Week In Review

It's been an entertaining week for the Brunos, which started on Sunday with dinner at our friend Nancy and Josh's house. It's the first time we've dined together that hasn't been in a restaurant, and they went all out. Josh BBQ'd these huge steaks (which were insanely delicious), and Nancy made twice-baked potatoes from scratch. Even Xander ate one! We'll be seeing them again on Saturday at the motorcycle club's annual dinner at the Heartbreak.

Tuesday we picked up our rental car (our regular car is having some issues at the moment). They gave us a Kia Optima and I'm now doing almost all of the driving because Joe just can't fit behind the wheel. Watching him try to get in the other day was hilarious! Hopefully our car will be back on the road next week sometime.

Wednesday we had dinner at Eli and Krissy's - corned beef and cabbage dinner number one. The kids played, the grown-ups hung out, and Joe immediately became addicted to something called Angry Birds on Krissy's Droid. Dinner was good, and followed up by a giant cupcake made with rainbow colors. It was delicious!

Yesterday was St. Patrick's Day, so there was lots of wearing of the green and more corned beef, just for us Brunos. Joe had it cooking in the crock pot all day and it was delicious! Next year we need to get a bigger corned beef or something, though, because there's not even a crumb left. Xander at corned beef both days, and some potato. I'm so proud of him for trying new food!

Today it's already warm, though we do have a wind advisory. It's a big conference day at work, and Xander normally wouldn't have had school but they used up all their snow days. Sorry, buddy! I've been up since 6am because Joe was snoring so bad I couldn't get back to sleep. It's going to be a long day!

Flag Day Parade

This was our second year of marching in the Flag Day parade - our last one, too, at least for a while because Xander will have aged out of T-Ball next year. For unknown reasons, possibly because people are stupid, we were told to meet in the parade staging area at 5:15pm. That gave all those little five and six year old ballplayers a full 45 minutes with nothing at all to do. So naturally they ran around being crazy, scraping their knees and elbows bloody on the asphalt, and generally whining about how bored they were. Xander spent some time playing games on my phone, but that only helped to pass a little of the time. If we were marching again next year, I'd be getting there maybe ten minutes before parade start time. Crazy!

The marching was okay. Xander was the only kid in T-Ball that was throwing candy. I'd picked up six bags of candy at two different dollar stores and it didn't take Xander long to toss it all out. Especially to all his little friends yelling his name from the curb, LOL! I had to keep reminding him to throw the candy down, not up, because he was hitting people in the face with some of it.

We were near the front of the parade, so once we reached the end we doubled back to the Sunoco, where Joe was sitting. I was surprised to see that he'd been joined by Eli, Krissy and the kids, who had probably come straight from Moving Up ceremonies.

The kids were going nuts collecting candy. Not a lot of people had any left by the time they got to us, and those that did would toss out one or two pieces. For four kids. Not a good scene! But they had fun anyway.

Aislin got excited any time a live animal would go by. "Awww, lookit the horsies!"

Xander kept waiting for his school band to come by, and waved at his music teacher when it did.

The parade in Stamford is a really nice one. It's really long, and a lot of school bands participate. Plus the Hobart Pipes and Drums, which Xander loves. Scotland music, he calls it. And he tells me how much he likes it when they play their "saxophones." What a goon!

Next year we'll get a spot more in the middle, for better candy retrieval, and we'll get to see the whole thing from start to finish. No marching for us!

Mother's Day

Well, another Mother's Day has come and gone. It was a pretty good one for me, considering it involved me cleaning the bathroom, washing the dishes, and cooking dinner. I sure did feel like a Mom, though! And in Joe's defense, I didn't trust him to cook the dinner I wanted to my specifications. Pasta with red sauce and meatballs with raisins. Yummers!

Xander had made me a card at school, as well as a paper-holding-thingie out of craft sticks. Very cute! He spent a large portion of Mother's Day in his room cleaning and hanging up the tons of pictures he's been painting lately.

Joe made me a card, too. And got me Season 2 of Doctor Who (David Tennant, drool!). He had to work last night, so he spent a good chunk of the day sleeping. He also decided to get into the act when I colored my hair yesterday - I was looking to change things up, he was looking to cover all the gray in his beard. Unfortunately, the color came out kind of magenta for him, so he added some of his inky Just For Men black. Introducing Mr. Stripey Beard, LOL!

All in all, it was a pretty good day. I did get to finish one of my library books, and watched Leap Year after Joe went to work. This morning Xander informed me that it was Boo Boo Day so he can do whatever he wants when he gets home from school. Oh, yeah, this should be good!

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!

Happy Mother's Day to all you moms out there! And especially to my own awesome Mommo, my bestest friend!

Easter Weekend - A Review

Easter Weekend was full and busy. And the weather was just beautiful - 80s on Friday and Saturday, 70s on Easter. Here's what we did:

Thursday

Easter Egg coloring. This being Xander, we got the Monster Egg kit that came with stickers, monster hair and pipe cleaners. Xander has gotten much better at coloring eggs - he lets them sit in the water longer so the colors are better, instead of giving everything a cursory dip in his haste to get to the next egg. And Joe likes to do multi-colored eggs, so he was messing around with that.

Me, I did two. One yellow, one blue, and I left them in the coloring until they were nice and bright. No pastel eggs for me!

Saturday

We went up to Xander's school for some Easter activities. There wasn't a very big turn out, maybe ten kids, but Xander had fun. He got his face painted, played on the playground, colored an egg, and colored a picture.

The big highlight was the Easter egg hunt in the gym. He ran around like a crazy boy until he had a plastic bag full of eggs. Mostly hard candy and gum, though, not a lot of chocolate (the good stuff). We left after that, and he got to go home and play with the hose - one of his favorite things to do. After he went to bed I had to finish prepping for Easter morning.

Sunday

Easter morning. Xander got up at the ridiculous hour of 6am and by 7am he was going insane because he wanted to hunt for his eggs but had to wait for Joe to get home from work (which didn't happen until about quarter of nine). The Easter bunny left Xander a picture map of egg locations, and an empty basket to put the eggs in. The eggs were filled with chocolate (the good stuff!) and Legos. And the last thing to find was the Easter basket, which was full of dragon-related toys and a Scooby-Doo video.

My mother-in-law came up for dinner. Xander dragged her outside almost immediately, where he showed her how fast he can ride his bike, and how well he can cast his fishing pole. They also talked about what a grouchy father he has, LOL! (Quote of the Day: "You don't have to be mean to me just because Grandma's here.")

I made a big old spiral honey ham, mashed sweet potatoes, and broccoli. Theh ham came out totally awesome (good thing, since we'll be eating it all week) - Jean loved it so much she was gnawing the bone! Just kidding...that bone went home as an Easter present to her dog Smokey.

We finished up the day with some pictures, Xander feeling sick, and Joe scooting off to work. Now starts birthday week - gah!

Happy Easter

Happy Easter, everyone!!

Hanging With the Peeps

Easter is almost here, and nothing says Easter quite like a Peep. Check out some Peep art from around the interwebs:

We come in Peeps.

Harry Peeper

Random Thoughts on a Wednesday

So, we got our Census form in the mail yesterday. I don't know what I was expecting, but certainly more than just the names, birth dates and nationalities of the people who live in my house. And what's up with the race thing? They asked about having Hispanic origins, but didn't include Hispanic under race. Huh?


It's been nice and warm the last few days - in the high 50s to 60 - but really chilly at night. The result of this is that the puddles in the driveway ice over each night with a thin scrim of ice. Xander loves to stab these with his baseball bat on the way up to wait for the bus. (I know, more violent tendancies. He even calls it "bleeding the puddles.")For myself, I like stepping on the bits of ice that sound like broken glass. Yes, I'm weird. :)


While getting his coat on this morning, Xander asked if he could see Joe's golf hat. I was all like, huh? Daddy doesn't have a golf hat. Xander pointed out the one he wanted, which is the Scottish cap Joe picked up somewhere years ago. I told Xander it was just a Scottish hat, not a golf hat. He informed me that all Scottish people play golf. Good to know! Xander topped that off with a little jig around the foyer.

And finally, I would just like to say Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Valentine Weekend

Valentine weekend was not good to me. I suffered from sinus congestion all weekend, and spent most of my time on the couch reading or napping and just generally feeling miserable. Not exactly the romantic weekend I'd been looking forward to!


But it wasn't all bad. Xander took a cute picture of Joe and I when I was still feeling partially normal. We exchanged our gifts on Friday night, since we had nothing to watch and had gotten each other movies. I got Joe Zombieland (he loved it), and he got me Season 1 of both Roswell and Pee Wee's Playhouse - he has been since regretting Pee Wee because that's all Xander has watched all weekend. LOL! Xander got some Legos and a Batman toy, so he was happy.

We all exchanged cards on Sunday, and then Xander made extra ones all by himself. He's getting pretty good at making hearts! He kept telling me, "I did the best job I could!" I reassured him that he did a great job. Especially yesterday, when he cleaned both his room and the living room. (Can someone tell me how I can get him to stop using the floor as his wastebasket? It's so frustrating!!)

All things considered, not a bad weekend. Hopefully I'll start feeling better soon!

Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day

Hatred paralyzes life; love releases it. Hatred confuses life; love harmonizes it. Hatred darkens life; love illuminates it. --Martin Luther King, Jr.

Happy New Year!

A HAPPY AND HEALTHY NEW YEAR TO ONE AND ALL!


(When I was thinking of a picture to post here, this is the one that popped into my head. My cousin Andy! Took me almost a half hour to find it!)

Christmas - Bruno Style

I'm happy to report that the Brunos have survived another Christmas, more or less intact. The house is still a bit of a wreck but I guess that's to be expected. Ready for an overview?

After prepping dinner as best I could on Christmas Eve, Xander and I went over to Dad's house for lunch and the annual gift hunt (Krissy tells me that her kids don't like it, but Xander loves hunting up gifts). Dad made a big turkey and we all contributed side dishes. Afterwards there was gift opening, and I attempted to get a picture of the cousins together - Xander was being a grump, and I'm not sure what Braden's up to! LOL!

Back at the Bruno homestead, we had our traditional fish dinner. Xander, too - he had one of those frozen kid dinners with fish sticks. And then it was time for our present frenzy. Well, it's not much of a frenzy really because we all take turns opening. Xander was being very helpful by getting presents out from under the tree and reading tags. He was happy with everything he got, even the clothes!

Afterwards we took stock of our booty, and Xander popped in his new Scooby Doo DVD to watch. He's been watching it fairly non-stop since Christmas Eve. Sigh. It was hard to get him to go to sleep that night, he was way too pumped up! And he left Santa a feast - four cookies, a candy cane, and a Ferraro Rocher.

Christmas morning Xander was up at 6:30am (yawn!) and ready for some more presents. (He also got a dollar from the Tooth Fairy, since Aunt Krissy helped him pluck out his other loose tooth while we were at Dad's.) Santa had left Xander his big present under the little tree in his bedroom. But first we had to do our stockings - we all made out pretty well there, I can assure you!

Xander got the Dragon World Fortress that he'd asked Santa for, and played with that and his new Legos for most of the day. I spent way too much time on the floor putting these Legos together into cars and space ships - man did my back hurt!

Another fairly new tradition for the Brunos is for Joe and Xander to get coordinating gifts. The first year it was light sabers - Joe had got one for Xander, and I surprised Joe with one for him too so they could have saber fights together. Last year they got matching blankets. This year I got them a Nerf Dart Tag game, which they played on Christmas morning.

You can laugh at Joe for the helmet, but he needed it! Xander doesn't have very good aim, but lots of enthusiasm. I've played with him a couple of times, too, and I can tell you those Nerf darts hurt when you get hit with them (especially in the face!). We're going to have to get refills...we've already lost a couple darts!

Jean came up for dinner on Christmas Day - my first honey glazed spiral ham, and it was awesome! - and then we just chilled. Lots of napping, lots of reading, lots of playing. I'm happy to report that Xander is at daycare for the next three days; poor kid needs to play with other kids. And I'm back at work. The fun is over for another year, but fun it definitely was!