Ohio Healys

A great day at camp

Once again I'm glad that I can be relatively eaisly guilted into doing things that are normally outside my comfort zone, because today it resulted in a really great trip to Pymatuning State Park in Andover. Deb and the girls went out yesterday to camp, and Auntie Judy and I came out with the little ones for the day.

First they discovered the playground.......

Then they discovered the beach.....dummy Momma didn't think to bring swimsuits, but hey, it's summer, they're kids, so they dove right into the lake clothes and all!

This of course resulted in a trip to the camp store to buy them a dry T-shirt while we waited for their clothes to dry so we could finish our adventure....

After lunch, and a quick trip to the laundry room to dry out unmentionables and Dermot's shorts..we hopped in the car and took a quick trip to thePA side of the park to the Spillway. The kids LOVED seeing all of the carp that come to the breakwall to eat bread. We had taken 2 loaves and a bag of old hot dog buns with us, but Aunt Judy still ended up buying 2 more loves.

The kids felt bad for the ducks because the fish were so greedy, and kept trying to get bread out far enough for them to eat... but the compition was indeed stiff.

We headed back to camp to sit for a bit, then did our best to convince Deirdre and Dermot it was time to leave. That was quite a task let me tell you.

All in all it was a really good day.....click the slideshow below to see all the pictures from our big day at Pymatuning.

He loved your gift Katie!!!!!!

Needless to say, both Dermot and his Daddy loved the gift Katie!!!! They played with it all night long.

Unfortunatly, the best fun they had was driving it right into me!!!

I'm almost 4!!!!

Dermot's birthday dinner at Beeka's house was last night. He is so excited to almost be 4.

2008 July

Click the picture to see all the birthday party pictures.

So cute when they are sleeping!

Even when they start off in their own beds at the beginning of the night, they often end up in the same place by the morning. :-)

Happy 4th of July

Another 4th of July, another picnic at Grandma T's house. We started the day with Dermot getting a lesson in how to take apart a laptop to hopefully make it functional again, and ended with fireworks.

Deirdre seems to have a new boyfriend. She and Nicholas were pretty much inseperable. She even asked if he could sleep over. When I reminded her that girls can't have boys sleep over, she enlisted Dermot's help. "Momma, Dermot is a boy and they are friends so Dermot can have him sleep over." If I would have been faster with the camera, we'd have pictures of her batting her eyes at him ...no lie... while she gazed at him during the fireworks. :-)

Quite the day for all.

Click the link below for all the picnic pics.

2008-July 4th

Dermot and his tux

Well, today Mark and I took Dermot to get fitted for his tux for when he "marries" Katie. He was so excited, and looked adorable....I can't wait to see him in the whole ensemble.

These kids love to sing and dance.

Safety Town!

Well, today Deirdre graduated from safety town. I think she had a great time learning all about how to be safe crossing the street and paying attention to traffic lights. Even Dermot got to pretend he was a crossing guard.

Ashten is disabled ....it must be summer!!!!!!!

It must be summertime, because once again she is out of commission for the beginning of it.
Beeka said that she must be tired of breaking bones and decided to step it up a notch so she got mono. I think she would have rather broken a bone. The poor thing is pitiful. Which is obvious by the fact that she was shying away from a picture -- the queen of the self portrait didn't want to have her picture snapped.

She started off with a sore throat, which got to be so bad she could barely swallow, and really swollen glands. They ended up having to put her on prednisone for a few days to try and combat the swelling. That was bittersweet for her, because the swelling went down and the pain dissapated for a few days, but when they wore off, she was right back to being exhusted and in pain.

She goes back to the doctor tomorrow so maybe there will be something they can give her to at least help her throat. Other than that, it's all up to her, rest and fluids. I think she learned from a trip to the park yesterday that like it or not, she'll be homebound for a while.

I'm So Old

There is nothing that makes you feel older then watching your kids grow up. Well, today was a prime example of one of those moments that just drives it all home. Today was Kyle's graduation day, and although due to limited seating we were not able to attend the ceremony, buying a card for his celebration yesterday, and seeing the pictures of him in his cap and gown brought tears to my eyes. It's hard to believe that the little boy that used to pee on me when I changed his diaper is now 18 years old and a high school graduate. What's next for Kyle......only time will tell.

Of course, we really don't need our kids milestones to know that we are getting older.

Is this really us??????????????????????

A Grand Adventure with Beeka

The little ones had a Grand Adventure with Beeka on the 24th. She took them for a ride on Thomas the Train.

They were sooooo excited, they prepared for it for days by watching their Thomas DVD's over and over and over and over. :-) (Fortunatly for Mom and Dad - there is a DVD player in Deirdre's room)

Needless to say the weather was beautiful for them and they had an awsome time.

American Idol Wars

Like most American Families ...well maybe most is a stretch, but a good portion of them anyway, we in our household are American Idol fans. I have to say that this year heated up to the biggest in house rivalry we have seen yet. Early on in the season, both of the older girls just LOVED David A.. They would flip out if anyone so much as breathed loudly while he sang. At some point though, Allie jumped the fence and became a David C. fan. I'm not quite sure when it happenend, but it made for some interesting episodes from that point on. We watched the "sing off", and of course voted. Thanks to unlimited texting, for a while we had dueling texters in the house. Each girl trying to out text the other to make those votes count. In the end I think that Allie won, because she pretty much texted her votes for the better part of two hours.

If that wasn't enough, Allie decided that she needed to step up and support her choice. So she took a plain white t-shirt to school, and had all the David C. supporters she could find sign the shirt with Sharpie's. Below you will see the final result of her efforts.

She of course wore the shirt during the final show right up until the announcement. The babies tried to stay awake to see who won, but thankfully they didn't. Allie and I watched from the living room, and Ashten in her room...I mean we were rooting for different guys after all. I was shocked that the shreaks that ran through the house at the annoucement didn't wake up the babies, much less the neighborhood. Allie with her he won dance, and Ashten with her, I'll never watch this show again lament.
(Let's face it though, the best David won.) :-)

Beeka's Birthday

Last Sunday we celebrated Beeka's birthday along with a belated Mother's Day (as both of MY mothers were out of town on the actual day.)
It was a really nice evening, except of course for the end of the Cav's game.

Ashten's Birthday

It's so hard to believe that Ashten is 17. Where does the time go? I look at the pictures of my newest little niece, and I can so clearly see Ashten when she was just a baby.

I think she had a good day. Her big gift this year was Mark's old cell phone, and she absolutley loved it. She has been dying for that phone.

We had a little birthday dinner for her...she chose subway, and an ice cream cake.

Chuck E Cheese Adventure

Well, once again we are right on top of things around here. Bill had given Deirdre gift certificates to Chuck E Cheese, and she finally got to go on the 10th! Mark and Bill took all of the kids, and from the look and sound of it, they all had a blast......well at least the kids did!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ohio-healys/sets/72157605076228104/

Also, Deirdre is still trying to convice us that we need to drive to Chicago to see the newest addition to the Healy family. I'm not thinkin that she is going to give up on this any time soon.

Fortunatly, Melissa keeps her blog more up to date then I do, and there are some really cute pictures of her on their blog!

Deirdre and Allie sending their love

First Birthday Card!

Allie wanted to be the first one to give Lilia (?) a birthday card, so she made one special in school today!

Deirdre's Birthday pics

Well better late then never. Click the link below for some pics of Deirdre's birthday.

It's hard to believe that she's 5 years old already. Even harder to belive that Ashten is going to be 17 in less than 2 weeks.

The sad thing is that the older they get......the older we get. :-)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ohio-healys/sets/72157604867565097/