Yellow Car #21

angelprincess — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 17:40:08 +0000

Ethan attends the Boys of Grace group though our chruch every other week (like boy scouts though our church) and they have been working on Pinewood Derby cars. Last Friday was the race, and we had a great time cheering on our Yellow Car #21.

There were 3 heats and each car raced in all four lanes each heat so a total of 12 times. Ethan’s car did great! There were 28 cars and his consistently came in 2 & 1 with only one 3rd. But the kicker was when they didn’t put the car on correctly and it fell off, killing it’s time knocking him out of running for a trophy. Mike and I were more upset than he was.

We were all impressed with the technology, it was hard core for a derby race and Mike said very different from when he raced cars in boys scouts.
They moved to the other side of the track to get a better view of the races.

Awe so cute! Ethan can be such a great big brother!

Ethan was super excited about his medal and we figured overall he probably came in 7th out of 28, so Yea him!

Happy 2nd Birthday Lucas!

angelprincess — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 17:21:44 +0000

We celebrated “baby” Lucas’s 2nd birthday two weekends ago! I mean wow! Time is flying by!! I was honored that Nicole asked me to make his Mickey Mouse cake and with the help of my friends, matched her picture almost perfectly!

It was a great party, but unfortunately Jax was was sick and so Mike had to stay home with him. Jax had been helping me with the cake for several days and was so bummed to miss the party, but I was sure to bring home a piece of cake and a balloon.

Happy Birthday Lucas!! Your Aunt Ginger Loves you!!

Finally Something he Likes!

angelprincess — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 16:39:52 +0000

We seem to have found a sport Ethan really enjoys, Basketball! Yeah!! He started practices back in late November and games started two weeks ago. When he first started he had never even picked up a basketball (ok maybe gym class), and I can happily say he has come so far! He can dribble, shoot, block, and after two games is getting a feel for the pace of the game. There is only one other 1st grader on his team and Ethan is the only one that has never played before, but honestly you might not even notice. We have practices every week and games on Saturday and every week Ethan is so excited to go. I find it much more entertaining than soccer or baseball and they are very fair about playing time which is nice. His coach is fantastic as is the rest the team and we have really been enjoying watching Ethan learn, grow and be excited about what he is doing.

They Announce the kids before every game and you can see Ethan, #5 waiting in the “tunnel”

The Upward program is run though Churches across the country and its been very nice to have the added element of religion, but also they really encourage the kids and push them to learn and pick up the skills and that has been a nice change from some of the other programs he has been a part of.
Its been a lot of fun and I am excited about the rest of the season. Even Jax has been great sitting though practices and games.

Dancing into 2012!

angelprincess — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 19:32:23 +0000

While it’s already January 10th I can’t not post about our most awesome New Year’s Eve’s ever! One of my Christmas gifts was tickets to see this great cover band, The Loop, in Dewy Beach, Deleware at a New Years Eve Party at one of the local restaurants/bars. We had seen them this summer in Ocean City and I just loved them. Mike arranged my parents to take the kids and dogs for the night, which was huge since it was NYE and booked us a hotel room right across the street so there would be no driving involved.
After a bit of outlet shopping, a mad hunt for sparkly shoes, which I did not find, and some other random stops we started the evening getting ready and drinking a bottle of wine out of paper cups.

Us trying to get a picture before we left was highly entertaining.

The band played 4 sets and we danced to every song of every set! It was one of the most fun nights we have ever had! The crowd was great, the band was fantastic, and we just had a great time!

They had fun hats, tiaras, and blowers!

Us with the band in the back. Mike was not really drunk he was having a hard time with the blinding flash on the cell phone camera:)

In between sets

We danced so long that I could barely walk when we left, but it was a night to remember!
Here’s to a fantastic 2012! May the Year be filled, with Love, Happiness, Joy, Health and Memories we remember for a lifetime!
Thanks Mike for such a rockin’ gift! I hope to ring in the next 60+ New Year’s with you next to me!

Family Fun

angelprincess — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 15:38:10 +0000

The week after Christmas has always been one of my favorites. The hustle and bustle of Christmas is over and we usually hang out and try all of the new toys and games. This year we played, built, painted, bounced, rolled, jumped, relaxed and did quite a few fun things together.

We made and painted a volcano

And then read a book on volcano’s and watched ours erupt!

We created a fish with Ethan’s new marble run and only lost one marble while playing with it.

We raced cars

We went to the bounce house one morning, Rolly Pollies with Lucas the next, saw two movies with the boys, played with our new shark, which by far is the coolest toy ever!

We opened tried out and built so many fun new things. It was nice spending good quality time with the boys. Mike and I even got out for a great date night and a movie that was not rated PG.
I took Christmas down on New Year’s Day while Mike did our grocery shopping and then on Monday we enjoyed our last family day of the week with a trip to the National American History Museum in DC.

The kids loved the metro ride

I didn’t snap too many pictures, but we had a great time exploring the museum and the kids favorite was seeing the Star Spangled Banner Flag

This is Jax in front of Andrew Jackson’s uniform. He recognized his name and wanted a picture.

And in case you are wondering, no he was named after Andrew Jackson.

While we were busy there was still a lot of relaxing going on.

More for some than others.

It was a great fun filled family week and it was so hard to send the kids back to school and daycare yesterday.

2011 Christmas Wrap Up

angelprincess — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 20:46:39 +0000

I hope that everyone enjoyed a nice Christmas and is all ready for this great new year! We had a blast this Christmas as it was filled with everything Christmas should be filled with. Love, laughter, family, togetherness, fun and the most important of all celebrating the birth of our savior.
Christmas Eve the boys were super excited to sprinkle out the reindeer food we had made.

Let just say the reindeer feeding when on quite awhile.

Following the mass feeding we headed over to my parents for the traditional Christmas Eve Brunch! It was fantastic!

Mike with Lucas

Hanging out with Uncle Jer

After a yummy brunch and a quick outing for the girls, we headed home. We put Jax down for a short nap and then we headed over to Judy’s. Mike got the sauce going for dinner and then we all left and went to church. Church was great, the boys got to go on stage and sing a few songs, and of course I was tearing up, but it was a beautiful service. Following church we headed to Judy’s for the traditional Christmas Eve dinner. It was Italian this year so I had made a super yummy veggie lasagna, there was a pasta with meat sauce and then Judy had laid out a delicious spread of crackers, cheese, fruit, veggies etc.. it was awesome! The boys played out side for a bit and then following dinner everyone got together and opened a few gifts.

Following a fun evening it was time to go home and put out even more food for the reindeer and cookies and milk for Santa.

After we put the kids down, we quickly went to work putting our new “toy” together. Is an awesome espresso/latte/cappuccino machine!

After a yummy drink we put out the presents. I always love how the tree looks on Christmas Eve!

The next morning the boys were so good and I was the one that went in at 7am to get them. I found them laying together in Ethan’s top bunk playing DSI. It was the sweetest thing ever!
This was the only picture I could snap of them while Daddy checked to make sure Santa had come.

A peek a the tree downstairs

The kids checking out the presents. Ethan was very excited about Jingle

We do stockings first and then breakfast.

Following breakfast it’s gift time!

Mike in his cute pajama pants opening his new Orioles hat.

My parents came over for Christmas morning and we loved having them there to share in the festivities.

The dogs were very into being involved

Ethan silly and excited!

After going back and forth both kids ended up with new 3Ds. I am so glad Mike picked up one for Jax last minute b/c he loved it and was so excited!

They loved them so much that we took a break to open and play with them

A robot snake! Yea!

Ethan got the most excited about Laser Guns!

Jaxy helping Daddy

After we opened gifts, at a very nice leisurely pace, taking time out to open and try out a few things my parents left, we got dressed and headed over to Mike’s Nana’s house. We enjoyed a wonderful visit with Nana and Judy and then packed up again and headed to my parents house

Once there we found Mom was finishing up dinner

So the kids checked out some of their new toys.

Pop-Pop helped with the games

Jeremy, Nicole and Lucas finally showed up for Christmas and we were able to get a picture of the boys in their sweaters.

We enjoyed a great day and absolute fabulous Christmas!

It was a wonderful 2011 and I am so very blessed!

Merry Christmas 2011

angelprincess — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 14:06:11 +0000

Merry Christmas!!

The night of lights

angelprincess — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 02:20:00 +0000

After we had so much fun decorating gingerbread houses together we decided to meet up with Jeremy, Nicole, and Lucas and check out the famous street of Christmas lights in Baltimore. We were fortunate in that we found parking a block a way with no issues. Jeremy was not quite as lucky and ended up dropping Nicole and Lucas off.

After we found each other in the hoards of people we walked around and enjoyed the amazing light and decoration display.

The boys got to ring the salvation army donation bell.

Nicole and Lucas, who just loved the lights!

Some of the houses had decorated porches you could walk up and see. You could really see the crowds from up top.

I love this picture, Ethan is making the goofy face and then you have everyone else behind him.

There were so many people and Jax likes to run off so we carried him a lot.

He loved going up and looking at the porch displays

Ethan waiting patiently

Jeremy finally found parking and was able to meet up with us.

Too bad we were already done and on our way out. It was fun to look at the amazing displays, but I imagine it would be much more enjoyable if there were less people.

Thanks Jeremy and Nicole for inviting us to go with you!

Christmas Parties!

angelprincess — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 17:52:26 +0000

Last Thursday was party day! I am one of the room Mom’s and got there early to help set up, and get things going.
First they decorated gingerbread men.

After Gingerbread men and snacks, it was time for the book exchange. We did a passing game to music it got a bit jumbled, but the kids loved it.

I happened to be in charge of games and had planned a relay race where the kids use a spoon to fill a stocking up with candy. It was so fun and the kids really enjoyed it! Thank goodness we had a ton of volunteers to help.

Following the kid games his teacher made all of the parent volunteers play a game and I am proud to say that Michelle and I won!

From Ethan’s school party we went right over to Ms. Dawn’s for Jax’s Party.
The highlight of course was the visit from Santa. Jax was so inquisitive and had a million questions and stories.

Jax being very animated

Seriously he would not stop talking, I have no idea where he gets that from.

Following the visit from Santa it was the much anticipated present time.

After Jax opened his first gift all he wanted to do was go home and play.

I was so proud of Ethan who didn’t have any gifts to open at this party was but was content none the less.

It was a great afternoon and a very fun way to kick off the Holiday Break!

Snack Time with Ethan

angelprincess — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 05:03:44 +0000

On Wednesday Ethan surprised me with a snack. It was a cottage, shredded cheddar cheese and turkey sandwich with lemonade. So thoughtful right?

While it looked so yummy;) I thanked him for thinking of me, but told him he should enjoy it since he had worked so hard to make it.