Halloween 2016

Happy Halloween! 

From:

Three ninjas,

Kermit & Miss Piggy,

 

and our baby bumblebee.

E is 3!

Eefie turned three on Sunday. He is the funnest, cuddliest boy you'll ever meet, and we sure are glad he is part of our family. He has just discovered he doesn't always have to obey his mom, and that's causes some turmoil. He's also perfecting the tantrum, particularly when he's tired. But, hey, that's a three-year-old for you.

See that sass?

He loves to do yoga. I found a cute Kinda-Yoga program on Amazon Prime. Each morning (on a slow day!) I do my yoga for 30-40 minutes, and then I put on his while I shower and get ready. It is working for now, but I'm not looking forward to Kate giving up her morning nap.

He loves to eat, but mostly just sweets and junk food. His favorite thing to eat is cinnamon pop-tarts, and he'll do just about anything for a sucker.

He loves to take showers, which is pretty cool because he set the example for his OLDER brothers to start showering last Spring. He is also definitely the bravest when it comes to swimming and getting his face wet.

He's had a lot of practice blowing out candles the last two months: Four birthdays in two months at our house! 

Unfortunately, he has no fears whatsoever, so he goes and does just about anything he wants without any thought of the consequences. For example, last week he ventured far into the construction site across the street from our house WHILE the excavators and dump trucks were working. He told me he wanted to see the tractors working. He sometimes goes to the neighbor's house to play without telling me first. He also rides his scooter down the driveway and into the street, and sometimes even way down the street. He also runs across the street without a single thought of looking first. He keeps me on my toes for sure.

He loves his "stand-up scooter," but he is painfully slow. Getting to kindergarten pickup across the street is quite the nightmare for impatient me.

He is my most social child for his age. He prefers to be surrounding by other kids. He loves the girl across the street, who happens to be in Brennan's kindergarten class. They play together all the time. He has also made friends with all the siblings of kids in Collin & Brennan's karate class. They play elaborate games of pretend and Hide & Seek while all the older kids are in class.

He's a pro at somersaults, especially on the trampoline.

He wants to do everything his brothers are doing, and he has NO IDEA that he is quite a bit younger than them. He loves guns, swords and the walkie-talkies (though he just yells into it and never pushes the button).

He totally loves his once-a-week mommy-preschool. I'm so glad I found a good group of moms to do it with me here. This week he asked which letter he was doing, and just could not understand that there wasn't going to be a letter, and it was just going to be a Halloween Party instead.

Which brings me to the hardest thing about Ethan right now: WHY? He is in that stage of CONSTANT questioning, and he never asks a question just once. He repeats and repeats and repeats. And when I do answer, if he isn't satisfied with the answer, he just keeps asking. Yes, I know he's 3, and I need to be happy he is so good at talking, but multiple times a day I tell him he has to stop talking and let it be quiet for a minute. His favorite question is definitely "WHY?"

He is still napping every day, but I am no longer getting his full four-hours. Boo hoo. He's down to about 2 hrs each day. I know that sounds like a lot, but I am hardly ever able to get E & Kate to sync anymore, and that makes for a tired and grumpy mommy.

All day long he wanted to guess what his present was. He guessed wee-woo, legos, and a gun. Every time he guessed, we told him it was diapers, socks, a puppy, etc. It was funny.  

His favorite thing to do is sit on the couch, sucking on the corner of his blanket and watching tv. His show of choice lately is Fireman Sam, so we got him an action figure Sam and a rescue boat. He has taken it with us errand-running all week! He's a big fan. It's adorable.

Somehow I didn't take a single picture of him dressed up for church on his birthday. He wore a suit with a button that read "Birthday Boy." He looked super handsome, and everyone kept asking, "Is it your birthday?" Finally after two or three people stopped him in the hall, he leaned against my leg hiding, and shyly mumbled while grabbing his button, "Will you please take this thing off of me?" I told him, "No way. It's fun! This is your special day. You tell everyone that you are three today!" It was pretty cute.

Happy birthday, Eefie! We love you!!!!  

Boston Details

DAY ONE - Freedom Trail

We spent the first day following this brick line all over Boston, across the Charles River and into Charlestown. It was totally awesome, and we logged more miles than I probably ever had walked in a day.

The Old State House

This is the balcony on the back of the Old State House where the Constitution was first read to Boston residents.

The House Paul Revere lived in with his first wife and 8 children, and his second wife and additional 8 children. He left from here for his famous midnight ride. 

The tallest church in the region in the late 1700s where Paul's friends hung two lanterns to tell the people in the outlying towns that the British were headed to their armament storage in Concord by traveling over the Charles River

The Old North Church and its tall tower

Fast Forward to WW 2: This is a battleship that you can now tour. It was cool! 

Its guns. My "guns."

The Monument at Breed's Hill to the Battle of Bunker Hill
(I asked a park ranger for an explanation. It was perfect)

298 steps later... I was wasted. 

And back at the bottom again. It was definitely worth the hike .

52 floors (by elevator this time!) later
We had dinner at Top of the Hub at the Prudential Center. It was a beautiful view. I had read to book your reservation surrounding sunset, and it was perfect. It was light for our first course, beautiful pink/orange for our main course, and...

...twinkling city-lights at dark for our dessert. Expensive and worth every penny!

DAY TWO - Harbor Ferry & State House

Thursday morning we took a Harbor Ferry out to the only island still open this late in the season.

The view of the city from the water was breath-taking

I loved all the sail boats on the sparkling water

Boston Light. The Nation's first and oldest lighthouse station. 

We traveled to Georges Island, where Fort Warren is located. The US government finished it just after the start of the Civil War. It served as a prisoner of war facility for Confederate leaders, and a training ground for soldiers headed to both WW I & II.  

It was fun to look back at the downtown from the top of the fort. 

The intricacies of the brickwork were astonishing, especially given that it was all done without power tools. 

After our fort tour and ferry trip back to the mainland, we finished up the last loop of the Freedom Trail we had missed Wednesday. We saw the current State House and went inside for a bit too. We also did Beacon Hill and the African-American Abolitionist trail (cool houses but disappointing overall). 

DAY THREE - Cambridge & Lexington

MIT

We checked out these commuter bikes and rode from MIT to Harvard along the Charles River. It was a beautiful, sunny ride along a nice bike trail. So fun! 

Harvard - Do I look smart - and young enough! - to be a student?

That night the wedding festivities began at the family rehearsal dinner. It was at a cute, Italian restaurant in Lexington. Before it started, we walked to the town square and saw this monument to eight Americans who died when they opposed the British march to Concord to destroy their ammunition storage. 

My date to the Rehearsal dinner

DAY FOUR - Concord & Wedding/Reception

Seeing Lexington the night before really made me want to see Concord. Here I am on the Old North Bridge. The Colonist ammunition was all stored on the other side of this bridge, and the British wanted to cross. No one knows who fired first, so this is the place the poet recorded "the shot heard round the world."  

And the REAL purpose of our trip - My brother's wedding! Here we are in front of the temple. Ryan sang at the Temple Dedication in 2000, so it was really fun for him to be back. 

I enjoyed seeing the similarities in architecture - at least in the steeple - to the Old North Church and other old churches in the Boston area. I love that the Church tries to personalize temples to their area. 

The Happy Couple! 

The siblings. We are so excited to have Rachel in our family.
Left to right: Kim, Sean, Rob, Rachel, Jared and me

The Reception was at a Civil War era commander's mansion. We played lawn games and then had dinner, dancing and dessert in the tent. It was beautiful.

Requisite cake-cutting picture. (And it was delicious. No yucky fondant here!)

 DAY FIVE - Cruise & Final Lunch

Sunday morning we checked out of the house my parents rented for all of us to stay in and headed back to Cambridge (in two large Ubers) to take a riverboat cruise. It was fun to hear the interesting facts about the buildings Ryan and I had seen on our bike ride. Unfortunately, Boston got its touch of Hurricane Matthew this day, and it rained, and rained, and rained some more.

My parents had to head to the airport, but the sibs (minus Rob & Rachel who had started their honeymoon to Bermuda) headed to lunch at a seafood place right on Boston Harbor.

It was delicious! Ryan got another lobster roll (it was his last chance), and I got amazing fried shrimp. Because of the rain, we did a little souvenir shopping and then headed back to the airport.  

And here's the miracle worker that made it all happen - The one and only Nana! We are so grateful Ryan's mom could come spend five days with our four crazy monkeys. It was so nice to get away and realize we really are still the best of friends. Thank you, Nana!!!!  

Boston

Ryan and I took a trip together. I've always wanted to go to Boston, and my brother decided to marry a Bostonian, so we took the chance to make a mini-vacation out of their wedding week. Here's some pictures to get started...

We stayed in a cute bed & breakfast right on Boston Common. We were walking distance to everything we wanted to do. 

I love cobblestone streets and brick sidewalks. I particularly like the buildings from hundreds of years ago mixed with modern skyscrapers. 

What's a Boston trip without some lobster fun?

And some more lobster fun!

Ryan would say, "What's a Boston trip without some New England food?!"
(Lobster roll, Cape Cod potato chips, lobster mac & cheese, and a whoopie pie)

This ducky sculpture is iconic Boston. It was crafted to honor the book "Make Way For Ducklings" which takes place in Boston Public Garden. 

And me and my date for the week! 

My goal is to write more about our trip with the hundreds of pictures we took, but seeing as we've been home a week and a half and I still haven't gotten around to it, I figured something was better than nothing.