Happy Easter 2011

We had fun taking pictures with a live bunny today!! Well, saying it was fun could be a little bit of a stretch. I always get a little apprehensive about going to get family photos these days. The last few times we've gone, Vince was an absolute crazy man and never did anything we'd want. I know, I know, he's almost three... that's what he's supposed to do right? test the limits...

Well today was another banner day of trying to get good photos. Vince was literally running around our little photo studio non-stop the whole time, crawling under the photo back drop, hiding behind the photo back drop, dragging the photo back drop, running into other peoples photo shoots, running out the door of the studio. It was exhausting to say the least. I totally broke out into a sweat at one point. Not something you want to do at a photo shoot, although it makes me laugh out loud to think about it now. Bribing him with lollipops barley even worked!! Nevertheless, we managed to get some cute shots.

Vince and Zoë were enthralled with the little furry puff ball but you'll be happy to know they pet her very gently (with much guidance). The bunny however, kept taking little nibbles of Zoë's tights.... slowly getting more bold until attempting to take bigger chunks each time. Luckily she didn't bite Zoë's little toes!




more to come on our Easter Festivities......

Racing Weekend

It's been almost 7 years (what!?.... where has the time gone?!) since I convinced Mike it was a good idea for us to participate in running a marathon. But when I think back on the days of training, and then running that day, the pains and aches come back as if it were yesterday. We ran our 26.2 miles at Cape Cod on Halloween. Runners were dressed up in colorful hats/outfits, and some supporters took on particularly interesting roles in their costumes: I can still remember as clear as day....this guy that was dressed up as the devil at the bottom of one of the hills. He had the red horns, the red tail, the pitchfork.... the works. As I passed by him getting mentally ready to jog up yet another hill, he waved me by and introduced the hill saying "enjoy, complements of me".... yes, he certainly was the devil!

That marathon was by far the most physically and mentally taxing challenge I've ever had. After it was over, we laid on the couch like jellyfish for the next... well.... couple of years! I never thought I would really ever want to run again.

That being said, I recently signed us up for a 5k run to get us motivated to get into shape again! With Mike planning his first Appalachian Trail hike this summer (with plans for every summer until he finishes it!), we figured it would be a fun way to exercise.

Life at the Silvestro household is of course not complete without our neighbor Mary, so naturally she got roped into training and running the 5K race too! She trained with me as we practiced running around the neighborhood, and has proven to be a loyal and positive running buddy. This was Mary's first race too, and although in the end we decided our goal was to simply finish the race..... she had so much fun running that now she has set her sites on not only running a marathon but winning too. You go Mary!

Here we are on race day

Mike took on the extra challenge of running with the stroller, pushing our personal little cheerleaders. As we started running, Vince kept yelling "go Daddy go!, go Mommy go!, go Mary go!"... soo super cute! And Zoë was just her chilled out little self in the back, waiting to get noticed every once in a while by a runner or walker. There would be the ceremonious double take as they realized "Oh my! there's a second little one back there! How cute!".

During our "training", Mary and I hadn't actually run the whole 3.1 miles that the 5K would be, but we were so pumped and excited with the crowd that we ran the whole thing without walking. We were pretty happy with ourselves. The after party had tons of kids activities, including face painting. Vince got a train and Mary got a butterfly.

Is it me or does this picture look like a budding romance?! So adorable!

Vince helped get the rest of the runners fired up during their last couple minutes in the race, giving them high fives

So will this 3 mile run eventually lead to another marathon? Easy answer: no way. I do think we may try and do every 5K race within a 50 mile radius of where we live though! It was all so much fun!

P.S., anyone want to do this run with us in June? Kyleigh's Cure is a fundraiser for a little girl that lives down the street from us, she's a brave little girl battling an extremely rare life threatening disease.

Our First St. Patrick's Day Parade

Living in Boston since 2004, it was about time to experience my first St. Patrick's Day Parade. Of course we forgot to take our camera, but I did get a few shots with my phone. It didn't do the day justice .... but here you are:

Zoë is asleep already with the first band going by

Vince had the best seat for the parade, my friend Emily happily obliged

Zoë and Scott sporting their Irish wear

We decided not to drive so we could avoid the parking wars. What I didn't realize was that walking from the train to my friend's house would be like traveling through a war zone anyway. I wish I would have taken pictures of the crazies that came all dressed up in bizarre green outfits to celebrate St. Patrick's Day. People were marking their spots for the parade with not only blankets and chairs, but also by letting go of bodily fluids from both ends, .... as many parade watchers had been celebrating way early for this parade! Lot's of green beer! the largest line I saw while strolling down the street was about 2 blocks long. Here I was thinking, "oh, people are waiting to get into that cool looking bar". No, it was a liquor store that people were waiting in a 2 block line to get in! That's when I knew it was going to be an interesting day.

The parade itself was really fun and family friendly, Vince got thrown lollipops and green beads so he was as happy as a clam. It was walking back to the train after the parade that will perhaps live vividly in my memory for as long as I live. We hung out at my friend's house for about an hour or two, and then figured it would be 'safe' to walk to the train. Well... the crazies were all still out on the streets, and they had about 2-3 hours worth of more alcohol in them than when we had walked through them before the parade. It was the most entertaining walk I think I've had. Zoë got hit on by various shady looking twenty something year-olds, Vince gathered a following of his own little girl tribe that thought he was so super cute..... I only feared for our family once or twice really.... oh yea, and was a little nervous that our stroller tires would pop due to all the broken glass we were rolling over on the side walks and in the streets.

Then we approached the train station and started hearing a crowd chanting 'Yankees suck!'. For those of you that don't know, this is sort of like the mating call of drunk Bostonians trying to find other drunk Bostonians, to get together and make little meat head Bostonians.
As we turned the corner and the train station came into view, we saw a few poor cops trying to hold off the chanting crowd from going down into the subway. Apparently there were too many people down there already and the platform was full, so they wanted to wait until a few trains went by to thin out the crowd. This is when I did actually get a little nervous. Picture us standing in this crazy loud group with Vince and Zoë in the stroller. We decided to see if the elevator had anyone waiting, and when it didn't, we jumped in. A few crazies saw us and jumped in the elevator too, but they turned out to be ok. We get down to the first level and it's actually not as scary as I thought it would be, although the cops said they just broke up a fight on the platform... and I looked over the rail to see a crazy green mob scene of people waiting for the next train. That's when I had to stop Mike.... there was no way I was going down there with these kids! It totally looked like a zoo down on the platform. We waited for one train to go by, and although I felt like that didn't help at all, Mike wanted to brave the lower level and try and get us on the train. Too make matters worse, after that train went by, the cops up on the street level started letting the 'Yankees suck' crowd down so it got more loud and obnoxious on the platform.

To make a long story short, we made it home safe and sound, and got into a train car that had relatively normal people, and we even got plenty of seats. It turns out I grossly over estimated the decision making skills of a large group of drunk party goers-as they all pretty much stayed in the middle of the platform and were trying to stuff themselves in crowded train cars-while the end cars were pretty empty! ... to our advantage. Will I do this parade again next year? heck yes!

Vince's Special Magic Trick

The video below is just further proof of how biased parents are towards ordinary things that their children do. Here's Vince doing his "special magic trick"....which consists of nothing more than him shaking his butt around, taking blind punches into the air, and hopping around like an injured kangaroo.... and yes, we think it's the greatest and most entertaining thing ever. If you can't see the video, click here

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Our Little Girl Is Growing...

...but thankfully not too fast. Here are a few highlights from the last week.

Zoë in a swing for the first time! There's still some snow on the ground, but it was warm enough to go outside.

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

If you don't see the video, click here.
Here's Zoë having fun while eating. Well, it was fun for her. No food was harmed in the making of this video.