Port Discovery Hilarity!

So my gf's and I meet up every Thursday with our kiddos for a playdate. It's always somewhere fun and the kids get to have a blast while we catch up and chat. E and I LOVE Thursday playdates. Well last week we decided to go to Port Discovery - Baltimore's award winning children's museum. I have a mini membership thanks to the Downtown Baltimore Family Alliance, I just needed to fill out the paperwork. Got there at opening, met up with the gf's and headed in. Filled out the paperwork and discovered my membership was for 4 people! Score, since all of our kiddos are under 2, they are free. So I was able to get my gf's in for free! We took a tour of Port Discovery and checked it out, then let the kiddos loose in the water room. Dear god, they had a blast. Even with a rain coat, E was soaking wet!

SO MUCH FUN!!



Buddies having some fun at the watertable!

We drag the kiddos out of the water room, and E is drenched under the rain coat! My super prepaired gf has an extra shirt, E squeezed into it and off we went to the Tot Room. Wow. So amazing. Built specifically for 0-3 years of age, super sensory and interactive. Heck there was even a Mother Goose on the Loose reading when we were there! Such good times!

handsome boy!

How you doin'?

Cannot wait to go back! E was so worn out he took a 3.5 hr nap! SUCCESS! xoxo

Backyard makeover - stage one - the pergola



E and Daddy working!



So we have been planning and plotting what we wanted for our backyard, and we have it figured out, FINALLY. The backyard is the last frontier of our whole renovation, and we want it to be just as perfect as everything else. So Brian took Friday off, we went and pinned down our exact pavers we want, because like everything else, it can never be stock or normal, we wanted to try and match the brick from the house as much as possible. Well the house is 130 years old, so no easy task. We found a great company that helped us find a perfect match! So that was a huge check off the list. Pavers would start next week.



vacuuming the post hole water



First, we had to build the pergola. Brian drew up some drawings, and off we went. Brian ran to get all the supplies and I put E down for his nap. Then started a few left over painting projects with our dear friend Hugh. Brian came back, and got right to work. He dug the post holes, Hugh and I painted. Post holes were dug, and we were going to set the posts, when it started pouring....thunder and lightening too. People, there was a 20% chance. I tell you it rained because we were actually doing this! So we ran around collecting tools and anything that could be damaged. After that, we called it a night. Mad Men and a beverage, then adormir!

Saturday morning started with Brian using a wet vac to vacuum out the water from the post holes. They were filled with water, all three feet deep of both of them.


halfway done!



It worked and Brian got right back to it! The neighbors helped him place the posts, and he leveled them. We then started pouring in the concrete. Success, the posts were in. Now the rest. Hugh and Dennis showed up to help with the painting tasks and design details. We had quite the time mounting the wall support. Brian ended up going to the Depot to grab a industrial hammer drill to get through the brick. Well, he rushed home got up on the ladder and there was no bit. That was the maddest I have seen Brian in YEARS. Well, he remained composed enough to go back to the Depot for the bit and not get arrested :). Came back and everything flew by! I manned the jigsaw and trimmed the details on all the boards, and we finished. We love it. Cannot wait for pavers. Cannot wait to sit on this patio, under my fabulous pergola and enjoy a nice glass of wine and Brian a beer while the dogs sun themselves, and E plays to his hearts content!

Stay posted for more!

XOXOX



Ferrous and Miya enjoying the sun



Ice Cream Sandwiches

Saturday started as a typical weekend, Daddy jumps at the first "up" we hear on the monitor. Brian goes downstairs and I hear him laugh pretty hard. E *somehow* figured out how to grab the tunnel, put it to his face and was trying to figure out how to go down the tunnel to the floor on the other side. Brian said he had his arms in it already! I have a feeling that E is going to start trying to bust out of the crib. Breakfast was had, playing and some more walking practice, then it was nap time. E gets the giggles when he gets sleepy, and it is hard to maintain composure when putting him down because it is too cute! Daddy conqured the giggles and then I was gearing up to head out for the Zumbathon. Yes, Zumbathon. Three hours of hard and fun Zumba. It was all for a great cause, the 140 mile charity bike ride that Brian and I have been involved with for the last 5 years. If anyone would like to donate to our team, please check it out, team with a purpose.
Daddy and E were gonna have an afternoon together. Well when I was taking a break, low and behold E and Brian show up to say hello and cheer us all on.  We all head back to the Zumba room and E is mesmorized by the balloons and music.  After playing with the balloons for a while he decides he is gonna try out some dancing....

Brake is over so E and Brian are headed upstairs and out to the playground. I zumba for about 30 more mins and decide that I cannot do 30 more mins. My knees are going to give out I am so tired. So I head out to the playground, on my way I hear the familar sound of an ice cream truck. OOOHHH! I quickly pull out my emergancy $5 I keep in my gym bag, and almost run to the truck. I decide on the classic big ice cream sandwich. Plop down my money, and listen to the kids all around debating about which ice cream they were gonna get and negotiating money at the same time.  I carefully unwrap the sandwich take a bite then head out to find my boys. They were having a great time on the playground. I went straight over to E and let him have some bites of the ice cream sandwich...it was priceless. Lots of "more" and "hungry".  I then handed over the rest to Brian. Such a great afternoon. Enjoy the pics.
xoxo

Fabulous Friday!

Today was quite a busy day...but it is the kind of busy that is fun and exciting! This morning E slept in till after 8...SO NICE. As he is my alarm clock, I woke up and checked the time on my phone to discover that I had a breakfast invite from Andy. So E and I got dressed and packed up and went over to his Nino's house. Andy's mom was in town for a visit from TX. We went up to his rooftop deck and ate, enjoying the view as E tromped around having a blast trying to climb the deck chairs. We then went down stairs and started getting changed for swim school. Yup, E is enrolled in Micheal Phelps Swim School. We got repacked and zoomed to class only to find that E's godmother and "auntie" Dolores had come to cheer him on! So E and I get in the pool and settled. E has an incredibly good time in the water. It is so so so hilarious how much fun he has jumping and splashing. He is starting to figure out the whole kicking thing too! In the middle of class we realized our cheering section had grown to a few more. His nino and nino's mom had also come to see. So here we are in a class of about 15 little ones, and E is the only kid who has a cheering section! LOVE IT!

Every time we passed the side of the pool where his cheering section was, he'd beam. He knew they were there for him!

After class we got changed and headed to lunch with Andy and his mom. We decided on the famous Miss Shirley's. We arrive and I look back only to find E is zonked out. Swimming is hard work, not to mention working the crowd.  I gingerly pick him up and place him in the stroller. We walk in and are promptly told no strollers allowed....boooooooo. So we opt to try and take him and lay him on my side of the booth. I am slightly ashamed of this, but people Miss Shirley's is FABULOUS. E typically sleeps through everything. Well ladies and gentleman, he did. He slept almost two hours

Then E woke up and was an eating and talking machine. Taking time to say hello or talk to passersby. We finished up and hopped in the car. I then took the opportunity to take E shopping since he has gone through another growth spurt. I put away all the outgrown clothes and knew our wardrobe was alarmingly small. Good thing we had saved a gift card from Grandpa Steve from Christmas for such an occasion. Well, great buys were had and wardrobe was replenished to satisfactory levels that don't require me doing a load of laundry every day...hahaha.   On the way to the register we discovered a GREAT buy. It was a little kid tent that had a crawl tunnel attached, and it was on sale for 11.99 from 50.00. We need a tent for the beach and I wanted to get E a tunnel for his birthday but couldn't find one for a decent price. So we snatched it up, E and I ooh-ing and aww-ing. Got home and set up the tunnel immediately....so  much  FUN!

So all in all, today was a busy fabulous Friday. Thanks to E's cheering section near and far. It makes me the happiest mom around to see when he knows how much he's loved.
xoxo

Spring!

So it seems as if Spring has finally decided to stick around, thank goodness. The last two months the weather has been beautiful one day and then 30 degrees colder the next! So to make up for lost time, we have been spending our days outside, enjoying the park. We packed up the stroller and rolled out after a nice nap for some playground fun.  On our way to the playground we passed a nice patch of daffodils, E thought that they were great, tons of "ooohs" and "whats that" from the stroller. So I plucked him out of the stroller and plopped him right in the middle of the daffodils. It was so fun to witness such overwhelming joy. Enjoy some shots I snapped in between giggles.