Give Me Liberty!

Originally, Michael had a meeting in Massachusetts and we were going to tag along and turn that opportunity into a 10 day vacation. The plan was to drive to New York for Labor Day then spend 4 days in New Hampshire, where we would meet up with Michael's parents who were driving down from Maine, and then finally catch the Day Out With Thomas in Pennsylvania on our way home. A week before our trip, the meeting was cancelled but we decided to proceed with our plans anyway; and I'm so glad that we did! I love adventures (I know you're all shocked!) and the boys enjoyed spending so much time with their Daddy. In fact, Daddy was the parent of choice for the entire vacation which made my bathroom visits much more pleasant without extra hands to wash and dry. Zachary really turned into a Daddy's boy and very rarely allowed me to carry him at all. Towards the end of the trip, I was feeling very deprived of my "baby" hugs and kisses and couldn't help but wonder if this was God's way of telling me it was time to have another child. But, when we got home I realized that NO WAY is it time to add another screaming/crying mouth to our house filled with overly dramatic emotional outbursts!!! My ears couldn't handle it!





We did drive to NY on Sunday afternoon while the children slept most of the way and the DVD player filled in the remaining hour or two. The next day (Labor Day) we spent the morning at the Liberty Science Center and then rode the ferry over to see The Statue of Liberty. The science center received one of the top 10 awards from Parents Magazine, but I have to disagree and actually rank it as one of the lowest on my list. There were two areas of the museum that the boys enjoyed: The children's discovery area with a ball maze, vacuum, and launcher that could have entertained them all day.

This device launches the ball into the air and hits a target on the other side of the room.

Snakes.

This was a really fun science display with bubbles. You can see how it worked in the two videos below:

Mikie sees how long he can hang on. I think the clock got to 14 seconds before he let go.

The angle that this picture was taken makes Zachary look so tall.

The only other area that was intriguing at this museum was the outdoor wildlife walk which was basically like an educational playground. The kids had to find their way through a maze while moving through obstacles just like the animals do.

The Squirrel Scurry

The Egret Alley was an area filled with reeds, squishy rubber tire shreds on the ground, and mist spraying down. Even though the next picture is actually of Zachary in the squirrel scurry, you can see the egret alley better in the background.

The Worm Wiggle was Mikie's favorite because he got to crawl through tunnels filled with balls (dirt) covered by the camouflage tarp.

The Rat Ramble was also a lot of fun and a little scary, because you had to crawl through very dark tunnels with sounds of squeaking rats and running water. I was actually surprised that both my boys went through it.

I mean...all three of my boys :)

I didn't get a picture of Mikie next to this sign but it was the Spider 'something?'

The Whitetail Walk was a tunnel through the thicket and a great end to the maze.

During the five minute ride from the museum to the ferry that takes you to The Statue of Liberty, Zachary fell asleep. He transferred easily to the stroller and got a good hour+ nap before we arrived at the statue.

We had to go through a security line in the old railway station.

Mikie and Daddy at Tidmouth Sheds.

On Liberty Island with the New York skyline in the background.

The highlight for Mikie was climbing (by that I mean counting) the 184 steps to the pedestal lookout because the elevator was broken. This was one of those times I was actually glad Zachary only wanted Daddy to carry him.

The weather looks a little ominous in this picture, but it was incredibly nice: mostly cloudy skies high in the low 70's. Perfect especially since we just drove out of 80-90 degree weather the day before. This was our "first day of fall" and I loved every minute of it.

Leah's Waterslide Party

Our former neighbor, Leah, turned 5 years old last week and we attended her water slide birthday party. Mikie took a long time to get up enough nerve to try the slide, but once he did he had fun. Zachary wouldn't try it at all and spent most of his time in the house with Daddy playing with balloons and balls. I did something to my back a few days before this party so I couldn't be as much of a help to Rebecca as I would have liked, but we all still had a great time. Mikie watches as Leah shows him how to do it.
Then he tries it, too.

Zachary didn't want to leave Daddy's lap.

Leah & her water slide/teddy graham cake

AWWWW! I think we'll keep her!

Even though we don't get to see each other that often, I always feel so connected to Rebecca. She's an amazing woman with the kindest heart and I'm so glad she's my friend.

Mini-Golf, Make-Up, and More

Yes, MORE mini-golf. This is the course that we found a few minutes north of the other really cheap putt-putt. This one is at Locust Shade Park and while it doesn't have any cute obstacles, it does have a few water obstacles and hills that the boys loved.

For over a month, probably closer to 2 months, Mikie has been asking to go mini-golfing with Kaitlyn and Lily. Each time we tried to go to Just Putt N Around it was closed due to the threat of pending thunderstorms. So when we tried the third time, on this bright clear day, we thought for sure it was going to work out. Wouldn't you know that the course was closed again and would not re-open until the next day. Luckily, we had a back-up mini-golf course and this one was open! The kids played 2 rounds (36 holes) and would have played another round if we would have let them.

One morning before church, I sat Zachary up on the sink of our master bathroom. He watched me closely as I was putting on my make-up. I handed him the brush, thinking that he would put a little on his face, but he started helping me. It was so precious I had to have Michael grab the camera.

Mikie started his second year of Cubbies (AWANAS for 3-4 year olds). Last year it was a constant struggle to get him to put the vest on and wear it inside his classroom. He would leave it on until he said his memory verse and then immediately took it off. This year he bulked a little about having to wear it, but I told him that now that he was in the 4 year old class he needed to wear it all the time just like his friends. When I went to pick him up after the hour and a half, I completely expected to see the vest folded up in his bag. I was shocked and so proud to see that he was still wearing it!!!!!!! Now, we just need to work on wearing clothes with zippers!

I wanted Mikie to experience a Vacation Bible School that included 4 year olds so I found one at a church close to our house. They were using the curriculum from last year's theme so Mikie was already familiar with the lyrics of the songs from the CD that I have. He was a little shy the first day, but had such a good time he looked forward to going back each day that week. The only bad thing is that it was in the evening and didn't end until 8:30. Michael was also gone this week so I had to make sure Zachary stayed awake long enough to go pick Mikie up. Here is a video of him singing one of the songs he learned:

One of the many slides Zachary and Mikie had fun on at an indoor inflatable station in Woodbridge called Kids N Motion.

A short video of the sliding:

Ice Age Field Trip

Another Magic Tree House book read meant another field trip to D.C.

"Sunset of the Sabertooth" taught Mikie all about the ice age and the animals that lived in those frigid conditions. The National Museum of Natural History had a great fossil display of almost every animal we read about. Mikie with a giant sloth A very strange glyptodon (giant armadillo like creature)

On the right you can see a sabertooth cat attacking a giant sloth

Mikie's favorite were the dire wolves (far left background)

And of course the GIANT wholly mammoth

We also went to see: Ice Age 3-D Dawn of the Dinosaurs, which Mikie really enjoyed.

Some of you may be thinking, "wow, she didn't dress him in clothes that matched the field trip this time." Well, I actually did. What you can't see is that he's wearing wholly mammoth under ware! :)

Baking & Kings Domnion

A few weeks ago, I made Amber's famous Green Muffins (zucchini) and thought the boys would like to help. This is the result:

Obviously, I had a lot of scraping to do before putting the muffin pan into the oven. They turned out great and my boys gobble them up. Besides kiwi, I really think these are the only other green thing that Mikie will eat. Thanks, Amber for introducing us to these yummy healthy muffins!

Just had to throw this picture in of the kids with Dora and Diego at the nearby amusement park: Kings Dominion.