POTD: Fancy Schmanzy

Last night Adam  and I attended the opening night of the Philadelphia Orchestra with some of my Junior League friends. Love an excuse to get Adam into his tux!

Oliver & Natalie Activities

On days Oliver isn't at daycare, and Natalie has all three, I am trying to work from home.  Since Oliver doesn't get to see Natalie very often (in daycare 3 days a week), we're trying to create some opportunities for them to have one-on-one time. This will be a chance to improve Oliver's German and give Natalie some variety from the rest of her baby-focused week.  Each Monday afternoon they will go out on an outing together (while the babies and I take a Mommy & Me class) and on Friday mornings they will do some kind of arts & craft project while the babies nap. 

Their first activity was Flubber, a project from Tante Kristy meant to be used at the bungalow on a rainy day, that we just hadn't gotten to.  Since Bentley really disliked this project, I had low expectations, but Oliver had so much fun!

Family Outing: Lancaster & Strasburg Railroad

Last Sunday, we packed up and took all the kids and Natalie to Lancaster.  Since we didn't really work any family outings into our staycation, Adam and I were both antsy for an outing that was a bit farther from home.  Crazy to think how different this outing was as compared to last year.

We like getting up & out early, so the babies can take their 9am nap in the car.  Since the first train ride wasn't until noon we needed to kill some time in Lancaster in the morning.  We went to see the miniature train museum, which was pretty cool.  There was lots to see and even the babies enjoyed watching the trains zip by and all the people and animals figurines they had that moved. 

Lost Post: Late July Trip to Avalon

Oops!  Missed a summer adventure.... In late July, Adam & Oliver spent a long weekend down in Avalon with Ken & Lee Ann, et all.  The babies & I were originally going to be there for 4 days as well, but the thought of coordinating naps, food, etc in a hotel was giving me a panic attack!  So instead, Adam & Oliver were able to stay with the family and the babies and I went to the bungalow for the weekend and then came down to the shore as a daytrip.    

Oliver was apparently very, very tentative around the ocean (pretty sure THIS has something to do with it!).  He wanted NO part in the ocean and didn't even want to put his big toe in the water.  The only time he would go near the water was from the safety of someone's shoulders.  By Tuesday, when I got down there, he had finally gotten comfortable with the waves and happily chased the small waves up & down the coast (too bad I don't have a video of that).     

Lukas Milestone: A much needed haircut!

We finally, finally, finally took Lukas to get a much needed haircut.  He and Alex had both gotten a few strands cut by me, but nothing that qualified as photo worthy.  

Before:

Sporting the Donald Trump look!

Bungalow Staycation 2013

At the end of the summer, Adam and I timed our vacation to be off from work in between the nanny leaving and our new au pair starting (which was better in theory, since the nanny bailed a week early).  Since we weren't ready to take on a big trip with three kids 3 and under and had already used our vacation budget to redo the kitchen, we planned a stay-catation at the bungalow.  We intended to be there the whole week with Omi (like I had done last year while Pauline was on vacation), but uncooperative weather, getting-sick babies, and Oliver suddenly refusing to sleep in his own bed put a damper on things.  Adam, not used to lazy, quiet days at the SSC midweek was also getting a bit stir-crazy.  We ended up sticking around until Wednesday and then heading home.   Devon's daycare was closed, so he was with us on Monday & Tuesday.  Oliver was happy having his friend around and the two of them play very nicely together.  We had borrowed the Lightening McQueen car, which easily the highlight of the staycation for Oliver!

Bungalow Delights

We had a blast at the bungalow this summer!  I'm so glad we put the money into the kitchen update.  The babies were happiest being ferried around in their Radio Flyer Wagon from Omi and Oliver was in heaven playing in the sand, on the playground, in the swings, running around in the clubhouse -- the SSC is definitely his happy place.   Here are some snippets from our cousin fun, in no particular order:

Sportsfest weekend, all the BOND/PAL cousins were on hand to play.  (Devon & Nathan missing from my photos).  Uncle Brian and  his friends camped out that weekend and Oliver has been excited about camping ever since (perhaps a campout birthday next year?).  This continues to be our favorite weekend of the summer.  

PAL Cousins: Believe it or not, Preston is just 3 weeks older than Alex & Lukas!

Another SAHM Day

Get ready for a slew of posts as I finally catch-up the blog from all our summer fun!

Our nanny surprised us by needing to stop working a week early.  It was frustrating, since we would have lined up Natalie's arrival differently had we known.  We shipped the babies off to daycare with Oliver on three days and the other two days, I was a stay-at-home-mom (SAHM).  

Never one to just sit around the house, I tried to make the days action-packed.  We started the day making zuchinni bread while the babies napped.  Then I hauled the kids off to the playground.  After my first successful outing with newly mobile babies (ie. 3 kids going in different directions), I attempted to take all of them out to lunch solo.  What was I thinking?  My butt was on in my seat for a total of 30sec, so unnecessarily stressful.  When we got home, I made Oliver a fort in the basement to nap in - he was in heaven!