Welcomed by the Kerins of Hudson

My dear friend for over 20 years (blangitty frick-a-chick, another "oldie" indicator!), Mrs. Kerins, has been overcoming challenge after challenge these past few years, and I have been too self absorbed to be of any assistance (boo, bad friend, indeed). To help distract us from these circumstances, I conspired with Mr. Kerins to have the Quinones family be surprise weekend houseguests at the Kerins of Hudson's.

John Kerins, Benjamin Quinones, Big Papi, Teddy Kerins

We drove from Frederick to Hudson in about 6.5 hours - not too bad considering that I-76 was shut down from Pittsburgh to 80, so we had to take a detour, AND we were traveling with one little Mister "unenthusiastic carseat rider."

Upon arrival, we went straight to the front door and rang the bell. Mrs. Kerins opened the door to us asking, "Is this where the fan club meets?" She was SHOCKED - she stared at us for a seond in complete disbelief, and then bent over laughing and crying and trying to catch her breath! It was the most wonderful reaction and we all felt so smarty arty at having pulled one over on her - as Mrs. Kerins is exceptionally clever, and I had myself convinced that she had us all figured out!

The Kerins family are all handsome and well - Mrs. Kerins is dilligently working on her recovery. We had a splendid weekend of cooking out, hanging out, playing outside, laughing out loud, and hugging all around :) We love the Kerins and we miss seeing them!!!! Hopefully we will not have to wait too long for a planned weekend of fun ;) THANK YOU to Mr. Kerins for allowing us this intrusion, and T H A N K Y O U to Mrs. Kerins for being such a great sport. :) xoxoxoxo And, Thank You to those beautiful boys for playing so nicely with Benjamin and showing him how the "big guys" roll... xoxo

bwyl *SherryQ* xo

Around the House and going to the FMS

Benjamin likes to look out of the windows and use his very loud voice to greet the day :)

Teddy keeps Benjamin company in his VERY OWN bed - I know that you are shocked (frankly, I am too - about the bed, I mean). We purchased a tempur-pedic style foam twin mattress, so that Benjamin would still have the same feeling as sleeping in our bed. He really likes to play around on his bed, and seems to be napping there pretty well. The next step is going to be putting him into his own bed while he is still awake and see if he falls asleep on his own... Sounds like another "Mommy" issue to me too :)

We had some beautiful blooms this month... and our very magic tree continues to hold on... defying all gravity, wind, and the past few winters of ice storms. It truly is a magic tree! I too wonder who lives inside of there, but shy away from getting close and really exploring - I don't want to scare anything away :)



A silly baby playing in a guest room - please avert your eyes from the nasty carpet/ Grandmother's old chair that needs recovered / table extensions stored underneath the bed/ random room divider covered with a fabric piece from Egypt / and empty Pelligrino box :( Dear Sherry, fix up your house, please. Thank you, random guest.

This month also found us at the Friends Meeting School as stand-ins for Tana's Grandparents on Grandparent's day. Although, come to think of it, if we had come from a different time, or family situations, we are old enough to be grandparents - FRICK and EEEEEEEEEEEEEKS!!!! >:P Daggumit and dang, we are OLDEN...

Tana is the sweet puffin in the tie-dye shirt on the far right of the screen with impish curly hair. Curiously enough, behind two tall boys (Patrick and Akash), and next to the assistant teacher, Miss Tina. Tana gets to spend a lot of one-on-one time with Miss Tina :)

This video is very fuzzy (sorry)... and Benjamin became very excited at one point and knocked the camera all around (again, sorry!) Tana is reading her story about her pet, Forest. Forest is our Golden Retriever - notice at the end how she says that her favorite thing about Forest is that he lives at Titi's (that's me) house! Tana and Forest have had some challenges ;) Having each child read their stories aloud took over an hour... 3, 4, and 5 year-olds sitting for an hour... aye, yi, yi.

bwyl *SherryQ* xo

The Piano Man

Hee hee :)

This is from earlier in the month - he can get up and down with total and complete abandon, I mean, "ease."

Of course, I keep telling Granny and GDad how much of a super music genius Benjamin could be IF he had a black lacquer petite baby grand piano, and matching bench... I'm just sayin' that I calls it how I sees it :)

bwys *SherryQ* xo