Piano

Better late than never.  We're spending more time now at the "Summer House" on Townsend st.  It has taken some time to get the facilities up to par.  The camera has a firewire port and the only computer that has a firewire port does not have wireless network card and this house doesn't have CAT 5 in the walls.  In the end I've got it working and I have access to that new fangled intra-webs now.

My grandmother decided the girls needed a swing set and oddly enough the girls agreed.  As if I didn't have enough projects on the my plate - but I have to agree the girls would enjoy it.  Gram wanted me to go out and get a cheap set at Kmart.  I didn't know they were still in business, but in any event I think we need a swing set that will hold up to a kid Morgan's size.  I therefor decided to build a custom swing set with a pirate theme.  I'll get some pictures and video as I make progress.  I have the ships mast in place with a couple swings hanging off it. 

The video is of Morgan at her piano recital.  She played two songs and despite not practicing as much as we would have liked she did a good job. 

Morgan went to her first concert.  She is a huge fan of Weird Al.  Weird Al is that guy who does remixes of famous songs.  You'll find him on you tube if you need examples of his work.  It is fairly kid friendly stuff.  She went with her uncles Chris and Brendan and everyone had a good time.

Gwen just performed in her first (and hopefully last) ballet.  She was a fairy in Peter Pan.  Gwen is not exactly graceful and is more suited for wrestling someone to the ground then flying thru the air.  She was proud of what she had accomplished and that is all that really matters. 

We've had a handful of showings on the house but no offers yet.  We've lowered the price which has increased the number of showings so hopefully that turns into an offer.  We plan to actually move at the end of the school year into Townsend st.  We'll likely be going back and forth all the time but moving "home base" to Townsend st will allow us to keep the other house cleaner, it will be closer to work, and we will be taking advantage of cheaper daycare options that we couldn't during school. 

The Easter Bunny came yet again despite the snare traps in the yard. :) He brought fancy scooters for the girls and hid eggs around the house. Morgan really wanted one and thankfully the bunny new if Morgan had one Gwen would likely want one as well. The girls especially like riding them at my grandmothers house since she has a circle driveway.

Selling the house

We have put the house on the market. Jeremiah and Shelly bought their first house and moved out of Townsend st. So this seemed like a good time to take advantage of the situation. Because Townsend st is empty we can reduce the stress and risk of trying to sell of our house and buy a new house at the same time. It makes us stronger sellers and buyers which is a great advantage and luxury to have.

My house has never looked better. We rushed and finished many projects to get it listed in a timely fashion. We re tiled the bathroom floor, finished the fancy archways, had new carpet installed in the master bedroom and stairway and painted the cabinets. I did all that while attending school. I should have just dropped the class, but I still got an A in the class and I finished all the project around the house on time.

The kids are excited to move although I can tell Morgan will miss her buddies. The end goal is to be closer to work and to move to a better school system. When Katie and I went to college we felt very much unprepared - more so then our peers. We took college prep classes in high school but they failed to prepare us for college. I want Morgan to have all the skills and knowledge she can possibility have when the time comes for her to go to college.

So we will be looking at towns on the Rt 3 corridor. Dunstable, Dunstable side of Groton, Westford, Tyngsboro, Chelmsford, Bedford, Burlington, and Carlisle. School system wise Carlisle wins hands down, but the property values are sky high. Bedford and Burlington follow tieing for second place.

Below is a link the listing on Realtor.com. Make sure to check out the virtual tour as well - it has some real "swanky" elevator music!


http://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/15-Turnpike-Rd_Townsend_MA_01469_M31983-82606?cpPreview=true

Valentine's Day

Katie got real creative this year and made a nice treat for the kids. Brownie Sundays in Chocolate bowls. Yes the bowl was made out of chocolate. Willy Wonka style. How do you make your own? Blow up a balloon and paint the top of it in melted chocolate. Then cool in the fridge (not the freezer). Once hard melt more chocolate and spoon out a disk onto wax paper. This will be the base of the bowl. While the base is still wet put the balloon chocolate side down onto the base. Let that cool. Once that has hardened you can pop the balloon. Then you can use the bowl like any other bowl. It's like diabetes in bowl form!

Disney 2012

We lucked out that Gwen is 4. We flew Southwest out of Manchester and they have a policy where you pick your own seat - sort of a free for all. That is great if you're by yourself but if you have kids you can't be separated. Luckily they allow families with children 4 and under to board ahead of the crowd.

We stayed at the Caribbean Beach Resort which is the largest resort in Disney. It's made up of many buildings clumped in groups named after Caribbean islands. We knew this time of year is Disney's slow time but I was amazed at how few people we ran into at our building. The Caribbean is a moderately priced hotel located near Epcot and because it is the largest the bus that takes you to the parks has to drive around the complex before it even leaves for the park. We found a great deal online for a car rental so we did that so we wouldn't have to deal with the bus. It helped reduce the stress of moving about Disney.

Because we went at the slow time Disney had a great deal where we get the meal plan for free. Each person gets a sit down meal, a quick service meal, and a snack. We brought snacks and breakfast food as well.

We made a reservation at the Polynesian resort on the first day because we were told the food was to "die" for. It was good but no one died. I've always wanted to stay at the Polynesian but it costs three times the amount of the Caribbean and I'm waaay too frugal aka cheap for that.

We took the monorail from the Polynesian to the Magic Kingdom where we got in just as it opened. We stayed just before closing and watched the fireworks from the ferry back to the parking lot. That is when I remembered I had been on that same ferry before when I was about as big as Gwen. I think that first trip to Disney melded with later trips in my memory.

What amazed me most was Gwen's ability to keep walking all day. We were out there over 12 hours. She pointed at an older kid in a stroller and asked what was wrong with his legs?

We spent two days at the Magic Kingdom then went to Epcot where we watched the captain EO 3D show staring Michael Jackson. It might be time to retire that show - the quality is really bad, but Morgan is a huge fan of Michael Jackson so we had to see it. On the plus side we got to go the steak house in the Canadian pavilion which I am told is always crazy busy. It was very good, so I can see why. We also enjoyed the food at the Indian, British pavilions.

Lastly we went to Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom. Both we find are not full day events. Hollywood has some great rides for older kids but not much for younger ones. Animal Kingdom just doesn't have much at all which is fine since we had a late flight to catch anyway. However, both have a great BBQ stand with smoked meats including turkey legs.