oldies but goodies

One clear benefit to living generally in the same area for most of your life is getting to see dear, old friends who have known you since you before you had a drivers license.

Birthday Sleepover

Its taken a few days to recover (ha!) but last weekend, Dylan hosted a birthday sleepover to celebrate turning 9.  He did this last year for the first time, and had so much fun he wanted to do it again this year.  We let him invite 6 boys this time (3 last year), still trying to keep it fun and manageable.   He invited his best friends from school, his dear friend A from his old soccer team, and his friend J from swim team.  We had pizza, Nerf battles, silly string fights, and watched Tin Tin.   Not all the boys ended up spending the night, a couple of them were ready to escape the rowdiness and go home to their own beds after the movie.  But for those who stayed, we finished off the party in the morning with doughnuts and Beyblade battles in the trampoline.

It was a great way to celebrate 9!

nine is fine

Dear Dylan,

Every year on your birthday, I write you a letter here, reminiscing and wondering where all the time has gone.  I was just telling Daddy the other day that its been so long since I’ve thought of you as a little boy.  Now, you’re my grown boy.  One who is mature, and responsible, and cares about making other people feel good.

Tomorrow you turn 9.  As you observed today, the last year you'll ever be a single digit.  Pretty amazing how time flies, isn't it?

Since the day I learned you were going to join our family almost 10 years ago, my life has been forever changed, brightened, and full of love.  Gone are the days I could pick you up, swaddle you, feed you and hold you.  But these are the days we can play together, laugh and make jokes, go on adventures, and talk about the world. 

You have grown so much this year.  You’ve turned into an avid reader, fitting it in between your beloved video games.   You blossomed as a swimmer, joining two different swim teams and always showing your desire to learn and improve.  You became a Scout, embracing good deeds for others and learning about community and giving back.  You’re a good, caring brother, even when he tries your patience daily.  I’m so glad he has you to set a good example and show him the ways of the world.  

You’re a good friend.  You’ve had many of the same friends for several years now, and you’re all so kind to each other.  You have learned very young what being a good friend is, and how to show your friends you care about them.   You make new friends as well, and I love when you come home from school telling me you've made a new friend.

You’ve learned so much at school this year.  Its amazing to me to hear you talk about all the things you know.   You’re so interested in history, and math, and how things work.   I love to watch you learn and grow at school.  Sometimes you sneak and stay up late reading in your bed.  You think we don't know, but we do. 

But mostly I just to watch you grow into a boy. One who is confident, caring, kind and full of adventure.   We’re so proud of you Dylan.  To us, you are the perfect son and we’re so thankful for the joy you’ve brought to our lives.  You bring so much happiness to so many people.  You are very, very loved.

If you want to read my other birthday letters to you since I've had this blog, here are 8, 7, 6, and 5.

To the moon and back.

Love,

Mom

in 3 days...

In 3 days, my darling son will be 9. 

9.

Takes my breath away. Where did all this time go? 

Every birthday is so bittersweet.  I think about all he has taught me about the world, and about myself.   I think about how many more things we have to experience with him.  But most of all, I think about how much I love him and wouldn't trade him for all the gold in the world.



farm goodness

Yesterday was the last day of Spring Break.  Gosh, it felt like the boys were off for a month with all that we did.   Lots of fun and many adventures.  I don't remember schools being closed the Monday after Easter before, but since they were we took advantage and met my Mom, Jessica and cousins Josh and Maya at a local farm.  It was a beautiful, windy day and there was hardly anyone there.  The kids had so much fun chasing goats, and playing with each other.  They must have gone down the slides hundreds of times. 

There's nothing like watching your kids play with their cousins.  The belly laughs and the hand holding, the pretending and the hugs.  Love it.

When we got home, it was straight in the bathtub!

Easter 2012

Its funny how the holidays evolve as the boys grow. Some things stay the same (coloring eggs and egg hunts and goody filled baskets) and some things change (sleeping in!).  We had a fun filled Easter weekend that started with a Topkick tawkwondo egg hunt, easter egg coloring, and ended with an all day family day at my Mom and Robby's.  There was Easter fishing too, but I didn't get any photos as I was inside cooking and running my mouth!

We tried using beet juice to dye some of the eggs.  It was smelly (according to the boys) and didn't color the eggs as well as the fake stuff, but it was still fun to try.

I love that I bought Logan a jewelry beading kit and he LOVED it, and didn't care one bit that it had a girl on the front of the box!  Dylan got alien Legos.

My Mom makes the best deviled eggs.

off the beaten path in DC

Friday of Spring Break, the morning after circus, we talked about what to do over breakfast. We decided after some relaxing time at home, we'd head into DC to see some museums.  My friend Dan does freelance work for the Smithsonian and helped put together an exhibit at the Smithsonian Museum of American Art all about the history of video games.  The exhibit is called "The Art of Video Games" and runs through September 2012.   I highly recommend it for all ages for anyone interested in the the progression of video games through time, and how much of a role they've played in our culture.

The museum contains some incredible pieces including the presidential portraits, and over 7,000 artists are represented in their awesome collection.  We didn't get to see it all, hard to entertain a 5 1/2 year old for long in there.  But the video game exhibit is another story...its a completely interactive multimedia experience and they were mesmerized.  We knew we also wanted to visit another museum after lunch so we took in a bit of the presidential portraits and then moved along to the video game exhibit so we could spend some time looking at old Mario Bros., Pacman and Atari game systems.

Remember these?  Space Invaders!  They have every video gaming system ever made on display there. Remember Commodore 64? Sega?  Ha!

Next, it was time for lunch.  As much I wanted to eat Mongolian BBQ in Chinatown...

...We played it more safe for our picky eaters and headed to one of the best pizza spots in DC (which happens to be next to Chinatown).  Matchbox.  Mmmmm.

With bellies full of pizza, we then headed to the Mall to see if we could luck out and get front row parking for the Museum of Natural History.  Ummmmmm, nope.  There must have been a BAZILLION  people with the same idea, and on a beautiful spring break day, of course the main museum strip in DC was going to be packed.  So we headed towards Union Station to visit a lesser known, off the beaten path museum, the Postal Museum.  Still part of the Smithsonian, its a small gem of a museum, extremely kid-friendly and less visited.  It turned out to be a huge hit!   We got great parking, they happened to have a very interesting exhibit about the Titanic and Hindenburg disasters (there thru Jan 2014), and our boys had a great time learning about the history of mail.  Its way more interesting than it sounds!