Baltimore

This weekend Jason and I had a weekend away in Baltimore. My parents watched the boys overnight at our house, while we spent Saturday and Sunday in Baltimore. We had lunch and hung out at the Inner Harbor during the day. We went to a baseball game (Orioles vs. Nationals) that night. Afterwards we got ice cream and enjoyed the beautiful view of the boats on the water. We stayed overnight at the Marriott and slept it till almost 11 this morning - it was great! We stopped for lunch at Olive Garden on the way home. The boys had a great time with Ma and Pa! It was nice to have a chance to relax and unwind!

Family Movie Night

Every Friday we have a family movie night at our house. Max is usually in bed by 6:30pm so we typically wait till he goes to bed and then start the movie with popcorn or another snack of Kyle's choosing. Kyle gets to pick the movie of his choice and the 3 of us watch it together. He looks forward to it every Friday and usually has his movie picked out days in advance! Max happened to take a particularly long nap today so he was able to join us for part of family movie night. Kyle had picked the Cars movie and Max, following in Kyle's footsteps, is very into cars and trains. Max was absolutely thrilled to be able to watch part of the movie with Kyle and as you can see in the video was super excited especially with the race scenes. He even spent part of the movie on Kyle's lap - it was so cute!

Superhero Night

Tonight was "Superhero Night" at the Frederick Keys baseball game. Jason got tickets and took Kyle to his first night ball game. They got a special dinner of hot dogs and chips with the superheroes. The superheroes were walking around to meet and greet, take pictures, and sign autographs. Spiderman was the highlight of the evening and apparently they saw him on the way out (without a crowd of kids around him) and he said bye to Kyle - he was elated!!! Kyle was a little too intimidated to get his picture taken with any of the superheroes, but he's been into photography lately so Jason let him use the camera and he took pictures of some of the superheroes that were there. He also got a few autographs and some hi-fives! He had another great time at the ball game which included the moonbounce, cotton candy, a creamsicle, and playing catch. They didn't get home till after 9:30pm and he was tuckered out! He actually slept till 8:30 the next morning (and Max was gracious enough to sleep till 8:20 - it was a good morning :)). He probably would have slept longer, but I had to wake him to go to his last day of vacation bible school.

Help-E the robot

Kyle started Vacation Bible School this week at the church where he attends preschool. The theme is Gadget's Garage: Jesus Makes All Things New! Gadget is a teen genius who has a robot named Gizmo. In order to prepare for this week, each family was encouraged to create a robot to bring to display during VBS week. Jason and Kyle worked on his robot for several weeks. It was all Kyle's ideas and design (well, Jason came up with how to actually assemble it) and he did a lot of the work as well! It turned out great and he is so proud of it. He also had a good first day. He was a little nervous at first but was happy that two of his preschool friends were there, even if they weren't in his group. They divide the kids up into groups and they rotate through four different sites: Transform Me Bible Stories, Power Up Music, Imagine That Craft, and Gadget Games. They also had snack time, as well as time to play at the playground.

Germantown Indoor Swim Center

Saturday I had planned to take Kyle to Bohrer Park's outdoor swimming pool. We woke up to rain and thunderstorms, though, so we decided we'd head over to the nearby indoor swim center. I'd heard good things about their leisure pool with splash areas for kids, but we'd never been there. They have open swim for the general public from 1-3pm on Saturdays. Of course when we walked out the door a little before 1:00 the rain had stopped and it was sunny outside, but they were calling for thunderstorms again later so we just stuck with the new plan. It turned out to be a really fun experience! The place is huge and Kyle was a little overwhelmed at first, but once he got comfortable he had a blast! He's never been in anything besides a "baby" pool before so this was a whole new world to him. The more adventurous he got, the more nervous I got, but he did great! By the end he was getting better at holding his breath. He went on a small water slide a couple times. And he mostly wanted to stay in the 3 ft. area of the pool which made the water pretty much up to his neck. We had "races" and he told me "Look, Mom, I can really swim!" Of course he wasn't actually going under the water :). He was just bouncing and hopping along while moving his arm in swim-like motions and making a face like he was holding his breath above the water. It was really cute! I wish I could have gotten a picture of that, but he pretty much needed constant supervision, so I just got pictures of him in the 6 inch water area and I got one picture of what the place looked like inside. It was nice because the water went gradually from 6 inches, to 1 ft. 6 inches, then 2 inches, 2 ft. 6 inches, and 3 feet. It was super crowded, but we had a lot of fun and he can't wait to go back!

Stuffed Animals

Today was a rainy day so we just stayed inside and played. We were playing in Kyle's room at one point and Kyle decided that he wanted to bring all his stuffed animals into his bed to "sleep" with him. He has quite a collection so he actually didn't even bring all of them! Max watched cautiously at first. When Kyle invited him to join him and his animals on the bed he thought it was a great idea. As you can see from the pictures, he quickly changed his mind. At first he tried to escape, but was unable to get off the bed. You can see that he wasn't happy about this. Don't worry - I quickly rescued him after I took the picture!

Hadley Park

Today we went to a playground we hadn't been to in a LONG time! We used to meet our playgroup there when it was just me and Kyle. I had forgotten about it until recently . . . it's a great playground for new walkers like Max because the ground is soft foam instead of concrete or mulch. The boys had a great time. And funny enough, we even ran into some friends, Micah and Sara, from our playgroup while were there!

Kings Dominion

Jason took last week off for vacation and we went down to Virginia to stay at my parents' house for a few days and took Kyle on his first trip to Kings Dominion. "Ma" was kind enough to stay home and watch Max since he's still a bit young. Jason and I took Kyle and he (and we) had a BLAST! We spent about 8 hours there the first day and about 5 hours the second day. He measured just at 40 inches (although I think they were a bit generous) so he got a blue wrist band and was JUST tall enough to ride the Scooby Doo Ghoster Coaster, the Avalanche roller coaster, and the Log flume. These 3 rides turned out to be his favorites and we rode each one 5 times over the course of the 2 days. He also enjoyed some of the kiddie rides, as well as some other family rides that he rode with us - the ferris wheel, flying eagles, old fashioned cars, and the Eiffel Tower to name a few. Another favorite was the Scooby Doo Haunted Mansion - he was a little timid at first, but turned out to be quite adventurous! We also played games, ate yummy food, and took lots of pictures! There was also a construction play area with lots of things to climb, tunnels to go through, and a ball pool to play in. He was very cute and kept saying how much fun he was having and was genuinely excited after each ride he rode. He had the same reaction coming off of the Scooby Doo roller coaster as he did coming off of the little jeeps that go in a circle. They can't possibly compare, but he didn't seem to care - he was just happy to be there! He won some cute stuffed animals playing games - 4 frogs, a bee, and 2 orange dogs. He was so tuckered out that first day that he fell asleep in the car at 6:30 on the way home and actually slept in both mornings following his days at the park. A big thank you to "Ma" and "Pa" for letting us stay with them and all their help to make our vacation a fun time!

More pictures here: http://picasaweb.google.com/inmantl/KingsDominion2009?authkey=Gv1sRgCODx5KjyitGWugE&feat=directlink