After being stuck in this polar vortex for the last two weeks- I am taking this Flashback Friday to a time when it was much warmer!! We are heading to Chesapeake Beach Water Park. It was such a beautiful day- so I'm bring back some sunshine and warmth! Now just counting down the days until Summer is here again!
Just hanging out under the cabana
At the end of summer, I went with Jonathan's Day Care provider, Carol, and helped take the kiddos on a field trip to Chesapeake Beach Water Park. The water park was about an hour away from here and we were able to get discounted coupons from CertifiKid (like a Groupon for Family/Kid friendly activities).
We were blessed with a beautiful day and the kids had a fabulous time. We rented a cabana- which was well worth the money- since it was a great area to rest, snack, and get out of the sun for a bit. The best thing about this water park was that it was very "little" kid friendly! They had a special kids-only area, that had fun climbing areas and little slides.
splashing in the water
Cheesin' - You can see one of the kiddie slides in the background
hanging out with his friends
"king of the rock"
Another thing I liked about the water park is that they allowed me to go down the medium size slides with Jonathan- since he was a little scared. He wasn't a huge fan of the water going in his face when we went down- so he rode on my lap backwards. I think I was having a little more fun then him on these slides! :)
Overall we had an awesome time. I think we will definitely try to go more then once this summer once it gets a big warmer. How many days until summer? :)
Gosh I can't believe that it is already the start of a new year! I don't even know what happened to the end of the last year! It all just seems to go by so quickly! I started off blogging pretty good too... but then time just got away from me! I've been busy traveling, crafting, working, and chasing around two boys! We had a fabulous Christmas. We traveled up to Ohio to be with Mimi and Pop, my brothers and sisters, and the newest cousins! Of course the day we were suppose to leave both boys came down with the stomach flu! UGH! Just keeping fingers crossed that Joe and I don't get it!
We've been doing a lot in the last few years and I've been working on some crafts that I can't wait to post! So here is to the new year-- and hopefully better bloggings!!
I'm going to leave you with some pictures of the boys-- I may be a little biased, but I really do think they are the most handsome little guys ever!
A mom of two of the kids at Jonathan's and Zachary's daycare took these family pictures for us. She did a wonderful job. I just can't get enough of those blue eyes!!
I had been seeing on Pintrest for the longest time Growth Charts that mimicked rulers. A lot of them were customizable with the child's name and birth "stats" on them. I loved the idea and thought it would be awesome to have- especially with how fast Jonathan has grown up! The $60+ price tag on them, however, was not awesome!
For Christmas, Joseph gave me this amazing cutting machine! After reading some diy tutorials, I got to thinking that this growth chart got a whole lot more doable!
Unfortunately, I didn't think ahead and take pictures of the step-by-step project. The hardest part of the whole project was setting up the "ruler" in the cutting machine. After that I stained the wood, cut the vinyl, then placed it onto the wood. It was a little tricky lining it all up evenly and straight. I had never cut anything that long with the vinyl though. Every project I'm just more and more amazed of the capabilities of this machine! We ended up putting them up on the basement wall. I would have loved to put them in the boys' rooms but we couldn't with the chair rail that we have there. This wall in the basement is long and I would eventually love to put some of the professional pictures of the boys as babies up next to the rulers.
Unfortunately the light in the hallway makes it a little hard to see Jonathan's growth chart.
38+ inches and growing!
And this little guy is trying to catch up to his brother!!
Zachary turned 6 months old a little over a week ago. He is growing like a weed! At six months he is trying to crawl- but does successfully scoot to whatever he wants- remote controls, water bottles, his brother's toys. :) He is sitting by himself. He absolutely loves watching and playing with his big brother. His favorite toys are probably his brother's trains. He is a happy baby, loves being held (especially while sleeping), and is a horrible sleeper.
To "celebrate" turning six months- we decided to head to the Howard County Fair. It was the last Friday of the fair so it was packed! I took Jonathan to see the animals last year, but he was too little for the rides. This year he was a little over 36 inches so he was able to ride some of the smaller rides!
As much as I love fair food, we ate dinner before we left to save some money. Like I said earlier, the fair was packed when we first got there. Joe was awesome and went to stand in line for ride tickets. While Daddy was waiting in line, I took Jonathan and Zachary to see all the animals and to the petting zoo area.
Wearing the Hawaiian shirt was his idea. Jonathan got to "milk" a cow and "drive" a tractor on our way to see the animals. We saw all kinds of animals- cows, pigs, goats, ducks, chickens, and many more. In the kids area he got to feed a baby goat, and pet a baby duck and chicken.
Here we met up with Tomas and Nicolas. Daddy finally had our tickets, so we headed over to the ride section. The first ride the boys wanted to go on was the Swinging Ship. This was the first time Jonathan ever rode a ride by himself. Him and Nicolas rode together and held hands. Jonathan was all smiles most of the time. When he got off the ride I asked him if he had fun and he said yes. I asked him if he wanted to ride again and he said no.
Even though Jonathan was tall enough to go on a lot of the rides, I didn't quite trust him to go by himself. Some of the rides went pretty fast, and I wasn't sure what he would do if he got scared. He insisted on going on a fast "roller coaster" type ride that went around in a circle. We watched it go around a couple times pretty fast and he still wanted to go on it- so Jonathan and Daddy rode together. Joe said Jonathan was laughing the whole time.
For us to ride with Jonathan, we have to "pay" with tickets too, so I think next time we'll get Jonathan the pass to ride all the rides and a couple extra tickets if we need to ride with him. He had a blast on the rides, so now we are looking forward to going to Dutch Wonderland where there are a lot of rides his size!
Of course no fair is complete without playing a couple of game! We played the get the ball in the goldfish bowl- the gentleman working heard Jonathan say "goal" every time he threw the ball, so he gave us a coupon for a goldfish (which we decided against taking home). Then we played a game where you pick up a duck and get a prize. Jonathan won a dolphin, which he was super excited about!
Afterwards, both kids were absolutely pooped. What a perfect ending to a great week.
Howard County offers many really nice parks that are a quick drive from our house. This summer weather has been awesome for spending time outdoors. One of our favorite parks, however, is located in Montgomery County in Wheaton, Maryland. Wheaton Regional Park is a huge park where you can take a ride on the train, go horseback riding, have a picnic, go fishing, ice skate or play ball, relax and tour Brookside Gardens' grounds and conservatory, attend a nature program, or walk the many miles of shaded trails. I found the park last year- and though I can't remember exactly how I stumbled across it- it has become one of our favorite treats for Jonathan. He is always asking to go to the Choo Choo Park. We even celebrated his second birthday here!
With my mom staying the weekend with me and babysitting my nephew, I thought it would be fun to go to the park- and maybe explore the trails and the gardens the park had to offer. It was a beautiful day so it would be great for the boys (and us!) to be outside. Of course- we had to stop by the train and carousel first!
After the train and carousel we walked along the path towards Brookside Gardens. It was less than a ten minute walk. We have never been here and the first part of the gardens we happened upon was the Kid's Garden! Perfect!
This garden is great for kids of all ages! It had fun places to explore, areas to learn, and even a tree house to climb up! I know they offer many education opportunities throughout the year here. Jonathan had a blast.
On our way back to towards the car we stopped by the play area because Jonathan wanted to swing and go down the slide. The playground is separated into two areas- one for big kids and one for little kids. The big kids play area is not like any park I went to growing up- with climbing walls, climbing mounds, climbing nets, and tall twisty slides- and looks like lots of fun. The little playground is perfect for Jonathan's age with just the right size slides and climbing gyms. It also has concrete animals to climb on and a giant sandbox to play in!
We always have so much fun at this park and with so much to do we keep coming back!! :)
Gosh! I can't believe how fast the time has been going! Its been a few weeks since I posted so I have some catching up to do! With both Joe and I working during the week, we try to take advantage of our weekends and do an "adventure" a few times a month. An adventure can be anything-- a train ride at the local park or a train ride on a big steam engine up in Pennsylvania, a trip to the aquarium or museum, or even a hike. The important part of our "adventures" is it is something special that we don't get to do everyday.
A few weekends ago we were trying to decide what to do. I have been wanting to go to the National Harbor in DC and check out the Children's Museum and new Carousel there, but there are very mixed reviews on the Children's museum and it was a little drizzly out- so probably wouldn't get the best views from the carousel... so we decided to go to the National Zoo in DC (thinking that since it was a drizzly day, maybe it wouldn't be that crowded on a Saturday in the Summer... we were wrong :) heh). One of the biggest perks of the DC Zoo is it is FREE!!
We hadn't been to the Zoo this year yet, and the last time that Jonathan went, he was a little over one year old. We had a blast and it wore him out, so we were looking forward to going again.
As you can see, Jonathan was most looking forward to seeing Zebras. We debated whether or not to take the Metro in (parking at the zoo is very limited and VERY expensive) or just find street parking. Since parking is free on weekends we decided to try to find street parking. Luckily I have a husband who is very familiar with that area and we were able to find a spot only a few blocks from the Zoo. The zoo opens pretty early (6:00am!), but a lot of the animals aren't out and the buildings don't open until 10:00am, so that is about the time we arrived.
When we first got there we decided to head to the Pandas so we could see the new baby Panda. As we were making our way there we stopped by the first animal we saw. As Jonathan was pointing out all the birds (not even part of the exhibit) a bee flew into his sandal and stung him!! Poor Jonathan started crying immediately. I took his shoe off and the bee was still in there. This being his first bee sting I of course initially worried about allergies, but luckily that was not the case. His foot got real red and a little swollen so we decided to head to the First Aid area to get an ice pack and make sure the stinger wasn't still in his foot and to see if there was anything else we could do. Unfortunately the First Aid Station is at the VERY END of the park!! It seemed to take FOREVER to get there. We got there and medic lady was real nice. Cleaned his foot and made sure the stinger wasn't in there. Then she put some numbing medicine there and gave us an ice pack. As we were leaving another little girl was coming in with bee sting. By the time we finished that adventure I felt like it was time to leave!!
Just down from the First Aid Station was the Kid's Farm where they can see- and even touch- cows, donkeys, goats, alpacas, and hogs.
After the Kid Farm we headed to American Trail. This was our favorite area of the zoo from last year. We loved watching the California Sea Lions and Jonathan LOVED the little tide pool area where you can play in the water and watch the "tide" go in and out.
Even Zachary enjoyed himself a little bit! He loved splashing in the water.
Unlike last year, though, Jonathan seemed a little scared of the "tidal wave" that would come and fill the area with water (you can see last year's video here. It was much more crowded this year and lots of the kids would scream when the water came out so I think that freaked him out just a little bit.
As we were leaving we stopped to see the lions, elephants, zebras, monkeys, birds, and of course the carousel. We were a little rushed since it had taken so long to get down to the First Aid station and now it was WAAAAYY past nap time and the kiddos were reaching their limit!
By the time we got back to the car, mom, dad, and the kids were pooped from such a fun and long morning at the zoo!
You can tell how tired he is as I'm trying to keep him awake. I was unsuccessful and he fell asleep within minutes of me filming that video! ;)
