Natalie's 6th birthday

Big girl turned 6 in June!  Can you believe that?  All ready to start the 1st grade!

She was very excited about cupcakes and ice cream!

 

Grant just eats the icing off of cupcakes, silly boy!

Here's Natalie opening up some of her birthday presents.  And no, she did not get the book "Primal Cravings."  That was Todd's book, ha!

Happy birthday, Natalie!!!  

Sears-Scanlon Family Reunion in Winthrop

In June, Uncle Billy and cousin Scott Sears hosted about 50-60 people at the Sears-Scanlon family reunion.  Todd's mom is a Sears.

This is Uncle Billy's house right on the beach in Winthrop. I don't have the heart to tell him that his current X zone flood insurance is going to change to VE rates when the new Suffolk County maps come out in 2015.  I can't figure out the logic behind the X zone that he's currently in... given where he lives behind a small seawall!

Steve couldn't be there, so Derek stepped in!  He's tall enough and handsome enough to fill the role.

Favorite Auntie Helen and her favorite sons Derek and Darryl, daughter in law Lisa, and crazy cousin Scott along with Helen's grandchildren... Oh and Natalie's in there too!  This is right before Big D got hit by a wave and knocked Natalie's tooth out!  It was loose anyway!  The craziest part was that it landed on the sandy/rocky shore... but like a needle in a haystack, Seth amazingly managed to find it!

Madison, tossing Natalie around in the surf.

It also happened to be Bean's birthday, so they got a big cake to celebrate both the reunion and Bean's birthday.

Natalie is totally ready for CrossFit.  Here, she demonstrates a heavy (35#!) sled pull!  Go Nat, Go!

2013 Gym Show

Natalie was a Supergymstar this year at Planet Gymnastics.  We got some video, but not a lot of pictures.  Somehow we get really wrapped up into watching the show and forget to take pictures!   I guess that means it was a good show!

The theme this year was Broadway!

Here is the inside of the program.  First the kids do a synchronized series of gymnastics moved they learned during the year.  Then they do an obstacle course, showing off more of their moves!

Daddy and Big Boy waiting on Natalie to start her Gym Show.  Grant will get to participate in the Gym Show next year!  Please note that mommy and Ronnie's dad are likely on Facebook in the background.

Natalie, ready to start the show.  She seems really tall here!

CrossFit Northeast Regionals

We had a great time at Regionals this year in May down in Canton at the Reebok Headquarters.  This year, CFNE had TWO teams at Regionals!!!  

Calm before the storm - a view from the top of the parking deck at Reebok.  Place looks pretty sweet.  Regionals have come a long way!

Classic picture of Grant and Natalie in front of the 2013 CF Games sign. Some of my favorite pictures are the ones where the kids are misbehaving!  Not every moment is sunshine and flowers, people!

 

Dave Hamel killing it on the overhead squats.  Dude is a beast, and a super nice guy!

More action from CFNE Team A - Bethany on the ring dips.  CFNE Team A came in 2nd place at Regionals, and CFNE Team B came in 11th!  Admittedly, both teams far surpassed my expectations!  I am in total awe of these people.  They have an amazing ability to push through the pain that others (ahem, me!) don't have. It's part mental, part physical.  They clearly have the physical part (as you can see by these photos) but they can mentally get through these workouts without the "I quit" attitude.

The Sea of Red - CFNE always has great representation at Regionals!  This was a picture from Saturday.  Two of my favorite people in front- Liz and Heather! Love my CFNE family!

Daddy's Birthday

Happy birthday to my honey!

Daddy and his babies on his birthday, which was this year, unfortunately, the day after the Marathon.  He hasn't had very good luck in years past with his birthday (Oklahoma City, Virginia Tech shootings, Columbine, Waco, Boston Marathon, etc.) but we do the best we can to give him a special day!

 Cupcakes and ice cream are a must!

Blowing out his candles with Grant, Pop Pop and Natalie.

It's a beautiful butterfly that Natalie made!

Kiddos helping daddy open up his cards and gifts.  We love you Daddy!  We hope you had a very good birthday!

A Boy and His Grandfather

Love. 

Boston Marathon tragedy

My parents flew up to watch the Boston Marathon with us this year.  They actually came up so that they could watch Natalie during the week as it was April vacation week, but they got to see the Marathon too, since it run pretty close to our house.  It was a beautiful sunny day, and unlike last year, it was a little cool.  We all went over to our friend Matt's house (and Mel's house) like we do every year.  

And like every year, the kids got out the sidewalk chalk and drew pictures for the runners in the middle of the street.

And like every year, the fastest men in the world came running through the Town of Natick on Route 135. 

And like every year, Natalie had a good time watching some of the funny runners (this one dressed as a bee in the background) all dressed up and trotting along.

 But unlike every year, my parents got to enjoy the race with us.  And unlike every year, a couple of crazies decided to leave two pressure cooker bombs in backpacks at the finish line by Copley Square in Boston that went off several hours after these pictures were taken.  It was one of the most terrifying weeks of my life, and it wasn't until one was killed and the other was captured that following Friday that the knots in my stomach finally released. 

Easter 2013

Had another good Easter this year!  Went to church, then went to Helen's house for the big Easter dinner, an egg hunt, and Seth's birthday party!  Can't believe he's 10!

 Here's Grant and his silly face, very excited about getting treats and gifts from the Easter Bunny!

 Natalie was also very excited about getting some books, games and of course, a chocolate bunny!

We snapped about 5 pictures of the kids outside of church this year and this one turned out pretty good.  Aren't they so cute in their Easter outfits from Nana?

Family selfie on our way to Helen and Gordie's house!  Kids are sporting their cute Easter rabbit visors!

And of course, we can't forget a picture of the Easter spread!  YUM!

 

Time for the yearly family photo.  We take one of these every year on Easter.  My beautiful family!

Cousins looking all cute on Easter!

 

 Lauren and her two littlest cousins- they all kind of look alike, minus the hair color!

 It's not Easter unless there's birthday festivities for Seth!  Look at Natalie eyeballing that cake! 

Surprise March snowstorm (aka: Saturn)

A few weeks later, March 7-8, we had a "surprise" snowstorm (called "Saturn" by The Weather Channel).  NWS was calling for 4-8" around our area, and we wound up getting 16"!  The storm was centered well south of New England (off of DelMarVa) but some of the wrap around bands of snow really nailed us.  School was cancelled for the kids and Todd stayed home with them, although his work wasn't cancelled.  Mine wasn't cancelled either, so I drove to the train station and then took the train to work.  When I got back at the end of the day, MBTA hadn't plowed the West Natick parking lot, so I couldn't get my car out!  Todd had to pack up the kids and come and get me.  Later, after they had plowed, Todd brought a shovel and shoveled out my car.  It was a much bigger mess than the Blizzard!!!

Here's Natalie trying to catch snowflakes on her tongue.

Here's Grant in the snow... or, at least the top half of him anyway.  It's amazing he can see anything from under that hat!

The kids got to make a snowman with Daddy on their day off!

Blizzard of 2013 (aka: Nemo)

We got hit with a couple of big snowstorms in February and March of this year.  The biggest was "Nemo" (as The Weather Channel called it- they started naming snowstorms this year, ugh), also known as the Blizzard of 2013.  

It's a blurry pic, but this is what it looks like to be in a blizzard at night.

When we woke up in the morning, this is what we saw out of our slider.

It was really hard to measure the snow though, because of all of the drifts.  This looked pretty cool outside on our front porch.  

 The National Weather Service said we officially got 24", but we had a hard time finding 24" at our house.  Above, Todd measured on the table, and came up with 25" but it's in a somewhat sheltered area between our house and Jean and Steve's house, so it's not the best place to measure.  We measured about 18-20" in many places around our house.

By the big tree, in a more open area, we measured 20".

Todd also measured about 20" right out in front of our house, between our house and Speen Street (but not where the snow plows had pushed the snow).

Our grill is under there somewhere!

This is Ma and Pa Kettle's car buried under the snow.  His real name is Joseph but we still don't know his wife's name.  Todd saw him out there shoveling, and went over to help him.  He thought Joseph only wanted to shovel the car out, which they did, and Todd left after they were done.  Only to find Joseph out there several hours later STILL shoveling!  Todd felt really bad!

Meanwhile, Todd had to shovel a path for the mailman, or he won't deliver our mail- our mailbox is adjacent to our front door so he has to walk up to our front porch.

Once they plowed Speen Street, I took some pictures.  The snow that had been plowed and pushed to the side of the road was taller than I am!  It was a pretty big blizzard but thankfully most of it fell late Friday and into early Saturday so we had the whole weekend to clean up.