Visit with Ma, Pa, and Uncle Mike

On Saturday my parents and brother came to visit. Ma and Pa came bearing gifts as always. Today Kyle got a new Lego set. It's a car that can be built 3 different ways - car, racecar, and jeep. He LOVED it! It's been 2 days and he's built each kind of car at least twice. If he has help he can build it in 45 minutes. Today he did one mostly on his own and it took a little over an hour. I'm very impressed that he has the patience and skill to complete this task. The toy says ages 6 and up and he's quickly becoming a pro! He liked having Uncle Mike, Pa, and Daddy help him build them on Saturday. Apparently when I help him I sometimes tell him the pieces go in the wrong places and he even told me once that I should hold it a certain way so he could connect two pieces the way Uncle Mike usually does! I don't think I've ever built legos my entire life (despite the fact that my brother had a TON growing up). It just wasn't something that interested me and I think I did pretty well for my first time :) I think it must be a boy thing! The boys had a great time playing with Ma, Pa, and Uncle Mike - it was great to see them! Later that afternoon Jason and I also had a chance to go see a movie and then out to dinner at the Melting Pot. It was a fun day!

Silly hats

Kyle recently saw an activity idea in his High Five magazine to make a mobile using pipe cleaners, sticks, pine cones, etc. The next day we went and got pipe cleaners and he collected some sticks from outside to make his mobile. Ever since he's been obsessed with making things with the pipe cleaners. Today he decided we should all make silly hats!

Trains

Max is following in his big brother's footsteps. He LOVES trains. He can even tell the difference between some of the major characters like Thomas, Percy, and James. He loves setting up tracks and pushing the trains (and cars too - he also has a car obsession) around the tracks. It's the first thing he wants to do in the morning and he plays with every kind of track we have - metal, motorized, and wooden - every day, usually multiple times each day! Kyle is outgrowing his train obsession. He still likes trains, but has lots of other interests now that often take precedence. Our trains were not used very often for a brief period, but thanks to Max they're back in action and he's even gotten Kyle excited about them again. He loves the tracks that Kyle builds for him to play on like the one seen below.

Chuck E Cheese

Today we went to Chuck E Cheese with some old friends. We met my friend Nicole and her kids Josh, Philip and Elise there. They moved to Potomac awhile back and we don't see them as often, but Kyle LOVES playing with Josh and Philip! It was a fun day playing games, winning prizes, eating pizza and ice cream, dancing, and catching up! I didn't take many pictures because I was too busy chasing Max around, but I did manage a few cute ones of Max with Chuck E Cheese. He was totally fascinated by the big robot-like one on the stage and couldn't stop dancing with him! The real Chuck E Cheese actually came out at one point and sang a song and gave out free tickets at which point Max was completely frozen - he could definitely tell the difference between the "real" one and the fake one.

Photography by Kyle

Kyle's been very into taking pictures lately so I thought I'd post some samples of his photography work!

Haircuts

We took the boys to get haircuts on Saturday. Max was in desperate need of one. I loved his curls, but it was getting a little wild and crazy. There's still some wave to it so I don't think the curls are gone for good. This is his second haircut and they came back in full force last time, so hopefully they'll stick around for awhile! Kyle got his usual haircut. Here are before and after pictures of both boys.

New Cousin Michael

Jason's sister, Jessica, had a baby 7 1/2 weeks ago and we met him for the first time today. The boys were very excited to meet their new cousin. Kyle played peek a boo with him, tickled his toes, showed him his puppy, and made funny faces for him. Max was very gentle and kept "petting" him like he does with Peanut, our cat. It was very sweet. I was also surprised that Max was not jealous at all of me holding a baby. Kyle would cry hysterically at that age if he saw me holding a baby. Grandma Luster came to visit, too and brought a fun Disney magazine that her and Kyle worked on together. Max was a little grumpy after his nap so he wasn't very photogenic, but we did manage to get a picture of Grandma Luster with her grandchildren before they had to leave.

Splash Park

Jason had off work today so we were going to spend the morning at Splash Park. However, Max was still recovering from a cold and it was pretty cool in the morning, so we decided to wait and I took Kyle in the afternoon while Jason and Max stayed at home. It was still pretty cool (70's) for an afternoon at Splash Park, so we didn't stay too long, but it was still a fun couple of hours. Kyle enjoyed running around and splashing in the water. He was sporting his new Cars goggles which were a big help! He hates having water in his eyes so when we went last year he kept running back to his towel every 2 minutes to dry his eyes. The goggles allowed him much more freedom to not have to worry about that! He was a little timid at first, but after awhile was running under waterfalls, sticking his face in water spouts, and generally having a blast! It was fun to watch and run around with him!

Rio

Today we went to the Rio and fed the ducks and played at the playground. Both boys had lots of fun feeding the ducks. Max snuck in some bread for himself and Kyle was quite aggressive with his bread throwing (as you can see in the pictures). He wanted to see how far back he could stand and still get the bread in the water for the ducks. There is also an outdoor summer tot series that features a variety of performances/acts every other Wednesday. This week it was "Rainforest Alive" where they showed a variety of rainforest animals. We got to the Rio early - around 9 - for the duck feeding and playground. The show started at 10:30 and I told Kyle we'd try it but I had no idea how Max would do. Max did pretty much how I expected. He sat for all of 30 seconds and then kept wanting to walk off and do what he wanted to do. After about 10 minutes this became a game where I'd chase after him and then I'd carry him kicking and screaming back to where Kyle was. It wasn't working so we decided to walk around a bit more, got Kyle a milkshake, and headed home. We did get to see an iguana, a lizard, and a frog before we left and Kyle seemed pretty happy with that!