Birthdays, Mother's Day and More

Art 4 Fun Paint Your Own Pottery

Several days later she lost her first tooth!

Maddie's First Sweet Potatoes. She's still working on getting the hang of it! :)

Hanging Out with My Girls!

Check out those thighs! Josephine had been begging for matching outfits.

SO cute.

Chris Jr. Turns Three!!

Finger painting during his party

The Cake, Thanks Chris Sr.!

Madeline's First Big Girl Bath

SO Handsome. I think Josephine took this one.

Father Daughter Girl Scouts Dance

Outside of ASL before the Dance

Josephine's Mother's Day Card, complete with this poem about me...

Mommy

Pretty Clothes

Computer

Brown Hair

Hazel Eyes

Granola Cereal

Smart

Nice

I Love You

Mommy

It blows my mind that she knows me so well!

Our Latest Adventures

Easter 2011

Bank Holiday #1: Easter and a New Play Ground

Our newest Easter tradition... Apple Pie! Yum! Since I can't eat dairy this was the best dessert I could think of for Easter dinner. Only we decided it might be even better for breakfast, it was a perfect way to fuel up for the egg hunt around the flat! I insisted that we let the kids enjoy lots of their treats. They were high on sugar for HOURS!

Holding all of HIS eggs

Lots of stickers

Dying eggs

Easter Baskets and an Egg hunt around the flat

The basket Aftermath!

Princess Diana Memorial Playground

Our new favorite park, it has security at the entrance and only families with children are allowed in. The park is complete with tree forts and secret trails in the bushes, a pirate ship, water and sand play area and there is even a cafe and carousel outside the gates. It was a perfect way to spend one of our bank holidays!

Our littlest Cowgirl

Bank Holiday Weekend #2: Royal Wedding Party, Josephine's First Sleepover, and Dover Castle!

We hosted our friends Dana and Brian and their three girls and Dana's mom and dad to watch the wedding on TV. It was a lot of fun and very exciting, even though we didn't brave the streets. Of course I have no pictures of the party. :( Bad mother!

Saturday we met Cecilia and her kids at the zoo and ended up back at our flat for dinner. Isabella decided that she would LOVE to stay the night, so Josephine finally had her first official sleep over! She was VERY excited. The girls enjoyed a late night movie complete with lemonade and popcorn, and were finally both asleep by 10pm!

Dover Castle

I have no pictures of the actual Castle, but you can see it online if you really want to. It was quite impressive! My snap shots consisted mostly of the kids antics, though they were all shockingly well behaved during the trip... maybe we're seeing a light at the end of the tunnel! :)

Playing on the 'canons'

The White Cliffs of Dover, VERY pretty

"I want the sword!"

Superdad pushing all three up the hill

They wanted me to help them explore every nook and cranny. In the tunnels I kept making loud breathing sounds and trying to convince them it was a dragon. Both were genuinely concerned for at least a little while!

The final solution to all the bickering and hitting in the car. Chris pulled over and wedged a large piece of cardboard between Josephine and Chris Jr. It worked like a charm and soon we had peace and quiet!

Euro Disney

Well, it goes without saying that our family does love Disney vacations. Here are some details...

HighLights:

- Eurostar trip to Paris, with TWO iPhones, one for each of the older kids. It was actually a rather relaxing ride.

- Our New York themed hotel complete with pretend ice skating rink named Rockefeller Center and a great pool and workout area that Mickey and Minnie also visited while we were there!

- The BBQ themed character lunch in the park

- The Mickey Mouse Wild West Dinner Show was fantastic, complete with real horses and buffalo

- The half day tour of Paris for Cynthia, Danny, Chris Sr. and Josephine

- Miss Maddie's incredible ability to be happy, sleep and/or smile in her stroller no matter time of day

- Ordering Beers, chips, nuts and cake from room service! Yum!

- The view out of our rooms and Cyn enjoying watching the 'ice skaters' whipping out

- The weather, simply could not have been better... 65+ and sunny every day.

- Danny calling the front desk for anything he could possibly need more of... towels (he asked for 3 more), pillows (he asked for 4 more), a blanket. It was quite comical.

LowLights:

- the transfer to subway to complete our journey there. Because of the limited time of day for the direct train we transferred in Paris, and this was quite a journey with all of our luggage and children

- Overpriced food, even more expensive than London, which is hard to believe is even possible.

- Our room needed some TLC when we arrived, tub was clogged, phone was broken and AC didn't cool enough. All was remedied quickly.

- Wishing more of our extended family was there to enjoy the trip with us... next year Grammy and Grampa Boutwell are planning to make the trip :))

Enjoy the Pictures:

Exhausted after the long journey there we enjoyed lunch a Planet Hollywood.

Wild West Dinner Show

Half Day Trip to Paris

Thurmbs Up! from Chris Jr. as Danny Rode the bull

BBQ Character Lunch in the Park

Trying for a decent family pic with all three kids

Watching the Parade

Endlessly Asking for a Sword. We compromised and bought him two guns instead!

Trainer? Diet? Carbs? Ughhh...

Well, as you might be able to tell by the title, it's time to get serious about losing the baby weight. My friend Jen and I split 7 dual sessions with this crazy trainer, also named Chris, and we met with him on Tuesday. Funny, when he measured our body fat mine was 23% and Jen's was 20% and we were both pretty excited. I mean low twenties is usually thought to be pretty good for a woman, meanwhile the adonis that is our trainer had this look on his face that said "oh man, look at these fatties I have to work with!" Ha! It was really funny. He's given us a very strict diet in addition to a few other suggestions. Jen had poached chicken and leeks for breakfast this morning, I had a bagel with peanut butter and half a bowl of granola. Hmmm... I wonder which of us will be more successful!? lol

The kids are great, Josephine is preparing for her upcoming role in her K2 play, Goldilocks. She has "the lead in the play." And is VERY excited about all the preparations. Little does she know that her grandmother and cousin Danny will be surprising her that week for her birthday. We will all be going to Euro Disney in Paris for a long weekend. Should be a lot of fun.

Chris Jr. is back in school, but has moved to three days a week so that he can nap the other days. He's seeming a little more rested, though he's got another cold so it's hard to tell. Maddie is also a bit under the weather. She had her second set of shots on Tuesday and I think her legs are a little sore. Also, she's definitely working on some teeth and seems to be quite bothered by them. She was so upset last night she slept with me all night. I loved every second of it!! :) It's nice to be able to relish all of these small moments with our last baby.

Chris Sr. had a great trip to Asia for work, although he ate a lot of unusual items and drank so many Chinese toasts at one lunch that he was quite sick for the rest of the afternoon. His jet lag seems to be gone and he's back to running to work as usual. He still hasn't missed a day since we moved here! Very impressive!

More Weekly Pics:

Heading to the Zoo with Grammy and Grampa

Posing at the Zoo

Napping after Chris Sr's return from China