The Joneses go to Washington!

Decided to venture into Downtown DC today to see some sights - namely the train display at the National Botanical Gardens. The line was long by the time we got there, and probably union station, where we could see real trains, and have sushi for lunch, was a bigger hit.. But, it was a beautiful day and we did lots of walking, so it was a good time all around..

Christmas 2011

Ready for the Plona Christmas!

Santa has arrived!

A few notable moments:

1) Sydney, on opening her presents: "Santa made all my wishes come true!"

2) Daniel, on seeing the tree: "Think Santa brought me any thomas stuff?" (thank goodness santa had)...

Sydney is the run to the tree type..

Daniel is not. Needed time to "get ready" to open presents.

However, by 8:30am, Sydney is already ready for a nap, and Daniel is actually going strong...

Big Favorites are:

Sydney - Big wheel, LaLaLoopsy, Puppy dog webkin, sparkly "S" pillow

Daniel - Everything thomas..

..

Another funny from Sydney. As Daniel opened the sheds for his train, Sydney exclaimed, "Mommy, it's just what you wanted!!!"

She was right.. Sometimes Santa chooses things Santa likes too :)

Santa Train 2011!

Ready to go :)

First school picture!

This thanksgiving....

we were thankful for naps........

And we were really thankful our Granny and Poppy came to hang with us :)

Getting older, but not...

Amazing how much fun can be had with a box still..

And then there's Daniel's new hat - just about sums up his personality these days....

Quotable

Me: "Daniel, would you like some butternut squash?"

Daniel: "No thank you, I don't like butternuts."

Happy Halloween!

A sampling of our trick or treating adventures. The kids were absolute pros this year :)

Three!!!

Daniel is three years old today! How did that happen?? His primary focus is trains these days, however, Aunt Jennie may have opened up a big window with a batman car present - so who knows what his next mania may be....

Per his request, a Thomas cake - with Annie and Claribel AND a tunnel...

Bean bag chair....

Think he likes it????

swiper, nooooo swiping....

So our Sydney is a well known sushi swiper - from way back when she was 18 months old and went head to head with her Poppy for the contents of his plate at our favorite sushi buffet...

Today we were back at our favorite place, and when I sat down with my plate, Sydney started her usual perusal of my plate to pick out what pieces she wanted. As she's choosing her items off my plate one at a time, I realize that Daniel, who is sitting on Sydney's other side on the bench seat, is quietly picking each of her pieces off of her plate and eating them...

When sydney returned her attention to her plate, it was empty!

The sushi swiper had been bested :)

Did someone say Halloween????

I'd say these kids are a little excited.....

A few random things

1) Sydney asked yesterday: "Who in the world wouldn't like cookies??" No real answer for that :)

2) Daniel says (in the car with the music on) "You know, I'm a pretty good singer....." which is close to something I apparently announced myself when I was little :)

3) A picture from the pumpkin patch last week

The good stuff...

There's a song from Kenny Chesney that talks about the good stuff in life.. here are 2 examples..

1) Finding your older child pushing her younger brother in a swing. By herself. Without being asked. Just to be nice.

2) Finding your 2 kids watching TV like this....

Yup, that's the good stuff :)

Our first ever "First day" of School

Sydney headed off to her first day at pre-school today. It was a hit.. Her main report was "mommy, we had SNACKTIME!"

Getting out of the car - Thank goodness none of the crying moms were allowed to stay. It was a quick drop off and in they went...

And here's our Daniel. Because he was in a fairly cheerful mood and actually let me take his picture..

ok, who left the water on.....

Our poor townhouse has had a rough life. In tough shape when we bought it, we worked hard to make it nice. And we did.. And we liked it for the 5 years we lived there. And our tenants liked it for 2 years - really made it their home. And that made me happy...

And now....

Kitchen ceiling and flooring is ruined...

Dining room ceiling and hardwood floors - ruined.

The water people came today and ripped it all out.. Everything we replaced 7 years ago :( Even though we don't live there anymore, we still put a lot of heart and soul and work into it. It's hard to see it just all thrown out...

Ceiling ruined and carpet (2 years old) in the basement - black with mold....

I know the insurance will fix it, and it'll probably look better than it did before..And we're lucky no one was hurt...

still... I'm sad....

Amish Country Mini Vacation

We headed up to Lancaster, PA for a quick little visit. We hit Dutch Wonderland first, and then headed out to the Strasburg railroad for our train fix.

At the railroad museum, we actually got to go into the cab of a 100+ year old locomotive and pull all the ropes and levers. It was really pretty neat!

Then we actually took a ride on a restored steam train. Even the mom thought it was pretty neat - we rode in the open air car right behind the engine, which was backwards for half the trip..

Luckily, at least one child was willing to pose for a picture with the engine :) Surprisingly, it was NOT our train enthusiast...

We had a really good time though, and highly recommend Lancaster as a family destination!

Gotta Get a Gordon....

So for a while now, Daniel has been very aware that his Thomas the Train collection does NOT include either a "Gordon" (one of the engines) or an "Annie and a Claribel" (two passenger coach cars).. So he's been saying at random moments "We gotta getta gordon".

We'd talked about maybe getting them for his birthday (a while a way still) or maybe even further away at christmas..But he wasn't really seeming excited about waiting that long..

And then this weekend, since I was home from work on Friday, we decided to take another go at potty training..And Daniel knocked it out of the park. Over 3 days he only had 2 accidents when he was wearing his big boy underpants, and the few times we did put a diaper on him, he kept them dry each time.

I'm SO proud of my big boy. We're not at the end of the road, but we've made it over the first mountain.

So, as a big treat for a big success, I decided it was time to get a Gordon..And so we did :)

Happy Early 4th of July!

So I have a couple GREAT pictures from this weekend.

1) My kids, and their cousins, AND, their Great Grandparents - Gramma Lona and Grampa Bobby. Gramma Lona will be turning 88 in a few weeks, and Grampa Bobby will be turning the big 9-0 in November. They are quite the inspiration :)

2) Our Plona family. Our entire Plona family.. All 42 of them! I'm extremely lucky to be part of this group - who turns out year after year for our annual 4th of July picnic and camp out. Yup, I said camp out... It's a great party - one I look forward to every year. Special thanks to Cousin Traci for bringing her tripod so we could get a complete family picture this year!

3) Since Daniel has been "in a mood" when I've tried to take his picture for the past few months now, I don't have a lot of good shots of him recently. Somehow, we caught this good one of him yesterday...

Happy Father's Day!

Our daddy in his happy place :) Michael LOVES company on a trip to lowes and we got lucky in that a race car cart was available. I couldn't resist capturing the moment...

And then I couldn't resist posting a pic from Michael's first fathers day - 4 years ago...

Train Day!

We went to the Old Town Manassas Train day festival today. I don't think there could have been a more perfect event invented for Daniel. Luckily, it was packed - so I think there are lots of train enthusiasts besides our D and I think we can plan on it happening again next year. We're really lucky, the train station lets you get right up close to the real trains and we saw a couple pull through - always a treat...

D watching the lego railroad models.. He could have watched them all day..

Sydney played the cub scout games and chose cotton candy as her treat...

And now they are up in bed in their tent in Daniel's room.. Let's see how long this lasts...

Four really IS fantastic

Somehow Sydney just seems a lot more grown up since turning 4.

Today I said it would be a big help if she picked up her toys in the family room so I could vacuum. and then I turned away to vacuum the kitchen.

When I was done with the kitchen, I turned around. And was shocked to see that she had willingly picked up all her toys and the family room was totally ready to vacuum...

I was pretty proud if her. She really IS quite a helper...

Today's pic is the May Birthday Ladies at yesterday's Jones birthday party - Suellen, Sydney and Maggie :)

Lazy sunday....

Enjoying the hammock...

"But mom, I'm not tired. I don't need a rest. I'll just play with my dollhouse"

2 Things....

2 funny kid stories to note today..

1) Daniel right now has the funniest way of saying "Yup" - He stretches it out like it's multiple syllables and starts way low and finishes up high - he sounds like an 80 year old farmer from Maine :)

2) Granny and Poppy sent Sydney a lands end bean bag chair for her birthday, which is a big hit with both kids (there is already a lot of fighting over who gets to sit in it). But per stereotype, while they are enjoying the chair, they are also massively enjoying playing "three little pigs" with the box it came in. One of them stands outside and yells "little pig, little pig, let me in!" and then the other hollers back "not by the hair of my chinny, chin, chin"...and then they switch places.. It's seriously a riot.....

Our Fabulous 4 Year Old

I know every mom thinks their child is pretty amazing, and I guess I'm no different :)

We had a great day celebrating Sydney's 4th birthday today. Special "S" cookies to take to Miss Suzannes for the day, Red Robin for dinner (a big treat for a tuesday), Toys R Us to choose a special present and Dairy Queen for one final ice cream treat.

And Daniel was even a really good sport about all the focus on Sydney, so he got to choose a spider ball at Toys R Us for good measure..

I think I have more fun celebrating my kids birthdays than celebrating my own.

Here's our happy girl - She makes all our days just a little brighter with her beautiful smile. We're so lucky to have her..

I came back to add one more picture :) The bean bag chair is a hit!

Happy Mother's Day!

So I'm not sure why, but I decided to give Daniel a try in underpants this weekend. Which basically meant I spent a lot of the weekend either in the bathroom or washing lots of pairs of little boys underpants :)

While the weekend wasn't a whopping success, it wasn't a total failure. I think with a few more weeks of work, we'll be able to try underpants again.

Until then, I'm super proud of my little guy for at least being a willing participant. It's a lot of hard work on mom's part and on his part. And it WILL pay off in the end...

A pre-mother's day story..

So sydney asked me tonight why I was sad that her and Daniel don't sleep in cribs anymore. I said that it meant they weren't babies anymore and that made me sad.

She asked why I'd be sad that she wasn't a baby anymore and I said that as kids get older and aren't babies anymore, they don't need their moms as much...

She looked at me with surprise and said, "But mommy, of course we still need you.....We need you to wash the dishes..."

Yup, that about sums it up :)

Easter, 2011

We had a wonderful weekend - The Plonas came for kielbasa fest and easter egg hunting on saturday, and then the Joneses came for easter ham and MORE easter egg hunting today...

We're really lucky to have such great family. We had a great time and are totally wiped out. Thank goodness I work from home on mondays!

Plona Cousins - 2011

Daniel hunting for eggs

Sydney's easter outfit choice. Easter..Princess.... kind of the same thing. (Thanks to Aunt Jennie for the pick flower headband - she's already a fan!)

My spring cupcake project for the weekend :)

Not a baby anymore...

So we went to Ikea to get Daniel's big boy bed today. And this morning, he said he didn't want to sleep in a big boy bed, he wanted to sleep in his regular bed. I didn't push it..

So we got it, and went ahead and set it up, so that he could get used to it being there and eventually be ready to sleep in it..I figured if it took a few weeks, that'd be no big deal. There was plenty of time.

Suddenly he announced that yes, he DID want to sleep in his big boy bed tonight. Yes he did...

And so he is. He got out of bed once. And was told that if he got out of bed again, he'd have to go back to sleeping in his crib..

I guess that was enough. We haven't heard another peep from him..

He's officially not a baby anymore.

Tomorrow the crib will come down and maybe next weekend we'll list it on craigslist to move it along.

I'm sadder than I thought I'd be.

I'm really sad..

A Few Daniel Moments In Time...

1) Daniel (hollering from the bathroom where he's sitting on the potty): "Mommmmmmmmmmm.........I need a book"

2) Mom: Daniel, what's your favorite fruit?

Daniel: Dragons.......pink ones.......

3) Going binky-less for the first time tonight. It might be an epic fail, or it might be that my baby is really growing up...

4) While going to bed, he requests I sing him "Somewhere over the rainbow" and he chimes in with me on a few words. I love it that he's started to like music and singing...

Florida - 2011

We had a GREAT time in Florida - It was a little colder than we planned, but we got some great beach time and it was STILL way warmer than it was at home, which is all that matters, right?

Daniel at the beach:

Sydney at the beach:

Sydney playing ball with the dolphins at Marineland:

Also at marineland - sums up the kids perfectly - Sydney is our willing poser, Daniel, not so much :)