Back to School

It's back to school for the Radtke boys today! Teddy is starting 3rd grade this year (YIKES!) and Ryan is starting 1st grade (OH MY!). Their teachers seem great and the boys are excited to start!

The backpacks were stuffed for the first day of school...nothing like a new box of crayons and freshly sharpened pencils!!

Here they are, walking up to school! We still get to walk them into their class on the first day. Luckily this year, Mommy managed to not cry during the drop-off process!

Here's Teddy getting ready to unpack in his new classroom! And Ryan getting ready to start his day in his new classroom!

Onatru Farm

We had a fun "photo shoot" with the boys up at Onatru Farm before we left NY. There are some neat old barns and buildings which we took advantage of. As you can see above, they had fun with it!

I turned some of them into Black and Whites, too, which came out really cute!

This one is my new screensaver and my absolute favorite! The boys were very cooperative (for the most part) and I'm thrilled to have some new "posed" pictures of Teddy and Ryan!

Visiting the Intrepid

Today my parents and I took the boys to see the newly renovated aircraft carrier, The Intrepid, which is docked in NYC. I haven't been there in years and they've done a great job of bringing the museum part of it up to date and very interactive for kids.


Here the boys are pretending to fly an army rescue helicopter:-) They took it very seriously!

Here are my parents with the boys in front of one of the many planes they have on display up on the flight deck. It is a very extensive collection of planes and helicopters, some of which would have actually flown from the Intrepid back in the day.
Here are the boys after our tour of the ship. They couldn't believe how big it was, especially looking at it from this angle. It was a great day in NYC and the boys learned a lot about the Intrepid!

Visit with Nanny

Today we got to visit with Nanny down at her house! It wouldn't be a visit to her house without the "nonnies", aka macaroni and cheese, for lunch! We had Kyle with us, too! Teddy and Ryan have loved playing with their cousin all week long while Kevin and Kerrie were exploring London. Aunt Kathleen, Bob, Jennifer and Aunt Mary all came over for lunch to visit with us, too. We had a great time seeing everyone!

Ryan's Birthday

We celebrated Ryan's birthday with his choice of Oreo Pudding Pie today! We even found some baseball mitt shaped candles for the cake to make it even more special! It's amazing to me that Ryan is 6 years old today! How can that be? It seems like just yesterday he was my little peanut, looking too little to sleep in his crib!
Happy Birthday, my little man!

Fenway Park

Months ago, Ted and I had decided that we wanted to take the boys to Fenway Park on our way home from Cape Cod this year. We ended up getting some awesome tickets through his rewards points at work. We also decided that we were NOT going to tell the boys until we were in Boston that day!! In the above picture, the boys still don't know that we're actually going INSIDE Fenway Park to see the Red Sox play! We had told them during the car ride that we were going to stop and look for a place to eat. Teddy spotted Fenway and was pretty excited to be this close to where the Red Sox play! Ryan even asked if we had time to maybe see a game. Still, Ted and I tried to keep it a secret!! They only figured it out after we were standing in line to get into the stadium before the game! Their faces were priceless!! They both agreed that this was the best surprise EVER!

It was a beautiful day at the stadium and we were thankful that we were in seats shaded by the upper deck. It was pretty warm out in the sun and I think we would have all been burnt by the end! Above are the boys in our seats before the game.

Luckily, we snagged someone to take our picture as a family at the stadium, too! It's still hilarious to me that neither of the boys questioned why we were all wearing Red Sox gear that morning!! To me, that was the dead giveaway!! Anyhow, the game was great, though the Red Sox ended up losing in the end. I think the boys will remember this trip for a long time to come. Ted and I are now trying to think of the next Big League park to take Teddy and Ryan to!!

Family Time at the Beach

Here we are in Orleans, MA, where my family has vacationed since I was a little girl. We have been taking family pictures for the past few years and this year's chosen spot was the gazebo down at Nauset Beach. The day was gray, foggy and a bit chilly, but inside the gazebo things went pretty well, considering we have 8 adults and 6 children to account for!! Above is a rare picture of Ted and I, courtesy of my mom...thanks, Mom!

It's amazing how much Teddy has grown up since we first brought him to Cape Cod as a toddler. He looks like such the little man compared to his younger cousins! Teddy's been having a ball up here playing games with his cousins, playing ping pong in the garage and making sand castles on the beach.

Ryan, too, has grown up so much over the past few years. His birthday and his cousin TJ's birthday are just a week apart, so we have been celebrating birthdays all week, it seems! Ryan turns 6 in a few days and I can't believe it! Ryan fully enjoyed our day at the beach yesterday, splashing in the frigid water, getting all sandy and building sand castles with daddy and Uncle Mike. Life is good at the beach!

This picture is the "crown jewel" of our photo session the other day:-) Every year I torture my whole family by making them pose for family portraits on the beach. We can usually get most of the participants to smile and look pretty, but it is challenging when there is no photographer behind the camera...note the camera remote in my hand!

All in all, it was pretty much pain-free and we got some great family pictures!