playing in the leaves

When I was growing up, in the fall, my parents would make big piles of leaves and we would jump in them. It was a fall tradition. It has carried on to the grandkids. I think my parents were looking forward to it more than the kids! Eric had never jumped in the leaves before but from what I heard and by the pictures, he clearly had a blast. The leaves were a little wet but it was a nice warm day. Eric was filthy by the time he got home that night but as my parents always say, that means he had fun! He loves going to mem and pep's house because of all the fun things they do with them!



three little pumpkins sitting on a porch...

Eric doing some yard work

Eric and pepe lying down in the leaves

I was told that Eric would go jump on my dad and throw leaves all over him when he laid down

A whole lot of leaves!

Zing Zang Zoom

On Sunday we went to Barnum and Bailey's : Zing Zang Zoom Circus. We weren't sure how Eric would do but he sat through the whole thing and it was over 2 hours long. The only time he got antsy was when the tigers were out because it was kind of boring for him. The circus has changed since I was younger and there are much less animal acts and much more performance based. I wasn't sure how Eric would like that but he seemed to really enjoy it. My favorite part was the elephants. They were really neat.
Here are the elephants!


He sat on Daddy's lap for most of the circus but I got a turn for the second half.


There's those elephants again!

So I was able to get my pictures on the old computer and I should have blogged right away but instead the computer got shut off and now it's giving me a hard time. So I'm moving on for now but when I have the patience I will get those apple picking pictures up!
Moving on... This weekend was filled with birthdays. On Saturday Ryan turned 1 year old. I cannot believe how fast that year went! It feels like just yesterday that we were celebrating Eric's first birthday. Then today we went to Kallie, Eli's sister's birthday party. She was born a day before Ryan in the same hospital. Eric enjoyed being around the other kids at the parties. At Ryan's party he was not quite himself and for some reason kept going after two innocent children who were just trying to be near him. I've never seen him do that so I don't know what that was all about. It seems like now that he's in daycare all week Saturdays are sometimes rough because he is adjusting to being with us all day and yet he gives us a hard time if we leave him even for a minute because he thinks that we are literally leaving him all day. By Sunday it's better and then it's back to daycare. Hopefully he'll get into the swing of things as time goes on.

Sitting at the little table


Very impatiently waitng for a cupcake



I don't think Ryan really knew what was going on. But he knew what to do once he got that piece of cake!

Dylan was looking forward to his cupcake

Ahh finally, a cupcake!

Ryan's house he got for his birthday

So I didn't have the camera to take any pictures of Kallie eating her cake or of Kallie at all. However, I had to run out to the car and get the camera because Eric saw the big boys playing football outside and just dashed out on to the field. Nothing was stopping him, he was on a mission. The big kids didn't seem to mind at all that he was trying to play with them and he had an absolute ball! He's a little obsessed with football these days and I'm a little concerned that the next time we go to Eli's football game he's going to try to run right out on the field!

Cousins

Daddy/Uncle Eric ran the game

I just discovered acorns and they are close enough to balls and I love to throw balls so therefore I love to throw acorns!

Eric and Shay

Yup, in case your wondering, as girly as Shay tried to be she couldn't stop herself from playing football.. in a dress!

Here he is playing with the kids

As busy as this weekend has been I am so bummed that it is over. Last week was a very long week because it was the first week I have worked 5 days since before Eric was born and let me tell you, once I get my degree I will never do it again! Here's what my weekly schedule looks like:

Mondays- work from 9-5:30

Tuesdays- internship from 9 till 2:30 then class from 4 to 8:30

Wednesdays- work from 9 until 3 (for now until I get more hours)

Thursdays- internship from 10-6

Fridays- work from 9-12 and internship from 2:30-5

I wish I was getting paid for my internship because I love it. I saw my first client last week and it was so exciting. I can't wait to do this for the rest of life. It's so night and day from my actual job. At my internship I actually get treated with respect and I have co-interns that I see all the time and an office to go to all day. It's so nice. I'm way more dedicated to it then my job but I have to keep reminding myself that my job is what is paying the bills so I need to not get too carried away with giving more time then I have to my internship.

here I am

So I have had every intention to blog for the last two weeks. We went apple picking two weeks ago and I had brought my camera and when I went to turn it on I discovered the battery was dead. So I thought, no problem, I'll take the pictures on my cell phone. Well as you know I have a new computer and I could not get my cell phone to connect to this computer for the life of me to download the pictures. So I got some technical support. It turns out the version of Windows that I have is too advanced for my phone. So the guy told me that I could connect via bluetooth and then asked if I have a bluetooth connection on my computer. Nope! So if I want to upload these pictures I have to spend $30 to buy a plug in for my computer so I can get these pictures. So the other option would be to text the pictures to my email. Well that would be all well and good if my phone would let me send or receive picture texts these days. So my next quest is to find out why I can't send or receive picture texts. Hopefully I'll get somewhere with that! I am eligible for a new phone at this point but if I get one that does not solve the problem of getting the pictures on my current phone and all the phones I want require a data plan and I am too poor to pay for a data plan right now. So my final option is to turn on the old computer and try to get them on that. I hadn't turned on that computer in a while because it is full of viruses but I could still get to my files on it. So I turned it on, and it's not even working. My screen for some reason goes into power saving mode when I turn it on so I can't even get anywhere with it and everything is plugged in correctly. I don't feel like getting frustrated so I just turned it off. Argh, I can't win.
In the meantime the battery is charged for my camera and I will make sure I have that where ever I go from now on since I can hook that up to this computer!

Marissa's visit

My friend Marissa was up in Massachusetts for a visit so when she is up we are very busy! On Monday (labor day) we went to the Woodstock Fair. It was fun but it was really crowded! After a few hours into being there I suddenly wasn't feeling well. I thought I was just getting overwhelmed by the crowds. When we left and got into the parking lot I felt a little better so I thought getting away from the crowds was the solution... until I got home. When I got home my stomach was bothering me. The next thing I knew I was throwing up from both ends for 4 hours straight. I have never been that sick in my life. I don't know if it was food poisoning or a stomach bug but whatever it was it was aweful. The next day big Eric went to work and threw up in the parking lot and was sent home. He seemed to have completely different symptoms then I had but needless to say we were very thankful for daycare that Tuesday because we were able to get Eric out of the germs and be taken care of.
On Wednesday we were recovered except I had a stomach ache that didn't go away for a few more days. Needless to say I still made room for pizza for our usual papa ginos night. On Friday we went to Wrights Farm and Saturday was a girls night out. It was nice to have her here for my last week before school started.
On Sunday she left and Eric and I dropped the little guy off at my parent's house so we could have a date day. We went to the Highland Country Club in Grafton and ate at the John Henry Tavern. The burgers were unbelievable! And we were able to watch some of the Patriots game. We left at halftime and then went bowling in Milford. It was very expensive but lots of fun. It was the big balls which neither of us had done before (besides on the Wii!). At the end of the lanes they had huge screens with the Patriots game on so we were able to watch the game and bowl! We had a lot of fun. It was nice to have some time together before life gets crazy.


There's that pretty little Savannah with Marissa's mom and step dad

Apparently after our visit to Wrights Sydney declared that she is going to marry Eric Charles. Here she is showing the love!

This was a duck game at the fair. Eric picked a duck and then won a prize. He just wanted to jump in and swim with the ducks!

Eric took Eric Charles on this crazy bus ride. They did it once and then Eric was shaking the gate trying to get on it again so they did it one more time.

This was something that I thought was very cruel at the fair. They had these horses pulling blocks of cement as some sort of contest. It was really not pleasant to watch. But Eric liked the horses at least!

Holy pumpkin!

This was a racecar that you can sit in for a photograph.

I thought it would be cool to get a picture of Eric being put into the car by a man in uniform.

There she is, that cutie Vannah!

Tickle Tickle!

Baaa

I found this part of the fair kind of gross. They just had a bunch of animals in cages and it was smelly and hot in there and there were a lot of people. But the kids loved it!

Happy Birthday Auntie Karen

When I was looking at the pictures that I have on my camera I realized that I did not blog these pictures. For my sister's birthday I cut out a shape of a flower and I had Eric paint it. So Auntie Karen, here he is painting your picture!

my apologies

It has taken me a while to get back on my blog so I want to apologize to all my impatient readers. I had ordered a new laptop and right before I got it my computer got a virus (and I'm not placing blame but it was my husband's fault!). So I have been working on getting my laptop all set up and getting pictures on it etc. But have no fear, I am back. Life has gotten quite hectic lately. I started school again this week and next week I start my internship. I have been really excited for school to start back up but now that it has I am a little anxious to make this all work. I also am starting a new job so I have a lot of changes going on and I am just looking forward to settling into my job, internship and school.
School was great last night. It was so nice to see all my classmates again. We all stay together and take the same classes for the first two years. Everyone is going through similar things that I am and stress and anxiety so it feels good to have the support. My first class was ok. I am looking forward to the reading material because it is all about how to be a clinical social worker and that is my field so I am excited to find out how to provide therapy to clients. Especially since that is what my internship is all about. My second class was a macro class. I loved it not because I have any interest in macro but because I find the professor fascinating. He is the CEO of You Inc, a huge human service agency in the Worcester area. I feel like he has so much to offer us so I'm excited and honored to learn to him. Ok now on with the blogging!