Going to the pool + Lobsterpalooza = a full Saturday!

Saturday here was a beautiful day-warm, sunny with a slight breeze. Travis wanted to go to the pool and being lunch along too (we packed pb&j, baked chips, cheese, apples and juice/water). He loves to have a picnic at the pool. Evan and I walked to the pool while Travis rode his bike. His favorite part is when he parks the bike in the bike rack-I guess when you are 5 this is a big deal! lol Travis jumped right in the pool and showed Evan his swimming skills under the water. He is getting better and better at this-he doesn't even have to hold his nose anymore. I just need to get him to actually swim instead of paddle though-need to look into a private lesson since the group lessons have never worked out too well. When we did group lessons he would do well when it was his turn but didn't pay attention etc when it wasn't his turn. We were at the pool for almost 3 hours and had a blast the whole time.

Around 4:30ish we went outside to start setting up for the 1st annual Hidden Cove Lobsterpalooza! Yes....there were lobsters involved....about 30 of them steamed at the local grocery store. Travis thought it was cool to touch one. Though he jumped when Evan said "that one just moved!". Everyone brought various sides, desserts, drinks and of course there was a keg! The lobsters looked pretty nasty to me when people started to open them up-but I was told once you got to the good stuff they were pretty tasty. I was going to take everyone's word for it since the smell of the lobsters was making me feel sick. :( The kids started to run around the neighborhood in a big pack but there were some bigger kids (11 and 12 years old) that were keeping them under control for the most part. The highlights of the evening for the kids were the water balloon fight and the dip in the Gould's hot tub-some of the kids still wearing all their clothes (some of the kids had bathing suits on from the water balloon fight). The highlights for the adults were just talking to each other and watching the 30-50 year old me doing inverted keg hits! Don't worry I have proof this happened in all the pictures I took. :) I think everyone had a great time and I finally got Travis in the house at around 10:30ish. Needless to say he was one tired and dirty puppy! Can't wait for next year's Lobsterpalooza!

The orange balloon

No this is not a different version of "Good Night Moon".....this is the story of an orange balloon....... For Travis' birthday I got a bunch of balloons for around the house, the mailbox, lightpost etc. Some of these balloons said "Happy 5th Birthday" on them. When I got home Travis helped me with the balloons. All was well until I gave him the orange balloon to hold for a second....which he did.....until he let go. Then the crying and sobbing started about the balloon. He wanted us to go and get it. Somehow he decided the astronauts would find his balloon at the Space Station.....

So that was almost 3 weeks ago and every now and then he remembers the balloon and gets all upset. Last night while "trying" to get to bed he starts sobbing-I go in his room to ask what's wrong and he says "Mommy-do you think the space station found my balloon?". It was so sad. He asked if they were open 24 hours and if I could call them now. :( Finally he fell asleep......

So today I am going to Wegman's to try and replace the missing balloon. Hopefully they still have them. I have decided I will tell him it was mailed to my office from the space station I guess. Maybe when he's older I will tell him the real story. It was just so heartbreaking I couldn't go through that again......

The Cat is out of the bag!

We announced this week that we are having another baby! We are excited and scared all at the same time. I am currently 14+ weeks so that should be the "out of the woods" stage but you just never know of course. My next OB appointment is late next week and we should find out the sex on July 23rd! When we told Travis he said he "had to think about it" in reference to whether or not he was excited about the new baby. Then Evan suggested he may want to switch rooms-the "junk room" is bigger than his current room since it's a normal square room and his room is this odd rectangle shape. The next morning he was bubbling with ideas about his new room-something about Star Wars paint-lol! That night (I think it was Monday night) he asked if he could give the baby a hug goodnight. It was very cute and I guess he has gotten used to the idea. Only time will tell though!

Behind again…….

Last week Evan was in Europe so it was all Travis and me time! For the most part he is on his best behavior when Evan isn’t home. That always makes things a little easier…….

We filled the week with school, work and TKD but that was about it! I’m not sure why I haven’t been able to update this past week but I guess I just forgot. :)

Evan got home on Friday and I went to a scrapbook night at “Scrapbooks Plus”. I was a virgin for this type of thing…..where you go to a store to work on your stuff. They have just a big room in the back with tables and you camp out with your stuff and start working! The best/worst part is you can shop on a tab while you are working! I got a bunch of stuff done and even ran out of pictures! I really need to block out hours of time to work on it more often…….

Saturday Travis had a birthday party at Chuck E Cheese for Ben from his pre-k class. Evan was nice to volunteer to take him-no need for both of us to go there if we don’t need to! Apparently Evan told one of the other parents that Chuck E Cheese was the “7th circle of hell” and they agreed—lol. Of course Travis was wild at the party but this is totally normal for him…….thankfully there were a few other kids that were even more wild than he was. I know it’s silly but I like it when I see other more wild kids at a party since then it makes me feel more normal. Hahahaha

We took Travis to my parents house for a sleepover since we were going out on Saturday night. He loves going over there so it’s a win/win. Evan and I had a nice dinner at Maggianno’s and then headed over to Jammin’ Java to see Cal’s band perform. For those who don’t know….Cal is our neighbor-he was in a pretty popular band in the 80s called “4 out of 5 doctors”. They were apparently big in this area and opened up for bands like The Cars and The Clash. They broke up in the early 90s and last year/this year they decided to do some reunion shows. Cal is currently in a few other bands as his hobby which we’ve seen but this was a whole different ballgame. I think the best part was when we were talking about some of the fans there…..they were obsessed with the music, them etc. This was funny since we were saying how to us he’s Cal who we see mow his lawn and plays/sings on RockBand in our basement for free. Some of the people getting his autograph at the end would have loved that! Lol It was a good time and the band played well so it all worked out!

Sunday was a quiet Father’s Day around our house since Evan had to work for a few hours. Otherwise we spent it around the house doing stuff. Early in the day I went over to my parents house to get Travis from the night before. We ended up running errands with Mandy for some baby items-Travis ended up with a fishing pole!?!?! We went to Mexican for dinner which wasn’t great but it’s always nice to get a meal when Travis is behaving. After Travis went to bed I hopped into bed myself to finish reading “Eclipse”. Can’t wait to start the next one tonight!

Ann Marie's 40th birthday party!

On Saturday we travelled down to Richmond to celebrate Ann Marie's 40th birthday! She had a pool party at her parents house and Travis was so excited about that! They have an above ground pool and I was pretty sure he wouldn't be able to touch the bottom so I made sure to bring his swim vest. At first he wasn't enthused about wearing it but once he got in he was really glad he had it on. There were a bunch of people from college there and that is always fun to see people you don't normally see! Travis was in the pool for about 3 hours solid--he was loving it! Later in the afternoon/evening people started to get brave and play instruments and sing......some were good and some not so good. :) LOL Unfortunately I didn't actually get my camera out so you will have to take my word for the fun that was had!

1st full week of Travis as a yellow belt

Last week was Travis' 1st full week as a yellow belt. We signed him up for the 1 year program-partly because he seems to be enjoying it and also since if you pay in full you save a lot of money. He is able to go 3 times a week now and that is exactly what we did last week. The non-white belt classes move A LOT faster than before so that was hard to get used to but I have already seen a lot of improvement in him! He is still just as enthusiastic about the "yes sir's" etc and Master J seems to really like that. :) Travis still has a lot to learn but he seems to be holding his own with the bigger kids/higher belt kids. The only thing that kind of stunk was that he only got one stripe for 3 classes since most of the other kids were testing/getting new belts that week. So he was a little bummed since he loves coming home and showing Evan his stripes. Hopefully he will get more stripes this week and Master J will remember Travis didn't get anything for attending classes last week! More to come!

The biggest birthday party ever!

Yesterday was Travis' 5th birthday party and it was INSANE! We had over 80 people at the party....and 30 of those were kids! Travis had chosen a SpongeBob theme-including the cake of course! My family came over before the party started to help out with cooking etc as well as giving Travis a few of his gifts. No shock here that he was all about the gifts! It took a lot of convincing on my part to get him to NOT open the Legos my parents gave him before the party started…..600+ pieces and 30 kids? No thanks. LOL In the hour before the party Travis must have asked 20 times if his friends were there yet. Finally the time came and the kids started to arrive!

We had all of the food and drink ready to go when people started to show up. There were kids from the neighborhood, his old class at school, his new class at school and our friends kids that he plays with. It was funny to watch the cliques form at such an early age. There were kids all over the place….the family room, the deck, the back yard and the basement! Thankfully there were very few issues with all those kids around. Don’t get me wrong there were some tears but with 30 kids it could have been a lot worse! The piñata was a huge hit as always but next time I should really get 2 since there seem to be so many kids that were only able to get a few pieces of candy. After the piñata the kids were ready for cake! There was a slight issue with Travis since some other kids were crowding the cake and he was worried they were going to blow out his candles. I reminded him that’s what kids do and he was fine.

The party was a great success and Travis finally went to bed at almost 10pm!

Video of Travis breaking the board during the test-very short

Travis tests for his yellow belt!

Travis tested today for his 1st belt in TKD! He was very nervous but had been practicing the moves so he was ready! The kids did kicks etc together in the beginning to warm up and then Travis and another kid were chosen to test first. Travis had been wowing Master J with his "yes sirs" and had gotten an extra 20 points already for his enthusiasm. Travis went first and nailed it all! The last thing they had to do was to break the board with their fist. Unfortunately I started a video but some kid walked by so I had to restart it. The video is only from him jumping up and breaking it-oh well. After he broke the board Master J gave Travis and the other kid their yellow belts. He was so excited! I guess Travis is sticking with TKD for awhile! I think we are going with the year program and pre-paying so we can save 15%. He will also start going three times a week-fills up my evenings fast!

Video from the Spring Program