The Hampton Times

Oh yeah, I almost forgot. Today marks the first time that the twins actually opted to take showers instead of baths. Our experiences with the shower in the past were never successful, but the twins had to put up with it when we stayed in Ocean City last year because once we came off the beach we would stand in the shower outside the room to get the sand off. You would have thought we were murdering the two of them with all the screaming that went on. So tonight I happened to mention the option to take a shower because Dillon didn't want his bath to "take too long." Well, he and Jason both scoffed at the idea. But after Angie gave Adrian his bath, I heard the shower running upstairs. I walked up, and lo and behold, there were Dillon and Jason standing in the shower washing their hair! I couldn't believe it. No crying (well, not much anyway), and they seemed like they didn't hate it! Wow, who would have thought that we'd get them to take showers BEFORE g...

Posted the high chairs on Craig's List yesterday afternoon, got an email asking about them around 9pm, sold them tonight at 6:30pm to a woman who lives in Cherry Hill. Not bad. Know anyone who needs a crib/toddler bed??? We're asking $175, but we'd be happy to talk "Friend Prices." :-) CRIB

The yard sale was a success (I guess). We sold a bunch of stuff and came out with between $30-$40 and some free space in the house. Paul, Carrin, Paige, Connor, Aunt Terri, my mom & dad, Aunt Ann & Uncle Seth, and Angie's mom all stopped by for a visit and/or to sell some stuff or shop around the neighborhood. Of course, you can't participate in a community yard sale and not replace your outgoing junk with new junk. I ended up buying a 7-in-1 Sportcraft game table from our neighbor across the street. It's a small table with air hockey, Foosball, bowling, backgammon, checkers, chess, and something else that we've yet to determine. Couldn't pass it up for 10 bucks. Especially since he also threw in a brand new unopened movie poster frame. I spent $30 at Kmart for one of those about 2 months ago. I was also eyeing up the neighbor's little "junior" drum kit, but it sold before I even had a chance to ask him what he wanted for it. By 1:30pm t...

Our neighborhood is doing one of those "community yard sale" things tomorrow from 8am until 1pm. So tonight I'm going through all of our "stuff" and getting some of it ready to put out for sale. We've got high chairs, a bouncy seat, a bunch of toys, knick knacks, old video games, speakers, etc. Clutter, basically. Hopefully our clutter is another person's treasure. The twins also have another t-ball game at 10:30am so one of us will have to leave the garage sale to go to the game. I'm guessing that will be Angie since she doesn't really want to have anything to do with the garage sale (searching, moving, pricing, and placing the items). We finally bought a new video camera to replace the one that was stolen back in October. Maybe Angie will shoot some video tomorrow so I can try to remember how to transfer it to the computer and get it ready for Internet posting... Until next time, I leave you with today's song selection... on vinyl:

Our Maple Shade house is back on the market, officially. Right now it's listed with the same photos that we were using last year, but we've taken some new ones that need to be posted so we can delete some of the old ones. Don's (or was it Cyndi's?) decorating skills are much better than ours, so we've taken some updated photos of the living room and kitchen that we'd like to use. We'll see how it goes this time. We'd really like to have it sold by August 1st, if at all possible. Angie's mom took all three kids yesterday after the t-ball game and she kept them overnight. This was the first time that Grandmom had Adrian for an overnight visit. She just brought them back around 8pm tonight, and everyone had a great time. Angie and I used the opportunity to get some stuff done around the house(s). I went to Maple Shade first thing in the morning (after breakfast) and mowed the lawn there. It was getting pretty unruly. Then I had to fix the shutt...

Tomorrow night (Friday) we have T-ball practice at 6pm, which usually lasts about an hour. So we'll come straight home and have a late dinner of burgers on the grill. Then on Saturday we have our second game of the "season" at 1:30pm at the Timbercrest field (right next to our neighborhood). The weather is supposed to be gorgeous on Saturday, so I'm looking forward to this one. Last I heard, it could be in the mid-70's and sunny!! Woo-hoo! But then it dips back into the 50's and the rain comes back on Monday... Oh well. We're almost there!

Angie and I were awakened bright and early on Easter Sunday (around 6am) by the twins. I kindly asked them to go back to bed and "try to go to sleep for a little bit." That lasted about 30 minutes, so who am I to complain? So around 6:30am, we got Adrian out of bed and walked downstairs to find that the Easter Bunny had left three Easter baskets on the kitchen table! Everyone was excited, to say the least. Then around 10:30 or so, my parents came over and dropped off three huge Easter baskets that the Easter bunny had left at their house! Holy smokes! I checked out my parents' new used (2008) Chrysler Pacifica, which was really nice. We had a nice brief visit, but Angie and I had to get the kids on the road by 11:30am so we could go pick up Angie's mom and head down to Wildwood for an early "dinner" at 1:30pm at Menz's restaurant. We met up with Uncle Seth and Aunt Ann at the restaurant and had a very nice dinner. It started off a bit rocky with...

I own a 5th Generation iPod Video (30GB model) that I bought at least 3 years ago (Christmas gift to myself). Over the past few months I've noticed that the battery lasts about 5 minutes and then conks out - even after being charged for hours. My brother had told me his started doing this months ago (his iPod is about a year older than mine). It's not such a big deal if I'm in the car because I can plug it in, but the whole point of the thing is to be "mobile" with it. And right now, I can listen to about a song and a half before it quits, which isn't so great. So I had read an article in a computer magazine (geek alert!) that said you can either send your iPod back to Apple and have them replace it (for about $70), or you can order a kit and do it yourself for about $10. I figured for $10, it was worth the risk. If I broke the thing, I'd just have to buy a newer, better one. :-) Well, I got the kit today in the mail (I ordered it through an eBay auction f...

We got up bright and early yesterday for the start of a really long day. We got all of the kids ready for Mt. Laurel Baseball Opening Day and hit the road around 7:30am. The wind was already kickin' pretty good at that time, so it was rather cold standing outside. When we got to Laurel Acres Park, the twins played with the other kids on some of the jungle gym stuff they have set up there, which passed the time. Once the "parade" started, we walked with the other teams/leagues to the area of the park where the baseball fields are. There, all teams lined up around the outer edge of the infield, spanning from first base to third base, and most parents took a spot in the outfield. Dickie Noles (pitcher for the Philadelphia Phillies from '79 - '81) gave the opening commencement speech, which was really nice. During the ceremony, Dillon and Jason were miserable. The wind was really firing up at this point, and they were just ready to go home. I spotted tears at various ...

Dillon's first at-bat in the Instructional T-Ball League. He makes it to first on an error (basically), but manages to bring Jason home. You'll notice that Jason also snubs the older kid who was helping out at home plate by leaving him hanging with the high five. Oh well. We can only improve from here!

Here's Jason's first at-bat in the Instructional T-Ball league. He hits the ball, then attempts to field it himself. Once he finally takes off for first base, the other team tries to bean him with the ball! Classic 5-year-old T-ball follies. Enjoy!

The twins and their fellow pre-schoolers sing "Goodbye" to the congregation at St. Andrews Church in Cherry Hill, NJ, last Sunday, March 29th.

The twins sing "You Are My Sunshine" at church with some of their pre-school classmates, Sunday, March 29th.

The twins sing "If You're Happy and You Know It" and one other song at church with some of their pre-school classmates (last weekend).

Tomorrow is Opening Day for Mount Laurel Baseball and the twins are pretty excited about playing their first T-Ball game. Well, they're also excited to wear their new uniforms and walk in the parade, too! Here’s a link to the official Mt Laurel Baseball web site: http://www.mtlaurelbaseball.org/ Here’s a link to the Laurel Acres Park web site, where the parade will be held: http://www.mountlaurel.com/recreation/laurel_acres.php Here’s the address to the location of the parade site: 1045 S. Church Street, Mount Laurel, NJ 08054 Opening Day festivities at Laurel Acres Park include music, food, prizes, entertainment, the parade, and five little league games at 10am! The twins' game will not be held at Laurel Acres Park, so after the parade and opening day festivities come to a close, we'll have to leave to head back to Timbercrest (our development) for their game. The Timbercrest field is located right at the stoplight of Creek Road and Masonville Road - you can't miss i...