It's hard to believe, but our precious little girl will be 2 years old in 11 days! To celebrate this milestone, we had her birthday portraits taken recently at our local JCPenny Portrait Studio in White Marsh. I was a little nervous as to how she would do, being almost that magical age of 2, but she did fantastic! A little model in the making :) The pictures will come in on Halloween, and I'll get them out to everyone shortly after that, but in the meantime, check out some of our favs!
This past Saturday we travelled to our favorite family fun location, Dutch Wonderland, in Lancaster, PA for some spooky Halloween festivities. We enjoyed decorated rides, special fall treats, like hot turkey sundaes and hot chocolate, and of course trick or treating in Duke's Lagoon once night fell. The kids really had a blast! They got to wear their Halloween costumes the whole time which was extra exciting for them. Alex picked out the super hero Thor this year, complete with the face mask and a hammer. We were surprised he actually kept the mask on almost the entire time we were there and liked wearing it. Amaya of course wanted to be a princess. That's her favorite word lately. But, we couldn't find a princess costume that we liked in her small size, so she went as Minnie Mouse. She wore the ears on and off when she felt like it of course,and still called herself a princess! We were so excited to go to Dutch and have some fun together, because we've been kind of couped up lately due to my surgery, so it was a much needed family trip. If you've never been to DW's Happy Hauntings, I would highly recommend it. Great family fun, especially for young children.
Family Pic at DW! 
Me and my little Thor
Alex with some DW characters
Enjoying a night time train ride
Riding the dozers together..aww!
Okay, so anyone who has been to our house knows of our vinyl chairs that sit in front of our windows in the living room. Anyway, they have served us well over the past almost 4 years that we've lived here, but lately they were looking kind of rough. The main problem is due to the fact that they were vinyl and we do have 2 wonderful felines inhabiting our home. The tops of the chairs were pretty much shredded by Oscar's and Lexie's claws. They took a liking to the material and it became impossible to break them from the bad habit of using the tops of our chairs as a scratching post. So, yesterday Abe and I decided we would venture to a few furniture stores and finally pick out a loveseat for that area to replace the old chairs. We were super lucky! The first store we went to was Value City Furniture and the moment we walked in, they just happened to have a chocolate brown loveseat on clearance! It was seriously the first thing we saw as we walked in! So we did a quick walk around, and decided to just get it! It was perfect for our living room and an excellent deal! While we were there, and since we saved so much on the loveseat, we went ahead a purchased a storage ottoman that'll be in tomorrow. I've always wanted one and since we went in expecting to spend a certain amount, I was able to convince Abe to go ahead and get me an ottoman for the price we thought we were going to pay for just the loveseat! Some pics of course of the new furniture will follow. It is super comfy, and I feel like it makes out living room a lot more homey and inviting. Let me know what you think!
Of course the kids had to try it out yesterday when they got home..Alex laid acorss it and said "ahhh...yes!" lol 
I was worried it might look weird having 2 different colored pieces of furniture, but I actually love it! And yes, Oscar has been banned (and sprayed with a water bottle everytime he tries to jump on it.) That is why he is stretched out on the floor!
This past Tuesday, we decided to turn our newly purchased pumpkins into art! The other day at Target, I picked up a kit to transfrom one pumpkin into Lightening McQueen. Since I have probably the biggest Cars fan in America living in my house, I knew he would be excited to decorate his pumpkin with his favorite character. So we bored some holes into Alex's pumpkin and let him put the pieces in where he wanted. With Amaya's pumpkin, I decided I needed to carve at least one, since I like to roast the yummy pumpkin seeds and I need seeds to be able to do that. So I carved a cute little face into hers. I tried to get Miss Princess to help me take the "guts" out of the pumpkin, but her exact words were "Ewwww..Mommy NO!" LOL So that was that...Here's some pics of our pumpkin decorating process!
I am offering to let her help me take out the "guts" of the pumpkin, but she wants no part of it!
Alex and Amaya with their favorite scary decoration (Alex picked it out!) Both kids call him "bad boy" LOL
Our completed projects!
Goofy kids...
Alex thinks he has found the perfect pumpkin
"Daddy, can you buy me this weird looking corn please?"
Amaya chillin' with the pumpkins
Alex was fascinated by these bumpy gourds
Sometimes it is necessary to wear a crown when eating an afternoon snack...
Alex's wonderful zombie he choose from AC Moore is kind of behind him. He picked that hideous thing! LOL
On Thursday, Septmber 29, Abe, the kids and I all enjoyed a rare weekday off in downtown Baltimore at the Maryland Science Center. Schools happened to be closed that day for Rosh Hashanah, but since we're not Jewish of course, we just had the day off to ourselves. The kids had never been to the Science Center, and we kind of worried it might still be a little too old for them, but they had a blast and so did we! There were exhibits aimed toward an older age group, but there were just as many aimed at younger kids, and our kids interacted with the older exhibits even more than we thought they would. They found something to love in almost every section! Of course a favorite was the dinosaur area on the first floor. They have a little area where kids can pretend to be archaeologists and brush sand away to reveal a dino bone. The kids loved this! We even had a hard time pulling Amaya away from it. The kids also loved the wild animals on the first floor. They had some large species of a lizard and a Maryland blue crab on display, and Alex could have watched them for hours. The second floor, known as "Newton's Alley" featured physics exhibits. They had all sorts of exhibits exploring Newton's Law's of Physics. Alex was drawn to a marble run eperiment, where he would turn levers and try to put a marble on a certain path. Amaya loved the ball drop experiment where she would take three balls up a wire together and then drop them at the same time to watch the top ball skyrocket back up. The third floor had lots of puzzles, which is defintely more Abe and Amaya's forte since Alex and I both lack patience :) So Alex and I watched a live show on static electricity where they would charge up a device, then let a kid touch it and his hair would stand straight up. Alex found this hilarious! Also on the third floor, we visited the new children's area. This special zone is only for children under the age of 5. They even have an infant and toddler room for really little ones. Alex spent a long time here building trains out of legos, while Amaya played in the water play area. As we were venturing out of there, the exhaustion of the day really started to hit us, especially me with the anemia I have been struggling through recently, so we decided to pick up lunch on the way home. Then we just picked up our food, went home and played and relaxed..what a wonderful day for learning! I love it when we can just be together, on our own schedule, having fun. That's what it's all about :)
Amaya next to a triceratops head! It's just a tiny bit bigger then hers :) 
Alex experimenting with the marble run 
Very excited while working in puzzles! lol
Alex in the water play area
Amaya was listening to some kind of ocean sounds
It's hard to believe, but our precious little girl will be 2 years old in 11 days! To celebrate this milestone, we had her birthday portraits taken recently at our local JCPenny Portrait Studio in White Marsh. I was a little nervous as to how she would do, being almost that magical age of 2, but she did fantastic! A little model in the making :) The pictures will come in on Halloween, and I'll get them out to everyone shortly after that, but in the meantime, check out some of our favs! This past Saturday we travelled to our favorite family fun location, Dutch Wonderland, in Lancaster, PA for some spooky Halloween festivities. We enjoyed decorated rides, special fall treats, like hot turkey sundaes and hot chocolate, and of course trick or treating in Duke's Lagoon once night fell. The kids really had a blast! They got to wear their Halloween costumes the whole time which was extra exciting for them. Alex picked out the super hero Thor this year, complete with the face mask and a hammer. We were surprised he actually kept the mask on almost the entire time we were there and liked wearing it. Amaya of course wanted to be a princess. That's her favorite word lately. But, we couldn't find a princess costume that we liked in her small size, so she went as Minnie Mouse. She wore the ears on and off when she felt like it of course,and still called herself a princess! We were so excited to go to Dutch and have some fun together, because we've been kind of couped up lately due to my surgery, so it was a much needed family trip. If you've never been to DW's Happy Hauntings, I would highly recommend it. Great family fun, especially for young children. Family Pic at DW! Me and my little Thor Alex with some DW characters Enjoying a night time train ride Riding the dozers together..aww!
Okay, so anyone who has been to our house knows of our vinyl chairs that sit in front of our windows in the living room. Anyway, they have served us well over the past almost 4 years that we've lived here, but lately they were looking kind of rough. The main problem is due to the fact that they were vinyl and we do have 2 wonderful felines inhabiting our home. The tops of the chairs were pretty much shredded by Oscar's and Lexie's claws. They took a liking to the material and it became impossible to break them from the bad habit of using the tops of our chairs as a scratching post. So, yesterday Abe and I decided we would venture to a few furniture stores and finally pick out a loveseat for that area to replace the old chairs. We were super lucky! The first store we went to was Value City Furniture and the moment we walked in, they just happened to have a chocolate brown loveseat on clearance! It was seriously the first thing we saw as we walked in! So we did a quick walk around, and decided to just get it! It was perfect for our living room and an excellent deal! While we were there, and since we saved so much on the loveseat, we went ahead a purchased a storage ottoman that'll be in tomorrow. I've always wanted one and since we went in expecting to spend a certain amount, I was able to convince Abe to go ahead and get me an ottoman for the price we thought we were going to pay for just the loveseat! Some pics of course of the new furniture will follow. It is super comfy, and I feel like it makes out living room a lot more homey and inviting. Let me know what you think!Of course the kids had to try it out yesterday when they got home..Alex laid acorss it and said "ahhh...yes!" lol I was worried it might look weird having 2 different colored pieces of furniture, but I actually love it! And yes, Oscar has been banned (and sprayed with a water bottle everytime he tries to jump on it.) That is why he is stretched out on the floor! This past Tuesday, we decided to turn our newly purchased pumpkins into art! The other day at Target, I picked up a kit to transfrom one pumpkin into Lightening McQueen. Since I have probably the biggest Cars fan in America living in my house, I knew he would be excited to decorate his pumpkin with his favorite character. So we bored some holes into Alex's pumpkin and let him put the pieces in where he wanted. With Amaya's pumpkin, I decided I needed to carve at least one, since I like to roast the yummy pumpkin seeds and I need seeds to be able to do that. So I carved a cute little face into hers. I tried to get Miss Princess to help me take the "guts" out of the pumpkin, but her exact words were "Ewwww..Mommy NO!" LOL So that was that...Here's some pics of our pumpkin decorating process!I am offering to let her help me take out the "guts" of the pumpkin, but she wants no part of it!Alex and Amaya with their favorite scary decoration (Alex picked it out!) Both kids call him "bad boy" LOL
Our completed projects!
Goofy kids...Alex thinks he has found the perfect pumpkin"Daddy, can you buy me this weird looking corn please?"Amaya chillin' with the pumpkinsAlex was fascinated by these bumpy gourdsSometimes it is necessary to wear a crown when eating an afternoon snack... Alex's wonderful zombie he choose from AC Moore is kind of behind him. He picked that hideous thing! LOL On Thursday, Septmber 29, Abe, the kids and I all enjoyed a rare weekday off in downtown Baltimore at the Maryland Science Center. Schools happened to be closed that day for Rosh Hashanah, but since we're not Jewish of course, we just had the day off to ourselves. The kids had never been to the Science Center, and we kind of worried it might still be a little too old for them, but they had a blast and so did we! There were exhibits aimed toward an older age group, but there were just as many aimed at younger kids, and our kids interacted with the older exhibits even more than we thought they would. They found something to love in almost every section! Of course a favorite was the dinosaur area on the first floor. They have a little area where kids can pretend to be archaeologists and brush sand away to reveal a dino bone. The kids loved this! We even had a hard time pulling Amaya away from it. The kids also loved the wild animals on the first floor. They had some large species of a lizard and a Maryland blue crab on display, and Alex could have watched them for hours. The second floor, known as "Newton's Alley" featured physics exhibits. They had all sorts of exhibits exploring Newton's Law's of Physics. Alex was drawn to a marble run eperiment, where he would turn levers and try to put a marble on a certain path. Amaya loved the ball drop experiment where she would take three balls up a wire together and then drop them at the same time to watch the top ball skyrocket back up. The third floor had lots of puzzles, which is defintely more Abe and Amaya's forte since Alex and I both lack patience :) So Alex and I watched a live show on static electricity where they would charge up a device, then let a kid touch it and his hair would stand straight up. Alex found this hilarious! Also on the third floor, we visited the new children's area. This special zone is only for children under the age of 5. They even have an infant and toddler room for really little ones. Alex spent a long time here building trains out of legos, while Amaya played in the water play area. As we were venturing out of there, the exhaustion of the day really started to hit us, especially me with the anemia I have been struggling through recently, so we decided to pick up lunch on the way home. Then we just picked up our food, went home and played and relaxed..what a wonderful day for learning! I love it when we can just be together, on our own schedule, having fun. That's what it's all about :)Amaya next to a triceratops head! It's just a tiny bit bigger then hers :) Alex experimenting with the marble run Very excited while working in puzzles! lolAlex in the water play areaAmaya was listening to some kind of ocean sounds
It's hard to believe, but our precious little girl will be 2 years old in 11 days! To celebrate this milestone, we had her birthday portraits taken recently at our local JCPenny Portrait Studio in White Marsh. I was a little nervous as to how she would do, being almost that magical age of 2, but she did fantastic! A little model in the making :) The pictures will come in on Halloween, and I'll get them out to everyone shortly after that, but in the meantime, check out some of our favs! This past Saturday we travelled to our favorite family fun location, Dutch Wonderland, in Lancaster, PA for some spooky Halloween festivities. We enjoyed decorated rides, special fall treats, like hot turkey sundaes and hot chocolate, and of course trick or treating in Duke's Lagoon once night fell. The kids really had a blast! They got to wear their Halloween costumes the whole time which was extra exciting for them. Alex picked out the super hero Thor this year, complete with the face mask and a hammer. We were surprised he actually kept the mask on almost the entire time we were there and liked wearing it. Amaya of course wanted to be a princess. That's her favorite word lately. But, we couldn't find a princess costume that we liked in her small size, so she went as Minnie Mouse. She wore the ears on and off when she felt like it of course,and still called herself a princess! We were so excited to go to Dutch and have some fun together, because we've been kind of couped up lately due to my surgery, so it was a much needed family trip. If you've never been to DW's Happy Hauntings, I would highly recommend it. Great family fun, especially for young children. Family Pic at DW! Me and my little Thor Alex with some DW characters Enjoying a night time train ride Riding the dozers together..aww!
Okay, so anyone who has been to our house knows of our vinyl chairs that sit in front of our windows in the living room. Anyway, they have served us well over the past almost 4 years that we've lived here, but lately they were looking kind of rough. The main problem is due to the fact that they were vinyl and we do have 2 wonderful felines inhabiting our home. The tops of the chairs were pretty much shredded by Oscar's and Lexie's claws. They took a liking to the material and it became impossible to break them from the bad habit of using the tops of our chairs as a scratching post. So, yesterday Abe and I decided we would venture to a few furniture stores and finally pick out a loveseat for that area to replace the old chairs. We were super lucky! The first store we went to was Value City Furniture and the moment we walked in, they just happened to have a chocolate brown loveseat on clearance! It was seriously the first thing we saw as we walked in! So we did a quick walk around, and decided to just get it! It was perfect for our living room and an excellent deal! While we were there, and since we saved so much on the loveseat, we went ahead a purchased a storage ottoman that'll be in tomorrow. I've always wanted one and since we went in expecting to spend a certain amount, I was able to convince Abe to go ahead and get me an ottoman for the price we thought we were going to pay for just the loveseat! Some pics of course of the new furniture will follow. It is super comfy, and I feel like it makes out living room a lot more homey and inviting. Let me know what you think!Of course the kids had to try it out yesterday when they got home..Alex laid acorss it and said "ahhh...yes!" lol I was worried it might look weird having 2 different colored pieces of furniture, but I actually love it! And yes, Oscar has been banned (and sprayed with a water bottle everytime he tries to jump on it.) That is why he is stretched out on the floor! This past Tuesday, we decided to turn our newly purchased pumpkins into art! The other day at Target, I picked up a kit to transfrom one pumpkin into Lightening McQueen. Since I have probably the biggest Cars fan in America living in my house, I knew he would be excited to decorate his pumpkin with his favorite character. So we bored some holes into Alex's pumpkin and let him put the pieces in where he wanted. With Amaya's pumpkin, I decided I needed to carve at least one, since I like to roast the yummy pumpkin seeds and I need seeds to be able to do that. So I carved a cute little face into hers. I tried to get Miss Princess to help me take the "guts" out of the pumpkin, but her exact words were "Ewwww..Mommy NO!" LOL So that was that...Here's some pics of our pumpkin decorating process!I am offering to let her help me take out the "guts" of the pumpkin, but she wants no part of it!Alex and Amaya with their favorite scary decoration (Alex picked it out!) Both kids call him "bad boy" LOL
Our completed projects!
Goofy kids...Alex thinks he has found the perfect pumpkin"Daddy, can you buy me this weird looking corn please?"Amaya chillin' with the pumpkinsAlex was fascinated by these bumpy gourdsSometimes it is necessary to wear a crown when eating an afternoon snack... Alex's wonderful zombie he choose from AC Moore is kind of behind him. He picked that hideous thing! LOL On Thursday, Septmber 29, Abe, the kids and I all enjoyed a rare weekday off in downtown Baltimore at the Maryland Science Center. Schools happened to be closed that day for Rosh Hashanah, but since we're not Jewish of course, we just had the day off to ourselves. The kids had never been to the Science Center, and we kind of worried it might still be a little too old for them, but they had a blast and so did we! There were exhibits aimed toward an older age group, but there were just as many aimed at younger kids, and our kids interacted with the older exhibits even more than we thought they would. They found something to love in almost every section! Of course a favorite was the dinosaur area on the first floor. They have a little area where kids can pretend to be archaeologists and brush sand away to reveal a dino bone. The kids loved this! We even had a hard time pulling Amaya away from it. The kids also loved the wild animals on the first floor. They had some large species of a lizard and a Maryland blue crab on display, and Alex could have watched them for hours. The second floor, known as "Newton's Alley" featured physics exhibits. They had all sorts of exhibits exploring Newton's Law's of Physics. Alex was drawn to a marble run eperiment, where he would turn levers and try to put a marble on a certain path. Amaya loved the ball drop experiment where she would take three balls up a wire together and then drop them at the same time to watch the top ball skyrocket back up. The third floor had lots of puzzles, which is defintely more Abe and Amaya's forte since Alex and I both lack patience :) So Alex and I watched a live show on static electricity where they would charge up a device, then let a kid touch it and his hair would stand straight up. Alex found this hilarious! Also on the third floor, we visited the new children's area. This special zone is only for children under the age of 5. They even have an infant and toddler room for really little ones. Alex spent a long time here building trains out of legos, while Amaya played in the water play area. As we were venturing out of there, the exhaustion of the day really started to hit us, especially me with the anemia I have been struggling through recently, so we decided to pick up lunch on the way home. Then we just picked up our food, went home and played and relaxed..what a wonderful day for learning! I love it when we can just be together, on our own schedule, having fun. That's what it's all about :)Amaya next to a triceratops head! It's just a tiny bit bigger then hers :) Alex experimenting with the marble run Very excited while working in puzzles! lolAlex in the water play areaAmaya was listening to some kind of ocean sounds
