Visiting the Falls with Uncle Philip

Philip came down for the weekend and we went to Great Falls Park on Saturday.  Tyler just loved having Uncle Philip here and was constantly by his side.

Great Falls Park is about 10 miles from our house and yet we had never been there before.  It was really nice and I left feeling like I wanted to go back to see more of it!  This is a shot of the falls from one of the scenic overlooks.  This is the Potomac River.  We were standing on the Virginia side, but the land right across the Potomac is Maryland.

 

We tried getting a family shot and were somewhat successful.

 

Tyler's reaction to seeing the falls was "Oooooooh."

We enjoyed a picnic in the park before heading home.

Brennan played a little football with Uncle Philip, which was a nice distraction from the garage clean-up project that Brian had hooked Philip into helping with.

All Brennan really wanted to do was tackle Brian and Phil. We had a great weekend with Uncle Philip!

Weekend in NY

Last Wednesday, I took the boys to Long Island before Meghan's Bridal Shower that Saturday.  We went to the bay a couple of times.  Brennan loved the water.  The bay is so shallow, Brennan could go all the way to the ropes.  Tyler enjoyed it too.  On Friday, Brennan and I went with my dad and he brought his old surf board.  Brennan had a great time attempting to balance on the board and just paddle around.

We got to meet Aunt Debby and Uncle Joe's new puppy, Andie.  It won't be long before she's looking Tyler straight in the face, but for now, Tyler enjoyed playing with such a little dog!

My grandparents came for dinner on Thursday to celebrate the boys birthdays.  Tyler woke up from his nap in a bad mood, but was willing to at least sit for a photo.

Mama brought Andie a little pink bandanna.

The boys enjoyed an ice cream birthday cake.  After Brennan blew out all of the candles, we re-lit Tyler's so he could have a turn!

Meghan's shower on Saturday was very nice.  I really enjoyed spending some time with my Aunts and cousins, who I don't often get to see!  Next trip to NY is in August for the wedding!!

Roller Skating

Avery and Olivia got Brennan a set of roller skates for his birthday.  He's been working on his skating skills this week.  It's hard work though and in this heat, we've only made it about 5 houses down the street before heading back.  He is working on his balance and I think he'll get the hang of it.

While Brennan works on trying to skate, Tyler has been following along on the plasma car.

The twin boys next door and another from the neighborhood all put on skates on afternoon and tried to skate along.  They weren't doing much better and all kept falling down.  It was pretty funny.  Thankfully, no one got hurt.

Brennan has been a huge help this week. In fact, he's had a real change of attitude in the last month or so.  Age 4 was a pretty difficult year for us - lots of arguing and disagreeable behavior.  As Brennan's 5th birthday was approaching, I noticed a change.  He suddenly seemed to be a  little more easy going, less argumentative, more helpful.  We can turn off the TV or Xbox game without throwing a fit (which is how he's earned this privilege back.) On Monday, I was cooking dinner and Tyler was up from his nap.  I asked Brennan if he could help Tyler out of his crib (I wasn't sure if he could.)  Well, he not only did, but then changed Tyler's diaper and helped him get his socks and sneakers on to go outside!  Way to go big helper, Brennan!

Great Weekend

Sometimes we have fun weekends and sometimes we have productive weekends, but rarely are the two accomplished in one weekend.  Not this past weekend!  I got a ton of cleaning done around the house and we still had some great outdoor family time.  Brennan and Tyler received customized shirts for their birthdays from Gary and Caryl's friend, Linda.  They were showing them off on Sunday.  I love that Tyler is showing off his smile in the picture below.  He's been making these kinds of big smiles for a while now, but won't always do them on demand, so it's been hard to get a picture.  Lets hope we get some of that smile action during Pete and Meg's wedding pictures!

Brennan picked out these "stay cool" towels for Brian for his birthday and the guys were testing them out on Saturday.  I have to say that they work pretty well.

After getting sunscreened up, including some wild sunscreen in his hair, Brennan was ready to go on the attack!  He loves pretending to be a villain from Batman (from his Lego Batman 2 game for Xbox.)  He's been on a Brainiac kick lately.

Off he went trying to squirt Brian.

My parents got the boys a glider for the swing set for their birthday.  Tyler hasn't been too keen to try it, but Brennan has been loving it and is willing to swing higher on the glider than he ever is on the swing.  On the other hand, Tyler loves the swing and is willing to go as high as I am willing to push him! 

Birthday Time!!

The anticipated 4th of July weekend had finally arrived and we had a lot on our calendar.  We went to a church BBQ/pool party all afternoon on the 4th.  The boys were in the pool from 1 PM until almost 4, when we said it was time to go!  Tyler fell asleep as soon as we got home and stayed asleep until 6 AM the next day!  Ha.  It was good he got some rest in though, because we had Brennan's friend party schedule for 1 PM on the 5th.  The boys were very excited about the batman decorations and were practicing their superhero poses.

The party got started at 1.  I had a bunch of little activities set up in the yard - a ring toss, potato sacks for racing, the water table, two pools, a bunch of water squirters and of course we have the playground.  A little while into the party, I brought out the jello containers that I had prepared, which were full of treasurers.  Each child got a tin and had to dig treasurers out of the jello.

They seemed to really enjoy it. Tyler checked the mess out, but wasn't interested in putting his hands into the jello!  The kids cleaned their treasurers off in the water table.

Mariah and her family came down on Friday morning.  She helped me get the Batman masks set up for the kids just before we did the cake.

I made the cake using sugar sheets to create appliques.  I think the cake came out pretty nice, although I need to practice my cake writing!  And, it tasted good too! 

Tyler was very excited to sing happy birthday to his big brother.

Sandra snapped a quick family photo for me before we cut the cake.

As the kids were finishing up their cake, Brian and Howie got the grand finale going: FOAM!  Thanks to a ridiculous YouTube video, we learned how to make a simple, inexpensive foam machine using a (clean) garbage can, a beach towel, dish soap and a shop vacuum. 

The kids were going nuts and loved getting covered in foam.

Carter kept pretending to charge me!

We got a quick shot of all the kids.

They were running down to the pools to get rinsed and then would head back to the foam.  By the end of the party, the pools were full of suds (and mud!)

Here's a video of the foam fun:

As our guests left, they got Potbelly cookies to thank them for coming!

The party was a success!  I really enjoyed it this year, and more importantly, I think our friends did too - both the kids and adults.  Mariah, Howie and the girls stayed over on Friday night.  Olivia and Brennan really turned out to be good buddies.  They were enjoying reading books on CD together before bedtime and kept laughing at the page turn prompts.

On Saturday, Brennan's actual birthday, we headed over to the Water Mine in Reston.  We had a great time, but were all feeling pretty beat by the end of the day.  We got home and had missed so many phone calls - thanks for the many calls to wish Brennan a happy birthday!  After Mariah, Howie and the girls headed back to NJ, we just crashed!  Today, for Brian and Tyler's birthdays, we've had a much more low key day - just went to church and are chilling out, indoors!  We a lot of fun and sun over this long weekend!  Happy Birthday Brennan, Tyler and Brian!