Sweet October

September flew by. School really takes up a lot of our time. Matthew is really getting into his little workbooks and special events at school, and he actually LOVES to do his homework. Gotta love the Noah photobomb in this pic.

The September field trip for the pre-K group was a trip to the local PetSmart to learn about how to take care of pets. They saw birds, fish, cats and guinea pigs, and thankfully the staff told them that they need to be a little older in order to really take care of a pet (which Matthew accepted - thank goodness, because he's been busting for a pet lately).

Noah seems to grow up 6 months for every week that goes by. He's really starting to act like a little boy now, no more baby stuff.

When we're not at school, me and the boys run our usual errands. On this particular run to BJs, DreamLites were on sale and I couldn't resist picking up one for each of them. Matthew asked for one for his birthday and every time he would see the commercial he would ask why he didn't get one. Kinda sad, so when the opportunity presented itself, I had to buy them. They are the best thing EVER. Both boys love these things - they play with them, use them at night, cuddle with them - best money I've spent on a toy in a long time.

Home life has been pretty darn good. The boys really have been getting physical with each other lately (in a playful way), so there's a lot of rough-housing and raucous laughter going on.

Of course weekends haven't been too shabby lately either. Even though we do a lot of "boring" errands and home stuff, we still have had a lot of fun.

October will bring us the boys first concert experience (The Little People are performing at the NY Botanical Gardens next weekend), our local town fall festival, Matthew's BFF Alex's birthday party, a school field trip to a local farm, Halloween celebrations, and the arrival of a new cousin. Hopefully we can keep up with it all!

Catching Up

It's been a whirlwind of activity around here lately. With school in full swing, the days are busy, as are the nights, and of course the weekends! There's been a lot going on and I've been slacking with uploading pics, so there's a lot to catch up on.

We celebrated Matthew's birthday with a party in the backyard a few weeks ago.

All his best buds were there.

And he certainly scored in the gifts department!

His favorite - a Cuddleuppet from Auntie Dana.

On non-school days, me and the boys hang out together at our house.

And of course at grandma's house too.

With the weather changing to pleasant fall-like, we've been able to get out of the house more which is nice. Nightly walks around the school yard are becoming the norm.

We've hit up a few local events lately too - including the Field Home Harvest Fair this past weekend where Matthew enjoyed a nice pony ride.

There was fall-craft fun...

...some nice photo ops...

...and Matthew's favorite, bouncy houses and slides!

We've also made our first fall trip to Muscoot Farm this past weekend.

We had to stock up on Matthew's favorite pickles from the farmer's market.

I'm hoping the weather continues it's fall trend (in NY, you never know!). I like being able to end our days like this.

Happy Monday (if there is such a thing!)!

Wordless Wednesday: Happy 4th Birthday Matthew!!

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

Happy birthday to the cutest, sweetest, funniest, most fun-loving and caring, best big brother and one of the most awesome sons anyone could ever ask for in the whole wide world.

Wordless Wednesday: A moment's peace

First Day

My 1st Day of Pre-K

My name is: Matthew
I am: almost 4 years old (next week!)
When I grow up I want to be: a teacher
My teacher's names are: Kyle and Kathy
My favorite toys are: my superheroes
My favorite thing to do is: play outside
My favorite food is: pizza pie!
I like to: color, paint, play on the iPad, play with my action figures, go to Target, draw with sidewalk chalk, read, go to tag sales, help daddy fix stuff, play with my brother, go to grandma's house,watch Batman DVDs, eat at Chili's, go shopping with mommy, play with my water tables, blow bubbles

Bedtime Story

We've read How Do I Love You to Matthew every night since he was born. When Noah was born, we added him to the nightly mix. Matthew has gotten to the point where he pretty much has the book memorized, and lately he has wanted to read the book to us (or along with us) every night. This isn't his best performance - but I thought the combo of his little 3-year-old lisp reading the book and Noah randomly saying "CHEESE" was just too cute not to post.

Fall 2012 Pro Pics

We went to Picture People this year to have the boys pro pics done.I had a gift card that my sister-in-law gave me back when Matthew was born that I hadn't used, so I figured now was a good a time as ever!

I was so not impressed with Picture People. Their choice of backgrounds: white, black, green/blue dots (very 80s) or a black and white damask pattern (very girlie). Plus, they would only let us change outfits once. And at the end, they tried to sell me a $700 picture package (SEVEN HUNDRED DOLLARS!). I walked out with an $18 picture bundle of one pose (I had a coupon) and a high-res disc all all my images (only 17 in total) that cost me $120. Insane. Our local Sears Portrait Studio is way better priced and they have so much to choose from in the way of backgrounds (I wanted these pictures to say "fall" - I don't think they do). So, lesson learned. Back to Sears next year!

Noah was an epic fail at this photo shoot. You can't tell from the photos because for about a total of 12 seconds he was willing to pose, so we were able to get some smiling shots. The rest of the time he was screaming, running away and just being a cranky mess. Matthew on the other hand listened well, tried his best to follow the photographers instructions and really seemed to enjoy himself. If I was to take a guess now - Matthew is my future model, Noah is my football player. 

When Noah got really bad I had Matt jump in for a few shots.

This car was a great prop - but trying to get them to not move it and to actually look in the camera while in it was tough.

And with that, we start our fall. School starts next week and Matthew's 4th birthday party is a week after that. Now all I need is some nice chilly weather (and for Noah to take a 4 hour nap today).