8/29/08: Fun with Science

Today we had a fun time at the Museum of Science in Boston with our friend Sophie and her Mom Liz. John and Sophie's Dad Tim met up with us there too for lunch and some fun in the kids Discovery zone. We had such a good time. Here are the kids trying out the Apollo module. Here is my other post about them in Space.

Every time we drive through Boston Evan points towards the Museum and says he wants to go to the Museum with the Dinosaurs. Apparently he remembers our previous visit. Here are all 3 kids.
Sophie and Evan having fun with water.
Lauren in the Discovry play area for kids.

8/27/08: A playdate and some Marionettes

We had a play date with Claire today. Claire and Lauren will go to school some day together. Gilda and John went to school with Claire's Mom and Dad at WPI, and Gilda worked with Claire's Mom Brooke at PTC.

Then we went to the Concert and kids show at Ipswich Park again this week to see our buddies Jack and Chase. This week it was a Marionette show. The kids were enthralled by it.
Lauren got really into the roller skating bunny.
Don't ask me why Evan would want to hug Humpfry Dumpty but he wanted to. He kept going up and shaking his hand and hugging him. If you ask me this thing is super scary looking. I guess he just had fond memories from going to Storyland.

8/23/08: Tanya's Princess Birthday Party

Evan and Lauren had a great time at Tanya's Princess 3rd Birthday Party!

It is so much fun having a Princess crown on!

They played many games including pin the Princess in the Castle, Pinata, and egg carry game. Evan was manly and picked the Princess with Blue behind her.

And you have to have dress up time at a Princess Party. Lauren enjoyed being Cinderella. Tanya helped her get dressed.
What an exhausting party. Too bad what appears to be Tanya and Evan taking a nap only lasted a fleeting moment...then they were up bowling and jumping around.

8/22/08: Playdate with Sophie and splashing around

The kids had a fun playdate with Sophie today.

Then later in the day we went to the Wading Pool in Burlington and then to the park.
Both kids had fun splashing around. Might as well enjoy the last few remaining days we have of warm weather.

8/20/08: A day at the parks and Gilda rambles

Since summer is nearing it's end we figured we should go out and enjoy the beautiful weather. With Lauren's new found mobility she had a lot of fun at the park. She enjoyed getting around on her own despite the rough terrain.

She loved going up the stairs and sliding down the slide on her own.
Evan always has a great time. Right before we took him to get his hair cut in preparation for the first day of school, which brings me to my next point. I was just reading on my friend Mommy Niri's blog about her emotions on the start of school. I have to agree. Even seeing all the backbacks out at the stores makes me have that ping of nervousness that you get in your stomach on the first day of school. I thought being done with school myself that I would not feel this way, but now I guess I will feel it for my children. I am excited for him but am amazed every day what a big boy he is getting to be. Last night I took him to GymStreet USA in Wilmington for a trial Gymnastics class and he went in to class by himself! Not with me any more. He did great and followed the teachers with no problem going across the beam and doing tumbles and jumping on the trampoline. He really enjoyed it...again making me happy and sad. My little boy is growing up...and my other baby Law Bear (as I now call her sometimes) is getting to be a little girl too. Where are my babies??? Ok, wipe the tear and move on.
Evan is still majorly into Mickey Mouse (an no I don't push it), so this is his backpack from Nana and Papa with the matching lunch box. Ok, and now back to the park and Lauren being silly on the ducky. And her favorite spot...the stairs Our night time festivity was at Ipswich River Park in North Reading for the concert, BBQ, and festivities. Here is Evan and his buddy Jack running around.

They had a clown perform which the kids enjoyed.

And Lauren is here making some music while the Glamour Girls are on stage. She enjoyed dancing a bit too...the boys just wanted to run. After the concert we went over to the park and had fun there. What a full day! The kids should sleep well tonight.

8/17/08: Davis Farmland Fun

We had a great time at Davis Farmland in Sterling, MA on their 162nd birthday. Here we are with Moo Moo. If you have not visited this Children's Discovery Farm we highly recommend it. There is a lot to see and the kids had a great time.

And on the hayride.
And of course with all the animals...there were tons!
More animals...

Lauren had to pose with the piggies behind her since she had a piggy on her dress.

Lauren loves the pony rides, this is her 3rd in 2 months!
Evan having fun on the pony ride too with his face painted.
And they have a great sprinkler park that the kids had fun playing in. Great on a hot summer day like today.
Evan splashing in the sprinkler park too.

8/13/08: Lauren's last week of Gymboree class

Here is a quick update on Lauren since she is 16 months old today. We had her 15 month Doctor's appt. and she is doing great. She is now 20 lbs 10 ozs (15th percentile) and 31 1/2 inches (75th percentile). The Doctor says she must have a high metabolism because she eats a ton. He said she very advanced verbally. I stopped counting her words at 30. Some of her words lately are please, thank you, all done, up, and this. She uses "this" to point out things she wants. She pretty much will repeat anything you say. She walks quite a bit now with her stroller and can on her own but chooses to hold our finger. (Update on 8/15 - she now is walking a lot more on her own and giving our backs a break).

Lauren's favorite thing to do today at Gymboree, climb up the slide and then slide back down. She has come a long way since her first class.

The kids having fun in the boat.

Spinning is fun!

Another favorite word - bubbles

Ooohhhh!

Coming through the tunnel is fun!

8/10/08: She's Crafty

Ok, if you listen to the Beastie Boys my Title should be familiar...

In addition to my cake making addiction, have I mentioned my craft addiction? I think it is related to the kids doing crafts...I have gotten into it too. Usually at every holiday we do a craft and have done crafts at our Birthday Parties (Castles with the kids pictures in them, Crowns, Trains, and Mouse Ears) and Halloween Parties (Halloween Magnets). I find the kids enjoy it and look forward to doing a craft at the party. My only issue is many times the Engineer in me comes out and I feel that everything has to be symmetric. I find myself leading Evan to move things to certain areas of the page...but I digress.

This is my latest. I used the shells we found at Sunset Beach and made three frames from them with the kids pictures.

And one of Lauren
And one of Evan
And my obsession with Scrapbooking. These are all the ones I have done for the kids. I also just did a Vacation album. They are getting a bit out of hand. John keeps saying he is going to have to build me shelves for all of them. Lauren's 1st year album was 64 pages (two-sided, so really 128)...what can I say, I take a lot of pictures. Hopefully they will appreciate it someday. Did I mention that I hated Art class?

8/5/08: Santa's Village Fun

We had a great time at Santa's Village. It was our first visit there and it was great. The kids enjoyed the Christmas themed shows and rides. All pictures have been added to the Shutterfly Collection. Here we are on the Santa's Sleigh Monorail. And of course we got to see Santa in his house.

Wow what a huge Snowman!

We got to feed Santa's reindeers cookies.

They really enjoyed the cookies. Evan's favorite ride! The train. Evan got to play the Elphabet game and look for Elves all through the park and get his card punched for every letter. After completing the alphabet he got a certificate. And another sled picture. Here is a little video of Lauren enjoying one of the shows.