The Birthday Express

We had a little party with Eliot's friends. He loved it and was so excited to have everyone come over. We made a train out of cardboard boxes to ride in, we read train books, sang a song and ate a train cake.

Eliot helped me make the train. By help I mean he told me what colors he wanted and taped them on the boxes.

Everyone riding the train.

Stamping with train stamps. After Eliot put his foot on the inkpad to make a stamp of his foot, I realized this might have been a bad idea.

Getting ready to sing Happy Birthday with his amazing cake. Whoever could have made such a beauty?

My train cake. Ta da!

Happy Birthday Eliot!

Three years have flown by. I can't believe how fast my little boy is growing up.

We love you so much Eliot. You bring such happiness to our lives. You're so loving, kind, funny and imaginative. I can't wait to see what this next year brings.

Like Chase

Eliot has to do everything "like Chase". This includes getting in and out of the stroller everytime Chase does, taking off his sweatshirt when Chase does and so on. There is even a kind of granola bar (Nature Valley Sweet and Salty Peanut) that is known as the "granola bar like Chase has" since Eliot started wanting it once Chase had it.

We've had a hard time getting Eliot to take his vitamins, important since he's borderline anemic and needs his iron. Well, the other day I came into the kitchen and Bryan mentioned he'd found the solution. He turned to Eliot and said, "Eliot, do you want to be big and strong like Chase?" Eliot screamed "Yes!" Then they yelled together "let's take our vitamins!!!!" Still works like a charm.

Other "like Chase" incidents...

When he was first able to reach the 5 button in the elevator, he turned to me and said "I'm tall, like Chase!"

When I was lifting weights in the gym, he picked up the 3lb dumbells and raised them above his head. "Look mama, I'm strong like Chase!" Hello, here I am lifting heavier weights and I get no credit.

Let's hope Chase doesn't decide to jump off a cliff anytime soon...

Nothing like Mom

It was so great to have my mom out here. Time seems to fly and we never get to the things we've planned, but we always end up having fun all the same. Turns out, my kids love her as much as I do.

Love you mom, thanks for coming.

Who knew? Pepsi and sculptures.

With all the family in town on Monday, we once again utilized the car (which was difficult with 4 car seats and 4 adults given the space we had to work with). We drove up to the PepsiCo offices to wander around the Donald M Kendall Sculpture Gardens. There are 45 sculptures all around the PepsiCo office building on large lawns surrounded by trees and ponds. I personally prefer Diet Coke, but it's not like they were handing it out while we wandered, so in this one instance Pepsi was fine.

The sculptures were great and the day was lovely.

Can you find them?

Trent as the Leaf Monster. This was the highlight of the trip for the kids. They would cover his face with leaves, then he'd jump up and chase them. Generally they ran the opposite way we wanted them to.

The fun of cousins

We wish we lived closer to all of the kid's cousins since they have so much fun together. Thankfully, we live near-ish to these two (4 hours is near-ish, right? All the rest are across the country, so it's relative). Eliot and Alexa are 5 weeks apart and Eleanor and Pascal are 2 months apart. How's that for timing?

We could sit these little ladies together and they'd play happily with each other.

Trying to get Alexa and Eliot to sleep in the same room was hysterical. They were laughing, yelling at the other one to go to sleep and jumping around. They finally crashed.

Exploring faces. Poking and grabbing each other was quite entertaining.

White Post Farms

We had lots of family in town over the weekend. My mom flew in, then Trent, Vanessa and the kids came up on Friday night. Saturday we headed out to Long Island to White Post Farms. It was a Disneyfied version of a farm. Lots of animals to feed and pet, tons of playgrounds and lots of silly wood cutouts of cartoon characters. Pretty cheesy. The kids loved it though.

Eliot was scared of feeding the animals so he needed someone holding him. Here they are feeding the camels. Yes, camels at the farm (along with a bison, a Tibetan yak, monkeys and other random animals among with droves of sheep and goats)

Riding the train with Nana and Alexa

At the end, Alexa wanted to kiss all the animals. It was disgusting, she was giving all the goats and sheep kisses.

More fun with family to come...