April 18 = Marathon Day

Warning: there are a lot of pictures in this post.

First- I thought this bottle was really cool.  I was talking to a girl at MOPS today (two weeks after the marathon) and her brother lives in Boston and his Birthday is April 18 and sometimes falls on marathon day.  When it does, he doesn't have to work on his birthday because as she said, Boston shuts down for the marathon.  It's so awesome.

Zachary got up really early to head over.  I was really hoping for everyone's sake that I'd be able to handle the kids by myself "last night."  I like to pretend I'm writing the blog post on the actual day the pictures were taken so as Jen Hatmaker said in her book that I blogged about "yesterday," give me this victory.  However, I couldn't.  Grandma graciously came and slept with Liam and I slept with Malia.  It wasn't great but we survived. Malia finally fell asleep around 4 something so here she is at 7, sleeping like an angel:

I hated to do it but I had to wake her up because it was time to go!  She had breakfast with Pops:

and here's Liam and Pops on the way to the car to grab the strollers.. and then we got on the hotel shuttle to the aiport.

Here's some pictures from the shuttle:

Then we got on the metro- no pictures from there because it was all hands on deck with strollers and toddlers and handrails and crowds.  I mentioned "yesterday" that I packed while under the fog of a migraine so I did forget to bring tennis shoes... instead, I wore my Sanuk flipflops.  I was nervous but they were great and we didn't have to walk very much at all!

So a few days ago, we discovered that while Zachary thought the Red Sox game that he bought tickets to was after the marathon, it was during the marathon.  He was so upset that he was going to miss the game but insisted we go see the game instead of trying to see him run without any guarantees of even a glimpse of him.  We got in the park and learned we had to check the strollers- there wasn't enough room for them under the seats like we had read the night before.  The check-in was next to this:

We started out with high hopes all in our seats at the game.

 

But that didn't last long.  Malia's lack of sleep got to her quick and Liam was determined to get out of the confines of the seats somehow, even if it meant crawling under the seats of the people in front of us.

So Malia broke first.  I took her out and retrieved the stroller we had to check-in and we went shopping for Red Sox hats for me and Liam.  I picked one out for her but she pushed it away forcefully so I didn't push it.  When I came out, I discovered Grandma and Liam had abandoned the seats as well.  So we took the opportunity to get some more pictures!!

At a certain point I decided I had to see part of the game.  So as Malia was falling asleep, I went back in with Liam determined to make it work.  It didn't.  After a few minutes I handed him off to Pops and after a few minutes, Pops decided to join Grandma and Malia.  I got these pictures from their time together: 

 

So it was the eighth inning when I was childless watching the game.  We had been up 1-0 since the bottom of the second inning.  And by we I mean the Red Sox.  Anyway.  In the top of the eighth, the Blue Jays scored four.  It was sad but we still had hope.  I was also holding out hope that Zachary would make it to see even a second of the game.  We didn't score any in the bottom of the eighth but neither did they (the Blue Jays) in the top of the ninth so it was the bottom of the ninth and we had to score at least three.  So the whole game, Boston fans were upset because David Ortiz aka Big Papi hadn't hit once.  He's lots of Red Sox fans' favorite player.  So it's the bottom of the ninth, we score two and there are two out.  When I saw Big Papi was up next, I knew I had to get a video of him hitting.  He retires at the end of the season and it wasn't looking like Zachary was going to make it in time to see him hit.  So I was about to hit the record button, the crowd is going wild because he's coming up to bat and.... HERE COMES ZACHARY.  I got chills everywhere because he could not have had better timing if he'd tried.  The crowd that was already on their feet and cheering cheered even louder seeing a marathon finisher coming into the stands. It was movie material.  And then Big Papi struck out and we lost.  But still!  Zachary got to see Big Papi in the game and got a lot of accolades for being there after running 26.2 miles in 3:25.  We got someone to take this picture to remember the moment: 

And then we got a few more pictures.  I had not seen the Mickey Mouse figure before so I snapped a few more:

And then we headed to one more store so Zachary could find some stuff- the one in the park was crazy busy after the game.

  

  
We got this picture after our shopping was done- the whole group!

Walking back toward the metro we saw this sign that Zachary must have been super relieved to have seen earlier in the day:  

 

From here it's a blur.  I know we ate and slept but that's all I remember.  It was quite a day and Zachary achieved something he has been dreaming of for a while.  I'm so incredibly proud of him and in awe of his ability!

December 21 = Mickey Mouse Day

I had to get out of the house today!  My dad had to go back to work and my mom had an appointment so Matt and I got the kids ready and headed to Wal-mart.  We don't have a wal-mart around our house and I'm not too upset about it but it was somewhere to go today so we went.  And I found this:

Liam likes him but Malia's in love.  

Later, Gramps continued his job of making sure the kids eat plenty.

Malia hung out with Mickey pretty much all day.  Daisy joined in.

Again, as I mentioned a few days ago, I'm not going to rant about how little my children sleep when they're not home but when he finally went to sleep and little Miss Daisy snuggled up to him, I had to capture it.

October 4 = Midshipmen Dinner #2

I slept in this morning- woohoo!  While I was down, Zachary did some rearranging and moved the bed Liam never uses down from his room to the playroom- Malia was a fan.

But then it was time for work!  We had lots of midshipmen coming over again and lasagna was on the menu tonight.  We made five lasagnas and it was a pretty good amount for some hungry "kids."  I don't feel quite qualified to call them kids but whatever.  

Again, Malia worked her way into getting some attention.  She brought the Mickey Mouse tin that holds all the little characters Liam got in his birthday present from Uncle Matt & Grace and the guys helped her open it and encouraged her as she took them all out and put them all back in and closed it for her and repeated this several times until she was bored of it and found something else to do.  Sass.

September 17 = Indoor Picnic Day

So there's this trend on social media #iwokeuplikethis.  People take pictures of themselves upon waking up naturally beautiful and post them saying, look how beautiful I am with no effort.  So I, poking fun at this trend, posted this picture of Malia with the caption "she woke up like this."

 We had a very rare open day today so I decided to make some returns I've been meaning to make.  However, I got an email with a 20% off one item coupon to Barnes and Noble so obviously, we ran by there too.  I got this book:

 ... I really would love to teach my kids yoga at a young age and let it be something they grow up doing.  It's such a great exercise that encourages flexibility, strength, mindfulness, self acceptance, so many things!

When we got home, Liam really wanted to watch Mickey Mouse and he had been so good during our shopping trip so I put down our picnic blanket down in the living room and let him eat his lunch with Mickey.  He ate it all!  He hardly ever eats all of his lunch so I think I may use this tactic more often...

Also Malia has a new habit- walking around with my shoes around her wrists.  I have no clue where she got it from but it makes her happy.

September 16 = Virtual Thank You Day

Liam got to wear another one of his birthday presents from Grandma & Pops today- I haven't written my thank you notes yet so I let Liam help me out:

And later, we actually went out to eat!  It's been a long, long time since the four of us have gone out to eat but we decided to give it a try and it wasn't terrible.  We went to an Irish place and I got some delicious potato skins- totally worth the trip and not having to clean afterwards made it even better!

September 14 = Show Off Your New Jacket Day

Liam got this new jacket from Grandma & Pops for his birthday!  It's been getting cooler here so I introduced him to it this morning- he was a fan!

September 6 = Birthday Party Day

We had lots of fun yesterday at the farm and Liam loved his pizza dinner last night but today we had his birthday party with lots of family and friends.  We had a Mickey Mouse theme since Liam is obsessed.  Here's the yummy food:

 

Thankfully lots of family members were willing to help- Mo helped me so much with all of the food and dirty dishes used to prepare the food.  Grace lent her artistic talents for this sign:

Mo found this flag at Walgreens so Mickey Mouse was there to greet all of our guests as they arrived!

Grace and Matt put this background up for us too to take pictures of all of our guests! 

Here's Amy and Evie- we went to Evie's first birthday party recently- isn't she too cute?

And here's Jessica and Weston- he's giving us his serious face- and then a shot of the whole family:

Rachel helped Malia practice her walking- she had a very sassy Minnie Mouse shirt on to support our Mickey theme.

Here's Matt & Grace and Matt & Rachel:

And then, before Matthew and Rachel left, we got some family pictures:

Here are more friends!  Giselle & Brandon:

 

And then our former neighbors, the Kuppers and the Curtases: 

Liam loved this game from the Kuppers- he punched out each of the little bugs and handed them to Grandma- he was very diligent!

I started cleaning up once all of our friends headed out- I took our photo backdrop down and then remembered I hadn't gotten pictures of Grandma & Pops or pictures of us so... (the picture of Grammy and Gramps must be on someone else's phone)

 

 

 Liam was spoiled with lots of birthday gifts:

It was a day of fun and love for a fun-loving little boy!