It's Back to School Time!

Mark is back to work and I'm not! I can't remember the last time I felt this happy. The only way I can describe it is bliss! I LOVE being home with the boys. Last week we watched a few of our friends' kids. The boys had someone new to play with every day. We also joined a Homeschool Group. We meet once a week at a school for gym time (run by a gym teacher) and outside play time. Then the kids meet inside for snack, crafts, and play time. They plan field trips and other activities too. We all had a great time meeting new friends! We also had fun going to the library yesterday and found out that they are having a Play dough contest! Ohhhh....the possibilities! Today we went to the Home Depot for the kid's workshop. Julian completed his third project today, a race car, and Liam made a football holder.

Julian and I started easing into his "school" routine this week. Last week we only did seat work (math and reading) for about 10 mins. a day. Then he would spend about 5-10 mins. doing some independent work (coloring and such). This week I'm going to try and double it by having him do work in the morning and afternoon.

I also picked up a (very) part-time gig! I'm TJing (Trivia Jockey) a Live Trivia show at Key West in Taylor on Sundays at 6pm! Last week was my first week, and although hardly anyone showed up, I managed to get 3 teams and we all had a good time. I love doing the trivia shows because I get out of the house for a little bit, get to have a lot of fun, and make money all at the same time! Lucky me!

To be continued.....

First "Real" Vacation

Well, we've been up north and such as a family, however, we just got back from our first real family vacation. I actually started planning this about 4 years ago when I first heard about Sesame Place in Langhorne, PA (outside of Philadelphia). It's like Disney only a theme park with Sesame characters and the entire park is made for little kids! I figured this would be the perfect year to go since the boys are 2 and 4.

The drive was 10 hours long (which I wasn't looking forward to) and I figured that if we're going to drive that far, we're going to stay for awhile. I found a steal at a hotel outside the city in New Jersey. We had 5 full days to enjoy the city. The first two days we were at Sesame Place. To sum it up, Mark said it perfectly, "The first day at Sesame Place with the kids made my whole year." The kids enjoyed every minute of it, especially meeting Elmo for the first time. Even I was excited to meet all the characters.



After we had out fun at Sesame Place we spent 3 days doing "kid stuff" in the city. I wouldn't have thought that Philadelphia would be a good place for kids, but I was wrong! We spent one day playing at the Adventure Aquarium. We pet sharks, sting rays, and starfish. We even walked through a tunnel with sharks swimming over us. The next day we spent 4 hours (yes, count them, 1, 2, 3, 4 hours) at the Please Touch Museum. This museum was so much fun! We played in a life sized car garage, city (complete with hospital, construction site, and grocery store), water room, music room, and everyone's favorite Alice in Wonderland. Our last day didn't disappoint either. We toured quickly through the Franklin Institute (which is a child's hands-on museum teaching them about all of Ben Franklin's inventions). Julian's favorite was the planterium show and Mark liked the Sky Bike. We left there and toured the city on top of a double-decker bus. The first for all the boys!




We had tons of fun, and made great memories!

Goodbye Babies!

((((SIGH))))
Over four years ago, before Julian was born, Mark spent so much time putting together this beautiful nursery.

Julian spent two years in there and then Liam. Next month Liam will turn two. Our convertable crib finally came apart today and is now a bed. It seems too weird to not have crib in our house. Soon we will have two "big boy" rooms in our house. ((((SIGH))) Where does the time go??





And this is how I'll always remember this special room:




**I'll post pics soon of the new rooms soon!**