James's Birthday weekend- Sprinkler Fun

After nap time on Saturday, the day continued to be beautiful and by that time all of the grandparents had arrived.  The kids enjoyed some sprinkler fun.  James prefers the elephants sprinkler because it doesn't spray quite as high as the other one... and he spends most of his sprinkler time drinking the water:)  

James's Birthday weekend- Horseback Riding

James definitely had an extended birthday this year, with something special each day of the weekend.  On Saturday I had to bring the kids to work with me to see a patient, then took them to the Camp Ketcha horse barn for pony rides.  Noah's first several days at camp this summer he has been upset that he is not big enough to ride the horses there, but they do offer pony rides on Saturdays, so hopefully this will hold him for a while... You have to be 2yo to ride, so I wasn't sure how James would do as he is also going through a bit of a "mommy" phase around strangers.  To my surprise he jumped right for the horse and never looked back riding the entire time without any problems... this was despite the fact that it was way past nap time.  Noah very much enjoyed himself and was thrilled to be able to ride on the pony by himself.  They taught him how to properly get on and off the pony as well as some other care things... all in all pretty cool and we will definitely go again!

James Turns Two!

Today James turns 2 year old!  Although I don't remember what our family was like without him, it seems like just yesterday we were heading home from the hospital with him.  He has turned into such a fun and cool little guy.  He has started communicating with us more lately, and is quite a character.  He still isn't saying many words, but he is making a big effort at trying word you ask him to say and even putting 2 words together. He can say "Noah" now which is so cool to hear.  He loves his big brother more than anyone and tries hard to copy EVERYTHING Noah does.  This has been a particularly hard lesson for Noah to learn... he is hoping that James will grow up a little faster so they can do all of the same things safely.  It is so funny to watch the two of them play or listen to them "talk", especially at night time when James won't go to sleep and Noah is tired.  I often hear:

J- "No-ah, No-ah, No-ah, No-ah"
N- "James, go to sleep.  It is night time"
J- "No-ah, No-ah, No-ah, No-ah"
N- "James, go to sleep!"

James loves his cars and will play for long periods of time just driving his cars on anything making lots of different "car sounds".

On his actual birthday James had to go to daycare while I went to work, but he did get to sample his cake before it was baked at breakfast and have a cupcake after supper:)

Starting Summer- 2011

We have all had a pretty stressful 2 months here.  Gabe has been working a lot which makes things harder on everyone, but we can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel.  We have lots to look forward to in the next few weeks!  James turns 2 tomorrow, Father's Day is just a few days away and Gabe has the day off, Noah is starting summer camp, N & J are starting swimming lessons, and Gabe and I will celebrate our 8th wedding anniversary in a few weeks.  And that is just June:)  I assume that I will have lots of pictures to add after this weekend, so I wanted to get caught up before then.

The weather has been really hit or miss, but the kids and I have found lots to do both inside and out.  We started our community garden plot again and are doing mostly things from seed this year... we will see how that goes.  We have tomatoes, lettuce, cucumbers, rainbow chard, carrots and green beans.  The lettuce outside our front door is growing like crazy and we are eating it already and the herb garden here is starting to grow faster than I can use.  We are also very much looking forward to strawberry picking which starts next week.  The kids are playing together more and more now, and although the "rough housing" has started, they are more often than not making each other laugh when they play by themselves.  James continues to love to play with the little cars... I can no longer put anything on this shelf b/c he will throw it off to line up his cars:)  Noah loves to play pretend and it is so funny to watch James "pretend" with Noah, in reality he has not idea what is happening, but anything that his big brother does he insists on doing too.... I am counting down the days until he figures out how to crawl out of his crib... Happy Summer!!  

Family Weekend- Finally!

Gabe had his first day off in over 3 weeks (2 days in a row actually... it won't happen again until July I don't think).  Saturday morning we got everyone up and headed to Boston for Dave's 30th birthday celebration.  It was raining, but we still had a nice visit, however brief, considering it was nap time:)  Before the party we got to stop at Mike's Pastry for some cannoli.  After the party we visited the Children's Museum again (this reciprocal membership was way worth the money!) and the kids had a blast.  Our trip wasn't complete without a trip to Ikea... Noah was big enough to play in the kids area while Gabe, James and I shopped, then we all had supper in the cafe for $11.  Before we knew it we had spent 2.5 hours there, it was way past bedtime, but still worth the trip!!  Needless to say, everyone was exhausted the next day and we had a great day stuck in the house while it rained outside;)

Noah's First Fish

From Noah: "Here is my fish.  It was a big, floppy fish. It flipped onto the bridge (warf). I reeled it in. I screamed and ran away, then I stopped and came back, then Nanny poked it with a stick in the mouth. The fish is in the garden."

Last weekend Gabe had to work all weekend (6A-9P Saturday & 6A-10:30P Sunday) so the kids and I made a good choice to head north and get some chores done...  Saturday morning we brought our car to Stanley's garage for a brake job, had a sleep over with Amy & Trey, and some Mall Madness fun with the Pelkey girls after the kids bedtime.  Sunday we went to Bangor to get James's 2yo pictures done, which he was not super cooperative for, and finished up with some good Marden's deals and fishing with misquitos.  All in all a fun/productive weekend.  Hopefully we will get to see Gabe at some point this week!