Blading Brothers

Since Nathan's birthday, he has been eager to get on his roller blades any chance he can. Luckily the weather this winter has been so mild that we have been able to head outdoors quite a bit. After watching his big brother on skates, Andrew has wanted to try. So finally we let him put on Dan's skates and give it a whirl. Needless to say, it was hilarious to watch him try roller blading in skates that are basically as long as his legs.

Happy Valentine's Day

On Valentines Day we all got up a few minutes earlier to share a special breakfast before heading out to school and work. Thanks to Dunkin Donuts for the festive treats! They were a big hit with the boys!

Birthday Fun for Andrew and his buddies

Last Sunday I took Andrew to a birthday party at the Heritage Farm Museum in Claude Moore Park for his friend, Cameron, from daycare. Andrew LOVED riding the tractor.
Here's Andrew and his buddies, Cameron and Calvin, listening to a story.

And of course, the boys enjoyed pizza and birthday cake.

Nathan Scores a Touchdown!

Nathan scores a touchdown and puts six points on the scoreboard this year! And we celebrated at home with friends and family with a football party.
After coloring, the kids did some warm-ups with Dan.

And then it was time to fuel up.
Then it was back to work practicing touchdown passes and field goal flicks.

After that bit of chaos, we tried to settle things down with a round of NFL Bingo.

Nathan had a great time celebrating! At six, Nathan is halfway through kindergarten and he is now reading quite well. He enjoys to write and is very good with numbers. He is as curious and inquisitive as ever. He can be a bit moody at times, but he can also be generous, kind and caring. He is very protective of his little brother and its been fun to watch them play together more and more.

Isabelle is 5!

At the end of January, we travelled to Charlottesville to celebrate Isabelle's 5th birthday, Unicorn style.

In addition to a delicious cake, the kids had fun with unicorn races (can you believe the kids were able to go outside in January with no coats?!?!?), and painting suncatchers.
On Sunday morning, we had a small Christmas celebration so Ethan could open the gifts he missed from the lake.

Party at Chuck E Cheese

Despite being sore from his surgery two days earlier, Nathan had fun celebrating his friend Aubrey's birthday at Chuck E Cheese.

A New Bed for Andrew

Well, our baby boy is growing up. On Saturday, January 20th, we said goodbye to the crib..... and hello to the toddler bed. He was so excited!

And so far, almost a month later, Andrew still has not discovered that he can get out of his bed and open his door whenever he wants. But yet again, Andrew is very different that his big brother......Andrew likes to sleep!!!

Nathan's Surgery

On January 19th, we headed back to the Fairfax Surgical Center for the 3rd time in 5 years. This trip was for Nathan. After a number of ear infections over the past year, it was time for Nathan to have his adenoids removed and a 2nd set of tubes inserted. He was so brave and never complained about not eating breakfast or lunch that day.
Here's Nathan and Dan waiting to head back to the surgical room. The surgery was quick and successful. But the recovery from the anesthesia was slow and not so fun. During his recovery, Nathan also caught strep throat and that definitely made for a rough couple of days. But we all survived and Nathan is doing great now.

One More Trip to Deep Creek Lake

Well, we finally got lucky with our third trip to Deep Creek Lake over MLK weekend. There was snow and quite a bit of it! YEAH! So the boys were able to ride their new "snowmobile" and they absolutely LOVED it!

Lucy was not as big a fan.

My parents also came with us this time and we went tubing with Dan's parents while Dan and Andrew rested back at the house.

Deep Creek Lake can truly be a winter wonderland of fun when the weather cooperates!