5

Today, Tyler turned 5. Every birthday is a milestone. The first birthday is momentous, the second, third and fourth are special too. But turning five, I feel, is a really big deal! I don’t know why.

Today, Tyler turned 5. Five years ago, I stood by in a hospital room and watched another woman give birth to my son. It was amazing, and frightening at the same time. The unknown, the uncertainty, the pure elation! Life hasn’t been the same since that day.

Today, Tyler turned 5. The baby that was handed over to me in a hospital far away, making me a mother, has grown into a young boy, now just six months away from entering kindergarten.  Wow.

Here is the birthday boy, in all his blue-eyed glory…

Happy birthday, my sweet, complicated, smart, precious boy.  Mommy and Daddy love you dearly!!

http://www.karenandmitchplus3.blogspot.com/2008/07/tylers-story.html

My Funny Valentines...

Here is my crew this morning, dressed in their Valentine's garb.  My first thought on this photo is that it would be better if they would all smile and look at the camera at the same time, and if Maddy had agreed to put down the purple plastic purse (she held onto it for dear life - as if I was trying to take her oxygen away!).  My second thought is, meh, then it wouldn't be natural, right?

In any case, Happy Valentine's Day to one and all, but most especially to my greatest loves, Mitch, Tyler, Evan, and Madelyn. XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO *SMOOCHES*

42

Well, in about an hour from now, I will officially be 42 years old.  How did that happen??  Eh, it's not so bad.  I'm in the best shape of my life and I've got a beautfiul little family to share my world with.  I guess I'm just a little taken aback by how I look in all the pictures I tried to take of myself today.  Perhaps it's because my arms aren't long enough and a 42 year old woman should never be photographed this close up - especially with a camera phone.

But for our gas meter crapping out on us this morning and spending the first half of the day with no heat and panicking that the stove wouldn't be fixed on time to get the cupcakes baked, it's been a nice day.  The boys presented me with "surprise" cards this morning, after getting (and remembering!) instructions from daddy last night.  I got lots of lovely calls, emails, and 'posts to my timeline' on Facebook.  The gas DID get fixed on time and mom baked some DELICIOUS cupcakes!  And hubby returned home from work this evening with a dozen beautiful pink roses.  Topping it off tomorrow will be "date night" with Mitch, as the boys will be spending the night with Fammy and Granddad and my mom will be watching Maddy.  It's nice to have a night out alone once a year so we can, you know, talk about the kids!

Ok, I've had my third cupcake and it's time to retire for the night.  But before I go, a parting shot of how the world really gets to see me - sporting my new glasses.... WITH PROGRESSIVE LENSES.  Oy, I'm old! :)



The Zoo!!

Well, it's been nearly a month and a half, but it's still worth posting about.  Friday, December 30th was a particularly mild day, so mom and I decided to pack up the kids and head down to the Smithsonian National Zoo.  One might ask, "Why would you need to VISIT the zoo when you LIVE in one??"  Well, because we all love REAL animals, and sometimes you just need to GET OUT OF THE HOUSE!!!  :)


We didn't tell the boys ahead of time that we were going because a) they wouldn't have shut up about it or stop asking what time we were leaving and b) in case something came up, they wouldn't be disappointed if we had to cancel.  I use this method pretty much whenever I have something fun planned. I learned it the hard way.  Anyway, here is the unveiling of the plan, the morning of:

We decided to be well prepared, and frugal.  We knew the kids wouldn't be able (or willing) to walk around the zoo all day, so we brought the stroller for Mads, and the wagon for Tyler and Evan.  We also packed our own picnic lunch, snacks and drinks.  This saved us a fortune!  As a matter of fact, but for the ice creams we got on the way out of the zoo, the only thing we paid for all day was the parking.

I didn't get a lot of great pictures, but let's see what we have...

Zebra!!!  (in case you didn't know that)

LOVE this gorgeous Cheetah!  Also, love my great zoom lens because obviously we were not this close!

Since we got there when the zoo first opened, Mei Xiang and Tian Tian were still lounging around inside the Panda House eating bamboo instead of wandering around outside.  So we didn't get to see them as well as we wanted, but still got a bit of a look.  This was the only face shot I got:

The rest were all backsides!!  It's as if these crafty pandas know exactly what is going on (I'm SURE they do!), and are purposely not allowing anyone to get a good picture!!

Check this out:

Can you believe they just have this crate out in the open??  Just sitting there in the middle of the walkway through the Panda House for anyone to lean or climb on??  It seems to me it should be held in higher regard... Or maybe I'm just weird.

Red Pandas!  These guys were really cute.  It was hard to get shots of them though because they were really playful and running around.

Awesome elephants.

These Meerkats were a RIOT.  They were crazy and Maddy LOVED them.  One of them charged the glass where she was standing and she didn't even flinch.  She just giggled!

Orangutans. These guys were entertaining as they swung overhead on the "O Line" (the Orangutan Transport System!) 

Ah, and my favorites, the tigers and lions.  Such incredibly beautiful creatures.

At the far end of the zoo, there is a kid's farm with the usual cows and pigs and goats. Nothing too exotic, but the kids enjoyed it.  Tyler particularly enjoyed the fish pond.

After the farm, we hit an ice cream vending machine and started the long (uphill!) walk back to to the parking lot.  It was easy for the kids since they were being pushed/pulled along.  But it was quite a workout for mom and me!!
It was a great day, topped off by a very peaceful ride home!!  Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!!!

Next adventure??  Who knows!!

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year! (???!!!???)

It's been a month since my last post - and a very busy month at that!!!  Three birthdays, school functions, Christmas!!  Frankly, I'm glad it's over now and things can calm down.  Pfft!  Who am I kidding??  Things around here NEVER calm down.  Anyway, here's a recap of the last month.

Here's Mitch with his birthday brownie!  47??  Uh-oh... 50 is getting awfully close! :)

Handsome devil, isn't he?? ;)

The arrival of the holiday season brought the arrival of "Bob", our 'Elf on the Shelf'.  If you don't know about the 'Elf on the Shelf', do your research, because I don't have time to explain it (it's taking me several hours just to get this blog post done because I have to get up every 45 seconds or so to answer to one of the children)!  (http://www.elfontheshelf.com/)

I'm glad he's gone now, because it was becoming a real chore trying to find a new place to put him every night and I'm not nearly as creative as some of my friends (I'd love to post some of their wonderfully creative pictures here, but I didn't ask them for permission so I won't).

Early in the month, the kids' school "performed" at the tree lighting festivities in Haymarket.  Here is my crew before the show:

And here are the boys front and center (Tyler in the red coat to the right of the little girl in the white coat, and Evan to the right of Tyler).

This year I was smart - instead of waiting until evening when Mitch got home, or the weekend, Mom and I took the boys to see Santa at 10:00 a.m. on a Monday - the minute it opened.  We were the first (and only) ones in line and were in and out of there!  He was a very nice Santa too!

Here are the boys enjoying their lollipops afterwards.

Yet another school activity!  The boys had their Christmas program in which all the different classes performed songs indvidually, and then all together.  Here is everyone before the kids got called backstage to assemble:

The show took place at this odd, yet intesting church where they have a great performace space.  You can see the stage in this next picture, with a screen above it where they were running a slide show of the kids from the school year thus far.  You can also see Ms. Belinda, in the red scarf - she is Evan's beloved teacher. :)

Here's Evan on stage with his classmates, looking a little scared!!  He did sing a little bit, but looked uncomfortable most of the time, which is odd because he is usually our little performer at home!

And here is Tyler - he sang some too, but seemed very distracted and spent a lot of time scanning the crowd.  I imagine it was pretty frightening for both boys having never been in front of that many people before.

It was a fun show! Fammy and Granddad came and there was food afterwards. I'll admit to being teary-eyed as I watched the boys on stage, having a hard time believing that they are old enough now to be part of such things.

Though Maddy's birthday is first, the best opportunity to celebrate Evan's birthday at school was before that.  I made blue Batman cupcakes for the occasion!

My big 4 year old!!!!!

I had fun sitting with the kids and eating cupcakes. They're a pretty cute bunch.  In this next photo, the little boy on the right with the yellow shirt and dark curly hair is Aamore.  He is Evan's "best friend" :)

The next day was Madelyn's birthday - 2 YEARS OLD!!!  Here she is dressed and ready to go out to lunch with the other Madeleine on our street who is 6 days younger.  Her mom Jenny and I have become good friends.  Madeleine (NOT Madelyn!!) will be getting a baby sister in February!

When the weekend hit, it was time for a proper celebration with the family!!  All the local family came over, and my brother Doug and his NOW FIANCEE!!! :) Jeannine came down as well.  I wish I had thought to take a picture of the newly engaged couple, but I didn't. Big congrats to them and all good wishes for a wonderful future together!

Now back to the party.....  The theme was half Batman, half Disney Princesses! :)

LOTS of presents! All this a weekend before Christmas!

Maddy got her play kitchen!!!  She LOVEs it!

And Evan got all things Batman!

Then it was time to enjoy some sweet treats...

Plates of cookies, a tower o' cupcakes and a whole lotta YUM!!


And then, at last, it was Christmas.  As tradition dictates, Christmas Eve was celebrated at Fammy and Granddad's.  Look at all this loot!!

And a beautiful table set for a scrumptious dinner - as usual!

I didn't get any pictures of the present opening, but I assure you it was frantic and chaotic as to be expected.  One of the gifts Tyler got was an ant farm!  Totally cool (especially because #1, he LOVES bugs and #2, I always wanted an ant farm when I was a kid) - but alas, he has already gotten the top off and I had to kill a couple escaped ants before anyone got stung, so the farm now lives atop the refrigerator and gets only supervised visitations...


Then it was back home to prepare for the arrival of Santa.  We left him cookies and milk, of course, and some carrots for Rudolph.  And the boys left some pictures for Santa - they thought they should leave him gifts since he always brings gifts for them! :)  Tyler thought of that all on his own - I was very impressed!!

Before:



After:



Morning brought the dumping of stockings,

the discovery of eaten cookies and carrots, drunken milk, missing pictures, and a farewell note from Bob, who returned to the North Pole with the big guy, but will be back next year,

great anticipation and nervous excitement,

and FINALLY, after a proper pancake breakfast, the opening of gifts!!!!!

They opened the biggest thing first - a nice wooden table and chairs set from Mimi.

Maddy is sporting the new sunglasses she got in her stocking!

It was great, as usual, and the kids got LOTS of stuff!!  During the weeks leading up to Christmas, I had been surreptiously getting rid of old toys, some to Goodwill, some to the trash heap, in anticipation.  I still have more clearing out to do!!!

On the last weekday of the year, Mom and I took the kids to the National Zoo for the first time.  We had a great day and I have lots of pictures, but this post has already gone on too long, so I'll have to save that all for another time.

As 2011 drew to a close last night, Mitch and I put the kids to bed, and I believe we were both passed out by 9:00 p.m.!!  Lame, I know, but when the chance to sleep comes along around here, YOU TAKE IT!!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL!!!  xoxo