The Boys and Barney

The boys love their doggie...and poor Barney never gets any rest around here!

Here Comes Trouble!

Nate seemed just a little too quiet as I straightened up after dinner tonight to not be getting into trouble!

Berry Picking

Andrew has a few messy projects that he is working on around the house. So, to help out, I offered to take the kids out for the whole morning so that he could get some of his dirty work done in peace, without his "helpers" (Ha! Much to Ben's chagrin...). So, since it is such a beautiful day out today, I decided to venture out to one of our favorite orchards for another day of berry picking, this time blueberries and raspberries. We drove to Solebury Orchards in New Hope, PA and spent the morning amongst the berries (eating a few along the way!) and came home with a few pounds of fresh berries. Yummy!

First we hit the raspberry patches. Solebury is wonderful and always has a great selection of fruit whenever I have been there. It is on this picturesque back road in Bucks County and is just such a nice, quaint little orchard with very yummy fruit.

Here are the boys enjoying the raspberry picking. My guys have expensive taste - they prefer raspberries and blackberries over other fruits so this was an especially exciting opportunity for them! I have already promised them that I will take them back for blackberry picking in a few weeks when they are in season.

Ben was quite helpful and filled up his own basket of raspberries. He kept telling Nate that he was "very busy picking raspberries" whenever Nate tried to tell him something or get his attention. LOL! Apparently, he takes his raspberry picking quite seriously...


Nate on the prowl for a few freebies from our already-picked stash...


"I think I remember these from the supermarket..."

"Yup! These are them! I LOVE raspberries, too!"

Next up: blueberries. Solebury also had rows and rows of blueberry bushes so this was another fun opportunity for the kids. Ben actually loves the Robert McCloskey book Blueberries for Sal, so anyone familiar with the book will know why he kept saying "kuplink, kuplank, kuplunk" when he put his berries into our basket. Ha ha!

The blueberry connoisseur looks as if he was caught red-handed eating a few too many off the bush, don't ya think? Ha!

Finally, after we finished picking our own berries, we went into the shop to pay and I bought the boys a cider donut. Yum! We then found this cute little stone bench to sit on and have our snack before we headed out on our way home.

I think we have two very happy customers, don't you? Making silly scrunchy-nose faces at eachother as they enjoyed their treat.

Checking out a (small) portion of the berries that we picked...

Happy 4th of July!

Our 4th of July this year was spent in a very low-key manner. We had a really nice time relaxing, doing some local fun activities and just enjoying the beautiful weather on this Independence Day.

This morning, we started off the day by going to the Skippack parade with the kids. The boys had enjoyed the Memorial Day parade so much that we were really looking forward to another one. Well, this one was definitely a lot bigger and more populated but they still had just as much fun seeing the sights and, of course, gathering all of the candy that was thrown from the various cars that drove past. We ran into several families that we know at the parade and just had a really fun and festive start to our day!

Here are the boys watching some of the sights go past...



Some of the most popular sights according to our two guys. Of course the old cars were also very popular since they seemed to throw the most candy out of their windows :).

The local kiddie racing team. Who'd have thunk that this even existed?!? LOL!

Even the air was in the 4th of July spirit. These antique planes flew over the parade and all of the kids seemed to enjoy spotting them!

Of course the tractor portion of the parade was so popular again...

The fire trucks were also a very popular sight again. I enjoyed seeing the antique ones; the kids seemed to like hearing the loudest ones that passed!

After a fairly low-key afternoon of being at home while the kids napped, we headed over to our church's 4th of July picnic. What a good time we had! Several of our friends were there and it was just such a fun and relaxing time with friends and great food!

Here is Ben on the merry-go-round with some of his friends. He enjoyed going on it at first but then decided that "he's big" and would rather help to push it! When I told him to be careful because some of the kids pushing it were very big...at least 7 years old, some of them close to 10, and that they could probably run faster than he could, he informed me that "Ben's big too, Mom. I'm three now!" Oh, my little independent man is growing up so quickly!! :(

Here is Nate hanging out with the ladies and being a big cheese for the camera! He's such a mama's boy, too...he started telling me "Cookie! Cookie!" when he finished his dinner so I told him I'd take him over to the desserts and he could pick one out. When we got there, he perused the selection and proceeded to point to some saying "That! That!"...they were the ones that I had baked while he and Ben napped today and brought along to the picnic. What a mama's boy - ha ha!

Yesterday, we spent the day putting up the Intex above ground pool that we recently bought. The boys love the water this year so we figured it would be a fun thing for them to cool off in this summer. We also want to get them used to the water so we decided to buy this family gift for ourselves.

Ben couldn't contain himself and wanted to go in it at 8:45am (since it had still been filling up when he went to bed last night) and then also when we got home from the picnic tonight at around 8:30pm. It was a little chilly since the sun was not up for either dip, but he seemed to have a great time regardless. Hopefully tomorrow we'll be able to use it during daylight hours when it is sunny out!

Here are a few photos of Ben and Andrew in the pool together.

The pool is 4ft. high but we didn't fill it all of the way (yet) so Ben is able to touch the ground.

Finally, after warming up and drying off from his swim, here is Ben in his 4th of July pj's, waiting for Andrew to start our own personal fireworks show. He's such a skinny guy now that his pj's from last year still completely fit him; he just opted to wear pj pants instead of the coordinating shorts since it's a little cool out tonight and he was trying to warm up from his swim.

Andrew gave a great fireworks display and about 6 other neighbors also put on major shows, all of which we could see clear as day from our yard. What fun! Who needs to pay to go to the local fireworks show when we have our own personal show at home! Unfortunately, none of my photos from the actual fireworks came out but we had a great time watching them. Ben actually asked to go to sleep at 10pm since he was exhausted at that point from so much activity tonight. Ha ha!

Happy 4th of July!

Self-Feeding: Take 2

Well, right after updating our blog this afternoon and posting the photos of Nate using a baby spoon to eat a bowlful of yogurt, we went out to dinner to the Outback Steakhouse and were able to capture these as well. We got a piece of pie for dessert for everyone to share and once Nate discovered that he liked it, he didn't waste any time at all waiting for us to feed him :). So much for using a baby spoon, Nate has moved right on to a full-size adult fork - lol! What a little piggies he is!!

Fetal Echocardiogram

Yesterday I went for a fetal echocardiogram at the hospital as part of my regular diabetes monitoring. The reason that they do this is because people with full-term diabetes and those who have an early onset of gestational diabetes run the risk of the baby developing too much glucose being pumped into the heart, which, I believe, in term can cause some heart problems and defects. So, luckily they are monitoring me closely for this.

Fortunately, the ultrasound and heart study went very well yesterday - all of the heart chambers are functioning normally and as far as they can see, the diabetes has not had any effects on the baby's heart or weight. The baby now weighs 1lb. 4oz, which is in the 52nd percentile overall, and we defintely saw once again that this baby is a girl!

They are going to be monitoring me more closely over the next few months as I end the second trimester and begin the third trimester since this is the time when the effects of diabetes can really set in. I will continue to update my blog after each one.

Self-Feeding

Our life has officially gotten messier this week - Nate has decided that he wants to feed himself with a spoon and is SO proud of himself when we allow him to do so. So, I am sucking up the desire to continue doing this myself and am allowing him to practice this latest skill. I'll just give us a little more time at meals and keep some extra wipes nearby :). But seriously, Nate is actually not as messy as I remember Ben being and concentrates so hard on this new task that I find it hard to not go along with it :)

Ready...


Get set!

Go! He did it...

And here Ben is showing us that he can also spoon-feed himself :). What is SO funny to me is that when Nate feeds himself, Ben usually says "Oh Nate, what a big boy you are now!" So cute :)

Big Helper

Ben has recently started to take much pride in the fact that he is older than Nate and able to do more things than his one-year-old brother. When he is focused enough to not be too rough (ha!), he actually has a lot of fun helping Nate learn things lately. The recent craze is helping Nate to walk around, since Nate loves to walk while we hold his hands. The funniest part (to us, at least) is that when nate sits down or loses his balance and falls, Ben just goes "Come on, Nate...get up!" He's like a drill sergeant! Ha ha! Nate seems to enjoy having Ben help him, though...

Turtle Back Zoo

Last weekend I took the boys to NJ with me to stay with my parents and visit lots of friends and family for a few days. I spent the day with my future sister-in-law in NYC, saw friends from high school, family friends and my cousin and her new baby. It was a great time and we had wonderful weather the entire time. Unfortunately, I was so busy that I didn't remember to take photos for the majority of the weekend, but I did capture some the day that my parents and I took the kids to the Turtle Back Zoo in West Orange, NJ. They had a blast and it was a really fun outing for everyone!

Here is close to the entrance to the zoo. I love sunflowers!

The boys checking out some of the animals...

Ben looking at one of the horses with Nana. He looks very skeptical of something - what a face! I cannot remember, but my guess is that the horse put his nose close and we told Ben to pet him, hence the cautious look on Ben's face!

Pop and Nana with the kids, still at the horses...

Ben loved these windchimes in the pig area!

One of the favorites of both boys - the black sheep. He kept "baa-ing," which Nate seemed to think was so funny...

Another favorite, the donkey...

And my personal favorite area, the Outback. The kangaroos were adorable and I felt at home with my own "joey" (aka Nate) as he perched in my arms instead of walking!

Nate looking very serious as he watches something...

At the end of the park, they have a big playground that the kids both had a good time on. Here is Ben on one of the gigantic slides. He LOVED this and kept climbing up the rope ladder to get to it!

And Nate in the tot area, on top of a duck. He loves animal sounds and kept "quacking" when he spotted this one so I knew I had to get a photo of him on it.

Peek-a....

...boo!

Nate's X-Ray

We are very relieved to report that the doctors just called regarding the x-ray that Nate had on his leg last week and everything is normal. The hospital just faxed them the full x-ray report and there are no signs of weakness or hip dysplasia at all... so I guess he just has thunder thighs with a large crease in one of them! :) He should start walking when he is ready, which hopefully will be pretty soon, but at least we know that there are no physical problems that are delaying this process. Praise God for such a good health report!

Ben's First Day of Summer Camp

This morning Ben started summer camp and was so excited about it! It is a week-long program at our church for three hours in the morning, so just the right amount of time for a group of preschoolers. They did lots of water activities, made gigantic bubbles, played games, sang Bible songs, and have many other fun activities planned for the week. Ben came home soaked from the water sports and couldn't stop talking about the fun he had in the water! We're so glad he had such a fun time. What a big boy he is...and this gives me a sneak peek at what the fall will be like when Ben is in school a few mornings per week.

Here are a few photos of Ben this morning before camp.

With Daddy:


His truck backpack is all packed with his towel and change of clothes...


Silly face!

And here he is in his camp shirt after we checked him in. He seemed a little nervous at first but just ran right into the class once we found out where he had to go, without a second glance at me or Nate! He did smile from ear to ear when he saw us waiting for him at noon, though, since I showed up a little early (what else is knew? :)) and caught a peek of the kids walking back to the classes from outside. ;)

We're looking forward to four more fun-filled days of camp this week for him!

Girls Weekend in Las Vegas

Last weekend my mother-in-law Cheri planned a girls getaway for all of the women in the family to Las Vegas. It was me, Cheri, and my three sisters-in-law Maggie, Michelle and Stacy. What a fun time!

We all flew in on Friday afternoon (give or take, I won't get into the major delays Maggie and I had at Philadelphia airport...typical!) and left on Monday. So we had three nights and about 3 full days. We stayed on the Las Vegas Strip at the Venetian hotel and did so many fun things - we ate at some nice places, got facials, saw a Cirque du Soleil show, shopped and hung out by the pool. It was such a nice break from reality and a great escape from the responsibilities of motherhood for a few days :)

Here we all are our first night at Olives restaurant at the Bellagio.
They knew it was my birthday so I got a special dessert but....they got my name wrong! We were HYSTERICAL even though the poor waiter looked so embarassed. You can now call me Patricia, Patty or Pat! :)

On our second night, we ate dinner at the Grand Lux Cafe at the Venetian and then headed over to the Mirage for the Cirque du Soleil show, Love, featuring Beatles music. It was awesome! The acrobatics were amazing and the music was great...

Here we are (minus Cheri, who is photographing) on our way out to the play with the huge billboard for Love behind us on top of the Mirage.

Drinks at dinner with the girls...well, tonic and lime for me!

And here we all are at dinner!

Maggie and Stacy, sisters-in-law!

This is one of our finest moments of the trip, posing like the Beatles before our show. It's my absolute favorite photo from the trip!!

You can't miss the magnificent Bellagio fountains at night that move in time to famous classic tunes. Stunning!

Finally, some photos from our last night in Vegas at the beautiful Le Cirque french restaurant in the Bellagio. They had special celebratory desserts for my birthday and Maggie's engagement...and what we didn't know about was that in addition to these, they surprised us by bringing out one of every dessert on their menu and a special centerpiece made out of sugar. It was a wonderful evening and the food and service were superb!

Cheri and Maggie...

The whole gang...

Maggie and I celebrating our two special occasions (me with a borrowed drink for the photo - lol!)


And here is my special birthday dessert: this raspberry and cheese concoction that was sprinkled with dark chocolate and oh so yummy...

Maggie with her special dessert, one of the special souffles that were also fantastic!

Here is a photo of the sugar centerpiece that they brought out to us for ambiance. Supposedly it took the chef 6 entire days to make!! I have never seen anything like it...

A final photo of the girls at the Venetian entrance after arriving back for the evening. This was our last night, boo hoo :(