the latest wells family antics

Not exactly what I wanted to do the morning of my birthday, but when your son loves sports as much as mine how could I ask him to skip.  Another banquet.....basketball this time.  Three trophies and he is only 5.  Look at that smile!!  Happy to have my weekend mornings back.....at least until baseball starts.

We had another crazy world wind adventure when my best friend Juliane and I took our four kids to NYC ourselves for the day.  We knew it would be crazy, but it turned out insane.  We took so many buses, train, ferries, etc in one day my head is still spinning thinking about it.  BUT as crazy as it was, it was worth every minute.  We had so much fun, especially getting to spend a whole day with Juliane.  I will never forget it. I love the before and after pictures of the four kids in the two strollers.  That epitomizes our day. We hit the 9/11 Memorial, then Liberty Island and back uptown to Times Square and home to Monroe.  We left on the 9 am train and didn't get back until 9 pm.  So glad these kids had time to get to know each other.  They said their favorite part was getting to see Lady Liberty up close. 

Another new family that we know are the McDonald's.  Richie goes to school with Lukie and Angela is friends with Julia.  When Lukie had his tonsils out we took Julia for a few hours.  We lucked with one of those super warm days so we stayed out ALL DAY and Angela napped in the stroller on the waterfront.  I could get used to this!

We love our new tradition of watching the Southie St. Patrick's Day parade with the Ryans.  It has been two years now, but we hope they keep coming.  This was a special year because we got to meet the newest Ryan girl, Clare.  Maybe next time I will actually take a picture of that beautiful baby......and give her the present we bought her.  Fun day!

St. Patrick's Day on a Saturday meant I would finally have time to make corned beef and cabbage at home.  It came out great, but the real treat was the 2 loaves of homemade Irish Soda Bread.  Yum-o!  I hope to make this (somewhat) of a tradition for the kids.  Chris remembers his Mom doing it growing up.  In typical "my kids" fashion, their favorite part was the cabbage.  I agree, but never would have at 2 or 5. Earlier in the day we took the kids for a bike ride along the Esplanade.  Richie is really getting good on his bike now that he can reach the pedals.  Another plus to his growth this year.  Then we hit our favorite "big kid" playground.  Who needs slides and swings when you can have zip lines and rock walls to climb. Happy St. Patrick's Day friends and family!

With Richie in a new school has come new friends for all of us!  Here is Angela and her new friend Jojo being silly at the library.  Richie goes to school with his sister Natalia and I like to sip coffee at the park with their Mom Julie.  It is a win, win for all.

The Eliot has an assembly every couple of months to hand out awards to each of the kids.  We were all lucky enough to be home to attend and watch Richie get his award for strong ability to develop and write rhyming words.  We are very proud of him because this ability to rhyme words and learn his letter sounds has led him to be able to begin to read!  He also got an award for perfect attendance in January and February.  Kind of ironic since we just got back from a week vacation (not during school vacation).