Holiday trains

The annual train show is back at Brookside Gardens in Wheaton and Will was eager to get back to see this holiday treat.  Patrick was surprised at how much the girls liked watching the trains, too.

Big brother Will showed Maggie and Stella how to watch the trains without touching them on their way by.

There's always little figurines hidden among the living plants and other landscaping.  Will thought it was pretty funny that Yoda was hiding out here near the ice-skating rink.

After a while, Stella and Maggie needed a butterfly break.

Then Will joined the party.

Haircuts for three

It was finally time for Maggie and Stella to get their first haircuts so we went all-in for the triple.  Will went first and calmly showed the girls how a brave big brother can get his hair cut without fussing or being scared.

Maggie went next and she sat and watched the TV without any real concern.  She had a pretty sour face at the beginning but she sat perfectly still and let the nice lady do her thing.

Stella watched Will and Maggie very closely and wasn't quite sure what to think.  Patrick asked her if she wanted her hair cut and without letting her eyes leave Maggie, she said "no."  But she sat in the chair by herself and didn't fuss a bit.

So afterward, we treated the kids to dinner out and ice cream.  These shots don't do the girls' haircuts justice because they are so darn cute.  Keeping the little barrettes in their hair will be the real challenge...

We love Laurie Berkner

Hooray - we saw Laurie Berkner today!

The kids love listening to and watching the Laurie Berkner Band so we jumped at the chance to see them perform today at GWU.  She played 90 minutes of holiday covers and Will's favorites.  Will was a little nonplussed by his first concert - he said it was a little scary because it was dark and loud.  But the girls, especially Maggie, LOVED her.  Maggie did everything the band did on stage, she acted out songs as the band did particular things, and once the audience started chanting things or singing, she tried her best to sing along (imagine our little Maggie belting out loud "Ho ho ho's").  Stella rocked in Patrick's lap and was pretty happy too. 

Here's our best shot of the stage from our seats (we were pretty close).  Here's a better video of the show ("Candy Cane Jane").

Independence...with Oreos

Maggie and Stella have been wanting more and more to feed themselves, and we do our best to let them do that (and then vacuum most nights).  After dinner last night, Patti treated the girls to Oreos and milk.  They'd seen Will dunk his in milk before, so they went right to work dunking their's.  

Maggie looked MAD that Will got three Oreos and she only got one.  She and Stella ended up with two each after they both dropped their's into their milk.  They were so happy when Patrick fished their cookies back out (for all they knew, they disappeared completely into the milk).

And then the tag-team cleaning began....

Harper's Ferry





Today was unseasonably warm so we wanted to spend as much time outdoors as possible.  Patrick had been hinting at Harper's Ferry for weeks because of it's close location and easy access to trains for Will.

 

Harper's Ferry is in West Virginia but it's where VA, WV and MD meet on the Potomac River.  It has a rich civil war history as well and it's only an hour or so away.  Patrick's office used to have their retreats there so he knew of the cool tracks and tunnel below.

 

We had very good luck.  After parking and walking across the river on the elevated track, a freight train whistled and howled it's way through the tunnel right in front of us.  Will's smile was priceless and, surprisingly, the girls were excited by it instead of scared.

 

About 10 minutes later, a passenger train serviced the station and made it's way across the tracks. 

 

Maggie and Stella were on their best behavior - they didn't fuss once.  The beautiful day and location probably didn't hurt either.

 

Hooray for us!  Another successful day out of the house and some good memories for the kids.

 

Happy Halloween 2012

Happy Halloween everyone!

Trick or treating tonight with the kids was pretty fantastic.  Stella and Maggie wore matching monkey costumes (one was Will's from his 1st Halloween and one was from Patrick's coworker Lara, who happened to have one identical costume in the same size (thanks!)).  Will started the night as a crabby firefighter...

But once we were outside, all was well.  We met up with the neighbors and hit the streets.  Will's good pal Sofia wanted to make sure we got a picture of her with Will (how cute)!

 Our neighbor Annette was a fun Tootsie Roll.

Once we got home, all three kids dove into their baskets.  Maggie and Stella explored slowly because they weren't really sure what they had or what had just happened outside...

Will's Birthday party

Sandy is going to bear down on us beginning tomorrow but today couldn't have been nicer for Will's 4th Birthday party.  Instead of the usual damp 40's, today was dry and in the low 60's.  As you'll guess from the pictures, it was a fire-fighter theme.  Expect this again on Halloween if we get to go trick-or-treating (if we have power, or a house, by Wednesday).

Maggie and Stella got into the action with their personalized helmets (Patti made stickers for each helmet with each guest's name - pretty cute).

Will and Aidan, one of his school buddies, enjoyed a quiet moment in the firetruck that Patti spent days making.  Thanks to Lowe's and a mommy list-serve for the two giant boxes.

Then everyone wanted a piece of the action.  Surprisingly, the truck lasted two hours before it very quickly got destroyed.

 

Patrick broke away from manning the popcorn machine to manage some tug-of-war.  The kids used a real firehouse that Pop brought with him from CT.

And then it was time for cake.  Patti outdid herself with a fire-hydrant display of red velvet cupcakes, a firetruck birthday cake, cake-pops, homemade chili, Hook and Ladder beer, etc.

Enjoy the rest of the pictures in the blog's slideshow!

Five Careys in Mosinee

We just spent a great week in Patrick's hometown.  Everything that could have gone wrong with the trip or the traveling didn't, and lots of unexpected great things happened.  The girls slept through the entire first leg of the flights home, Maggie slept through the entire Mosinee-Detroit flight, and Will and Stella slept through the entire Detroit-Baltimore flight.  No delays, no problem with the rental car (exactly like our's but a different color), great weather, lots of fun.  Part of the reason for the long trip was Patrick's 20th high school reunion (which was also an unexpected blast).

Will got to meet his cousins on the Carey side.  He was last in Wisconsin when he was two months old so he doesn't remember it, but he got to spend the weekend with Alicia and Colin and they had lots of fun.  Here's some fun on the "trikes."

We joked that this was like herding cats, but here's proud Grandma Mary Ann with her grand-kids (left to right: Colin, Stella, Maggie, Alicia and Will).

The weather was great so everyone got to spend time outdoors.  Will and Patrick visited the cemetery, they hiked along the river where he and Garrick spent most of their childhood days, and everyone got to play in a local park.

While Patrick was having lunch with one of his closest high-school buddies, Patti, Mary Ann and the kids enjoyed playing in the leaves.  Grandma's leaves changed and fell already but the leaves in Maryland are just changing so they'll be able to enjoy them in another couple of weeks.

After a fun-filled week, the kids took turns sleeping off the return flights.

Will's big boy bedroom

We decided to treat Will and turn his bedroom into "his" space as part of his birthday so we painted his room, got him lots of trucks bling, and converted his crib into a full bed. We're hoping it will help with napping, quiet time and calm-down time.

He wanted to help but that didn't last beyond these pictures and he ended up spending the rest of the weekend whining. When he saw the finished product, though, he was thrilled. So much so that we even got spontaneous thank you's and hugs.

Patrick had the honor of tucking Will in for the first time. Here's a shot of his first "good night" to Stella and Maggie from on high.

A firehouse in the afternoon

We raced home from the Bethesda/Chevy Chase firehouse, ate lunch, and then sped off to one of the Kensington firehouses for Will's friend's birthday party.  So...more firetrucks and fun for Will.

Maggie and Stella still had fun, but they were tired from the morning.

Will and his buddies had a blast, though.  They got a tour of the firehouse, a demonstration from a firefighter on how to put on all of his gear, and they got to walk through the rear of this fire engine.

To everyone's surprise, Will's fireman waterpack arrived while we were gone.  So while the girls slept in the car, Will got to field-test his waterpack (it's pretty awesome and shoots farther than you'd think).  Between the authentic outfit, boots, various helmets and waterpack, he thinks he is quite the little firefighter.  You might see more of this around Halloween...

A firehouse in the morning

We spent most of Saturday in firehouses, much to Will's delight.  Turns out that that girls really enjoyed it too!

This is fire prevention week so most of the area firehouses had open-houses or other events planned for this week.  As such, we visited the Bethesda/Chevy Chase station in Bethesda for a fun morning of ambulances, rescue vehicles, equipment trucks and more.

Maggie and Stella loved sitting in the ambulance.

Will watched every second of the extrication demonstration.  They broke all the windows, cut out the windshield, used the "jaws of life" to cut off the doors and the roof of the car, and eventually get the woman out.  Will was completely in awe and he wouldn't leave until she was out.

They had other fun things for the kids, too.  Will got to put out some fires with a real firehose.

And then he took his turn driving the ladder-truck.  He's so funny - he obsesses over trucks and firetrucks but when he gets a chance to see them, touch them, sit in them, etc. he is really scared.  He warmed up pretty quickly today but it took Patti sitting with him and the Emergency Tech in the back of the ambulance to "prime the pump," if you will.