A Dramatic Series....by G.

You would have thought she was Prima Ballerina in Swan Lake the amount of emotion and drama she put into getting those pictures. What.a.trip.

Thomas and his Friends!

Look who it is!


Last weekend we had a great adventure! We traveled to Lancaster to go to the "Day Out With Thomas" at the Strasburg Railroad. It was our second time to visit Thomas, and it was just as much fun as the first time!

On Saturday we headed across the state on the turnpike and much to Colin's delight our trip was filled with toll booths and tunnels. We had an easy trip and made it to our hotel just in time to settle in and have a swim! Before jumping in the pool we set up the kids air mattresses in the bedroom of our suite. I had to get a picture because we were all squeezed in one room so tightly, it was pretty funny!


We swam in the pool until the kids were shivering and blue lipped. And then we ALL soaked in the hot tub. Gillian was in HEAVEN. She wants to be that warm ALWAYS. It took Colin a while to get into the "warm" thing, but eventually he seemed to like it. Daddy and I sure did!

After our swim the kids got a quick bath and then this happened:



You can tell they "like living in a hotel" as Colin told us. Even BlueBlue liked living in a hotel.

We had a great dinner with our friends Tim and Betsy and their son Luke. They traveled from the DC area to meet up with us for some Thomas fun! The men ate sausages and drank smoked beer, the kids ate SOMETHING, and Betsy and I had a nice visit. Love good friends like that!

Sunday morning we were up and up 'em early (After Mommy ended up sleeping on the couch because the kids tossing and turning was driving me bonkers. Sigh) and we were off to see Thomas!

Parking lot shot...


Engineers!


We took some shots with Thomas! We bought one from the photographer and miraculously it is a WONDERFUL picture of the four of us! Woo hoo!


Cute one of Tim, Betsy, and Luke!


Then we took our ride on the THOMAS!



Three cute kiddos!




Horrible picture of me, but it's a fantastic picture of Gillian, so I'm including it.


After our 15 minute ride on Thomas we took in all the other FUN that came with our tickets...rides, train tables, and such!





Colin wanted his picture with the Diesels.


Daddy got lots of pictures coming and going from the station too.






He's so cool, right?

We had a very fun time! The kids really enjoyed themselves and we love seeing them have so much fun! Thomas WE LOVE YOU!

Octo-Obsessed.

I've been meaning to document one of the biggest THINGS of our late summer and fall (so far). So, let's talk Octonauts. Sometime in July I found myself tired of the tv shows the kids were loving. C&G had latched onto a new train show, but it was loud, annoying, and largely noneducational, so it had to GO. I had several wise friends suggest that we might like Octonauts on Disney Jr. And, oh man, we LOVED it! Basically you have a team of animals with cool accents with awesome underwater equipment who run around and save sea creatures from danger.

The kids were immediately enthralled and have had many, many hours of play based on the show. Colin loves to be Peso (the medic) and Kwzaii (the retired pirate first mate). He also likes to pretend to drive "Gups" which are the Oconauts mini-submarines they use in rescue missions. Gillian also likes to be Peso, but she also enjoys being Dashi (the resident photographer) and sometimes Tweak (the ship's engineer). My favorite is Shellington, because who doesn't love a Scottish Sea Otter?!?! Most often Daddy is Capt. Barnacles, for obvious reasons. We've all had a lot of fun pretending and learning this summer. So much fun that we're having an Octonauts Birthday Party next month!

Apple Picking Adventure

A couple of weekends ago, GraGra and Papa dropped in for a visit. It had been a while since they had a Colin and Gillian fix! We woke up to a beautiful fall morning, so I suggested we try some apple picking. So, down the road we headed to Triple B Farms.

After (overly) detailed instructions from the apple lady, we headed up the hill to the orchard. We were given more (friendlier) instruction on the types of apples they had ripe and how to pick. The kids paid very close attention, actually. Then we were off!






Quick stop for a picture with Mama!


Peek-a-boo GraGra!


Colin found a good one!



Hard working apple pickers!


We're better at picking than picture taking....


We ended up with about half a bushel of honey crisp and jonagold apples. We've been eating a lot of them and we've made two batches of applesauce! I promised to make the kids a pie, so we need to get that done!

Beginner Ballet

Last Friday, Gillian started her year of dance! She was so excited and happy to dancing! Her class meets every Friday for an hour for a combination of ballet, tap, and some gymnastics. Turns out there are only three girls total in the class. But upon meeting the other two, I think that's perfect! They seem chatty, twirly-girly, drama-lovers....just like our G! I think they will have a fabulous time together in there!



G had no trouble heading in by herself and I knew she'd be fine, but since it was the first day, I didn't want to leave for the whole hour...but Colin had it in his head that he wanted to see the train tables in the book store! So, we left for about 30 minutes, then came back to play in the lobby....and run back and forth to the dance studio playroom. Oy.

Running.....


And some playing.

Mama Makes a Shape Belt.

Despite a recent obsession with Octonauts, we ended up watching a Team UmiZoomi last week sometime. After watching the show, we were sitting at the dinner table and Colin says, "I want a shape belt. Let's make one." For those unfamiliar, a Shape Belt is a superhero tool (of sorts) that's worn by the character Geo from UmiZoomi. He uses the shapes on it to build whatever it is the team needs to succeed at their mission. So, Colin wanted one.

So we got a belt and taped some foam cutout shapes on it as a prototype. It was pretty sad looking, in my estimate. But I'm not the one that matters!

Colin.loved.it. It was so nice to make him so happy with just such a simple thing. Love making that boy happy.



And the boy is seriously handsome in this picture, right?


He wore the prototype belt to the Farmer's Market to show it off. Fortunately Daddy was able to superglue the shapes on later that night, so it's much sturdier now. Good thing too....Colin wore it biking the next day!

Team UmiZoomi and YOU!

Zoo Adventures....Kinda.

Once upon a Friday we went to the zoo. It was a hot day. Too hot for September, but we went anyway due to schedules. The tigers weren't out. The rhino was put away for impending childbirth. And lions were nowhere to be found. We did see the elephants SWIM, which was way cool. The aquarium was really fun, thanks in part to our new obsession with sea creatures. We especially enjoyed the blowfish, the penguins, and the octopus. Oh, and the air conditioning. The baby sea otter made Mommy laugh. Finally, Colin reached his limit of hot and tired. And home we came. Later the next week Daddy accidentally deleted all the zoo pictures. Bummer, but it happens. Guess we'll have to go back.

First Day of School 2012

Colin and Gillian started their year of 3 year old preschool on September 11. They will go two mornings a week this year and they are in separate classes, as requested! They only had a hour session on Tuesday, but Thursday was the start of their full (half) days. It was quite chilly Tuesday morning, but I made them head out for pictures anyway.




And I love this one of the two of them together. Gillian was freaking out because SHE NEEDED A COAT. And Colin was all "Calm down, sissy."


Tuesday went very well. The report I got was they played (mostly with play doh and cars) and had goldfish crackers for snack. They were raring to go for a full day on Thursday, although Colin has a couple of classmates who are having trouble being away from their parents and are crying some. Colin told me they were making him nervous. We talked about how he might be able to help them feel better, and he told me Thursday was better, but still come crying. He had a good day anyway!

Bring on the school year!

1...2...3....JUMP!

A beautiful Sunday morning led us to a hike through the woods in the park, putting "electricity" to the "steamworks", and nice time on the playground. Man, do I love those cool, sunny fall mornings!



The big rock was the steamworks. The branches were the "electricity." It all equaled a very nice, peaceful playtime!