Ridemakerz Birthday Bash

Owen had his birthday party at Ridemakerz on Saturday. If you are not familiar with Ridemakerz, it is a place where kids can build their own cars. It is pretty cool - kind of like a Build a Bear, only with cars. Owen invited 5 of his friends and his cousins and brother and sister. The kids were absolute angels and everyone had a good time. It was one of the easiest parties ever. After they were finished at the mall, we headed back to the house for pizza, cake and ice cream. The boys entertained themselves with Wii and Bakugan. We had cake and ice cream, Owen unwrapped his presents and the boys played until their parents came to pick them up. It was a wonderful day!

The kids listening to directions...ready to get started.

Here they had picked out their cars and were waiting to put them together. Connor...cheesing it up for the camera!Owen building his car.

Owen and his buddy Jack...having fun!Madison and Ethan...decked out in their Ravens gear - just to annoy all of the Steeler's fans! (Emma and Uncle Brett)Emma - the big kid of the bunchOwen, Jackson, and Alec...trying their cars out!The whole gangOwen with his Bakugan cake

Blowing out the candles....Obviously Madison thought he was taking too long, so she decided to help him! It was too cute!Madison...hamming it up.

Owen's Birthday

Here are a few pictures from Owen's birthday. As always...he was thrilled to have his picture taken!

Owen and his teacher, Mrs. CarrWearing the sombrero at Carlos O'Kelly's. At first he was very annoyed, but he let loose and enjoyed it more. He does not like extra attention in public!
A rare moment...giving his brother a hug to thank him for a gift.

Looking so grown up!

Owen with his Rubik's Cube

7 years ago

...our sweet little Owen was born. It's hard to believe that he is seven years old. I remember the day he was born like it was yesterday. We headed into the hospital at 5 am for a schedule c-section. We were scheduled for 8:00 am, but our doctor forgot us! They had to page him and get him there. He finally came and Owen was born at 9:03 am. The kid was screaming before they even took him out...we should have known then how feisty he would be! He was a beautiful newborn. I remember one of the nurses bringing him in and telling us that he was her favorite...that he was so handsome. Our handsome man he is....and he is growing up so fast. Enjoy looking back on all of his birthdays...It's amazing how quickly it goes! Happy Birthday Owen! We love you!

Great Wolf Lodge

We had a great time in Williamsburg at Great Wolf Lodge. If you've never been there, I highly recommend it, but it is quite pricey.
The kids and I drove down to Williamsburg yesterday morning and met up with Jonathan and his parents. We made our way over to the Lodge around 4:00. Once we checked in, we changed and went straight down to the waterpark. We were going to get our moneys worth! Owen loved the big slides and Logan was happy to float in the lazy river. Emma enjoyed just swimming and showing off her new swimming skills. We also enjoyed the wave pool. It was quite crowded when we first got there, but by 8:00 it had cleared out considerably. We stayed until 8:30 or so and headed back to the room. We finally made it out for dinner around 9:30. Needless to say, everyone was very tired and it was a long meal. We went to bed and when we woke up, we headed right back out for a few more hours of fun. We hit the arcade and headed home around lunch time.

I tried to take some pictures, but the lighting was very poor inside. I also don't have my computer yet, so I couldn't fix all of the photos. We took pictures with a waterproof camera, so when we have them developed, we should have some cute pictures. It was a lot of fun, but now I need a break from the weekend!

Touching Base

Hey there...hope you are having a happy new year.

We are back to school and the crazy schedule. The kids are doing swimming lessons again, so every Monday and Wednesday we head to the pool right after school. The kids enjoy it and they are really improving. I want to keep them going and keep the momentum up.

Everybody has been grouchy going back to work and school this week. I think this week is harder than the beginning of the school year. Yuck! It doesn't help that we thought we might get a snow day this week...but as usual, the weather man gave us false hope. I hope it snows soon - it seems like forever since we had some snow to play in.

Jonathan and his parents headed to Williamsburg yesterday. Jonathan and his dad do a woodworking shop run through Colonial Williamsburg - every year. The kids and I are headed down on Saturday. We're going to meet up with them and then go to the Great Wolf Lodge. Emma has been there and had a blast, so we are looking forward to it. It will be a quick trip, but a lot of fun.

When we get back, we'll be preparing for Owen's birthday on Wednesday and his party next weekend. I will try to post pictures Sunday night. Have a great weekend!

Pictures

Pictures from WilliamsburgLogan hitched a ride from Daddy.

I so badly wanted to leave them here! HA!

Memaw and the kids

Family Shot

Washington D.C. Pictures

You know it is cold when Owen is snuggling up to Emma for warmth!

Happy New Year!

We have been busy the past few days. We are having computer trouble, so I haven't been able to post anything. Jonathan was able to sign on to his computer, so I will try to post a few pictures later.

Last week, we went to Williamsburg to see all of the decorations. Memaw and Pepaw were down, so they went with us. It was a beautiful day and kids enjoyed walking around Colonial Williamsburg.

Yesterday we took the kids to the American History Museum in DC. We rode the metro - Logan's choice. He got up in the mornng and put on his Thomas train because we were "riding the train" - duh! It was quite precious. Anyways, I think the kids had more fun on the metro than anything. Owen would try to stand up without holding on. He only fell a few times - one time coming within inches of hitting his head on the bar - I don't know how we would have explained that one to the doctor! :) We always have high hopes for museums. I don't know when we will learn. Owen was really into it - almost too in to things. He is just like Jonathan. He could look at things forever!!! Emma and I are not as patient, and of course Logan had little to no interest - he just wanted to get back on he train. The museum was insanely crowded, so once we finally made it out of there, we headed next door to eat lunch at the Natural History Museum. (The American History museum just opened after being closed for 3 years and isn't completely finished). We dropped $70 on lunch for hot dogs and chicken fingers. Good thing the museums are free! Anyways, we walked back to the metro in 50 mph winds! It was so cold - especially compared to the 65 degree days we've been having. We got on the metro and headed home. Logan was happy again and Owen was back to his daredevil ways. Looking back, we DID have fun, although it didn't seem like it at the time. At least we can laugh at what morons we are! Ha! Ha! When the kids are older, we will take more advantage of all the wonderful things DC has to offer.

We had promised the kids that they could stay up late until midnight last night. So, we went out for a late dinner to help keep them awake. We came home and did our confetti poppers and got ready for the new year. They managed to drive us crazy every second of the evening - what were we thinking?! We had confetti strewn from one end of the house to the other and Owen was totally out of control! Emma was happy to watch the Jonas Brothers on Dick Clark's Rockin' New Years Eve and Logan was the most subdued out of all of them. He couldn' stand all of the confetti, so he got out the dust buster and tried to clean it up - what a good boy! Anyways, the new year came in and the kids were like..."that's it?!" and we were like "yeah...now go to bed!!!" We finally got them settled around 12:30 and decided they would not be staying up late next year! Jonathan and I like our quiet time.

This morning, Logan was up at 7:30 - guess he didn't want to sleep in. We've had a pretty lazy day. One funny story - just don't tell Emma I told it - she and Jonathan were working on her pine wood derby car and she went upstairs to look for something. Next thing I know, she was screaming...I mean like somebody was dead screaming!!! I heard bump, bump, bump and the screaming continued. Then Owen joined in the screaming and at this point, I was really scared. She couldn't stop screaming long enough to tell me what was wrong. I thought one of the cats was dead - she finally got it out that somebody was in the boys' room. I slowly walked up the stairs - scared out of my mind - to see a concerned Logan standing at the top of the stairs trying to see what was going on. I did what every concerned mother would do - I laughed my head off! I laughed so hard, I couldn't stop crying. She says she hurt her ankles when she jumped from the top step - and I still couldn't stop laughing. Luckily Jonathan had a little sympathy while I composed myself. So...if you ever need an actress to do some screaming for you...call Emma!

One more bit of good news - Dad is home! He came home yesterday and the thing he is happiest about - he gets to watch Penn State in the Rose Bowl. He did very well and he admits that it is going to be a long road ahead...but I am so proud of him. I just can't wait until we get to see him and celebrate. Way to go Dad!

Wishing you all a happy and healthy new year!