Happy Birthday Daddy! We had our first birthday celebration at Grandpa Ken and Grandma Diana's complete with party hats and cake!
Then we had a long weekend in Shenandoah Crossing. We had a great time despite Nate getting sick. We had nice weather and the kids actually slept well! Friday morning we headed into the Discovery Museum in Charlottesville which the kids loved of course!
Dress up costumes.... the giraffe was a little small.
Peanut loves to be pretty!
Lightening McQueen race outfit seemed a bit more fitting!
This is the look you get when she knows she is doing something wrong but wants to make sure you see it. She did turn around before going down the slide!
Play time outside!
And lots of swim time.
Then Aunt Ellie, Uncle Josh, Luke and Emma came to visit. We had lots of fun seeing the horses, going to a Mardi Gras party, swimming and having more happy for daddy's birthday!
It was a good weekend. Monday I had off for Presidents Day so we set up a surprise birthday party for Nate in the dining room with all kinds of left over party supplies and home made birthday banners with sorbet for dessert. Max loved to have his party and give him his presents. Unfortunately on Nate's birthday, Tuesday, he had gotten so sick he had to come home from work but he seems to be on the mend now.
Not too much else in other news. Besides lots of traveling but we'll be done that soon because we start swim lessons in a few weeks. I found a class we can all do together because Max and Aliyah will both be in the same class and it's with parents. Max did pretty good on vacation he just needs to get a little braver to swim without holding on to one of us. The kids are so light it's just hard to find the right devise that will hold their heads up.
Our other news is that my mom lost her job. For now she will be collecting unemployment and watching the kids all 3 days. This means we'll be dropping the Tuesday sitter for now so I can pay my mom instead. I do really like her but it will be a lot less hassle for me getting the kids up and over there, packing all their stuff, etc...I'll only have to take them to my mom's one morning and they literally go in their PJ's to her house and just eat breakfast there so it's a lot less packing and hassle. We're also starting to look for pre-schools for Max!! With his October birthday he'll start kindergarden late so he'll have 2 years of pre-school starting with Tues/Thurs in the fall and then Mon/Wed/Fri the following year. It's so scarey to think about but I do think he'll enjoy it. He's becoming such a big boy it's so fun to watch him grow out of toddler hood into a preschooler. He can write his name himself, tell you where he lives and our latest big accomplishment is waking up dry (sometimes getting up at night to pee)! He's been potty trained for a long time but not for sleeping. This also means we make many potty trips while traveling but I realize this is all part of things! Aliyah is good, she's still working on her last two top teeth. She has a huge temper and crazy personality but is so cute it makes it hard to get mad at her. We're working on some days only having one nap and really shortening the morning one (or she won't sleep in the pm) but she wakes up so early (6am-ish) it's just a long time for her to go. I'm lucky I have such good sleepers (Max still sleeps 1 1/2 -3 hours in the afternoon!). I can't imagine the day when they don't nap. But they're so cute, starting to really play together and just being such good, self entertaining kids! We just really are so blessed!
On Saturday it was nice to we went to Downtown Warrenton. Some folks fixed up a really old jail and it's pretty cool (and scarey!) to visit...
