Michael's 37th Birthday

Michael only had to work 1/2 a day on his birthday, so the boys and I met him in D.C. and went to the Air and Space Museum. Mikie and Daddy had a lot of fun while Zachary and I tagged along.

Mikie pretends to steer the aircraft carrier. There was a video display of jets being launched from the deck of the boat and Mikie just found it fascinating.

This is the cute little flight suit that I bought for Mikie 3 years ago. Boagie took all the existing patches off and replaced them with Michael's squadron patches and name tag. I thought it would be fun for Zachary to wear it to the museum. I heard so many people say "Oh look at how cute he is!" (etc.) One little girl said to her mother, "Mommy look! It's a little military boy."

He's adorable isn't he? :)

My favorite exhibits were about space. Here they are in front of a solar system display. Mikie was really good at remembering all of the planets and their order.

My boys!!!

In front of the rockets.


On the spur of the moment (and with Mikie's help) I came up with this idea for Michael's cake and Mikie helped decorate it:

Recently, Mikie really enjoys watching "Mickey Mouse Clubhouse" on t.v. If you haven't seen it let me explain: There is always an adventure that Mickey has to go on and in the process they have to solve 4 problems using their "Mouse-ka-tools" that come from this flying mouse shaped computer type thing called "Tootles". I was just going to make a Mickey Mouse cake but then Mikie said, "It can be Tootles" Which led me to create an entire adventure for Michael to solve when we got home from the museum. Mikie was SO EXCITED! He wanted to tell Daddy so badly throughout the day and I kept having to "shhsh" him so he wouldn't ruin the surprise. In the 3 videos below (be sure to watch them in order) you'll see how it all comes together with one extremely happy little boy giggling the whole time!

Christmas

On Christmas Eve, we attended our church service held at the Fredericksburg Expo Hall. It was a nice production with a large crowd, but even with toys, snacks, and drinks we couldn't occupy our boys for that long and we ended up leaving early and ate at Red Lobster before heading home. Add on top of that, Zachary's sinus infection, Mikie's nebulizer treatments that get him all riled up, and my constant coughing due to bronchitis and you've got one sick family that needed to be home resting on Christmas Eve.
The picture that follows is probably the closest I'll ever get to "matching" my children in their outfits. I know a lot of people find it very cute, but I would much rather having them "coordinating" instead of matching. And since Zachary's design is on the bottom of his vest and Mikie's is on the side I can still technically say they don't "match." (oh, alright.....they do match....but only this once!)

Here's the cookie Mikie left for Santa Claus:

Baby Jesus is lying in straw in the stable with a pink pig and a white cow next to him. All my Sunday School kids made these and Mikie wanted to give his to Santa.
Of course, we couldn't forget the 8 reindeer!

The surprise on Christmas Morning Video: if you listen carefully you can hear Mikie say "Holy Cow!" when he starts to play with his new toy.




Mikie reads the letter that Santa left him in the video below:

On Christmas Morning, the boys discover that Santa left them a new train set complete with multiple levels, mountains, and much more stable supports than the previous track had.

Ripping open presents only lasted for a little while. Mikie soon grew tired of opening them and refused to open any more. Zachary was enjoying his new toys and didn't care to continue either. They each got new Christmas jammies the night before, but Zachary had a runny diaper that exploded all over his cute Santa p.j.'s so he had to have the hand-me-down ones Mikie wore a few years ago.

Zachary plays with his duck-go-round game and looks for the quacking egg.

Mikie is happy to get a signal for his Thomas train tracks.

Can you tell how happy Zachary is to have a new dump truck? He also got the little lamb that is similar to the pig that he loves so much (fur-real pets). He walks around with his "baa baa" and smiles when he hugs it close to his head.

After most of the presents were opened, we drove up to Annapolis to Aunt June & Uncle Wardie's for Christmas dinner. Mikie was really good, but poor little Zachary had a yeast infection on his bottom from the antibiotics that he's on for a sinus infection and was just miserable and cranky.

The boys meet Santa Claus

While at the MOMS club party, Santa and Mrs. Claus dropped by to visit the children. Mikie was very eager to tell him that he would like "Blue Thunder and El Torro Loco" for Christmas. In case your wondering why he is asking for a form of weather and a crazy bull....they are the names of Monster Trucks. He also made sure to tell Santa that Zachary would like Monster Mutt and Donkey Kong. Santa took special interest in Mikie's sweater and Mikie was quick to point out that all the reindeer were accounted for except Rudolph.

Zachary's reaction to Santa was just as I expected.....he was terrified!

Santa asked Mikie three questions: Do you brush your teeth everyday? Do you pick up your toys? Do you give someone a hug everyday?

Just a warning: In the video below, Zachary was still upset about seeing Santa so there is a lot of screaming caught on here.

Santa brought all of the children books. Mikie received a Curious George book and Zachary got Rudolph's First Christmas.

Mikie asked Mrs. Claus if she would read him his book.

After Santa left, the kids made crafts. It looks as if Zachary is participating; however, he is really just eating the Trix that were suppose to be used for decorating the trees.

Festival of Lights Carnival

One Saturday afternoon, we drove up to Michael's sister's house to let the cousins exchange gifts. Then we all piled into the mini-van and went to the Bull Run Festival of Lights. We let both boys get out of their car seats while we drove through the light display. Mikie was excited and watched the whole time, but Zachary was more interested in climbing around the mini-van and throwing his blankie.

At the end of the lighted path, they have a carnival. Whose idea was it to have a winter carnival? It was freezing!

Is that metal seat just a little cold, Mikie? This is a good time for me to write about my child's phobia of zippers. Yes, I did say zippers! He will not wear anything with a zipper....that means...elastic pants and pull over hoodies. So it may look as if I didn't dress my child appropriately for the cold weather, but rest assured he has on 3 layers of shirts. Strange phobia, I know, but I think I traumatized him when he was younger by catching his belly skin in a jacket's zipper.

Cousin Caitlin rides the never ending dragon coaster with Mikie. It went around the little track about 20 times before finally stopping. Normally, we would love a long ride...but it was FREEZING!

Bethleham Market

Another evening we took the boys the Resurrection Lutheran Church and walked through their Bethlehem Market. We had to wake both boys up from their naps in the car so it took Mikie awhile to become interested. After "making our mark" on the scroll to be counted for the census, we walked around the 2 dozen booths where people were dressed in period clothes telling about the different goods you could buy during Jesus' time on earth. My favorite booth was the Carpenter because they had tools made of wood that I had just taught my Sunday School kids about that morning. We got to see and touch the exact tools we had just learned about a few hours ago playing carpenter bingo! Mikie said he liked the dying booth because he learned that they used bugs to make pink dye for cloths. At some of the other booths, we also smelled perfumes and spices, ate bread and nuts & raisins, watched them weave baskets and shape pottery, saw them spin and weave sheep's wool, and Mikie could have even stomped on some grapes to make wine but he didn't want to remove his shoes. They even had an Inn with the inn keepers standing out front. Mikie asked them if there was any room at their Inn and they replied that they had no room and they had already given their stable to a young couple about to have a baby. Then we walked outside and saw the nativity scene with real animals. It was a very educational night and a great experience to learn about life in Bethlehem.
There was also a Synagogue where Mikie wrote on a clay tablet. They wanted you to write a Hebrew word, but.....can you guess what he wrote? Of course.......NUMBERS!

Decorating: Trees, Cupcakes, & Gingerbread Houses

I'm so far behind on this blog! Tomorrow is Christmas and I just finished posting all of our November activities. I thought I would try to squeeze some December activities together instead of posting separately, so here goes:


For the second year in a row we drove to Culpepper and chopped down our tree from Shay's Tree Farm. It was very cold and Zachary was very fussy! Mikie did a great job picking out the perfect White Pine and Daddy got the privilege of carrying it to the car. They had baby bunnies to hold, but neither boy was interested so we just let Mikie eat some cookies and then ate lunch at Ruby Tuesdays before heading home.

Searching for the perfect tree.

We found it! Now Mikie helps cut it down.

Daddy hauls it back to the car.

Mikie takes a picture of the tree & the three of us.

The next day, after church, we added the decorations. Mikie was really excited to unwrap all of the ornaments; however, he lacks the vision of symmetry when it comes to hanging them on the tree. After clustering 5 burgundy balls together on one branch, he exclaimed "They're a family!" Now, for those of you who know my husband really well (or even if you've only just met him...you can tell right away!) you probably know he likes everything in it's orderly place and this was just driving him crazy; so, Mikie's "family" soon got a divorce and the "children" got kicked out of the group to go live on branches of their own.

If you look at the balls hanging on the right side of the tree you'll see Mikie's "family" before judge Daddy signed the divorce papers.

Zachary loved to hang the "ball, balls" and still likes to go look at them and say "ball, balls."

Reading The Legend of the Christmas Tree.

After reading the story, Mikie unwraps the shiny silver box to find the star tree topper inside(just like in the book). I hope to continue this tradition in our family...if I can remember to wrap the star again before reading the story!

Another tradition in our family is to have a Christmas tree in each of the boys' rooms. Since they both have barnyard rooms, the theme of each tree is farm animals.

Mikie unwraps and hangs his "baa baa white sheep". There is also a "baa baa black sheep" and he remembered what he named them from last year! I tell you, the kid has a memory like an elephant!

Mikie puts the red barn on the top of his tree.

Both boys in Mikie's room. I just found the cute John Deere tree skirt this year.

In the two videos below, you can hear Zach get so excited about Mikie's animals. Of course I didn't capture him saying all the animal sounds on video, but I did get him saying baa in the first one and cock-a-doodle-doo in the second one.





Next we move to Zachary's room and decorate his tree.

One of the moms in the MOMS club hosted a gingerbread house decorating playgroup. I was expecting a disaster with my two boys because it was during Zach's nap time and Mikie gets frustrated very easily, but to my surprise, they were WONDERFUL! Zachary played nicely with the other toddlers while I helped Mikie decorate his house. I was so proud of him...his house kept caving in and falling over but he never once threw a fit or got angry! I bet you won't be surprised by what he put on his house for decorations...

Numbers!

He also filled his attic with M&M's and added a candy cane for the North Pole. I really like the chimney.



I needed to make cupcakes for the MOMS club (which I ended up forgetting in the fridge at home) and thought the boys would each like to decorate one.

Mikie added pink M&M's and yellow frosting to his.

Zachary enjoyed the colored sugar as you'll see in the two videos below:

And these are the reindeer cupcakes that I made (and forgot) for the party.