Seven Year Itch

Yesterday marked our 7th anniversary of the return from Ukraine.  It was kind of a quiet President's Day, but things turned exciting when Matthew cut his finger with scissors.  He returned from the urgent care center with four stitches.  It's funny, but, as I was looking back at the blog and reading the previous post, I saw that there was some emergency medical treatment given on the 5th anniversary, too.  Seems to be a pattern here.  Makes me wonder what type of crisis we were in the midst of in 2014 when nothing was posted.  

Where has the time gone?

So, can you guess what we were doing five years ago today???  That's right.  FIVE years ago we arrived home from Ukraine!  Now, it is said that time flies when you're having fun.  I won't say that the time has flown by.  More like it has seemed to stand still during much of the last five years, when we just pray to get through another day.  Yet, looking back, five years IS a long time.  And so much has happened.  When I go back and read the posts and comments from those early days, there are so many funny stories.  And, at the time, just about every one seemed to be a major crisis!  I guess things really don't change that much.  Take today, for instance.  It would have been nice to have some real quality family-time to commemorate this milestone day together.  This is how the day actually went...

Chris:  "I still have this really bad sore throat I've had all week."
Ellen:  "Suck it up."
Matthew:  "I don't feel good.  My stomach hurts and I have a headache."
Ellen:  "You're just trying to get out of going to karate class."
5 hours later at the walk-in clinic:  Chris and Matthew are both diagnosed with strep throat.

While father and son were off seeking medical attention, I pulled out my trusty Ukrainian-American cookbook to make a special meal for the big day.  The stuffed cabbage was super labor-intensive, but much tastier than I was expecting.  Too bad I ended up eating alone, while the others were at the 24-hour CVS getting antibiotics and marked-down Valentine's candy.

That's right.  We had a candy caper at our house that needed to be brought to justice.  For Valentine's Day, Chris and I each bought the other a large heart-shaped box of Russell Stover chocolates.  To my dismay, on Friday morning, two of the highly-desirable caramels were gone from my box!!  Not wanting to take any more chances, I moved my candy to a secured location.  Chris, on the other hand, foolishly left his box on the kitchen table Friday night.  Imagine his outrage this morning when he realized that Thomas had taken SEVEN chocolates!!!  I'm not sure which is more shocking, Thomas stealing all that candy, or Chris making Thomas buy him a new box.  (Even if it was on clearance, it has lace and a rose on the heart-shaped box!!)

So, happy anniversary to us, and thank you to those who still check in at Kelly World once in a while.  The boys are still very much a handful at 8 and 10 years old.  The picture above was taken last summer, the day they received their yellow belts in karate.  We've aged a lot in five years, but we are richly blessed.  As these years tick by, I hope that we will always be able to look back on them and laugh.

Second grade strings concert

Tommy performed The Monkey Song and jammed to a few other numbers tonight.  He and Miriam sounded great on violin and looked fabulous!

April Vacation in Hilton Head

Aye, Captain!  Let's go on a Dolphin Cruise!

Note Matthew's right ring finger.  A mishap with the car door - on the way to the airport, of course - kept him out of the pool the first couple of days.

Sidelined from swimming, Matthew was a tough competitor in the ping-pong tournament.

Ahh ... peace and quiet ...

Splash!!!!

No visit to Hilton Head is complete without a visit to Lawton Stables.  Tommy reconnects with an old friend.  After that, it was off to charter fishing with Captain Blair.

Heading back to the dock, Tommy's got a need for speed.

Top Hat Magic

Tommy's performance at the East Farms School Spring Talent Show, video by Matthew.  Enjoy!

Pack 74

As usual, we're overdue for some updates to the blog. We've had some exciting times with the Cub Scouts lately, so I thought I'd share a few photos.

Tiger Cub Tommy takes aim with the big guns at Battleship Cove last weekend.

Not exactly luxury hotel accommodations, but Matthew looks comfortable enough on the top bunk.

Pack 74 visited the West Hartford Town Hall this week and led the Pledge of Allegiance to open the Town Council meeting.

Mayor Scott Slifka gave the boys a nice tour of the council chambers and his office. The boys were fascinated by the fact that the Town Hall was formerly a high school and they had some very interesting questions for the mayor on what it was like in those days.

Pack 74 is a great group of boys. As you can see, the membership is really small. We had a crisis earlier in the year, when one of the Bear Cubs switched schools and left the pack. His dad, who was the Cubmaster, left, too. All the parents have really pitched in, though, to keep things going and Chris has done an awesome job getting all of the paperwork in order with the Boy Scouts organization and organizing the Pinewood Derby and overnight trip to Battleship Cove in Fall River, MA.

The Magic

Yes, we really did it! Kelly World does Disney World!!! In spite of Chris' and my insistence that the boys would be lucky to see The Mouse by their 18th birthdays, we surprised them with a 5-day trip to Orlando.

Men on a mission, the guys are on their way in to the Magic Kingdom. My favorite part was the Electrical Parade at night. Although there was so much to see in the parks, the trip was clearly about the rides. The faster and scarier, the better!

A die-hard Beauty and the Beast fan, Tommy was thrilled to see the Live show at Disney's Hollywood Studios (MGM) on the first day.

Tommy actually became the Beast a number of times during the trip. A lot had to do with long days, endless walking and temperatures in the upper 90's. Nothing like a soda and hot dog to take the edge off, though.

Since it was Father's Day weekend, we indulged Chris with a trip to Gatorland, a local attraction he very much wanted to see. The boys enjoyed feeding some giant tortoises.

Here's Matthew wrestling a gator.

Thomas looking totally bored on safari in Animal Kingdom.

What is it with the noses? Matthew and Minnie are so embarassed!

We had an awesome trip and it really got the Summer off with a bang for us. Hope all of you will have a great one, too!

First Communion Day

Today was a very big day for Matthew, as he received his First Holy Communion at St. Brigid Church, with his classmates. It was a beautiful ceremony and Matthew did great. Afterwards we celebrated with a festive lunch for the family and friends who had come to be with Matthew for this important event in his life. And, yes, a baseball game broke out in the backyard. Matthew wouldn't have it any other way!

Homecoming Day

Today we celebrate 3 years since the longest non-stop airplane flight in the history of the world. It was a pretty ordinary Wednesday, but, in honor of the occasion, I prepared the boys' favorite meal for dinner -- chicken tenders with Macaroni & Cheese. Not exactly a traditional eastern European dish. Thomas hardly touched it. I think he was too excited to get to his Art Show this evening. In the photo above, you can see half of the donkey he made in school on the wall next to Matthew. In his usual rock-star fashion, he worked the crowd and had a blast.

Matthew had his big night on Monday. It was tryouts for AAA division of Little League baseball. This is the first time either of the boys has had to actually try out for a team, but Matthew seemed pretty well-prepared, so we wait for the decision and hope for the best.

Things are definitely less stressful than they were three years ago, but we still have our challenges. The boys activity level has not subsided. We endure the struggles of school, homework, the bus, lots of fighting, very little listening and a really messy house. That being said, I'll take it any day over being on a plane for 10 1/2 hours straight with two squirming kids who don't speak English, and wouldn't fall asleep. It's so good to be home!

Third Anniversary of Meeting

Three years ago today we met the boys. Back then they were non-English speaking little savages - now they've grown and practice English non stop...really...non-stop.

It was quite a day. Matthew had his first reconciliation (confession) with his class and a birthday party for our neighbor Tyler. Apparently, reconciliation is a much bigger event these days then when we were kids.

As for the three years, well it's a cross between "just yesterday" and "a lifetime ago." Everything has changed, much more laughter, many more tears, more band-aids, less sleep and on and on and on.

A post on this date would not be complete without mentioning it is the one year anniversary of the passing of Mel the Cat. For nearly 15 years he was a sweet companion and the brunt of many jokes. He is still missed

Anyhow, here are some pictures from today



Matthew (2nd from right) in a reconciliation re-enactment



The Kelly Family caught acting normally

Thomas casually practicing escaping

Happy Campers

Now that the Summer is behind us and everyone is back to school, it seems like a good time to finally add a new post and capture some of the highlights. We enjoyed a great family vacation to Santa's Land in Putney, VT and the White Mountains of New Hampshire. Yes, it was the first night of the Kelly family's camping trip, when some relief from the drought finally came. I'm sure the locals were very appreciative. In spite of less that spectacular weather, we had a blast. We enjoyed it so much that we camped out in our backyard the weekend after we returned from the trip. Hey, we had to dry out the tent, anyway!
Psst ... let me tell you a secret ...

A little too much spinning on the Turtle Twirl for Matthew!

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About to turn 6 years old, Tommy feasts on a Breakfast of Champions and dreams about the party that's about to happen.
Here's a typical Saturday morning in September. Just don't call me a Soccer Mom!

Here's our big second-grader.

... and here's the kid brother boarding the bus for Kindergarten. They are growing up, and they are doing great.

In the Summertime ...

Matthew boards the bus for Winding Trails Day Camp. Mommy has finally found a way to tire him out -- yeah!! Camp is a success!

A big step for Matthew this summer was his first extended trip away from home, by himself. He spent 5 days with his aunt, uncle and cousins in Massachusetts. He did great and had a wonderful time. The grand finale was taking in the Red Sox game on Friday night. There was a rain delay and the Sox lost, but a great time was had by all. As you can see, Tommy was visited by the Tooth Fairy twice in 3 days. Hard to believe our little guy is at that age. He has been doing a Summer Camp and Kindergarten Readiness program four mornings a week at the Preschool this summer, and it's going great. In the afternoon, he's got a great baby-sitter and his cousins who keep him busy for a couple of hours. Fridays are Tommy & Mommy Day, and we make the rounds of the gym, the library and Winding Trails, for swimming and a picnic. This is the life!!

2010 has been the year that the Kelly men took up fishing. Tommy was the first one to actually catch something.

He Is Risen

Easter was truly special this year. One of the things that made it so was Matthew's first grade class enacting the Living Stations of the Cross. Yes, there's our boy in his Jesus costume. Matthew did a superb job of leading the procession into the gym and portraying the role of Jesus. We've been on Matthew's case a lot lately, trying to get him to help out around the house, put more effort into his school work, etc., etc. He really stepped up on Holy Thursday, though. I don't think I've ever been so proud of him.
Nothing like a beautiful warm, sunny Easter Sunday. We had a great weekend!

Thomas and our friend, Gregory, taking a juice-box break during a recent play date. A far cry from the stuff they had to play on back in Ukraine.

Thomas had his first T-ball practice tonight. It was hard to resist just taking off and playing tag on the field. That all changed, though, once he had the feel of the bat in his hand and stepped up to the T.

On a sadder note, we send our thoughts and prayers to Chris' Aunt Sylvia, who passed away last week. May she rest in peace.