more portraits

While I was online getting our Kiddie Kandids portraits, I saw these and realized that I never posted these on our blog.  We got these pictures taken when we were in Utah in April.  There are two more to add to this group now.  Xander has changed so much.  It is always hard to get good pictures of a group of kids.  This was no exception.  Andria's girls were pros, but Xander didn't have a clue what was going on.  He kept trying to get up and walk away.  Or he wouldn't smile, or smile at me off to the side.  Silly boy!

videos

Xander decided he wanted to read this little book to Lil.  And no, it is not winter-time. Xander found a box of winter clothes and wore all of his winter hats all day long!

Soapbox Derby

Today was the Redbull Soapbox Derby in Manayunk.  It was also the day of leftover Hurricane Hanna in Manayunk.  It was pouring rain, and it was so crowded with umbrellas; you had to watch that your eyes didn't get poked out by any of them.  We didn't bring an umbrella; we just got soaking wet instead.  It was fun to watch the cars zoom down the hill, but it had to be scary being the contestants riding down the wet, slippery, "steepest 11% inclined road in history".  The only really bad injury we saw wasn't even one of the contestants.... It was a drunken man who fell off a big, slippery  boulder.  He slid on the side of his face all the way down, then landed on the front of his face.  It looked like he ripped half of his face off!  Yuck!  Speaking of drunken men, there were so many people carrying their cases of beer down the road.  It looked like a lot of work to me.

After watching about 3 cars go down the hill, we had to push our way thru the crowd to go home.  Brian & I could've stayed longer, but this wasn't the best activity for Xander.  We forgot about his super-sensitive ears, and he cried everytime the rowdy crowd cheered.  Brian had to hold him, or hold his hand (as seen below... and no, he is not possessed, just tired and scared).

Here are some of our favorite cars:

Rocky

Philly Cheesesteak

dogs and fire hydrant

"Married with Children" (Al Bundy's couch)

Ghostbusters

...and others included the Scooby Doo gang with a hippy bus, Mario and Luigi with a Nintendo car, an Amish buggy pulled by a red bull, eagles fans, phillies fans, a woman giving birth (in which the rider looked like he was being born), and many more.

Babysitting Group

We started babysitting group up again on Friday.  We combined with another small group, so we now have 5 families in our group.  That means we only have to babysit one Friday for every 4 date nights.  Woohoo!  It also means when we babysit, we really babysit!  NINE kids including Lil.  This week, we threw in Julien for good luck, rounding the number out to TEN kids.  I was a little nervous at first, but it turned out fine.  This picture was about as tame as it got all night.  It was also the only time they were all in one place, except for when they all crammed on our little porch to play in the even smaller sandbox.

the many faces of Lil

Last Day of Summer in Atlantic City

Before the boys started school, we wanted to have one last day at the beach.  We went with a bunch of our friends (the Sperry's, Lizzette and Eddie and Julien, the Farnsworth's, the Blandon's) and even met up with some others that happened to be there too.  It was Lil's first time at the beach.  She didn't go in the water or the sand though... overprotective mother.  

It was the day before the air show, so the planes were practicing.  It was cool to see their formations and tricks, but it was VERY loud the whole time we were there.  It was hard to have a conversation over all the noise.  Xander's super-sonic hearing didn't like it too much either, and he kept running up to me and saying, "I'm scared!"

Xander had fun with his new-found friends, Blake and Julien (who he commonly refers to as Blincoln or Blulien, etc... he gets all of his many friends names confused sometimes...  he has too many friends for one little boy to keep it all straight!)  They un-buried Blake's dad.  And built sandcastles with Brett.

We went to a little pizza place for dinner in Atlantic City before heading home.  After dinner, we changed diapers and nursed in the park before heading home.  Here is my little tree-hugger.

Xander and the Case of the Stolen "Cupcake"

While Grandma was here, we took her to one of our favorite ice cream places, Zwahlen's.  It is owned by a family from Utah.  They have delicious ice cream sundaes, candy of all sorts, and a wide array of candy apples.  

I was chatting with some friends while standing in line to order a sundae.  Brian, Grandma and Xander were at our table.  Then Grandma came up to the counter with Xander be-boppin behind her.  She wanted to get a souvenir, and was oblivious of her stalker.  Brian, meanwhile thought that Xander was going with Grandma, and I thought the Grandma brought Xander with her.   Next thing I know, I hear a little voice walking around the store, "Mommy!  Mommy!".  I find the voice, and see my son walking around the store with this in his hands:

 So I start looking for Grandma or Brian to find out which one of them bought this $8 apple for him.  They are nowhere to be found.  Then the lady behind the counter tells me he got it from the display case.  I'm looking for the door on the front of the case to be open, and I can't find one; then I realize he went behind the counters and opened the diplay case doors and took the apple out.  

So I ordered my sundae, an $8 candy apple, and however many more he touched in the process (which was none, thank heavens)!  I was mortified!!!!  

Not one of my finer moments as a mother.... it's right up there with the time he sneezed on a guy at Chubby's!

PS- he thought it was a giant cupcake... not an apple.

Grandma in NYC

Saturday of Grandma's trip was spent in NYC.  It was her first time to the Big Apple.  Brian, Grandma, Xander, and the Sperry's took the ferry from Staten Island to Manhattan, and spent the day there.  (I stayed home with the baby, seeing as I wasn't up for that much walking yet.)

They went to the Manhattan Temple.  It was closed but they were able to get some pictures.

They went to Times Square.

Then they took the Ferry back to Staten Island.  Good thing Xander had his "monkey ears" and "Jonah and the Whale" on the "yittle computer" to keep him busy.

Grandma in Philly

Brian's mom came to town to see her new little grand-baby.  We had a fun-filled 4 days.  First, we went to the Philadelphia Zoo.  It was so fun.  Xander loved the reptile house.  We could've spent all day in there.  Other than that, he was pretty much just interested in the water fountains.  It was my first day out walking around a lot, so we didn't stay very long, due to my aching guts.

The next day, we went to see the Liberty Bell.  Then we went to the King of Prussia mall so Grandma could spoil us all rotten.

FIRE!

These aren't the best pictures, but...  on the same night as the Conshi fire, we had some excitement here too.  Xander just went to bed, and Brian noticed that something smelled like "fireworks".  Then we heard a faint beeping.  We thought it was one of our electronics beeping, so Brian went to go find the source.  He went out onto the back deck and looked down, and smoke was pouring out of the apt below ours.  The guy's stove had caught on fire.  The fire dept came and put it out, but in the process, our apt got kinda smokey.  We ended up out on the steps of the neighbors apts in our jammies, and then over to the Sperry's while our apt cleared out.