March Madness

"Oh cute baby!"

Working from home just got sweatier.

Spring is in the air but snow is still in the parking lot.

Just hangin' out.

MOMS Club friends.

I swear they are related.

Early morning bowling fun with friends, kids, and coffee.

The path from the library to Dunkin Donuts is clear ... ish.

Jamtime fun for the littles.

Jillian!

"Mommy!  I find Olaf's nose!"

Dance party with baby Ollie

Jas went to NYC for a meeting and got a great picture of Manhattan

Birthday Boy

Elliott insisted weeks ago that she wanted to get Daddy a big giant water gun for his birthday.  I TOTALLY forgot about this conversation until yesterday when she was leaving for school and started teasing him about how she got the BEST PRESENT EVER.  Emergency Target trip!

We had another celebration with the Massaros!  Love friends that will swap around kid sleeping arrangements for unplanned family sleepovers!

SO MUCH SNOW

As I write this, it is snowing. AGAIN.  Here are some pictures of the SNOWIEST WINTER EVAH.

We did so many creative things with food coloring ... that we ran out of it.

J had to shovel a moat so Scout wouldn't jump over the fence.

E had SEVEN snow days in three weeks.  We did ALL of the crafts.

Not a big fan of Magic Mud.

This was my view for several days/weeks.  I couldn't help with any of the snow removal and we had FEET of snow on the deck and the roof -- and two giant ice dams causing our ceiling to leak. Jas is a snow-removal rock star. We had to have the driveway plowed several times to keep up with the accumulation -- I don't think that pile will melt until July.

J and E found a big huge sledding hill!

A giant truck pulling a yacht to the boat show in Boston got caught in a snowbank and tied up traffic for several hours outside Jas' office.

Activities

I think we have a good amount of organized activities on our calendar these days.  Both of these girls like all of the activities (except soccer - but we are going to try again) so it is easy to overschedule them -- I've tried to keep our afternoons less busy because E is in school so much that it is nice to just have time to be home or go to the library or eventually go OUTSIDE TO PLAY.

WILD ballerinas

Throwback to E's very first day at ballet three years ago -- she and Annie are still in class together!

The little sisters hanging out during ballet.

Comedy in drama class.

Elliott the Melting Ice House!

Mystery Trip ...

We are coming up on out TENTH wedding anniversary! Crazy how fast that happened. Several months ago, Jas had me mark this weekend off as a mystery weekend away.  The only clues he'd give me were that we were flying (domestically) to a 60 degree location and we were going out on both Friday and Saturday nights.  We packed bathing suits, sneakers, and "fancy" clothes ... my guesses were all over the place and he kept the secret all the way to the gate at the airport ... Denver or BUST!!!  OK so I know that sounds like a weird destination, but it has some history: when I was on maternity leave with Elliott, we seriously considered moving to Denver -- J even went out on a town/house-hunting weekend. Over the last 5 years, three of my very good friends (and bridesmaids) have relocated to Denver. Also, Marc Cohn (one of my favorite singers) was performing a concert outside the city.  See below. BEST. HUSBAND. EVER.

Blocking the screen during check-in so I wouldn't see our final destination.  It was about 5:40am so I was not really noticing any details anyhow ...

Did I mention we flew first class?

SEVENTY DEGREES AND SUNNY. Lunch outside please!  AND Jas shaved his beard! YAY!

He told me we were meeting Carrie for a drink before we had dinner.  Little did I know (mainly because they both LIED to me), Brooke and Krissy came, too! And THEN they all came to dinner, TOO!

10th anniversary celebration with 3 of my bridesmaids and their men. :o)

FANCY ASS ROOM WITH A VIEW.

And now to the original point of the trip (all the rest was just gravy). When I was a teenager, the second CD I permanently borrowed from my dad's prolific music collection was Marc Cohn's self titled debut album (the first was Pink Floyd's "The Wall" and the third was Annie Lennox's "Diva" - although that one might have been my mom's). That Marc Cohn album was on perpetual repeat every time we went to Wellfleet and I used it for dance class with Miss Patti as a teen and as dance team warm up at BU whenever I could. I played "True Companion" for Jason shortly after we began dating 15 years ago. We were supposed to dance to it at our wedding but I forgot the CD in the car at the airport (whoops!). Today, it is one of my go-to Pandora stations while making dinner.

This weekend I had the privilege of seeing Marc Cohn in concert from the FRONT ROW of a very small venue in Colorado. We had a perfect view of his hands on the piano. It was magical. And the best part? The handsome man to my right who planned the most thoughtful 10th anniversary trip EVER. I hit the jackpot with this man. Love.

My dad didn't drive a silver Thunderbird but I'm pretty sure he was singing along from his little green Miata in the sky. 

OK so I know I ooh and ahh and coo about how much I love my husband a lot (or at least I think I do -- do I? I mean to.), but every word of it is true.  I am so so so lucky to have him.  Where do I sign up for another ten years?  I'm in.