Tyler's First Haircut

Although I loved the crazy baby hair, I knew I was going to have to get T's hair cut sooner than later.  While Brennan was at camp today, I took Tyler to Cartoon Cuts to have it done.  Here is the before:

And the after:

Tyler screamed and cried the entire time the cut was happening.  It was a terrible experience, but at least it's done! I can't say I love it, but I know I'll get used to it!

Family Photos

In early June, we went to a party for our friend's daughter's first birthday.  They hired a professional photographer and she got a few nice shots of us!  Here are a few of my favorites.

Haircut at the Barber Shop

Yesterday afternoon I took Brennan for his first haircut at the barber shop.  Admittedly, Brian really wanted to take him, but Brennan was throwing such a fit for me to do it.  For any locals, this shop is located next to the Cascades Giant.  The shop was big, bright and clean.  We didn't have to wait, which was even better.  Here the before:

 And the after:

I thought they did a nice job!  And, the best part is that Brennan was extremely well behaved.  It's been over a year since I took him out for a haircut because he was previously hysterical at the salon.  However, he's been doing better and better for us at home and Brian and I thought he might be ready.  Brian suggested taking him to the barber shop that he goes to and it turned out to be a very good experience.  We'll definitely be heading back there next time!

Brennan's Birthday Mission

This Friday, we had Brennan's friend birthday party at our house.  I invited the kids to a Birthday Mission to rescue animals caught in the wild behind "Camp Pecorino."  We made binoculars as a craft and then headed on the mission in the back yard.  The kids had to save blow fish from the river (the slip and slide), rescue lady bugs from the balloon forest, frogs from the marsh (fiber fill floating on water in a kiddie pool), butterflies caught in the trees and snakes and lizards stuck in slime (jello!)

The slip and slide didn't work out as expected, so we headed straight to the balloon forest.  The kids popped the balloons to rescue lady bug erasers that were hidden inside.  I wasn't sure if they kids would be willing to pop the balloons, but most were into it and were ready to pounce on them to free to lady bugs!

The marsh pool was a hit and the kids jumped right in to save the frogs.

 Next up, the butterflies that needed rescuing.

Lastly, the snakes and lizards.  After pulling them out of the slime, they washed them off in the water table to help save them.  It was cute and the kids seemed to really have fun.

After the mission was completed, they had a blast having a fiber fill fight.  The yard was kind of a mess afterwards!

I wanted to do jungle decorations on the cake, but Brennan was quite insistent on Spiderman.

It was nice getting to catch up with some preschool friends we hadn't seen since school ended.  And, it was nice having Mariah, Howie and the girls in town to celebrate with us!

"Stolen" Time in NY

My decision to flee to NY with the kids after the power outage last week gave me a unique opportunity on LI that I rarely have rarely have when I'm there - free time to go to the beach!  We just went to the bay in Jamesport, but it was perfect for the kids.  It was Tyler's first beach visit and he didn't love it.  While sitting with him at the edge of the water, all he wanted to do was eat rocks.  After feeding him lunch, he seemed content to sit on a towel and play with sand toys and a bucket of water under the umbrella.  But, he was getting tired and fussy (in hindsight, I know he was coming down with a low grade fever, which was the start of hand, foot and mouth disease.)  My mom ended up taking him home to nap and left Brennan and I to enjoy the beach for the rest of the afternoon.

Brennan LOVED the beach and told me it was his favorite pool.  He said he liked it better than the pool with the giant bucket (Volcano Island.)  We were at the beach for almost 5 hours that day and he was exhausted by the time my dad came to pick us up!  It was a lot of fun though!  He collected tons of live seaweed and snails, which we kept in water buckets and released back into the bay before heading home.

While in NY, we also got to meet baby Malachi, Uncle Mimi's 2 month old son.  Brennan loved him.  He wanted to hold the baby and did pretty good with him.  He was kissing Malachi's forehead and was making silly faces at him, in an attempt to make him laugh.  Since meeting Malachi, Brennan often brings him up in conversation and asks when Mimi is going to bring him back for a visit.

Tyler enjoyed being wheeled around my parents yard in my grandparent's garden bench.

Happy Birthday Boys!

Our week in NY culminated with a family birthday party for Brennan and Tyler.  Unfortunately, by the time the party rolled around, both boys had a case of hand, foot and mouth disease.  Poor Tyler had it worse than Brennan and his face with covered with sores for the party.  Everyone was cautioned to wash their hands a lot and to potentially not hold Tyler too much!  Thanks for everyone who came out and risked getting sick!  Brennan helped Tyler blow out his candle.  Tyler wasn't interested in smashing his cake at all.

Brennan feigned disinterest while everyone sang happy birthday to him.

Brennan and Olivia played together really nicely.  Although they appear to be relaxing on the hammock, they were mostly flipping each other off the hammock.

After cake, Brennan, Avery and Olivia enjoyed playing on the slip and slide.  Brian even took a ride down to show Brennan how to do it.

Tyler hung in there as much as he could during the party.  He was definitely a little fussy, but ate a good lunch, passed on cake and went down for nap while Brennan opened presents.

 Here are some pictures of our lovely guests:

Aunt Kerry and Uncle Philip

Aunt Meg and Uncle Pete

Aunt Debby and Uncle Joe

Grandma and Grandpa Pecorino

The Caponi Line - Pete, me, Mama, Poppy, Debby and Mom

I didn't do too much decorating, but I did take an idea from a friend and made a photo clothesline of the boys.  For Tyler, it was one picture from each month of his first year.  For Brennan, it was shots from each birthday.  It was so nice to have everyone together for the party.  The boys got such wonderful and generous gifts.  Thanks to our families for making the day so wonderful!

Off The Grid

Thanks to partially charged cell phones, we were not exactly off the grid, but we definitely felt like we were living on an island this weekend when our power went out for 48 hours (from 10:30 PM on Friday night until around 10 PM on Sunday.) A huge thunderstorm blew through our area on Friday and knocked out quite a bit of the DC area. Not only was our power out, but so were most of the traffic lights in Sterling, the grocery stores, the mall, the pool, etc. There was very little we could do to escape the heat, except hang out in the basement. The first night of the outage, we all slept in the TV room, after that, the basement was the place to be. Brennan thought sleeping together on the soft, comfy blankets was fun.  Tyler was not as amused to be stuck in the pack and play, but he did adjust after the first day.

We tried going out to eat, but Tyler wasn't a very cooperative participant, so we resorted to bringing food in.  Wegman's was our go-to place for supplies.  Tyler ended up eating a lot of room temperature Chef Boyardee and seemed to really enjoy it.  We did our best to keep food chilled in coolers, but had to throw out most of what was in the freezer, including the last 200 ounces of pumped breast milk.  I really felt at peace about it though as we had been testing the waters a bit with cows milk in the last week.  He made the transition just fine.  In fact, I think he likes it better.  The power came back on Sunday night, just as we were all heading to bed.  But, after 2 days of being cooped up at home, with around 8 loads of laundry piling up and an empty fridge, I decided to hit the road for my parent's house.  I needed to get out of the house and if we had stayed in VA, I would have had to stay in for at least a couple of days, doing laundry, cleaning and restocking.  This way, I took my laundry with me and will face the food shortage when I get back!

The week leading up to the outage was pretty nice.  That Saturday, I took Brennan to the Water Mine in Reston as part of a goodbye party for our neighbors, who are leaving for Texas for a two year work assignment.  We had a blast there.  Then, Brennan had a playdate with one of his preschool friends, Carter, on Wednesday at our house.  The boys had a lot of fun driving the power wheels truck. 

Carter's mom invited us to go to their community's pool the next day, so we did.  The picture below was taken the prior week at Volcano Island.  Although initially quite nervous, Tyler has been warming up to the pool.

Brennan has been entertaining himself in the backyard trying to catch birds and squirrels.  He insists he'll be able to throw the milk crate on top of a bird that lands on the grass, if he could just run fast enough.