First Day of School

Isaac was so excited for his first day of school for that matter so was Owen. Ms. Goldshine had written Isaac a letter asking him to wear the color GREEN so that they could find each other easier. Everyone in Isaac's class was wearing some color of green. After they all lined up outside, they followed Ms. Goldshine into their class room, the excitement and apprehension was all over the little 5 year old faces, but they all squared their shoulders and head into the room with a high five, hug or hand shake which was given to Ms. Goldshine. Isaac of course chose the hand shake. Jonathan wanted to be there, but he had his first day of school the same day. Good times!! The weird thing is I still remember my kindergarten days!

James Taylor

I took Jonathan to a James Taylor concert a couple of weeks ago, to celebrate his "30th" birthday a bit early. We had been trying to see him for the last 8 years, but every time I would try and get tickets there were never two tickets together or if they were a big steel beam would be in the way.

The concert was in New Hampshire, so we got to spend some quality time driving. After we got there, we walked around a bit and found some dinner at a Mexican restaurant a few blocks away from the convention center. It was nice to be with Jonathan and be able to carry on a conversation with out "mom, hey mommy, mommmmmmmmmmmmmmy". When we were finished with dinner we headed over to the convention center to find our seats.

The concert was amazing. We had so much fun listening and hanging out with each other. During the intermission James signed countless hats, t-shirts, programs, tickets and everything else people threw at him. It was awesome to see how much he cared about his fans, his manager had to turn out the lights so people would leave him alone and he could get back to the concert. It was a grand night, I would highly recommend a James Taylor concert to anyone that wants to have a good time. :)

Blueberry Picking!

A bit of blueberry trivia for you: "How do you know when your child has had enough blueberries"? Answer: "When he is pooping blue". Yes, I know a bit gross, but true. We went blueberry picking last weekend. It was such a great day out and the blueberries were so delicious. Isaac was a great little picker and helped fill up our box, Owen on the other hand was the eater and helped diminish the contents of the box. We were lucky to have Jules out for the weekend. It was a lot of fun to see her. The boys were over joyed with the fact that Auntie JuJu was coming to visit. We also went with Alex, Janae, Abby, Emma, Kira and Kade. It was a great afternoon filled with blue fingers, full tummies and a lot of laughs.

Keepn' Cool!

When July started out we weren't too sure if we would ever see the beach because it was so rainy and cold, but a couple of weeks into the month it became VERY hot and humid. Believe it or not, we were pretty happy about that and were very gratful to have so many options to cool off with. We have spent most of our time going to splash parks, Lake Cochituate and Wingearsheek Beach to stay cool, but our favorite by far has been Wingearsheek Beach, because daddy and Alex have gotten off work early and have come with us. The nice thing about Wingearsheek is that the beach is wide and deep so there is alot of exploring room for the kids and the water sits on a sand shelf so it is pretty shallow. We usually arrive at 3:30 or 4:00pm with the umbrella, chairs, sand toys, sun screen, portable grill, and plenty of hot dogs, kool-aid and s'more fixings to keep us satisfied until we head home around 7:30 or 8:00pm. Jonathan and the boys have pretty much perfected the "Water"copter. Jonathan will take the boys into the ocean and spin them around so their toes spray water in each others faces, the boys get such a kick out of it. I love to watch them and take pictures of them when they are in a state of happiness and excitement. It has been fun to have Alex, Janea, Abby and Emma here. It has given us an excuse to get out and about.

4th of July

I feel like such a slacker. I am posting our 4th of July happenings on August 3rd. I guess better late than never. We had a great 4th of July week. We started off our celebrating at Old Silver Beach in Falmouth, MA. We had a lot of fun, we played in the water and the boys buried me in the sand. On the 2nd we drove down to Pawtucket, RI to watch a Pawtucket Red Sox Baseball game. We won which was an added bonus and then after the game we watched a fireworks display, they did a pretty good job, it was fun to see all of the colors exploding in the sky. The best part was watching the boys faces as the colors exploded. We brought Jonathan's cousin Alex with us. He had just moved all of his families things out, but Janae and the girls were still out West, so he tagged along and seemed pretty content will all of our craziness. On the 4th we drove Alex to the air port and in the afternoon we enjoyed all of our friends company at a Big BBQ. We were so exhausted by all of our excursions that we couldn't keep our eyes open for the actual 4th of July fireworks. Oh, well maybe next year.

Isaac the Graduate.

Isaac Dunster Clark has done it. Last Thursday evening on June 21, 2007 at 6:00 pm. Isaac graduated, from the acclaimed "Christ Lutheran Nursery School", with flying colors. He and his classmates made their way done the red carpet run way with the latest graduate fashion ware upon their heads. Don't ask how they did it folks, but not one tripped or fell while on the carpet. The evening went like clockwork. Their ever fearless leader Mrs. Johnson spoke to the graduates as well as the families. The theme of her speech was to not take youth for granted, it was very uplifting and inspiring. After which the diplomas were handed out to each student, at the end there were tears of joy and hugs all around. To top the evening off their were rounds of apple juice and slices of yummy cake as well as assorted fruits. What a lovely evening it turned out to be. Now if we can only get his daddy graduated for the last time. :)

Jane Austen

Call me overly romantic, but I love Jane Austen's work. She really understood people and had such a talent for portraying them on paper. One of my girlfriends had this link up on her blog, so I thought that it would be fun to see who I was most like. I knew Emma and I were kindred spirits. I always thought it odd that when Jonathan proposed to me I said; "now I may call you my Mr. Knightly", and his last name is Clark. :) Rock on Austen fans!!

Take the Quiz here!

T-BALL

Isaac finished up his first season of T-ball while we were in the Bahamas. We were sad that we missed his last game of the season, but we had a lot of fun watching all of his other games. Isaac loved every minute that he was out on the field or up to bat. He hit some whoppers, but he declared that he prefers being pitched to instead of having the t-stand. My favorite part to watch was the fielding. As soon as the ball was hit, there would be 10 to 15 little 5 year olds all running as fast as they could toward the ball and as soon as they made it there a huge dog pile would mount up and the one on the bottom with the ball would pop their head out with an enormous smile attached. Owen had a good time as well, when he wasn't preoccupied with the swings he was a great little cheerleader for his "Big Brother". We are looking forward to next year.

!!!BAHAMAS!!!

Jonathan and I were able to celebrate our 10 year anniversary in the Bahamas. We spent 6 nights and 7 days in the beautiful crystal clear water and soft sandy beaches. We arrived the evening of the 9th which was Saturday. We checked in and then it was off to explore our new surroundings. Sunday morning we woke up and headed for down town Nassau to do some sight seeing of the historical aspect of the island. We saw Queen Victoria, the first Bahamian Governor and Christopher Columbus, who was situated very nicely in front of the Governors Mansion. We even explored the "Straw Market", next time I am going to bring some cash so I can get me a Kate Spade bag, they had some really cute ones for almost nothing. While we were walking through the long hallways of the straw market an elderly man stopped us and said something that I couldn't understand except the word "christian". Finally after a couple of tries to understand him, a nice woman on the other side of the hallway translated for us. She said that he was asking us if we were Christian. I nodded yes and then he said something about a glow. I caught the gist of what he was saying when the woman said; "they must have Jesus flown' through them veins of theirs if they be glown' that bright". We laughed and chit chatted a bit and then we were on our way. They were very nice people. I also want to purchase one of his carvings when I go back. He had some really awesome pieces. The first couple of days were a bit odd because we weren't sure quite what to do with ourselves since we didn't have the boys attached to us. We missed them, but were grateful to have a full nights sleep. Jonathan consoled himself by making friends with the pina colada machine. She was his new found girlfriend. I suppose it was a blessing that I like strawberry dacaris and that the machines were side by side, we probably wouldn't have seen each other as much as we did. :) Monday was a big day for me. I faced two of my demons. The first was fear of drowning in the ocean and the second being claustrophobic. How did I do this you ask, Jonathan taught me how to snorkel. Once I got the hang of breathing under water it was very relaxing. It was fun to watch Jonathan, he was like a little kid in a candy store. We found some starfish, conch shells and I saw a sting ray gliding along the reef. It was pretty cool. Tuesday we went out exploring in a kayak. When we got in the groove we could fly in that thing. It was a lot of fun. I wish we could have snorkeled out where we were, because we saw some huge starfish and conch shells, but there were wave runners and motor boats. Wednesday was the high light of the trip. We took a snorkeling cruise with "Stuarts Cove's". We had so much fun. Our captain and his first mate were pretty funny, which made for a good time. They took us to three different sites. The first was called "Hollywood Bowl" because so many movies are filmed in this area. We saw some beautiful fish as well as coral. The second stop was the set of Jaws 4, they even still had the plane on the bottom of the ocean floor which was pretty cool. The third stop we got to swim with Caribbean Reef Sharks. This event was a bit nerve wracking but also quite surreal. We had about 20 to 30 sharks as well as other fish swimming under us and at times around us. It truly was amazing. Thursday was a relaxing walk into Nassau. We originally wanted to walk over to Paradise Island where Atlantis is and check things out. On our way over a man in a car stopped us and asked us if we were going over. I thought that he was a taxi driver, so I told him no we didn't need a ride. He then said; "What is going to happen when I drive back across the bridge and you are walking across"?. After that we decided to turn around and have lunch in a little cafe. I asked about him as the front desk when we got back, but no one could explain his odd behavior. It was really strange. The rest of the day we played in the pool and the ocean. Friday was the journey back to reality. We pretty much packed up, checked out and watched the US Open while we waited for our transfer to the air port. All in all it was a fabulous trip that was much needed.

Genetics!? "Like Papa, Like Grandson"

I am not sure that I need to type any commentary for these pictures. They pretty much speak volumes with out saying a word, but there is no doubt that these two are related. I hope that you get a kick out of them as much as I did. Thanks Jules for the tip off.

From January to June

Ok, so I am going to try and redeem myself from being a slacker in the blogging world. I thought I could do that by making up for lost time the last 5 1/2 months. January was a good month. We spent the new year up in Vermont with our good friends. The boys had a blast sledding in the snow, since we had none here in Boston. It was a pretty warm month. After the new year we started back into the daily grind of school, school and more school.


February was pretty low key. The high light was Owen's first hair cut. He started out with all of these whispy baby hairs and when I was finished he looked like my little toddler. I was full of mixed emotions that I didn't expect to have. I was faced with the fact that I didn't have a baby anymore. Owen had a great time through, he sat really still, well that is for a 22 month old. When I finished cutting and brushing his hair, he stood up on the chair and proclaimed "I am a big boy now"!. It was a liberating moment for him.


March was a stressful month due to mid-terms for Jonathan. He pretty much ate, drank and slept school and we didn't see him much. It was nice to have them over and to have Spring Break. We flew out to Utah for my brother Will's home coming. He was coming home after being in Taiwan for two years. It was fun to see him and see all of my sisters. We also drove up to Idaho to spend a couple of days with Jonathan's parents. The boys had a great time and Isaac made a new friend with one of our old friends children. It was great to see everyone, but it was also nice to be home and back into a routine.


April brought with it two celebrations. Jonathan and I celebrated our 10 year anniversary. He gave me the most beautiful bouquet of roses. And we celebrated Owen's 2nd birthday, "CARS" style. I made a black and white checkered flag cake and we made cars out of cardboard boxes. We had 12 toddlers running around every where and of course it was organized chaos. Owen had a great time which is all that matters. We also celebrated Easter and started to see a bit of sun poking its face out of the clouds.



This month was pretty busy. My cousin and his new wife came out to stay with us for a few days while he was attending a medical conference. Yes, I proudly say that there is a Doctor in the family. :) It was fun to get to know Scott and Kim. I hadn't seen Scott in over 15 years I think it was more like 18. Wow that is a long time. The following weekend we celebrated Isaac's 5th birthday. His theme was "Jedi Boot Camp". We had 14 little boys running around light saber fighting with swords made out of balloons. Yoda was the center of the party since that is who Isaac wanted to be. It was quite the time. I ran in the 2nd annual HBS Partners 1/2 marathon. They gave us the option to run the 1/2 or 1/2 of the 1/2. I thought it best to run 1/2 of the 1/2 so that I would make it back alive, since I hadn't ran that far since high school. Surprisingly I enjoyed it. I was all by myself running along the Charles River. It felt good to be back in my zone and rhythm. The best part was when I got to the end and Jonathan and the boys were there to cheer me on. I was happy to see their faces. I hope to run the whole thing next year. We also planted our garden. The boys are pretty excited about it. We planted cucumbers, watermelon, summer squash, zucchini squash, pumpkins, corn, beans, snap peas, tomatoes and green onions. Our strawberry patch looks promising this year and we are hoping that the blueberry bushes produce in the next year or so. I can't wait to start eating it. Well, now you are pretty much caught up. I promise to do better in the future.

My Cubed Clarkys

I have to say that I have been meaning to do this the last few months, but I have had a huge brain fart as to what to name our family blog. As you can see the fart popped and we are the Clarky Cubed. I guess we are actually Clarky Cubed + One. Oh well.

As for what has been going on around here. Jonathan is slowly emerging from the dark cave of Doctoral Finals. He will be starting his last exam in 2 minutes. I can't tell you the excitement that I feel through out my whole body to know that in a couple of hours his first year will be over and we will be on our way to his dissertation. I have to say that I am very proud of him. Harvard is not nice to their Doctoral students and Jonathan took it like a man. He plowed through every paper, assignment, project and problem set that they threw at him. I can't wait to PARTY in the BAHAMAS!! 15 days and counting!

Isaac is working on finishing up his year at Christ Lutheran Nursery School. He has had so much fun there and has really come out of his shyness shell. I am glad that we decided to send him there. He loves Mrs. Johnson and the rest of the gang. Everyday he comes home with a new song, letter or sign language that he has learned. He is very excited about starting kindergarten in the fall. He also started playing T-ball. It has been a lot of fun for him. He has gotten to play on the same fields that his Uncle Ralphy played on as a kid. I love to watch him grow and learn new ideas and concepts. Isaac never lacks anything to say.

Owen had a mommy and me music class this spring with Kindermusik. He loved it so much he always is singing the songs that we have learned there. Our last class was last Friday and he is pretty sad that he doesn't get to go tomorrow. I think that I will have to have my own little mini class with him to help with the withdrawals. We will be doing it again in the fall. Owen has quite the vocabulary. It cracks me up the words that he knows how to say. It is true that their brains are sponges, he absorbs everything that is going on around him.

As for me, well I have been playing the roll as wife, mommy and small business owner. I have been working on getting my soap business a couple of inches off the ground. I don't want to do too much with it because I want to be wife and mommy most of the time and keep it as my hobby job. I'm thinking of making a web site so when I get that done I will let you know. It will be www.eusoapia.com. I will catch everyone up on our first half of the year happenings when I get a minute.