My Fourth Birthday! (Maryland Edition)

Back in Maryland, we had a party for my birthday that I invited all my friends from school to!

We went to the Imagination Stage's production of Seussical The Musical! Mom, Dad, and I had already seen it once, and we thought it would be great fun to take a bunch of friends to see it, too!

 We all got seats up in the balcony, and I got to sit with my friends...they all had a great time! A lot of them hadn't been to see a play before, and I was happy that their first one was such a great experience!

After the show was over, we went to a party room that the theater had for us, and got to have some lunch...

 Mom  and Dad did all the decorations themselves (It was a Dr. Seuss theme!) and Mom actually made some really cool things for the goodie bags, including replicas of the clover that Horton uses in the play! It looked JUST like the one onstage, and my friends LOVED them! Great job, Mom!

I designed the cake myself....it was delicious and made your mouth red, which was so funny!

My friends sang happy birthday to me, and then we all got to partake in this delicious cake! (WHAT!? Partake and cake?! This Dr. Seuss theme is making me rhyme!)

There was, of course, some silliness, lots of running around, and even a little bit of dancing....

On our way out, after all my friends had made their way home, I had a few quiet moments with Mom, Dad, and a balloon from the party...I played with the interactive bubble projection wall for a moment...savoring the last few minutes of an awesome party....

My Fourth Birthday! (Connecticut Edition)

My fourth birthday! Where has the time gone!??!

I was excited this year because Dad joined us for my birthday, having taken the day off to come up to Connecticut!

Uncle Mat and Aunt Mallory went nuts! They bought so much cool stuff for my party! It was a Spiderman theme, and they bought a huge banner with Spiderman (and a big number 4) on it!

They also bought me some AMAZING and ENORMOUS! Balloons! This thrilled me to no end, since I love balloons!

Not only did they get me some cool balloons, but they apparently bought them at a store that sold the strongest balloons EVER. We took these back to Maryland, and they lasted for more than a month after the party!

They also bought me a cake with balloons (one of my favorite things) and a Spiderman candle! (one of my other favorite things!) Uncle Mat and Aunt Mallory are THE BEST!

Lots of my family and friends came to the party! There was lots of good food (Not just cake) to eat, and tons of merriment to be had...

My cousin Hank and I gave a brief reprise of our dance number from Thanksgiving, but mostly I just socialized, opened some presents, and enjoyed everyone's company....

Everyone seemed to have fun, and nothing beats having a birthday party right after Christmas...everything is always so wonderfully decorated. :-)

Celebrating Christmas in Maryland 2012!

So it's March 2013...and guess who's still talking about the end of 2012...that's right...THIS GUY!

What a busy Christmas season it was both at home in Maryland and up north in Connecticut with our families!

We'll start as it started in Maryland...we went out to the Christmas Tree lot as was customary to pick out our Christmas tree. After going to the actual Christmas tree place where you cut your own tree to get Gramma Mindy's, I saw just how different living in a city was for stuff like this...

We went to the same lot that we went to last year, where they had a whole bunch of tress cut down for you to look through and choose the one you like.

We marched through the stacks of trees, and I spend a fair amount of time trying to find the best tree....not only in general, but one that would be the best match for us.

Mom followed closely behind, making note of the trees that I thought might be possible contenders...she looks like she was having fun, right?

There are so many factors involved in picking a good tree. There's the size, the shape, the overall spirit of the tree.

I finally found one that was a little different than the type of tree we usually get (the needles looked a little different) but it really spoke to me. I did some careful, scientific measuring, and we set about getting the tree back home....

Once back home, I took on the task of untangling the lights. Even though Dad swears he packed them neatly (I have no reason to doubt him) they magically seem to get all tangled up again.

We also did a few tests to see if the lights were working, and if the colors were how we expected them to look...everything looked great, so Mom and I started stringing the lights on the tree.

We did a pretty good job getting all the lights put up in a way that enhanced the natural beauty of the tree we had gotten...

After putting some ornaments on, Dad helped me put the star on top of the tree. Looks like we were all ready for Christmas!

Gramma Debbie got me an advent calendar to help us count down the days until Christmas. You add a little cotton ball on each day leading up to Christmas, and when the snowman is all full, and looking all puffy and cute, Christmas is here! (I attached them all, except for the few that I missed when I went up to Connecticut early.

Gramma Debbie also got us some jelly decorations and snowman stickers to put up....since no one would be able to see them or appreciate them on our windows (we live on the second floor) we put them up on the glass doors of our book/DVD shelves.

I was pretty proud of how they looked after we were done! It really made the place look more festive...

At school, the holidays (and winter celebration in general) was in full effect! All of our bulletin boards were really well-decorated...

We made a lot of projects throughout the course of the holidays, and we got to both display them in class, and take them home when we were done!

The holidays, as always, mean a big party at school, and that means we had another song/dance/theatrical experience that was choreographed by our teachers...we sang some songs, did a dance, and had some lines in our story about animals. We all dressed up as animals (I decided against the facepaint, but I wore my chipmunk ears) and even though I don't love doing these shows (Unless I choreograph, and perform them on my own at my leisure) I still made it through. :-) I think we did a good job!

We finished the party with dinner and snacks, and when it was almost time to leave, we had a gift exchange....It was so much fun (and a bit chaotic!) having everyone in the circle opening their gifts!

I miss Christmas. :-(

Holiday Pictures 2012!

This year, we decided to do things a little bit differently when it came todoing our yearly holiday pictures....instead of heading over to a portrait studio at Sears, as we typically do, Dad sought out an independent photographer. Since the prices were comparable, we went with her.

We met her at the Botanical Garden in DC so we'd have a pretty backdrop, but could also be warm inside. We took a combination of pictures with all of us together...

And also some of just me by myself. It took me a little while to warm up to the session, but Mom and Dad are fun, and the photographer was, too. She really got me to loosen up and take some fun pictures.

This one was an impromptu one with mom while we were waiting to set up for another one. We were obviously having a great time!

I have to say...even I think I'm looking much older these days...

We went outside and got playful for a little while...the three of us just kind of acted silly like we always do, and the photographer did a great job capturing that energy.

When we were getting towards the end of the shoot, I was just kind of running around, doing my thing, and the photographer kept up pretty well...NOW I'M RUNNING OVER HERE!

We did some last silly poses outside as the session was winding up...heyyyy! That's my face you're squishing!

There were some Christmas lights set up on the trees outside that must look lovely at night...I thought that even though they weren't lit up, they looked really pretty!

After the session was done, we were hungry and ate some lunch...the pictures got back to us pretty quickly, and not only were they great, but they got back to us in time to use them for Christmas cards, thank you cards, and to make prints for all out family to have! I think we'll try to do this again next year!

Special thanks to Kate Jett Walls for being lots of fun and taking beautiful pictures of our family!

Her website is at:

http://redturtlephotography.wordpress.com/about/

Our new cat Laura!!

So....we have huge news....after the sad passing of our cat Norma last year, it took us some time to be ready for the idea of a new one...luckily, Mom works with someone who fosters cats, and she had one that she described as the best cat ever! Just after Thanksgiving, the woman from the foster place brought her by, we filled out some paperwork, and had ourselves a new cat!

While she went through many names before she got to us (Dazzy, Daisy, Dizzy, and Beezus) I finally dubbed her Laura. I will never tell anyone where I got the name from, but it's one that seemed to fit her.

She made herself right at home from the moment she was dropped off!

She explored our apartment, and did a great job finding all the little nooks and crannies that she could play in.

With all that exploring, and playing, she also took lots of little naps (Ohhhh....THAT'S where the term "catnaps" comes from...)

From the moment she was dropped off, her and I were pals...we play together, and act really silly together! We hang out and play a lot...

Sometimes, I don't think she gets my humor...

We have lots of little toys for her to play with...she runs around so fast sometimes, that we can't even get a good picture of her. (We have that in common....there are enough blurry pictures of me to last a lifetime!)

Sometimes she spends time in a lot of weird places....for example she really like hanging out in the bathtub. It's always funny to go and use the potty, only to find a cat sleeping in the tub next to you. WHAT?! 

As much fun as we have, we so much running around and playing...sometimes, we also just like to chill out on the couch and watch TV....she's also pretty good at that, too...

Now, if we could just get her to stop attacking our toes while they are under the blankets...

Zoo Lights 2012!

It has been awhile!

Mom has pointed out on several occasions that this may be the longest stretch without a blog post in awhile....ironically, while there has been a lot to write about, we have been so busy doing those things, that I haven't had time to actually document any of it!

In December we went on our annual trip to the Zoo Lights display at the National Zoo in Washington, DC. There was a lot to see this year, and we wanted to get right to it!

But....there was another mission at hand. As we walked around the zoo, I saw a few kids with glow sticks. That's right! Glow sticks! All different colors, too! I decided right then and there that I had to have one...I MUST!

The entire night was no longer just about seeing the lights...it became about seeing the lights while heading out to find me a glowstick!

As is tradition, we started off walking around the visitor's center which was set up with a bunch of trains, lego villages, and gingerbread houses. There were a lot of really nice displays set up!

We walked around and saw more of my favorite displays...there was the lit up elephant sculpture that usually graces the entrance to the elephant yard...it was really pretty....but yeah, where on Earth did they have those glowsticks?

A lot of the displays are animated, in that they use different sets of blinking lights to give the illusion that things are moving...take this ant eater...the way the lights were set to blink, it looked as thought the ants were crawling right down the log to be sucked up by the anteater...

By far my favorite display was this set of flowers....they slowly transitioned from one color to the next....I was thrilled to sit there and tell Mom and Dad what the next color was going to be...

It was really neat, and I was having a great....wait, did that kid have a glowstick!? Let's go that way!

This was a neat little spot near the ape house...the lights washed over the walkway, and made it look really pretty to walk through...the ambiance was too cool...this is my superhero stance....what, Dad?! Did you just talk to someone who knows where they're handing out the glowsticks?

TO THE ORANGUTAN HOUSE!!!

SUCCESS!!! There were people from some place called Pepco (product placement and corporate sponsorship works!) handing these things out! I can't even tell you how excited I was to FINALLY be part of zoo lights by being a glowing boy myself....

Mom got a glowing necklace, so that we both had a neat way to glow and be part of zoolights! I have to say, I was pretty excited...

I WAS THIS EXCITED!!!

Glowstick in hand, we made our way out of the zoo, catching a glimpse of a few more displays....I love the zoo....I love Christmas lights....and this event always brings together the best of both worlds...soooooo very cool. :-)