Merry Christmas

Before

And.....

 After

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Trains

While Grandma and Papa Kraczek were her for a visit Evan and I took them to the U.S. botanical gardens to see their Christmas Garden Railway. It is a really fun exhibit featuring model trains and incredible replicas of Washington, DC's most famous buildings and monuments all built out of plant materials. Once you take a close look you see walls made from leaves and sticks and roof shingles made from pine cone pieces. The pictures don't really do it justice.

 They have several trains running along different tracks including a Thomas and Percy train running around the little fairy houses built out of plant materials. There was also a James train running around the 24' decorated Christmas tree. in the main hall.

Evan couldn't get enough of the trains. He would run back and forth from Thomas to Percy laughing and saying "Hi Thomas! Hi Percy"

 We had such a fun time that we went back a week later with Daddy to show him the trains too. 

Happy Thanksgiving

I was afraid that the apple pie wouldn't make it till after dinner so I had the holiday penguins keep watch for me. The one with the hat in particular has an especially menacing stare.  Happy Holidays.

Leaves and Sticks

One of the best things about living in Virginia is that we get all four seasons and that it doesn't get really cold till December. A few days in November it was up in the 70's. Evan has really enjoyed crunching through the leaves and playing with the sticks that fall from all the trees in the yard.

We had to play in the front yard because Daddy had already raked up all the leaves in the back yard. Soon after this picture was taken the leaves were gone in the front yard as well. "bye, bye leaves"

Punkins and Halloween

Last year Evan was a shark for Halloween and though he didn't really understand what was going on We thought thought he was very cute.  This year he is more aware and is having so much fun discovering all things fall. Grandma Heather sent us some fun Halloween books that we can't get enough of, we read them over and over again until mommy and daddy get too tired and have to hide them for a while so we can get a break. We love to crunch, crunch through the leaves at the park, and we love pumpkins.

We took him to a small pumpkin patch and let him pick out his own pumpkin. We had a lot of fun looking at and touching every 'punkin' there to find just the right one.

This year he dressed up as a train for Halloween. He loves to put on his costume and choo, choo around the house. He wore his costume to a friend's party and all the kids followed him around saying "train! train!" it weirded him out a little bit and we had to take his costume off after a while. On Halloween night Paul took him out trick-or-treating to a few of our friends in the neighborhood. He had so much fun and thought the idea of people giving him candy when he held out his bucket was awesome!

A little tie just like daddy's

I have looked everywhere for cute ties for little boys and just can't find them. I have been to every store and I have gone to the end of the internet and back. When I do come across something decent it is ridiculously expensive. Evan loves wearing ties to church just like daddy. I'll tell him that we need to get ready for church and he will run into his room and bring me out his tie. When we put it on he'll hold still until I'm done then he'll run over to Paul and puff out his chest and say "tie!, tie!, tie!" till Paul says something like "oh wow what a nice tie buddy". We bought him a white shirt and tie combo for Easter in spring colors but he has since out grown them and the colors don't work for fall so the tie hunt began. I finally asked a friend of mine where she got her son's ties because he always has on the cutest ties and one for every season and holiday. She told me that her mother-in-law made them. I had never thought of making ties for Evan before because it seemed like it would be a lot of work. After some searching, however I found this great tie tutorial and pattern. They are so easy to make and they whip up so fast, I think I can make tie from start to finish in about 2 hours.

Down on the farm

Not far from here is a fun little farm that lets the public come and roam around free. Evan and I have gone a few times this summer to see the animals. In the spring we saw baby chickens and baby sheep and goats. This time we got to see baby cows and baby pigs too.

 We have a great time and Evan loves to see all the different animals and make all the different farm animal noises.

By the picnic area they have small tractors for the kids to play on. Evan loves them and it is hard for me to get him off when it is time to go.

"bye, bye truck" he'll say as we leave.

Friends

Evan and I have had a lot of fun this summer going to parks on Fridays with my friend Krystal and her boy and girl twins. Our kids are about the same age and they have a lot of fun together. Evan gets so excited when he sees them and even knows Jakob's name even though he plays more with Joslyn. Jakob is just easier to say I guess.

           We love the swings and as for slides the bigger the better.

I was lucky enough to get my camera out just in time to take this picture of Evan holding hands with Joslyn. 20 seconds later and I would have missed it. They are so cute together.

Earthquakes and Hurricanes

It has been a very interesting month here in Virginia weather wise. On August 23, 2011, at 1:51 pm I woke up to my bed shaking and the doors rattling. It was so weird I didn't think Virginia had earthquakes, but not only was it an earthquake it was a fairly decent size one at a magnitude of 5.8. Had it lasted any longer it could have done some serious damage. We only had a few pictures go crooked, but some of the older buildings in our area didn't fair so well.

the Washington monument has a huge crack in it and is closed indefinitely.  These 100+ year old structures just aren't built to stand up to earthquakes. 
Just as we were recovering from our earthquake less than a week later Hurricane Irene struck with flooding, power outages and fallen trees everywhere. Once again we were left unscathed with just a few fallen branches to clean up, but we cant help wondering whats next?

A little off the top

I hold many titles around here and one of the stranger ones is company barber.

Both my boys needed haircuts this weekend, so I got out my trusty kit and went to work. Evan was very good and sat still the whole time, but he didn't like it when hair got in his mouth.
He has needed regular haircuts since he was 3months old to keep him from looking like a girl and my husband doesn't think that a bald man should have to pay for a haircut so I am what they get. I do an okay job and if there are any complaints I just remind them that you get what you pay for.

Dinosaur, Rarrr!!

Evan is just getting old enough where it is fun to take him places because he actually gets interested in seeing new and fun things. This weekend we took him to the Natural History Museum at the Smithsonian to see the dinosaurs.  He was very excited to see the dinosaurs, and would point to the dinosaurs and say 'dinosaur, Rarrr!' He roared at all the dinosaurs and tried to climb into the exhibits.

 We went around and saw a bit of everything except the butterfly exhibit because you had to pay to get in. Evan also really liked the mammals exhibit with bears and tigers and our favorite a hippo!

Beating the Heat

It has been unusually hot in Virginia this summer with at least 5 days in July reaching over 102 degrees. That isn't even counting the humidity. For some cool summer fun my friend and I took our kids to Lyon Village Spray Park. There are a few spray parks dotted around the area. This park has many sprays that go upward from the colorful concrete floor. There is a bucket that pours water from above and a spinning flower that spritzes water. The best part is that they are free. Our kids had a great time and we were happy to join in on the fun too since the temperature was about 104 that day.

 This will most likely become one of our favorite summer haunts.

18months and counting

Evan had an appointment with his pediatrician today for his 18 month check up. He is doing great, they took all his measurements and my long and lean boy is in the 88% for height with 33.75 inches and 50% for weigh with 25lbs 13oz.  The doctor said that his speech is fairly advanced with all the words he can say and how clear they are which is fun to hear. I was told not to worry that he only eats fruit, cheese, and bread and to just keep trying new things. It is so fun for me to take him to these check ups to see how much he has grown and developed, he is no longer my baby.  It is not fun for him however, because he is scared of the doctor and nurses and at the end he has to get shots. The shots are more scary than painful but I have to make sure to bring his blankie to help calm him down. He spent most of the visit with his blanket over his head, every time someone would come into the room he would throw his blanket over his head to block them out. the doctor thought it was hilarious. After we were done I took him to to get a cranberry bagel from Einstein's, which are his favorite, to make it up to him.

Back at the Bay

We had so much fun the last time we went to the Chesapeake Bay that we had to go back.  On this trip we took our friends the Workmans along for the fun. It is nice to have friends that have kids the same age as Evan.

The last time we went I had a hard time keeping Evan hydrated because he refuses to drink water unless it has ice in it, warm water is out of the question. It is impossible to keep his water cold on a 90 degree day at the beach so I cut up a whole watermelon for the kids to eat. It was a big hit with kids and adults alike.

                                                      He  is my little watermelon boy.

At the Chesapeake bay

For the 4th of July weekend we went to the Chesapeake bay for the day.  The Sandy Point State Park on the Chesapeake bay has some man made beaches for swimming, fishing and crabbing.  We had never been before but wanted to try it out. The best part is it's only about an hour from our house. Evan enjoyed playing with his beach toys and pouring water all over himself.

 The waves aren't very big here which is good for little beach goers. When I took Evan and his Grandma Heather to the Beach in Ocean City Maryland a few weeks ago he hated the water and didn't want to get near it because the waves were big and loud and just too scary for him.

 We stayed all day, and when we were tired of swimming we dried off and Daddy cooked us dinner in one of the BBQ pits they have there while Evan ran around like a madman and mommy took in the views of the lighthouse and the bay bridge. It was a wonderful day and we can't wait to do it again.

Thank you and other fun words

Evan is 17 months now and learning lots of new words. He learns a new word almost every other day it seems. One of our favorite words these days it "Thank you". (I know it is really two words but he says it as one word) I'd like to take credit for it and say it was because of our good parenting that he is learning such polite words and behaviors but the truth is he did it all on his own. We play the thank you game a lot, Evan will hand us something usually a toy and we say 'thank you' and then he wants us to hand it back to him so he can say 'tanko'.   It is so fun to watch him learn to communicate, he gets so proud of him self when he knows that he has used the right word for things. 'Tanko' is one of my favorites though, especially when it is used instead of whining. If I am holding something he wants like grapes, he will start saying or yelling thank you until I give it to him it is very cute. I just hope it isn't a phase.