them ended up in the Aunt Kathy bed. We then started the drive home. The kids watched "Toy Story 2" and "The Little Mermaid" for the fifth time each on the way home. We made one final stop in Dublin, Ohio to sleep. Before we drove the rest of the way home, we went to the Columbus Zoo. We spent a few hours checking out the animals and aquarium before we headed home. It was a lot of time in the car, but we had an amazing trip visiting Aunt Kathy Murphy (they all called her by her whole name the entire week) for Spring Break. Aunt Kathy will be coming to visit in the end of May, so we have a tough act to follow.


Aunt Kathy and the trio starting desert


Apron Time


Finishing desert cookie


Last Morning in NC


At the aquarium in the Columbus Zoo

Bowling and the Moon

This past week we celebrated St. Paddy's Day and Pat's 32nd birthday. Every year his sister Debbie and her husband Pat have a big St. Patrick's Day party at their house. This year was no exception. Lots of Irish food and beverages later, a good time was had by all. The kids especially love getting to spend time with their cousins. Many of the Murphys were missing this year due to a nasty case of the flu going around, but those of us who were there had a great time.

Celebrating Pat's birthday at home


The next day, which was Friday Seamus had another CT scan down at Children's Hospital. Both Pat and I took off work to take him. Every time we think we're about done with that place we get a phone call from his doctor saying she wants to check something else. Thank God Seamus was super good! He stayed so still that they were able to do the scan without having to knock him out. That saved us hours this time around! He was starving since he couldn't eat the morning of, so we stopped to get him some breakfast. It was weird with just the three of us at the restaurant but I think he enjoyed all of the special attention. He even got a coloring book and a toy school bus from the nurse before we left the hospital.
Friday evening we took the kids to go watch Pat play in his indoor soccer game. It's not something they normally get to do since the games are normally really late. This one was an 8pm start so we figured we'd risk it. They had a good time hanging out with Aunt Kathy D and Mrs. Trakul. By the time we got home though, we had 3 super cranky kids.
On Saturday the kids bowled for the first time in the GCU Junior bowling tournament. We knew most of the kids who were there including the Hycki boys, the Swanneys and Dorothy. It was a lot of fun and they all got trophies. Drew actually won the "big" trophy for the 2-3 year old boy category and Margie, George, Fred, and Dorothy won for their age categories as well.

Acting silly at the bowling alley


Getting the trophies


The "Big" winners


Katie, Helena, Seamus, Clay, Drew, and Chris

As of today we have 11 days until we leave on our big trip to see Aunt Kathy Murphy in NC. All of us our getting super excited! Pat and I can't wait to just get away for a few days. We haven't gone anywhere on Spring Break in years and since it's not actually at Easter time, this was the perfect opportunity. The only other exciting this that's happened around here is that we had a really cool looking moon the other night... Here's a picture!