Late May in review

So while the home selling/buying process has consumed us this month, here's some of what else we've been up to.

The girls got their first helmets.  They love them but don't know they're for their surprise tricycles that they'll see for the first time at the new house.

Patrick traveled to Pittsburgh for two days for work.  He represented Peace Corps at a conference and also managed to take in a Cubs/Pirates game.

All three kids got a cold and fever - one kid after the other.  Maggie was feeling pretty miserable and good sister Stella lent a helping hand.  Literally holding Maggie's teether for her.

Patrick took the kids to the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History.  While he wouldn't advise taking three kids there alone, Will was such an amazing big brother to his sisters.  He held Maggie's hand the whole time so Patrick could hold Stella's hand.  All three kids listened and behaved like angels.

Maggie liked the brine shrimp.  Will LOVED the dinosaur bones.  Stella liked the whale and giraffe.

Another Smithsonian museum down, many more to go...

Early May in review

Believe it or not, selling our home was easy.  Too easy.  Finding our dream home after that was the hard part.  The market here is so competitive that we had to do pre-offer inspections so that we could waive the inspection in our offer to be competitive.  We didn't pull the trigger on making one offer (a good decision), we lost an offer on a great home (a bummer at the time), and we made a fair and accepted offer on a third home (our dream home).  So on June 28th, this will be our new home.

The new place is twice the size of our current home, but it's still a bittersweet feeling knowing that we'll be leaving our wonderful neighbors at the end of June.  So we closed on the sale of our current home on Patrick's birthday (with a nice birthday check from the buyer).

Pop and Mimi were in town for the birthday/closing/Mother's Day weekend so we all ventured down to Union Station to watch the trains come into the station.

Will's short soccer practice season came to an end.  He probably didn't gain much in terms of soccer skills, but he had a blast running around with some of his school friends. Here's some fun video from his last practice.

Stella and Maggie are becoming closer and closer each day.  Here they are at the mall's play area.

And here's Stella rocking some cool shades.

Truck Touch 2013

Saturday the 4th was Truck Touch at Will's nursery school.  The girls were so excited to get into everything and, for the first time, Will was eager to get into everything on his own.

Day Out With Thomas 2013

We took part of a day off of worrying about selling/buying a home to celebrate with Thomas the Tank Engine at the B&O Train Museum in Baltimore.  

What a difference a year makes!  Last year was still so stressful with three kids that it didn't seem like fun to us parents, but today all three kids were totally in to it.  They waved at Thomas as we boarded, we got into the mythical first coach behind Thomas for the first time in three years, all the kids loved the short train ride, and everyone got to play and be themselves.  Maggie and Stella got their first very-own Thomas trains that they don't have to share with Will - Charlie and Stafford.  All three kids even got temporary train tattoos (Maggie got their favorite girl train - Rosie - and Will got Salty)!

Will is getting a little hit or miss with Thomas now that he's four and a half, but Maggie and Stella seem to love playing with Will's trains and tracks.

Thank goodness other parents with one kid take pity on us and volunteer to take our picture...

The Carey kids took up three-quarters of the kiddie train.  Click here to watch them in action.

The B&O Museum is so very cool, and this event is fun to see now through the girls' eyes. We'll be back again next year!