And it’s rare to get a moment of calm in the same bath as Katie…
The biggest Star Wars Lego set yet: done!
I was really proud of Owen. He did this set today—the biggest he’s done so far at 550 pieces!
I only had to help him attach the wings and daddy had to do a bit of post-build surgery to insert a missed piece…but otherwise Owen built it all himself!
I’m attempting my first ever Mod Podge project. Hold me.
Nope, I’ve never used this stuff before, but I figured it was the best for what I needed: to make sure these moving stickers stayed stuck to the ornament.
It didn’t turn out too badly. 🙂
Now I have to find some other projects to use up this stuff. I bought a 32oz container and only used about 1/2oz on this!
I love to see them love each other.
Katie was fake scared of something on TV and she jumped into Owen’s arms. 🙂
Katie found a Lego wand…
And loves Harry Potter… Leviosah!
Star Wars Lego set: complete
Stacking and crashing
Reward for learning how to fold kitchen towels.
I recently bought a pound of random Legos on eBay but didn’t want to just give them to Owen without a reason (since we just had Christmas and his birthday is coming up) but I didn’t feel like hiding them until his birthday…so today we told him if he learned how to fold kitchen towels and did a good job, he’d earn a treat.
Well, he learned how to fold towels AND did a good job. Amazing what Lego-motivation can do, eh? 🙂
And I knew he’d be excited but I completely underestimated just how excited he’d be about random Legos. He was POSITIVELY GIDDY. 🙂
He kept saying “Mom! Look! I have this piece!” or “Mom! Look at this piece! I don’t have this one!” It was adorable.
I’ll take a little girl cuddle whenever I can!
Owen reads for us at bedtime
Baltimore: food, fish, and fun!
Level 8 of the parking garage across from the aquarium. Owen was pretending to swim like a turtle when I snapped this!
On the drive here, I saw that there was a Capital Grille very close by—a restaurant we both miss from Troy—so we decided to eat lunch there! We stopped at Panera first to get the kids a bagel, and then it was a few doors down for our fancy lunch!
The kids enjoyed the bread basket, Tom had a lobster and crab burger with truffle fries (which Katie ate most of), and I had scallops with wild mushroom risotto and a side of lobster bisque (and the obligatory food porn shot with the single lobster piece for mom):
And then on to the aquarium! (We actually bought a family membership because tickets for today alone would have been about $100 and if we want to go again within the next year—which we will!—it would be even more because Katie will be over the “free” admission age—and we got a discounted membership for $155. It also gives us discounts on parking and gift shop purchases.)
The kids spent the whole time running from exhibit to exhibit like crazy people. Pretty much all Owen said the entire time was “COME HERE! LOOK AT THIS! OH WOW! MOM! DAD! COME HERE! DID YOU SEE THAT? LOOK AT THIS! COME HERE! COME HERE! OH MY GOSH! LOOK AT THIS! COME HERE!” Katie was a little less vocal but enjoyed everything but LOVED all the turtles and the penguins and puffers.
The octopus actually looked fake but was definitely real!
Super cool looking star fish! I just want to squish him!
This was the view from about the third story. That turtle was HUGE—probably 6-7′ long. The guide told us she was only 16 years old!
Heading up into the Amazon Rainforest: “It’s raining! It’s raining!” (They had misters at the very top of the escalator so it did feel like it was raining!”)
Owen loved all the escalators!
Then it was time for the 4D Spongebob movie ($5 extra per person of course!). We couldn’t take pictures during it, but it was AWESOME. I hadn’t been to a 4D movie since Honey I Shrunk the Kids at Disney probably 20 years ago! This production had bubbles, rumbling, lightning, wind, snow, and jellyfish tickling our legs! 🙂 OWEN LOVED IT…but was confused when it was over so soon because he only knows movies to be LONG.
And then my favorite exhibit—jellyfish!
Owen had a bit of a meltdown after our trip through the gift shop because everything he wanted was either too expensive or stuff we just didn’t want to get (he just didn’t need MORE cars or stuffed animals or a $30 T-shirt or cheap plastic toys). We offered a handful of different items (books, a Lego-ish type shark to build, etc.) that he could get but he didn’t want any of them and was just in a total snit about it. We explained he didn’t need to get a surprise every time we went anywhere and we did have limits on what he could get, and if we was going to act this way after a big day full of special things, then we just wouldn’t do stuff like this anymore. By the time we walked back to the car he apologized. 🙂
Katie was out before we exited the parking garage:
On the way home we both decided we didn’t want to cook dinner, so we were going out to eat. The place we wanted to try at the mall had an 1:30 wait—NO THANKS!—so we went to a 4-star Yelp sushi place across the street where we were the only patrons! The kids made do with rice but balked at the shrimp and veggie tempura we got them (who doesn’t like deep fried anything?!). Owen made a puppet out of the bag from the chocolate we bought earlier:
And then after a whirlwind day…we finally headed home.
No school, the Pentagon, and an award!
Tom was scheduled to receive an award at work (the Meritorious Service Medal) and we had decided we would ALL go, which meant taking Owen out of school. Since Tom knew he’d get the rest of the day off, we decided to make a special day of it and do something really worthwhile of missing school—take the kids to Baltimore to the National Aquarium!
A family selfie before we headed out:
Thank heavens for the HOV express lane—this was the standstill traffic on the way into DC (well worth the few bucks it cost us):
Then we had about a 3/4 mile walk in to the Pentagon from the parking lot. Yeesh—Tom has to do that twice a day. Tom was obviously already cleared, but the rest of us had to go through a metal detector and get wanded. Then once we were inside the Pentagon, we had to walk clear to the other side. With my horrid sense of direction, there’s absolutely NO way I would not get lost if I was on my own.
I’m not exactly sure what I was expecting, but it wasn’t what I was expecting. 🙂 There were lots of wide open hallways and empty corridors with nondescript doors and exiting one ring to cross a “street” to get to the next ring. And while logically I know the Pentagon is HUGE, it didn’t seem as huge as I thought it would (if that makes sense).
And then we were in his office. No windows in the whole thing, of course, and a tiny cubicle:
Before the award ceremony we had a brief meeting with Tom’s commanding general (the Senior Communications Officer of the entire Marine Corps) where he met me and the kids and had a few get-to-know-each-other minutes. Owen was really great with him and shook his hand and answered questions.
Then it was off to the conference room to wait. The kids had fun checking out the big room and seeing themselves on the big TV:
And as more and more people filed into the room, Owen got more and more shy and hid behind me the entire time. Katie was shy, too, but at least sat quietly in a chair.
A coworker of Tom’s offered to take pictures so I wouldn’t have to worry about it so that was nice (even though I hated to give up control).
The general welcomed everyone and jokingly asked what time people were thinking of leaving and there was a pregnant pause while no one said anything so I piped up “9:07” (implying we’d be leaving as soon as the award ceremony was over) and everyone laughed and the general said Tom was welcome to leave and go celebrate and everyone else was to leave at noon. 🙂
The kids with free reign to run through the halls on the way back to daddy’s office:
The view as we are leaving Tom’s ring and heading directly across the courtyard to the other side to exit the building and head to the parking lot (this is where it seems much smaller than I thought it would be):
Letting Owen ride the escalators on our way out (since he loves them so much):
Then Tom gave us a mini tour of the food court area, some of the shops on that level, and we stopped at the chocolatier for some yummy treats! Then it was the long trek back to the car!
Then it was an hour’s drive to Baltimore for the next part of our adventure…
Morning hugs and a selfie!
I was getting Katie out of bed and had her on my lap when Owen came running in and gave us both a big hug. I took the opportunity to also snap a quick selfie. 🙂
Bear Reading Chair
This is what I walked into this morning in Owen’s room. 🙂
Crafty Cork Project
Many thanks to my TCF-party-red-wine-drinking friends who helped make it more colorful!
The bane of my existence.
Owen’s socks don’t look much better.
Owen reading to Katie!
There was no school today due to expected bad weather so I was cleaning and organizing the kids’ rooms while they played. Then Katie wanted me to read her favorite story (If you take a mouse to school) and Owen volunteered!
Remind you of anyone?
This is how I found Katie when I went to wake her up.
Costco Couch Crazy Hair
This is what happens when Katie has to get out of the cart to sit on the floor model couches at Costco because Owen is also doing it…and she rolls around and gets all static-y.
Double Decker Couch
I let Owen put together the Lego set I got for me… 🙂
Katie is 2 years 6 months old today!
I found Owen’s old MSU jersey while digging through Katie’s closet—and as soon as she saw it, she wanted to wear it. 🙂
Katie was 2 years 5 months old last month!
I can’t believe it. I took the picture last month, edited it, cropped it, and put it in our holiday letter—but completely forgot to post it!
We really find Legos everywhere.
Funny faces with daddy
Daddy couldn’t Skype on duty so we texted funny faces instead!
She’s a stinker!
I was on the phone with Tom when I walked into the kitchen and saw this:
She had dragged the chair over to the counter to do who-knows-what!
New tank inhabitants!
The tank has slowly been getting up to speed and we finally decided it was time to add some more life. Unfortunately, Petco screwed up the order and what we were supposed to get Tuesday (when Tom was home and could handle everything) we didn’t get until this morning (when Tom had overnight duty and couldn’t handle anything). I managed, but it wasn’t in my comfort zone (I’ve acclimated fish before, but not saltwater ones)!
One of my favorites was a sea star… Unfortunately he arrived in less-than-stellar condition and we aren’t sure if he’s going to make it. But, he’s so cool…as soon as I put him in the tank, he burrowed into the sand. From sitting on top to completely buried took about five minutes!
And I had forgotten how cool feather dusters were, too:
And some corals…
And the kids’ favorites—the clown fish!
Or Nemos as Katie calls them: Katie was excitedly showing them her Nemo: “Look! They’re the same Nemo!”
And another favorite, the anemone:
They are intelligent creatures. I put him in the tank where I wanted him to be—where I’ve circled in the photo below. It was a nice little shelf in the current where I thought he’d look great. But he had other ideas. When I came back to look at him about 10 minutes later, he had flipped himself off the ledge and was upside down in the sand! I figured I’d help him out and flip him back over and then just leave him for Tom to deal with when he got home. The next time I came back and looked at him, he had scooched across the sand and wedged himself under the rocks (where he then stayed)! Simply fascinating.
After everyone is settled I’ll actually clean the glass and try to get better pictures!
A fake Katie tantrum
I don’t even remember what it was about. I think I refused her a snack.
Princess Sleepwear
She wanted to wear her princess dress to bed…
“I love you Owee.”
My 2014 year in blogging.
WordPress keeps stats on just about everything and sends a year-end summary. Here are a few interesting facts:
- This blog was viewed about 17,000 times in 2014.
- The busiest day of the year was August 24th with 1,007 views.
- The most popular post that day was We struck gold twice. (interestingly, a post from 2013).
- In 2014, there were 1,277 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 5,487 posts.
- My longest streak of posting was 107 days from 17 February — 3 June.
- Fridays were my most prolific posting days with 212 total posts.
- Visitors came from 95 countries.
- The most prolific commenter? My mom with 108. (My friend Tori was in second place with nine.) 🙂