Weekend Away….

On the train… which I have decided it was way nicer and less stressful way to travel than flying….

So, Tom and I went away alone together for the first time since having kids. Crazy, right? LOL.

We had fun! We trained it to Philadelphia on Saturday and spent two days seeing museums and historical stuff. We had a nice dinner out and did lots of walking. It was amazingly nice to see museums without being rushed or worrying that kids were getting restless.

First stop, the Mütter Museum! I have wanted to go here forEVER. 

Me with the Mütter Giant. He was 7'6"!

Independence Hall

Ben Franklin's Grave at Christ Church Burial Ground (this was such a neat find! We loved it! Super old cemetery filled with signers of the Declaration of Independence and Revolutionary War soldiers)

Saw this sign while waiting for the Liberty Bell to open. Had to investigate!

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The Graff House turned out to be where Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence! We came home and have started digging around on ancestry.com to see if Jacob Graff, who owned the house, was any relation to Tom's family.




The Liberty Bell. Not the most exciting thing we saw, by any stretch. Very over-hyped. LOL!

Next stop, Eastern State Penitentiary. This. Was. AWESOME. 

And lastly, the Reading Terminal Market. It was loud and crowded and overwhelming. We considered eating here, but it was just TOO MUCH. So we went to brunch at the hotel and called it a day! Headed back to the train station...

The 30th Street Station in Philadelphia. Train stations are so ornate, old-fashioned, and pretty! :)



All in all, a lovely trip. We can't wait to do another one. I'd love to do New York or Boston next. My mom needs about a year to recover from watching the boys for 36 hours though. LOL! 

Lately….

Not much happening this week. Finally back in our school groove after spring break. Jonathan had a tough week adjusting to that. LOL. Friday was, apparently, quite rough. He was sad on and off all day at school.

There was some excitement on Thursday when my parents got their puppy! It's a little poodle and the boys love it, but the biggest surprise was that SIMON loved it. And the puppy loved him back! It was a match made in heaven.  ;) We think it's the hair similarity. HA!

 nm,

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Friday was Tom's birthday. He came home from work a little early and we went out to a chinese place we hadn't been to in years. Jonathan, for whatever reason, was ALL out of sorts though and acted like a Nanny 911 child in the restaurant, so I ended up having to take him out to the car and sit with him in timeout while everyone finished eating. Not sure what gets into him sometimes. When we got home, he was himself again and ate his dinner happily and played outside.

Tom's big present this year was a trip to Philadelphia next weekend for just us! My parents are going to watch the boys for us and we are heading up Saturday morning and coming back Sunday late afternoon. He was pretty excited. It's literally the first time we will have left the kids overnight and gone somewhere (other than to the hospital to have another baby… LOL!)

Yesterday we had dinner at his parents' house. The boys had fun playing golf with Pap in the backyard all evening! Only got one photo, but it's a good one because it's of Ben, who is my hardest kid to get decadent photos of.

Today we are off to our niece's 4th birthday! (Have I mentioned it's family birthday season?) 

Going to the Zoo Zoo Zoo, How 'Bout You?

Visited the zoo today for the first time in YEARS. In general, I am not a fan of our local zoo. It's old and run down and SAD. Some people had told me it was better now though with its new penguin exhibit. I had my doubts, but we decided to give it a try anyway.

I am here to report…. it's still pretty sad. But, the boys had fun.
The penguin WERE cute and the exhibit was nice… but they definitely need more.

One of the chimps we saw looked sick. He was losing his hair and had open wounds all over. :(

Anyway, it was a nice day to be outside, so we had fun just walking around. :)

With the much better National Zoo in D.C. so close, I think we'll head there soon. We have to go one more time to the Maryland Zoo make the membership worth it, so I'm sure we'll go back at some point. We'll definitely wait until more of the animals are not "Off exhibit for the winter".  LOL.

Spring Break for the other 2/3….

Simon and Jonathan are enjoying spring break this week while Ben goes off to school all alone. All parties are taking this well. LOL.

I realized…. it's SUPER easy to have the two younger ones home together. They play together all day and entertain each other mostly without fighting. Ben home all by himself was also very easy.

It's the Ben/Jonathan combo that is the most challenging.  They don't play together and both require very different kinds of entertainment.  Plus, when Ben is bored, he pushes Jonathan's buttons and Jonathan ALWAYS pushes Ben's buttons.  Argh.

Anyway, so the littles are home. We didn't do much of anything yesterday since the doctor's appointment ate up part of the morning and I had some catching up to do around the house. So they played outside together on and off, which was SO nice. Then they played downstairs, back outside, played around with the piano/cello, back outside…. etc. Today, I'm hoping to actually take them somewhere. We'll see. No real plan.

Next year, I'm determined to go somewhere for one of the kids' spring breaks. It seems like EVERYone went somewhere…. I don't even care if it's just to Williamsburg or something, we are leaving town for at least a few days!

Doc Appointments...

The two older ones had checkups this morning.

Ben weighs 60 pounds now! He's 51-3/4 inches.  I about fell over when the nurse said his weight… and now I know why….when I came home and looked it up, I discovered he gained 11 pounds in a year!!!  (and almost 3 inches)  I just looked it up and it still only puts in the 3rd percentile all around. LOL.  Someone has to occupy the bottom of the curve, right? ;)

Simon is not far behind at 59 pounds and 50 inches! (up 3-1/2 pounds and 1 inch.) He runs right in the middle of the chart across the board.

So interesting how different all that is with them!  Jonathan also tends toward the middle of the curve.

Anyway all good stuff. Everyone is healthy! He does want me to take Simon back to the allergist at some point to have him do a food challenge for the shellfish… but said it's not urgent. Maybe over the summer.

The doctor also informed Ben he needs a tetanus booster (and hepatitis? I think?)…. but is letting him wait until fall. Ben is already freaking out about that. So thanks, doc! LOL. ;)

Happy Easter!

The kids had their traditional Good Friday egg hunt with Grandmom, Poppy, and Aunt Debbie on Friday.   For some reason, we don't have many pictures! Suffice to say, the kids had fun and found their easter treasure! ;) After that, we went out to dinner together. I think we were all tired and Easter snuck up on us! LOL!

Then Sunday, we headed to church, home for awhile, then over to Aunt Sarah and Uncle Taylor's for another egg hunt and dinner.  The kids had a blast with their cousins and playing outside. We are finally getting some truly beautiful days around here! :)

Twinkle Twinkle....

Simon's new cello teacher has had him playing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star for about the last four weeks. All the practice is finally paying off! Some of the notes are still a little hit or miss because he is still learning to stretch his fingers to the right position... but it's starting to come together. :) The difference from a month ago is pretty amazing! So proud of him!

I Couldn't Have Said This Better….

One of my boys struggles much more with school than the other two. It pains me to say that he was the kid, who, when I was in school I'd look at and think was just dumb because his handwriting is so messy, he can fill a page with just once sentence, or because he has a messy desk (two actually, but more on this later) or because he struggled with reading for awhile.

But now I know better….

I've actually voiced before EXACTLY what this writer is saying…  it's a lesson everyone should learn. :)

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Today is my 47th birthday, and I guess that is what is making me reflective. I’d like to think I made it to adulthood as a decent, broad-thinking woman, but I can honestly say that I wouldn’t be the person I am today without what my child’s learning difference has taught me.

My son was diagnosed at four, and from that time until now, I have evolved as a person, and most certainly as a mom.

 A few things I’ve learned from my son:

1) All people do not learn in the same way.

2) Being like everyone else is overrated.

3) A bond is created with a child when they know you would go to war for them.

4) A child who struggles in school can come out the other side with an amazing outlook.

5) The pride you feel when the child who struggled finds their bliss and their passion, and helping them feed that love.

6) That you never stop feeling overprotective.

I’ve learned far more from my son than I’ve learned from any other one person. I will never be ungrateful for the ease I felt in a classroom setting. I now have an empathy for those who have to work twice as hard to get half of the result.

I can only say you need to keep on trying. Everyone touched by a learning disability comes out the other side a far better person.

View….

This is our view waiting at the red light near our house on the way home from taking Ben to school. It's beautiful every season of the year for different reasons, but I think spring is my favorite. I love that postcard painting of a red barn! All the time, people are pulled over with fancy cameras taking photos of it.

The horses didn't make it into my shot, but there are usually a handful of them out there grazing in the morning.  Yesterday, there were pigs out in the field with them. :) The boys were happy to see the horses were not wearing their coats this morning. LOL! Maybe spring is finally here?