The Art Show

Every year, Kids Under Construction preschool puts on an Art Show displaying the children's art work from throughout the year.  Brennan was so excited to go to school at night (6 PM) to see his art work!  Outside the classroom door were spring projects: ladybugs and flowers.

Brennan was bursting with excitement.  It was really cute.  His teachers thought I had fed him sugar for dinner.  Here we have penguins from his winter projects.

And a sad looking polar bear.

Each child got a ribbon that they were supposed to put on their favorite piece of artwork of their own.  After browsing his options, Brennan decided to choose his rainbow fish.

From the fall, turkeys and reindeer were on display.

The stegosauruses were one of my favorites. 

All the kids seemed to really like the pig pen.  Brennan almost awarded his pig the ribbon, but decided to go with the rainbow fish.

While we were viewing the artwork, Tyler played in the class kitchen with Kami, Carter's little sister who is six month younger than him.

Then Tyler caught sight of Julia's arrival and ran across the room, screeching with delight to greet her.  Tyler loves Julia and usually hugs her until she asks me to pry him off of her.  He was smitten with her dress and shoes and was making indications in his own language and with gestures to say that he liked them.  It was adorable.

Each class had a display in the meeting hall.  Brennan's class had the bear cave.  Brennan pointed out that his bear had the biggest smile - and he was right!  It did!  In the last month or so, all of Brennan's projects have had smiles again, which is great to see.  After the art show, we headed to Friendly's for ice cream.  It was a fun and special evening!

Happy 60th Dad!

Today is my dad's 60th birthday.  This past weekend, we headed to Long Island to celebrate.  He and mom were at an event on Friday night and our plans were to arrive while they were out.  Despite some miserable traffic on the DC side of our trip, the timing worked out and Dad was surprised to find us sitting in the living room when they got home!

We headed to Oakland's in Hampton Bays for lunch on Saturday.  The boys did really well at the restaurant.  Tyler kept grabbing dad's nose, and cuddling into his shoulder.  It was adorable.

We headed back to my parent's house for cake and gifts.  Brennan was happy to help blow out the candles.  It was a quick trip to NY, but I'm glad we were able to make it!  Happy Birthday Dad, I love you!

The Circus

Brian and I took the boys to the Ringling Bros and Barnum & Bailey Circus at the Patriot Center yesterday.  The theme of the show was Dragons, which was right up Brennan's ally.  I wasn't sure how it was going to go with Tyler, but he did pretty good!  Brennan was completely mesmerized by the show and was cheering throughout the entire event.  He said that his favorite parts were the motorbikes in the steel cage and when the dragon came out.  He also really liked the segment with the lions and tigers.  He liked seeing the lion kiss the trainer.  There was also a motorbike that rode on a tightrope that was very exciting!  We had great seats and arrived early enough to participate in some of the pre-show activities.  Tyler started growing weary of the circus after intermission, but rebounded when the elephants came out.  He seemed very intrigued by them!  All in all, it was a great experience and it was just fun to see the kids so captivated by the show!  Brennan was definitely the perfect age for the show.  We'll have to go again when Tyler is a little older!

Soccer and Spring Temps

Brennan has expressed quite a bit of interest in sports, so we signed him up for soccer this spring.  Saturday morning was his first practice.  In his age group (4-5 year olds), the kids do 30 minutes of drills/practice, followed by 30 minutes of game time.  It's all about having fun and learning some of the foundational skills, like dribbling.  He was very excited about all his new gear and couldn't wait to play.  He did pretty well too, and followed the coaches instructions pretty well.  But, he got a little out of sorts at the end, when he couldn't keep the ball in his possession during the "game," which I say loosely, since it's really a herd of kids running for the ball.  He currently claims he doesn't want to go back, but he's going to stick it out for the season and I hope things will turn around.

Later that day, Brennan turned Brian's car into a "party," as he called it.  He had so much fun sitting back there and wanted us to eat dinner in the car.  We didn't.

The weather made a turn into the mid-eighties this week.  On Tuesday, we spent the entire afternoon outside, enjoying the sprinkler! 

The sun was so intense that we had to use the umbrella!  The boys wore themselves out and I even got a little too much sun.  Brennan and I were both feeling a little bit off yesterday, so I turned the A/C on in the house and we were all feeling better after the house cooled off.

Babysitting Baxter

Over spring break, we watched Baxter while he family vacationed in Florida.  The boys loved having a dog in the house.  Brennan was a great helper and usually had the leash while we were out together.  He was even very helpful about taking Baxter out for a quick potty run in the front yard just before we left to go wherever our day took us.

Brennan asked for many pictures to be taken of him with Baxter.  He told me all week that, "Baxter was the cutest dog ever!"

Tyler enjoyed the dog and woke up every morning saying, "woo, woo," his way of saying woof.  He also liked Baxter's bed, which was a constant source of fun for him.

Tyler wanted to hold the leash too, and thankfully Baxter was very gentle with him.

Tyler kept saying, "hug," and trying to hug Baxter, but I think Tyler made Baxter a little nervous and Baxter would often try to get out of his embraces!

On the other hand, Baxter seemed to enjoy the attention he got from Brennan!  Brennan was pretty sad to see the dog go, but we are seriously considering getting a dog later in the year, after Uncle Pete's wedding!

(Not so) happy Easter

Our Easter morning started out a little rocky at home before church and this picture below pretty much sums up how it was by the time we left church!

Brennan tried to make up for his behavior by being overly willing to pose for pictures at home, but he had already crossed the line a little too much that day and ended up losing his Easter egg hung and spending the afternoon in his room. 

Sundays are a work day for me and I really didn't feel up to hosting a big group of friends after church.  We just had a nice Easter dinner together as a family, and by the time dinner came around, the kids were in a good mood.  Artichokes weren't on the original menu, but Brennan saw them in the story the day before and begged me to make them.  Turns out that Tyler is a big fan as well!