Fun Sunday with Aunt Abbie

It was great to have Abbie along today for the Sunday routine.  I love the adult company on a day when it's usually just me and the boys, not to mention the extra hands to help with said boys!  Abbie and I have been a good team with the boys, but we and the boys are all ready to have Doug get home!  I'm ready for Daddy to be here and so are they.  Abbie and I were eating breakfast quickly after the boys did and we were just listening to the chaos in the living room and we were absolutely losing it laughing about the din, the fighting, the hilarity of it all.  We've officially reached the slap-happy phase!

We had an eventful ride to church.  Oddly, it wasn't the boys fault either (usually our drive to church is intense banter, silliness or a combo of both).  Today it was totally my fault.  Abbie can attest that I was driving nice and slowly down Fifth Ave. when I approached a green light turning yellow in a big intersection.  I went for it, but the yellow was fast and I was traveling slow and of course as it turned red and I was under it I noticed a Pitt Police SUV at the other side of the intersection.  My heart raced and I eventually pulled over (not easy on a 4 lane busy street).  Thankfully the police officer that came up to the van was kind and didn't rub it in my face.  I apologized of course.  He asked where we were going (church) and he also glanced back at the three adorable boys in the back.  I think he looked up our plate too and saw that thankfully we don't have anything on record recently, so thankfully he let us off without even an official warning.  Ahhh...  The boys were absolutely silent during this whole situation and then after we pulled away (oh so carefully and stopping at every yellow light).  But once the boys started asking questions it was a fantastic way to easily talk about the concept of grace.  I deserved a ticket because I did something wrong.  The police officer gave me grace and let me go free without any consequence.  I think it really hit home since they had just watched it all happen.

So, after our practical church lesson on the road, we arrived to real church a little late.  It was a lovely service and just what I needed to release those jitters from the scare (especially the sweet snuggles I got from Penn during worship).

After church we headed over to Mellon Park for Bach, Beethoven and Brunch.  We enjoyed a picnic.  Not the best pic of the boys, but Abbie looks cute!

Abbie and Tavin went up to check out the orchestra and when they returned Penn wanted to go with Abbie himself.  Abbie was thrilled since Penn can be a little bit of a momma's boy when I'm around, so she went right back with Penn.  I just love seeing them palling around together!

Ab's a lot more fun than I am.  When her favorite song of the day started, she got the boys up and dancing.  The moves were quite interesting all around.

Around noon we headed across the street to the playground and spray park at Mellon.  The big boys were thrilled to run around in the sprinklers, but Penn stuck to the playground.  He did a lot on his own, but he absolutely LOVED doing the bumpy bridge with Aunt Abbie.  He was laughing his head off.  

It was a great morning.  Exhausting as most mornings are, but great.  Abbie and I laughed our way through lots of it.  We are thinking we are due for some sister time when Doug gets home and can take over on Daddy duty!

Halfway through Reading Lessons!

Yesterday Tavin completed Lesson 50 of "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons."  As you can tell, we've slowed our pace a bit.  We generally do a 1/2 lesson every day.  As the lessons have gotten longer, Tavin's interest in doing the whole lesson has waned.  I want to complete the program, but I don't want to push him too hard and turn him off from reading or education in the process, so I figured this was a good compromise.  Also, Tavin is sort of dropping his afternoon nap (naps maybe 3 out of 7 days of the week), so we usually do reading lesson after naptime/resttime and after a day with no nap he's often a little more tired and less focused, so a half lesson is much more manageable for him.  All that being said, he is still making great progress and I still love this program.  I took a few pictures of Lesson 50 so you can see what Tavin is up to at this point.

Now when he reads through the story, you can see that they no longer have the fast/slow indicators under the letter sounds.  Also, first he reads it through slowly and then he reads the first portion of the story "the fast way."  You can tell the program is cleverly training them to learn sight words as well as sounding out the majority of words.  I'm just so impressed that Tav can read all this!  

I love watching Tav learn even if it has become a tad more of a chore than a joy to him on some days.  He loves the story part and is always pleased with himself after the fact.  I can't wait to see what comes next and what his reading ability is like at the end of the 100 lessons.  It'll probably be some time this Fall that we get to that point at this rate though!  

Penn's 2nd Birthday

Yesterday, the 26th, was Penn's 2nd birthday!  Can you believe it has been 2 years??!!??  I can't.  Time just flies way too fast.  This baby has been such a blessing.  A calm in those stormy moments of older siblings fighting, being big boys, etc.  A joy in the cute giggles, toddler discoveries and sweet snuggles.  The one I can pray with about absolutely anything because he doesn't understand what it all means and at the same time, my little pal that understands so much of the ins and outs of our day.  I wish I could freeze time to soak up these precious months around this phase.  I just love it.  But it looks like the baby days are drawing to a close for Penn and he is more and more becoming a little boy.  

His second birthday was a simple day, but we made sure to tell Penn many a time that it was his birthday.  "You are two!"  He has a word for "two" and is working on getting those two fingers to stick up out of his hand alone.  It's pretty cute.

I started the day as usual, going up to get him around 8am.  I brought my camera of course and after his eyes adjusted to the light, he was all smiles.  Oh my Penn!

When I brought him down for breakfast, Koen and Tavin were all prepared to sing...

After the big brothers went off to Kidz Gig, Abbie and I went out to brunch at Coca Cafe in Lawrenceville with Penn.  Ab treated both Penn and I to birthday brunch.  It was lovely!  We sat alone outside and Penn got to roam in their cute, tiny patio garden the whole time.  It was perfect.  The food was amazing and enjoyed by all, including Penn, the birthday boy.  He especially liked the zucchini coconut chocolate chip bread and my prosciutto pesto omelet.  This kid has a pretty well-developed palette.

After our brunch, we took advantage of the gorgeous day and took a long walk from home to run some errands and then pick up Tav from Kidz Gig.  After we got home the boys enjoyed some playtime before nap and then Penn slept soundly after his birthday morning.  I was curious to see when he would wake up because I got the spontaneous idea that it would be fun to take the birthday boy and his bros to the pool for a swim and a picnic dinner.  Penn started squawking a little after 4pm, so we were out the door by 4:30pm and at the pool well before 5pm.  It was a blast in the pool (and loud and splashy as you might imagine) and all 3 boys loved it.  Abbie and I had a good time paddling around and watching them and I was thankful for her company.  We eventually got a little too cool and decided to dry off and eat.  While I got dinner ready, the boys relaxed in the sun.  (Oh my goodness, birthday boy is too cute!!).

The pool and picnic was great and got us home just in time to get ready for bed.  Tav hadn't napped and was exhausted, Koen was also quite taxed from the busy day and Penn was definitely on the down-swing, so it was an easy lay down.  About halfway through it though I realized that Penn never opened his cards or present, so we did a quick birthday moment before bed.  Penn received a card and gift at Nana & PopPop's over the weekend, but I had him read his card again.  

With Koen's help of course.

Then Penn opened the card from Gramma and Grampa.  I was so happy I got this picture of his classic "ooooh!" face.  He loved the diggers and dump truck on it!

Aunt Megan had dropped off a present for Penn earlier in the week and so here he is opening it.  He LOVES books, so it was great to get a new board book to add to our collection.  We read it last night and he loved it!

Well, that was our day.  Simple for sure, but special to me.  Each day with you is special, Penn Rye.  I'm so thankful for the blessing you are in my life and in our family.  You bring us so much joy.  I've loved these precious last two years and even though I'm sad to see you outgrowing the baby phase, I'm excited to see all that the Lord has for you as you grow into a little boy.  I love you, Penn Rye.

Aunt Abbie is Here (and she has a little buddy)

Doug had to go to Nashville in the middle of this week, so long ago I asked Abbie to come to visit during his time away.  It's been so great to have her here!  She arrived Wednesday in time to pick the boys up from Kidz Gig and she's been the main attraction ever since.  These boys just love their Aunt Abbie.  Penn had heard enough about how great Aunt Abbie was that he had no quams jumping right in on the action.  On Wednesday evening we played at the playground before dinner and Penn made up a hilarious game of "run down the hill with me" for them.  On your mark...get set...

...GO!

With the big boys in Kidz Gig in the AM this week, Penn and Abbie and I have had some nice low key moments to hang out, take walks, etc.  Here's a little moment I caught the other day of the pair.

Hopefully lots more pictures of Aunt Abbie and her Melder nephews to come.  We are so thankful to have her here keeping us company and keeping it interesting (Mommy can get a tad boring when Daddy is away...ha!).

Kidz Gig 2014

This week was Kidz Gig, our church's version of Vacation Bible School.  The boys were super excited for this fun, busy week.  I was excited for the extra quiet time with Penn. =)

On Tuesday it was "Crazy Hair Day."  I got to snap a picture before they went off to camp.  Now in this picture, with their hair off their faces.  They absolutely look like brothers.  I love it!

Today was the family picnic at the close of the 5-day camp.  It was a lot of fun.  The boys enjoyed their whole week at Kidz Gig.  A huge thank you to everyone who volunteered and served to make it a success!  I loved getting a glimpse of what the boys were up to when I volunteered on Tuesday and then even more so today at the picnic.  Tavin LOVED the inflatable obstacle course.  He did it over and over and over.  I got to catch him coming down the final slide.

Penn saw Koen playing soccer with some big boys and totally wanted in on the action.  We found another ball and he played with some smaller friends.  

Koen LOVED playing soccer and it was a good chance for me to see his aptitude for it and how much he enjoys it.  He's on the far right dribbling the ball in the picture below.

I was happy I got a few action shots for Daddy.  It might be time we get this kid on a little soccer team of some sort.  Koen self-proclaimed that he was like the World Cup guys the way he was playing so hard and got so hot, red and sweaty!

We had to leave a little before 1:30pm to get Penn down for nap and the boys looked like they might spontaneously combust they were so hot and sweaty!  It was a fun family time though and I'm just so thankful that the week in all went so well for the staff, volunteers and especially the kids that were a part of it.  Thanks again to everyone responsible for pulling it off!

My Actual Birthday

After such a crazy fun (and exhausting) weekend, my actual birthday, the 23rd, was nice and low key.  Ahhhh....  We actually had some new blinds installed on the first floor, which was a fun birthday present for me (goodbye super dusty miniblinds that were who knows how old!).  In the afternoon a dear friend, Kylie, stopped by with a surprise bouquet of flowers and a chocolate banana smoothie.  It made me feel so loved!  And I haven't had fresh flowers to play with and arrange in awhile, so I enjoyed doing that favorite activity on my birthday. 

The plan for the evening was just to grill out at home, but Doug had the great idea of going out to Mad Mex. It's a favorite spot for us.  Doug and I have our dishes that we enjoy and they have an amazing kids deal that the boys just devoured yet again.  The kids meal includes a brownie with ice cream for dessert, so the boys enjoyed indulging on my behalf for my birthday.

I'm feeling very blessed with all that my 34 years have held, especially grateful for my family, friends and particularly my husband and my boys.  And I'm looking forward to seeing what this year holds!!

Surprise Birthday Adventure, Part 2

As I mentioned yesterday, Doug coordinated this surprise birthday weekend with some of my dearest girlfriends (3 of my bridesmaids actually).  Their part of the plan was for Saturday and Sunday.  First, he made reservations for us all to meet up and have a girls-only (no kids allowed!) dinner at Founding Farmers on Pennsylvania Avenue.  I got to enjoy the walk from our hotel to the restaurant (at a very brisk pace because I was late!) to meet with Sarah, Annie and Jenny.  It was quite a reunion!  I've seen them all within the last year, but we probably haven't sat around a table together since my wedding, so it felt so special to be surrounded by such dear, quality friends for my birthday.  I really can't think of a better gift, that I could enjoy more.  

Thank you so much, girls, for coming into DC to be with me for my birthday celebration.  It meant so much to me that you would all work so hard to make this happen.  I feel so loved and appreciated and thankful to still be close to all of you!

That wasn't it though, the plan too was to then all meet up with our families at the zoo on Sunday morning so our kids and husbands could also get some social time (and we could have more time too!).  Before we headed to the zoo for the 10am meetup, our little family had "breakfast in bed."  Doug and the big boys walked to a whole grain French bakery (um, yes please!) to pick up some delicious muffins.  The boys then enjoyed eating them in our bed.  Let's just say it's a good thing we didn't have to sleep in it again.  It was a crumb fiasco.  I'd love to have seen the cleaning lady's face when she folded down the duvet to change the bed.  What a disaster!

Penn and Doug fared much better in the chair.  Handsome little duet, aren't they?

After a stressful pack-up, get through the shower, get kids dressed, etc. exit from the hotel we happily headed off to the zoo.  Phew!  It turned out that Sarah and Jenny couldn't make it back into the city that morning for the outing, but Annie, her husband, Elliott and daughter, Lucy did get to join us.  This was our first experience at the DC zoo and we loved it!  One of our first stops was the giant pandas because we don't have that animal at our zoo.  They were a lot of fun to watch because they are so cute and were very active this morning.  

Here's Lucy and Penn getting to know each other a bit.  Lucy was so enamored by Penn.  It was adorable.  She kept following him around and trying to get his hand so they could walk holding hands.  Precious!

I caught a picture of my zoo explorer boys.  Tavin's a little tired (the weekend of no naps and tons of exercise was definitely wearing on him at this point), can you tell??

Koen absolutely loves learning about animals and birds right now.  He was like a walking encyclopedia spurting factoids he'd picked up from books or his favorite TV show, "Wild Kratts."  I couldn't believe how much he knew.  It was like having a little tour guide along!  He was super excited to go to the Bird House and was so attentive to the different bird species.  It was really neat to see his interest level as I'm sure that many a 7-year-old boy could care less about birds and their intricacies.  Here he is at the burrowing owl exhibit.

We also spent some time enjoying the very active apes in their exhibit.  Penn was enthralled with them.  So many "oohs and ahhs" from this little one as he took in the zoo.  Hilarious!

Well, our boys were exhausted from the long weekend of so many fun things, so we ended up splitting up at the zoo a little earlier than planned.  Before leaving at noon though, I got a picture with Penn and Lucy (they are two days apart in age) and myself and Annie.  What a special thing to be with my friend and her little one!  Thanks for coming today, Annie, Elliott and Lucy!

We made great time back to Pittsburgh.  We ended up not even stopping for lunch since the boys were happy to just munch on snacks I had brought along.  We were home by 5pm and the boys were all down by 7:15pm.  Phew!  It was a very, very full long weekend, but so memorable, fun (a little intense at times with this energetic crew!) and special.  Thank you, Douglas, for giving me such a lovely birthday gift.  The last few days we've seen family, old friends, exposed the boys to new and important places and grown together as a family through yet another great adventure.  You can do this for my birthday anytime.  I won't return this gift!  Love you, Douglas!

Surprise Birthday Adventure, Part I

Early last week, Doug gave me a birthday card.  My birthday isn't until Monday, the 23rd, so I knew something different was happening that he had to give it to me that early.  Well, I was right (and Doug knows his wife, that she needs a few days to prepare!).  Here's the schedule of events of the fun birthday weekend Doug coordinated...

So, if you can't read the fine print you can just gather the schedule from the blog posts.  But Douglas worked for almost two months coordinating with some of my dearest girlfriends to make this all happen.  Very sweet and thoughtful.  Here we go!!

Thursday afternoon we headed out to Carlisle, PA to stay the night at Doug's parents and slip in some Nana & PopPop time for the boys.  That day was packed as I had a mom's group meetup scheduled for that morning and Doug, Koen and Tavin had Pirates game tickets.  I couldn't believe we'd be able to pack it all in (and still "pack"), but we pulled it all off!  We left the Burgh around 3:30pm.  I had requested a documentary by National Geographic entitled, "On Board Air Force One" and we started our trip with that.  It was so interesting that Doug and I ran the audio through the car the whole time so we could hear it.  The boys were entranced, especially Tavin.  He begged to watch it a second time right after it completed!  This kid is so into Air Force One right now (he actually says he wants to be the pilot of it someday)!

We arrived in Carlisle at 7pm.  The boys immediately got outside into Nana & PopPop's beautiful yard with the dogs.  Penn hadn't been there since Thanksgiving and he was completely different around the dogs this time.  He was so enamored, just following them around waving and saying, "hi."  So adorable!  The boys' cousin, Kiersten, and their Uncle David were there to join us for dinner, so the boys were happy to see them as well.

The boys were all tucked in around 8pm (they were so tired after the big day!) and we adults had a relaxing evening chatting and watching a movie.  Ahhhh.  The next morning the boys were ready to take advantage of a little more time around Nana & PopPop and the dogs.

This video shows how very much Penn enjoyed the dogs (although at the end he oddly gets weirded out and cries, but before the video camera came out (of course) that never happened!).

Koen offered to help Nana make the blueberry pancakes for breakfast.  He was so proud to be in charge of the griddle!

It was a gorgeous morning, so we encouraged the boys to take advantage of the lovely yard and get out some energy before we headed out on the next leg of our journey.  No problem.  

We said our goodbyes and left Nana & PopPop around 9:30am.  Next stop was Washington D.C.!!!  Since check-in time can vary based on if they can get the room ready a little early, we stayed close to the hotel.  We started with some pool play while Doug ran to get us lunch and bring back to eat on the terrace.  The boys were happy to jump into the pool while they waited.  These boys know how to vacation.  (Please, oh, please check out ridiculous Tavin...the goggles, the hat, the swimmie arms, the pointed toes...it's all so, so good).

After lunch we took a stroll around the area of DC where we are staying, Dupont Circle.  It's a great part of town with lots of shops, restaurants and tons of foot traffic.  A happening place!  We finally got into our rooms around 2:30pm and then we quickly figured out the sleeping arrangements and got Penn to nap.  The big boys then headed back to the pool with Doug for awhile.  Eventually we all ended up relaxing in our room a bit before heading back out and about after Penn's nap.  We found a park and playground which was a perfect spot to enjoy the warm afternoon while Doug grabbed a pizza for the boys' supper.  It felt as if we were back around home just enjoying a city park with other families.  I even had a fun conversations with another mom.  

We headed back to the hotel for the boys to eat and then promptly get baths and get to bed.  Tav hadn't napped in two days and to say he was slap-happy and a little more rebellious than usual would be an understatement.  Koen was an unfortunate combination of overtired and bottled up excitement with all the anticipation of the trip.  Doug and I had both had our moments of losing it with the boys and wondering if we should throw the towel in on the trip and drive home, but we decided to stick it out.  We had plans for a friend from Pittsburgh who is working in DC for the summer to babysit while we went out on a date and it was just what we needed!  She came at 7pm and we already had Penn down and she just read to Tavin and Koen and put them to bed.  We were even a few minutes early to our reservation down the street at an amazingly delicious Italian restaurant where we enjoyed a long, relaxing dinner on their outdoor patio.  Now it felt like a birthday getaway weekend. =)  Doug and I both resolved to be more laid back and roll with the punches with the boys and all their energy the next day and just enjoy this mini vacation/surprise birthday weekend for whatever it would be. =)

Well, thankfully, the boys slept well and I got a good night's sleep.  Koen woke up on the early side, but he and Tav were manageable until their regular wake-up time.  Penn (who I was worried they would wake up) was a champ and had to be awakened after 8am he was so tired!  So, we made it.  We headed out for a simple bagel breakfast that we ate outside.  And then of course, it started to rain.  When I packed for the this trip it was supposed to be 90 on Saturday, so I packed very summery outfits for the boys and I.  Turns out drizzly and 70 was the case for the start to our day.  Oh well.  After waiting out the rain under the umbrellas at Starbucks, we jumped on the metro so the boys could have that fun DC experience.

We got off not far down the line and a short walk to the White House!  Tavin was so excited to see where the President lives and where Marine 1 lands (because that is the helicopter that takes him to Andrews Air Force Base to get on Air Force One...see how it all comes back to Air Force One?).

Koen was either overtired or had his expectations confused, but he was already driving us nuts and it was only 10am, so Doug and I resolved to just keep smiling.  We took selfies at every stop just to keep ourselves laughing and enjoying the trip on our own level.  Koen took this picture of us at the White House.  Not the best of me, but hey, he wanted it to go on the blog.

We walked around the White House and had a little photo shoot with the boys at the back where it is even more picturesque in my opinion.  Here's our little "All American."

The next series of photos is very telling of the boys on this trip (particularly the older two and the havoc they've been causing on this adventure)...  Oh, look at the sweet, loving brothers...

Oh no, look out...I think Koen's up to something...

Yeah, he's up to something and Tav wants in on it.  Penn is definitely not in on it...

Tav's bummed, Koen's pleased with himself and Penn's crying.  Oh brother!  (LITERALLY!)

Moving on from there (before the secret service had to pry our curious boys off the wrought iron fence), we walked around the Washington Monument and into the WWII Memorial.  There was a large group of WWII veterans visiting the memorial at the same time.  It literally brought me to tears thinking about their sacrifice, that amazing generation and that pivotal period in our nation's history.  Penn and Koen got to interact with one of the veteran visiting.  I was able to snap a picture.

Doug got this adorable picture of Penn, the little "All American" again, while we were at the WWII memorial and with the Washington Monument in the background.

Last time Doug was in DC a few weeks ago he brought home a book for Penn with many of the trademark DC landmarks in it.  Penn loves the book and it was fun to refer to it today as he got to see many of the sights he's been reading about.

Next we walked up the edge of the reflection pool to the Lincoln Memorial.  Koen was whining about walking so much, so he and Penn stayed with Doug and Tav and I climbed all the stairs to see President Lincoln.  Doug got this book for the boys before our trip to educate them on Abraham Lincoln, 

so Tavin and I had a great chat about why he has a monument to honor him.  I was amazed at all he retained when we talked about it again later.

I was also proud of my little pal for mounting all those steps without a complaint, here's our selfie to capture the moment.

From here we walked past the Korean War Memorial and then over to the new MLK, Jr. Memorial which I'd never seen before.

From there you can see the Jefferson Memorial which is always so picturesque.  Doug and I felt it was a good time to capture the fun we were having again with a selfie.  Oh, how I appreciate my best friend!

It was about noon at this point and so it was time for me to walk back to the hotel (turned out to take about 45 minutes, so it's a good thing I left when I did with Penn!).  Doug took Koen and Tavin to the Air & Space Museum for some big boy afternoon fun.  I received a few awesome pictures.  This first one is of a Navy "Douglas" plane.  With that name, Koen requested that he take a picture of our Douglas at the plane.  He also made sure that arrow was pointing at Tav.  Pretty funny, Koen!

This has to be a favorite picture of the day.  My two pilots.

Well, that's "it" so far.  I got to have a relaxing afternoon getting organized and blogging and Doug was out with the boys while Penn napped.  They are on their way back now though, so I better get ready to be on duty!  Stay tuned for another blog post though as Doug still has some fun things planned for my DC Birthday Weekend!