Celebrating Oliver's Half Birthday

Since Adam had off from work yesterday for Columbus Day, I sent him off with the twins for our weekly class at the Nest. I was looking forward to doing something with Oliver then, and when I realized Sunday was his half-birthday, I decided to make it a more official outing. Natalie and I took Oliver out to get Halloween costumes and go bowling.

Trip to Alexandria

This past weekend we were in Alexandria, VA visiting some good friends. Brady and Sarah are the.ones we went to Asheville with in Oct '05 and visited in Japan for Christmas '08. They have a 1yr old son and we had fun catching up while watching the kids play.

Natalie came along with us. She spent Saturday being a tourist in DC and then watched our kids in the hotel on Saturday night, so we could enjoy and evening of adult conversation over a delicious dinner and drinks. On Sunday morning, I entertained the kids in the hotel while Adam and Natalie slept in and then we had a tasty breakfast at their house (we may need to invest in our own waffle maker!) before heading home.

Fire Engine Celebration

This year, I was the one in charge of the birthday festivities.  Adam and our au pairs have handled it the past two years.  We kept the party low key with just close family in attendance.  We had kicked around the idea of a party at a venue, but Oliver wanted to have it at home.  We let him pick between a construction/truck and fire engine theme, and then when crazy on Etsy.  Oliver's large fire engine made a perfect decoration, and by having it up high, eliminated a potential fight over who would get to play with it. 
   

Here were the little kid attendees, minus our neighbor-friend Mason  --- All of Oliver's cousins - Remi from one side and boys, boys, from the other! 

Oliver's 3rd Birthday

Oliver turned 3 on Saturday!  Of course, the day started early, because there is no convincing an excited toddler that 5:20am is too early when there are presents to be opened!  Thankfully, snuggles with Mommy and some Mickey Mouse Clubhouse was able to hold him off a bit until the rest of the house started to stir.  At 6:30am, while the babies were having their morning bottle, Oliver was opening presents!

None of the presents we had gotten him were things he could play with immediately (mental note for next year).  The walkie-talkies from Daddy are very cool and will come in handy this summer at the SSC.  At the last consignment sale I was able to score a VTech 2 and some games and some story collections (presents from da-brothers).  The video games are still a bit over his head, but I'm sure he will pick it up quickly.  Thankfully, Pauline got him a very cool farm tractor with a wagon that tips over.  He got a cute fireman shirt from Jana, which he insisted on wearing that day - how cute that both Pauline & Jana sent him presents!

Since his party was on Sunday, we decided to do a family outing to celebrate Oliver's birthday.  We headed to Please Touch Museum - one of Oliver's favorites.  Now that the babies are mobile, they were able to have a bit of fun as well (not like the last time Oliver & I had met Nicole & Devon at the museum).  Lukas napped for quite a while, so he didn't play that much, but Alex really loved climbing through tunnels and going down the slide in the 3 & Under areas.  

In the space room!

Lukas asleep in the stroller behind me

Oliver kept asking when we were going to eat cake.  So, while getting last minute groceries for the party, I got him an Elmo cupcake for after dinner.

Latest family activity

We are starting to see the first glimmers of the family fun we will be able to have playing as a family with all three kids.... Of course, the stars have to align for this to happen (no one overtired, dinner finished early, and not bath night), but we have had two particularly great nights of family fun recently.  Well, one night, the second night (when I wanted to videotape) Oliver was a bit uncooperative.  I'm hopeful this will become a more regular occurrence over the coming months.    

I bought these ride-on toys at consignment sales (I admit it! I am becoming a consignment sale junkie!).  I made the mistake of only buying one ride-on toy at the first sale.  Why did I think buying a single super-fun toy for 3 boys would be a good idea?  Of course I had to get one for each baby... and then I realized Oliver would freak if he didn't have one too... there's a lot of plastic laying around our house these days!  Anyway...  the babies weren't very steady sitting on these for some time, but now they all really enjoy getting pushed back and forth. 

Easter Egg Hunt @ Fitler's Square

I was bummed that Hurricane Sandy had ruined our Halloween festivities.  Fortunately, we were in town for the Easter Egg Hunt, hosted by the same park/organization (where we had our family photos taken).  I was expecting to see lots of summer acquaintances from playground trips and Oliver's former daycare class, and was surprised that none of those people showed up.  They must have gone last year and known this was an event worth skipping.  Oliver was very excited to go, and told us so on the way over. But our lil' introvert was consumed by the hub-bub and didn't really have a good time.  They had different age groups "hunt" for eggs in different locations. In hindsight, we should have stuck Oliver in the 18mo-3yr old group instead of the 3-4yr old group - lesson learned.  

Oliver's face in this photo (right) is priceless.

Oliver ended up with three eggs - mostly containing huge pieces of bubblegum!  Totally not age appropriate. We salvaged the trip with a detour to the playground and some rides on the slide with Daddy.

Our Elf on the Shelf - Ralphie

Been meaning to post this for awhile... We had an Elf on the Shelf join our family this Christmas.  We named him Ralphie, in honor of The Christmas Story.  Ralphie spent a lot of time in high up locations, away from curious hands.  Adam wisely put him in the curio cabinect for his first visit.  We didn't go very gung-ho on creative positions for him {you should see some of the elaborate "mischief" other moms create for the elves to be found doing}. 

 

While Oliver enjoyed looking for him each morning, it didn't exactly work as the discipline tool (encouraging good behavior) that we had hoped.  Hopefully next year, Oliver will understand cause & effect a bit better and Ralphie will be more than just a month-long game of Hide & Seek. 

 

Meeting Santa at the SSC

Last weekend we headed up to the SSC to meet Santa.  It ended up being a stressful day for Adam and I even though there were plenty of people willing to hold babies -- no one likes to hold a screaming baby.  Opa and Tante Nicole were on hand to help out and Oliver had fun playing with cousin Devon.  Santa did not disappoint!

Getting the Christmas Tree

Both Julia & Pauline wanted to participate in our family outing to get the Christmas tree, so we went on Saturday.  While it would have been nice to participate in the annual trek with my dad and that crew, the last weekend in Jersey taught me that staying closer to home would be the less stressful/more enjoyable option.  We went to Linvilla, where we go often throughout the year to pick berries, apples, pumpkins, etc.  We rode the hayride out to pick our own tree, but weren't impressed with the selection of trees they had (dry needles near the trunk of all the trees).  So instead, we opted to pick a pre-cut tree from their garden center.  It was a bit strange, and almost too easy... they have a drive-thru area where you pull up in your car, hand over your ticket, and they tie your tie to the car for you.  Since I'm not the one ever securing the tree to the car, I wasn't about to say that having them do it for us was screwing with tradition.  Let's face it, with twin babies, we need the easy option.  It was completely unplanned, but we ended up making the trip in two cars, which worked great - the babies got tired and cranky shortly after we found our tree, so the girls and I took them home, leaving Oliver & Adam to enjoy the playground. 

Babies First Visit to Opa & Mormor

The day before Maultaschen-making, Julia and I came up to visit my dad & Margit. The babies were in rare form and the visit really took its toll on me.  Alex was upset for close to 4 hours during the trip and when we arrived.  I slept in a room with all three kids, and while Oliver & Alex slept straight through the night, Lukas had me up repeatedly.  That's the last time I'll do an overnight without Adam for awhile - we are going through one doozie of a phase these days!

 

Maultaschen Sunday

I actually look forward to our annual Maultaschen-making event as much, if not more, than I look forward to Thanksgiving dinner - this year the event did not disappoint.  It was colder than last year, so we had to enjoy a different kind of fun (not excatly the weather for tractor rides and playing outside), but all the cousins still had a blast hanging out together.  Here's our attempt at a photo of all SEVEN boys (from 5mo to almost 3yrs old).  

A Quiet Thanksgiving at Home

With two (sometimes uncooperative) babies, and two au pairs, it was asking a lot of anyone to take us in for the holiday.  We happily celebrated at home with Ken, Lee Ann, & Tammy-- Adam really enjoys playing host.  This year, Adam handled the bird, stuffing, gravy and I made the string bean casserole, mashed sweet potatoes - the most I have ever contributed to Thanksgiving dinner!

Before we sat down to dinner everyone but me and the babies headed to the park for some fun.  Oliver was ecstatic about going to the playground with Pop-pop.

Cousin Photo Shoot

Yesterday, we had family photos taken (... and I can't wait to see how they turned out!).  Since Nicole and Devon couldn't join us as originally planned, we had an impromptu photoshoot (at the very same park) on Sunday.  We got SO very lucky with the weather both days.

These are some of my favorite shots.  Not too shabby, if I do say so myself.  Perhaps I should consider a Mommy-photography gig as a back-up career....

 

Surviving Hurricane Sandy

We were very fortunate to avoid any excitement from Hurricane Sandy.  It's heartbreaking to see the devestation sustained along the Jersey Shore in towns like Ocean City and Avalon, where we spent time this summer. Most of my family in New Jersey is without power and likely will be for the next week.
 

Our basement flooded, of course, but no more than it usually does when we have a heavy downpouring. The lights flickered a bit, but it was well after all the kiddos had been put to bed.  For us, the storm experience consisted of too much local news, lots of soup eating, and a stir crazy husband (much moreso than the kids!).  Adam worked until noon on Monday and had Tuesday off.  One of the downsides to working from home - I didn't get any time off!

 

On Monday morning, Pauline & Oliver baked cookies.  After nap, Oliver & Daddy attempted to decorate them, but both lost interest pretty quickly - less than 10 cookies decorated!  On Tuesday, Adam struggled to come up with an activity for him and Oliver out of the house.  Although there was little-to-no damage within the city, everything had shut down in anticipation of the storm.  They ended up at the Nest play gym in the morning, followed by pancakes at IHOP.  After nap, we built a fort in the basement.  Good thing Mommy stepped in to help - it was clear that Daddy did not build forts to pass the time during snow storms when he was a kid!

 

 

Apple Picking Adventure

Call us crazy, but we thought it would be a good idea to take the boys apple picking this weekend!  Oliver had gotten us up at 5:45am that morning, after having been a challenge at bedtime the night before, making it the first family outing that I wasn't looking forward to and wanted to bail on.  Of course, you can't cancel plans that you have been hyping to a toddler, so we loaded everyone up and set off with low expectations.  We had invited Pauline to join us, and I was a bit worried about how exactly we would manage when she (wisely) decided to stay home. 

Lo & behold, all three boys were super cooperative and we had a really nice family day!  Adam had Alex in the Ergo baby carrier, I had Lukas in the sling, and Oliver rode in the wagon with our apple baskets.  We were quite a sight once we had to abandon the wagon.  Adam had the diaper bag, and Alex, while carryinhg 40lbs of apples, while I had Lukas in the sling and Oliver on my shoulders....  too bad there's no photo of that! 

POTD: Monkey Music Grandma

I've been trying to work from home on the days Pauline is caring for all three (Wed & Thurs) but it doesn't always work out that way.  Today I am travelling around Philly & Baltimore and Grandma's on hand today helping Pauline in my absence.  The perk of an extra set of hands is the ability to leave the house with all three (Pauline isn't quite ready for handling solo). So off they went to Monkey Music Jungle!