Happy Turkey Day

Halloween for the McMenamin clan took place at my brother-in-law Mike’s house.  The kids were excited to spend the day with their cousin Erin who has been away at Duquesne University for her freshman year.

Dinner was not as big as it usually is.  Jean’s sister Kate and her husband Aaron stayed at home in New Jersey and Jean’s brother Jim and his wife Kim only made it over for desert. We had 18 for dinner (5 McMenamins, Mike and Dot’s family of 5, Tom and Carole’s family of 4, Gran and Pop, and Dottie’s sister Laurie and her friend Maryanne) and it was a nice laid back afternoon.

Jean was intent on taking some video and pictures of the day.  Sadly, we never verified that the battery was charged in the camera so all we have of the day is video, most of it was shot by Brett, age 8.

Oh yeah, the Packers beat the Lions to move to 11-0 on the season.

Abby’s Birthday–Part Deux

We had Jean’s family over to celebrate Abby’s birthday on Sunday May 23rd.  We had a crazy week and it was the first chance we had to get the Wynne’s over to celebrate her big day.

We had Mike and Dot’s family along with Carole and Natalie.  Dinner was fantastic once again, although this time I’ll take the credit since I ended up grilling the burgers and dogs.    We also had a little striped bass that Gram and Pop brought back from Kate and Aaron’s house.

For whipping something together very last minute, it ended up being a nice way to wrap up our weekend.

Mother’s Day 2010

The Mothers Day Weekend was a busy one for us. Jake had a couple of games on Saturday, Brett had a baseball game, and Abby had a soccer tournament out in Neshaminy (which included two games Saturday afternoon and one on Sunday morning).

As always, my Mom took a crew of people down to Center City with her to take part in the Komen Race for the Cure, which she has walked in every year in memory of her sister Jackie, who we lost to breast cancer back in 1996 at the young age of 40. This year’s race took on an added significance because of my mother being diagnosed with breast cancer a little over a year ago. It’s been an emotional year for all of us, and my mom has been amazing in coming back from her double mastectomy last June. She’s back as good as she was before surgery and it’s almost to the point where you’ve forgotten how much she’s gone through.

Being the not so wonderful son, I committed to having Abby play in the tournament earlier in the spring without thinking about how important the day was to my mom. To compound things, if Abby’s team had won on Sunday morning, they would have played for the championship of the tournament at 1 pm. Luckily, they lost 3-0 and Abby and I were able to get home at the same time as everyone got back from the race. It’s one of the few times I wasn’t upset watching the Cheetahs lose.

Jean stayed home with the boys to get the house ready for guests because we were hosting everyone for brunch. Her morning consisted of running around getting all the food, which my mom had order earlier in the week, along with last minute prep around the house. Our fare consisted of chips and burritos from California Tortilla along with bagels and sandwiches from Barrister’s Bagels, both of which are located in the Target shopping center.

Brunch was fun and the list of guest ended up being pretty extensive: Mom, Kate, Casey, Jack and Mary Kay Gvodas, John and Nicole Gvodas (who is insanely pregnant right now), Mike and Dottie, Judy and Joy Glass, Alexandra, Sue Krimmel, and Joe Palombit (with Adrianna, Megan, and Ryan). It’s the first time we’ve had Joe over to the house, and we just celebrated our fourth anniversary of moving in.

By the time everything wrapped up around 4:30, we were whupped. We cleaned up and vegged out as a group by watching the movie The Blind Side as a family. If you haven’t seen the movie, I highly recommend it. It’s a nice real life story that leaves you feeling good about people.

Brett's Birthday–Part 1

Sunday we celebrated Brett’s 7th birthday a few days early because we would be in Florida on the actual day.  We started the morning with a quick trip to church, and from there we headed over to Legacy Karate for Brett’s “friend” party.  We rented the gym for a little over an hour and Brett had twelve of his best buddies there to do play some fun karate games.  Once we wrapped up, we went next door with the group of boys to have pizza at Bravo.

Later in the day, we had the Wynne clan over to celebrate his “family” party.  Dottie and her kids, Tom & Carole, Jim & Kim, and Gram & Pop were all able to make it, along with all the Grandkids except Michael, who had lacrosse tryouts.  The Haffey’s also came for dinner, so we had a full house for the little man’s birthday.  We ordered a couple of hoagies from Corropolese along with one of my favorite foods, Corropolese meat balls.  Jean had a nice spread put out for all to enjoy, and I think it’s safe to say that no one left hungry.

Jake and Erin Wynne

Erin, Abby, and Emily

Liam, Meghan, Natalie, and Nathan

The Squirrel Boys

Think Brett's Enjoying Himself?

Crazy Vacation/Work/Camp Week

Things are a little odd this week with the McMenamin family all spread out.

For those who didn’t know, my mom rented a beach house in Ocean City, NJ for 6 weeks, beginning June 20^th and running until August 1^st.  We went down to the house that first weekend (Father’s Day) to open it up and move everything in for my Mom, who was still recovering from surgery and is still not back to full strength.

We then went down for vacation from June 26^th until Monday July 6^th.  We spent the first two nights of the trip in Wildwood at a beach soccer tournament (Cape May Beach Blast) for Abby before heading over to my Mom’s.  Jean and I had a funeral to attend on Wednesday for Jean’s friend Sandy up in North Jersey, but other than that it was spent just hanging on the beach.

Jean’s parents also rented a house down in Ocean City starting on July 4^th and running through July 18^th.  That first weekend, they had Mike and Dottie and their kids down for the weekend, as well as my niece Natalie.  We invited them all over to my Mom’s beach house on the 4^th for a nice little clam bake, which was a relaxing way to hang out with some cocktails and fireworks.

On Monday, things got a little hectic as we went our separate ways.  I left the beach house early Monday morning (5:30 ish) to go straight back to work for the week.  Jean and Jake came home a little later on Monday.

Jake has basketball camp at Villanova this week, so Jean dropped him off and helped him get moved into the dorm room he’s sharing with his cousin Michael.  The two of them went together last year and they had a blast; Jake liked it so much he also recruited two of his buddies from Sacred Heart to go this year (Connor Tivanen and Tim Carroll).

Jean had to come back for a variety of reasons.  She started her final school course (yahoo!!) which is being given on Monday and Wednesday nights for the next three weeks.  She also has to teach Spinning class at the YMCA on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, as well as squeeze in her little side job.  She’ll bring Jake home from camp on Thursday afternoon so he can spend one night at the Sacred Heart Fair before they both head back down to the beach on Friday morning.

Abby has spent the last few nights hanging out with Jean’s parents and her cousin Natalie, while Brett spent a couple of nights at my Mom’s house before heading over to the Wynne’s on Tuesday night.  I’m not sure which of the two beach houses the kids will be sleeping at tonight?  What a great parent, huh?

This will be the longest stretch that Brett hasn’t been with us, but he really doesn’t seem to be missing us yet.  We’ve made a few calls to check in on him, but he can’t be bothered to actually get on the phone to talk to us.  I’m guessing that means he’s enjoying himself.