Happy Birthday, Michael!

This is his "big" gift from mommy and daddy, a massive parking garage. It was pretty much "total assembly required" and I think we did a good job!

CAKE!!

PRESENTS!

Playing at Galaxy Games and Golf this morning with friends.

Happy 2nd Birthday, my sweet angel!

Monster Trucks!!!

Luke and his best friend Eli took their daddies to the Monster Truck Nationals last night. They saw monster trucks crushing cars and flipping over and Megasaurus the car-eating-robot-dinosaur was there! It was fun but LOUD and Luke stayed up way too late!

favorite shirts

Both boys happened to be wearing their favorite shirts today. They both feature monsters--of the little green and blue cookie varieties respectively.

Welcome, new little friend!

One of Luke's good friends Jennie got a new baby brother this week. This is Matthew Stephen--as you can imagine, we are big fans of the name at our house. Last night, I got to see the whole family at the hospital. Momma Jennie and Daddy Phil looked great. Big Sister Jennie was very serious singing Happy Birthday to the baby. It was adorable. Thanks, Cheryl, for driving us over and letting me borrow (or steal) one of your blog pics!!

invisibility cloak

I didn't realize that mosquito netting made you invisible, but our neighbor Ethan and Luke swore it did and spent a long time rolling around on the muddy ground in the netting. Now that I see the green netting against the green grass, maybe they have point!

study on plastic snake and stuffed stingray by Luke

Like the photos, Poppy and Nan? Here's a birthday gift idea for Luke.

Trip to Maryland--Part Two

On Saturday, we drove to Baltimore. We visited the National Aquarium and looked around the Inner Harbor. Baltimore is a beautiful city. I think we'll be returning again and again. The National Aquarium was very crowded and kind of hard to navigate with the kids. No strollers allowed. But the dolphin show was amazing. We had a nice dinner nearby and then we drove down the coast until we found Sandy Point State Park where the kids could go down to the water.

Luke with the National Aquarium in the background.

Happily anticipating the dolphin show.

Michael and Ming-Ming on the beach.

Names in the sand.

Waving at a boat--that's Bay Bridge in the background that crosses Chesapeake Bay.

Trip to Maryland--Part One

We spent the weekend visiting our friends Molly, Pato and Violeta in Silver Spring, MD. On Friday, we took the train into D.C. and went to the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. Then we turned the kids loose on the National Mall. It was cold, but lots of fun.

With a very still giraffe at the museum.

The requisite Washington Monument pic.

Luke and Violeta liked the mini version. That's the White House in the background. Luke kept yelling "Hi Barack!"

Running towards the Lincoln Memorial (we actually didn't make it that far).

Catching our breath with Violeta and Molly at the WWII Memorial.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

It was a beautiful day for goofing around outside! Not a cloud in the sky. I think the boys were outside most of the day until corned beef and cabbage time. They liked the corned beef, not so keen on the cabbage. Guess I'm the only one who actually eats the cabbage.

St. Patrick's Day Parade

Yesterday was Dublin, OH's annual St. Patrick's Day Parade. We had fairly nice weather. This is a great parade and rivals the Dogtown St. Patrick's Day Parade in St. Louis, which we've gone to a few times. We love spending St. Patrick's Day in St. Louis with my cousins, but we are going to Washington, D.C. at the end of this week, so that will be our spring break trip this year. I have to say that the parking and walking is much, much easier in Dublin--although Dogtown allows spectators to drink beer while watching the parade. Tough call.

Trying to get navigate the low power lines with a large shamrock.

The Blarney Bug.

The very last Christmas gift . . .

This table is too big.

This table is too small.

This table is just right.

Thanks to Craig's List (where we sold the old table in less than 24 hours) and a check from my stepmom, we now have a new dinette set that matches the chandelier and piano. The kids will be sitting on towels indefinitely to keep the new chairs clean. Most importantly, the table has a leaf that makes it 18" shorter than our previous table for everyday use. Hopefully, this will make for fewer cracked heads as the boys run circuits through the house. Thanks Carole, come visit soon and sit at our new table!!

A Study on Mommy by Luke

Snacktime

On Friday morning, Luke asked for popcorn at 7am. Popcorn is definitely not a morning smell for me, but it's a healthy snack (we don't do the microwave kind), so here they are chowing down on early morning popcorn.

On a related note, Luke has started the classic bedtime stalling techniques. One of his favorites is "I'm hungry." I read a tip somewhere that if your kid says they're hungry at bedtime, then offer them only veggies. If they are really hungry, then they'll eat them and if your kid stays up an extra 10 minutes to eat a carrot, no big deal. So here's Luke enjoying a "late night" carrot at 7:30pm last night.

Bikes

I could not face the mud in my backyard this afternoon, so we went out front to ride bikes. Michael is finally big enough to ride the green motorcycle, albeit very slowly. It sure makes him look like a big kid. Speaking of big kids, Luke is getting a bit leggy on his tricycle. Time to buy a new helmet and get him going on his two-wheeler (with training wheels, of course).

COSI morning

Michael and I hooked up with some friends at COSI this morning. Luke and I used to go there at least once a week when he was Michael's age. In fact, we were there the day before Michael was born and I was in early labor, but didn't know it! Unfortunately, with Luke's preschool and my work schedule, Michael hasn't gone nearly as often. He sure enjoyed himself today!