Birthoween

I declare copyright on that title, no one else can use it.

Halloween began with a trunk or treat at the church. It was a hectic day after two soccer games and two award parties, but we made it. Brother B and Loofa were skeletons. We bought the face paint last minute, but it really made the costume. J is quite the artist. Loofa didn't want any on his face though. Ephant wanted to be a pigmy, but her costume didn't come together quite as well as we hoped. Fefe was a princess at trunk or treat, but when we went trick or treating the next night we put her in the Tigger costume. Ordinarily she loves being a princess, but for some reason she didn't care for this dress and she LOVED the Tigger costume. In fact she kept wearing it over and over for the next several days. Money well spent.

A bit blurry, but this is the only picture I have of them all together.

The master at work.

The whiskers really make the costume.

He's really working it.

The loot for his birthday.

Brother B told me a few days before his birthday he wasn't as excited as he used to be in years past. It was pretty cute that he recognized that. It didn't stop him from noticing each and every toy advertisement on television. He gave me quite the detailed list to pick from. To be honest, I was grateful. There is nothing I hate worse than trying to figure out the perfect present. I think we were mostly successful. He's played the most with his nerf swords and he wears his robe around before bed every night and in the morning when he gets up. I really should have taken a pic of him in it. It is truly masterpiece theater quality.

I'm starting to notice a trend with how much monkey bread I'm making for birthdays.

We sure love our Brother B. He's such a sweet, polite boy and we couldn't ask for a better kid. Now if I could just get him to eat his fruits and veggies.

Goooaal!!!!!!!!!!!!

We had a great soccer season this fall. It was Brother B's third year and Loofa's first year. Both of them were amazing and essential to their teams (as we found out after they missed two games due to our vacation). Brother B was very good at focusing his attention and going after the ball. Loofa was very aggressive, whereas most of the other kids on his team seemed too intimidated to really get up close. I think the soccer camps I had him take the last couple of summers really helped. Most of all, they both had fun.

I took this video with my iphone so not the best quality. That is him making the goal at the end. I tried to take the audio out of this one, but if I messed up and it comes through I apologize for my yelling. It was very exciting.

Again, not the best quality. Brother B's soccer award this year was a giant cookie. Nice.

Share the Love in Philly

We met my sister, Marv, at the Fairfield Inn by the airport. They didn't have a hot tub, but the pool was almost as warm. They had hot cocoa too! The kids enjoyed having their cousins around again.

The next day was Sunday, but we decided to spent it worshiping our founding fathers at Independence Hall.

Killing time playing the DS and hugging sisters.

A random cute baby boy who happens to be my nephew.

The Liberty Bell. Felt like a line at Disneyland trying to get a pic.

Marv left with her family after a late lunch. (I had to eat a salad, I couldn't stand one more burger at this point.) We were sad to say goodbye to everyone.

Too much girlie love.

We started walking up to the Poe house after goodbye. Halfway there we turned around to get our car. It wasn't that crowded for parking and the walk there was a little ghettoish. We didn't end up making it there afterall, we got sidetracked into the Benjamin Franklin museum. Fefe had a nice nap in her stroller (as she did most days).

One of the exhibits at the Franklin House let you dial a historical figure to hear what they had to say about Benjamin Franklin. The kids were entranced by the rotary dials some of them had.

After days and days of fast food, we decided enough was enough and went to Denny's for dinner. Food had never tasted so good. I love Denny's. The kids appreciated it too.

A bowl of blood (aka raspberry syrup)

Our flight the next day wasn't supposed to leave until 6pm so we had some time to kill. We found the Franklin Institute. It looked fun and with my Happy Hollow membership we had reciprocity and we got in free. The kids had put up with a lot of history and museums so they deserved a little fun.

This machine measured how much blood was in your body by weight.

Ephant has really enjoyed how many references she's seen about the Franklin Institute, including the 39 Clues. We are really hoping that the kids will enjoy history so much more for being able to picture the locations and have a personal connection to it.

Dropping off our rental car went really smooth. So smooth in fact that we had 2 1/2 hours to sit in the airport and wait. J and I were exhausted, but we found a play place to entertain the kids while we sat and vegged. That flight was on time, but our connecting flight in Denver was almost an hour late. Fefe slept most of the flight. Ephant slept a bit. Brother B didn't sleep great, but he put up with it. Loofa was so distraught towards the end because he was so tired and couldn't sleep. He was just sobbing. I felt so bad for him. Our flight got in about midnight and we got home around 1am.

We were very happy to get home safe and sound with everything intact (and no dead cats).

New York, New York

I've had this desire to see New York for years. I've seen almost every other place in this country, but never the northeast. I just wanted to be able to picture what the place was like.

Our hotel was in Jersey City conveniently located right next to PATH train to NY. We were starving so we walked over to the mall for dinner, also conveniently located next to the hotel. We had our one and only celebrity siting there. After dinner, J noticed a man getting a lot of attention and recognized him as a Joe Jackson.

After dinner we took the kids into the pool/hot tub at the hotel. I wish we had remembered Loofa's arm floaties. Fefe had to learn she wasn't invincible. In the past she has pretty much always had some kind of flotation device. While we were sitting in the hottub, she insisted on jumping and running around without me holding her. I decided there was only one way for her to learn so I just let her go for it. She predictably jumped in and I fished her out. She seemed a little wiser after that. I need to get her into swimming lessons.

We woke up early so we would have sufficient time to navigate the subway system. We had 11am tickets for the statue of liberty. They only allow 240 people up to the crown each day. I had bought our tickets several months in advance. It was fun feeling like we had all access passes. We were able to pass everyone in the will call line. Of course there was the old security screening process. J stayed down on the pedestal with Loofa and Fefe because they were too small to climb to the crown. Those stairs were intense. It was a spiral staircase that just went up and up.

Inside the crown.

A very windy pedestal.

That's a big foot.

The things kids come up with.

We jumped back on the ferry right when we got down and ate our lunch there. Our next stop was the Museum of National History. One of my favorite book series, starting with Relic is mostly based in that museum. The kids were intrigued by the Night at the Museum aspect. We got in pretty cheaply. They had a suggested price, but apparently you could make your own offer. I told them I'd pay $10/adult and $4/kid, meaning $36. I thought that was a steal compared to the $70 they suggested. Later I realized she misunderstood me and charged us $14 total. Nice!

We didn't get a whole ton of pics inside because the lighting was atrocious.

The fabled jackelope. Oh wait, maybe not.

Watch out for the horns.

Never thought I'd get a chance to see the Star of India. Beautiful.

Dum dum.

The kids were tired and hungry by the time we finished the museum. We had one more stop before dinner, Times Square! That was hilarious. We arrived after some slight troubles figuring out which direction was north. All those tall buildings make it impossible to see the sun. When we got there I thought we were facing the famous ball drop billboard, but realized after taking our first picture that it was the wrong one. Oops. So we turned around and took another. By that point, the kids grumpiness was on overdrive.

Our final stop for the night was Gray's Papaya, another dream of mine. When I was pregnant with Fefe and feeling so morning sick I was watching a show on Food Network about the 10 most famous hot dog places in the country. It actually looked appetizing to me so it made a big impression, particularly Gray's Papaya.

While we were waiting for our food, a homeless guy came in and started begging for money. The staff behind the counter started yelling at him to leave. He came over to us and asked us. I told him no, but he wouldn't leave. He moved over to J and started on him. Then he started giving the kids fist bumps. When he got to Ephant he grabbed her hand and started to stroking. At that point I yelled at him and told him to stop and leave. He was completely unintelligible and wouldn't budge. The staff finally dragged him out. Ephant was somewhat freaked out. Boy was the food good though. They had a mango drink that was even better than the mango lassis I've had before. On our way back to the subway we saw an authentic New York protest march against the police, escorted by the police. Ironic, huh? NYPD, KKK!

Our second night in the hotel was fabulous. I stayed up late to read. Big mistake. We forgot to put a pullup on Fefe and when I climbed into bed it was sopping. We stripped everything off and managed to get comfortable. Fefe decided to wake up sobbing every hour or so after that. I stayed up till 3:30am to wash her blankie since she peed on that too. I was hoping when it was done she would calm down, but no such luck. I wish we had had ibuprofen.

We had no set schedule the next morning so we could sleep in a little. Our first destination was pizza. I had gotten a recommendation for a place in the Bronx. We took a subway from Grand Central to ride up to the Bronx. It turned into the ride from (*&%. J tried to convince me to turn around after 1 hour, but I was determined to eat at this pizza place. When we got there there was no place to sit. We were exhausted and decided to go all the way back to New York to find a place we could sit down and eat. So, what started at 11:30am ended at 3:30pm in a very subpar pizza place.

On our way back to the subway we walked by the empire state building. I had considered going up, but decided nay after seeing how much it cost just to go up. Ridiculous. I had had my fill of expenses at that point.

We took our final subway ride back to New Jersey and got into our car to drive down to Philadelphia. It cost $4 just to drive over one bridge. Bleh. The cost alone was making me homesick, but we still had a couple more days to spend in Philly.

A Sidetrip Through Pennsylvania

Thursday morning we headed up to New York City. On the way, J wanted to see the place his family lived for a year in Pennsylvania. It wasn't exactly on the way, but close enough for it not to be a big deal. Driving there did turn out to be a bit of an expensive proposition with all the tolls we had to pay. Talk about nickel and diming. There was no where to eat along the way either. I've never seen such a dearth of fast food restaurants. We stopped one place to get gas and just bought the kids some drinks and pretzels. The lady at the checkout was wondering how we could afford to have 4 kids. I understand how she feels with how much everything cost out there.

We managed to find our destination easily (thanks again to my iphone). J's dad went to Lehigh University for a year so the whole family came with and lived in the student family housing (all 8 of them). And you thought your housing situation was bad! Can you believe the name of the road?

J took the kids for a tromp through the woods while I took Fefe to find a bathroom. He really enjoyed his trip through memory lane.

Pennsylvania was gorgeous, particularly between Bethlehem and New York. Very green, rolling hills. I love how green it is out here, but it would be nice to have more deciduous trees.

Washington DC

We spent Monday- Wednesday exploring DC and surrounding environs. At first we were just going to ride the subway down, but I couldn't stand the idea of not having our car. It's freedom after all.

I had tickets for us to take a tour of the Capitol building at 11am. Even though Silver Spring is only 10 miles from DC it took us almost an hour to drive down there. Finding parking was a little difficult too, especially since we didn't know the area. Thank heavens for my iphone. It saved us with it's map/gps feature so many times. It took us about 20 minutes to walk to the capitol. I was a little stressed that we would be late. We did miss our tour time, but they just stuck us with the next tour group so it worked out. I'll have to say I got so tired of all the security stations we had to go through on our trip. I understand why they have it, but it sure made me wish for the good old days. The kids were so grumpy during the tour, especially Fefe and Loofa. We figured out why when they perked up after eating lunch :)

In the Rotunda

Brother B's name sake.

They weren't actually grumpy in this picture, we just told them to make funny faces. Well, maybe Fefe was.

This was a fun water fountain right behind the Capitol

The air and space museum was next on the docket after the Capitol. We went through it pretty quickly (after spending our life savings at the McDonald's there).

We walked down to the American History museum next. It was pretty cool and we probably could have spent alot more time there. I particularly enjoyed the section on Abraham Lincoln. I wish we had had time to visit the Ford theater. I loved the display of the flag they had there too, but they didn't allow any pictures even without flash. Stupid museums.

We had about 10 minutes to spend in the Art Gallery. They were so rude too when it was closing time. They practically treated us like terrorists trying to make sure we got out of there on the dot. I wish we could have spent more time there.

We did get a picture of one Jacob's favorite Vermeer.

J told us about squirrels being called Juicys. There were certainly plenty of them. We enjoyed yelling out Juicy each time we saw one. This one park we walked through was just teeming with them.

Our second day we had tickets to the Washington Monument. I was excited since it was a place we had missed when I had been to DC as a kid.

The day started out pretty cloudy and cool, but it didn't rain and the sun came out eventually.

The kids really enjoyed having their cousins with us this day. The reflecting pond was one of their favorite spots.

Another little girl there decided she wanted to be Fefe's friend and kept trying to hold her hand. Fefe didn't care much for it, but Ephant decided she was cute.

I sure do love Abraham Lincoln. What a great man. All you people that keep trying denigrate and tarnish him, knock it off!

Peace, Obama.

JFK's tomb. Big deal. Really don't understand the fascination.

Arlington National Cemetery was our last stop of the day. Uncle D had to leave part way through so cousin A stayed with us. J took Fefe down too before he could come up to Robert E Lee's house. I was surprised how much the kids enjoyed walking through the home. All the furniture was gone though because they were refurbishing. That house sure has an amazing view of DC. Can't imagine what that property value would be.

On our way to the tomb of the unknown soldier we saw a horse drawn wagon taking a coffin up for burial. Sure was sad, but it was nice to see the decorum with which it was treated. We kept seeing all these grave markers with stones piled on them. Our initial theory was that it showed how many people had visited. I was close, it was a Jewish symbol of respect that people would put up each time they visited.

Wednesday was dedicated to Mount Vernon. It was about an hour drive away. It was the only rainy day we dealt with, but it was pretty minor. We were lucky to get in line for the house tour right before a ginormous school group. The first room in Mount Vernon was truly amazing. J was eying all the plaster molding wondering how he could do something like that in our house. Loofa knew George Washington as the President with fluffy hair since he had a made a picture of him before with cotton balls for hair. So George Washington had fluffy hair and Abraham Lincoln had a tall hat. My iphone fell out of my pocket in the theater. Thankfully someone turned it in AND I noticed it was missing before we got back home.

Back to the East

On Friday, October 15th, 2010 we woke up at the early hour of 3:30am to begin our adventure. Our flight to Baltimore left at 6am. Best flight I've been on in a long time and that was simply because I had no babies! It was a long one, but the kids did great. Fefe kept saying "3-2-1 blast off!" while waiting to take off. All the adults on the plane loved her. I kept hearing, oh, she reminds me of my daughter or my granddaughter. It was a great adventure for the kids since they'd either never flown before or were too young to remember it.

We arrived into Baltimore at 4:30pm. It took me awhile to pick up the rental car. While I was gone J had a standing on one leg contest with the kids and Brigham beat him. J kept complaining how sore he was the next couple days.

Our rental car was atrocious. It certainly cemented why I will never own a Caravan. When we got back J told me to go easy on the accelator or I'd peel out of there. Even with that in mind I still took off too fast. Gotta love Odyssey's and their engines. The Caravan did get us from here to there even if it did cost a pretty penny.

We finally arrived at Aunt Marv's at about 6:30. Her kids came dashing out the door and were so excited. Out of all our cousins, her's are the closest in age to ours so it is always fun to spend time with them.

We decided to take Saturday easy to recover from all the traveling. Uncle D took us to a park, but the play structures were all closed off for renovation. It was still fun to walk around, at least the kids enjoyed it. They probably would have been happy anywhere we took them.

These were growing on trees in the park. Weird.

All the cousins (-1)

I found a farm about an hours drive away that had cider doughnuts so we drove down there in the afternoon. The doughnuts were disappointing, but I did find some peach butter and apple butter jam there. It looked like a pretty good little farm store.

When we got back we had some delicious French dip that aunt Marv had made and relaxed the rest of the time.

Sunday was another relaxing day. Must have been so relaxing because I can't even remember what we did besides go to church. Fefe was worrying me a little because she was having a somewhat croupy cough. Luckily it never turned into anything.