Seth's 2nd Birthday

Today we celebrated Seth's 2nd birthday. We had family and friends over for dinner, cake, and presents. After a day filled with getting things ready for the birthday, church, and no naps the party was fun, but chaotic.

Seth loves the TV show The Backyardigans. This is a Pablo cake. He is Seth's favorite Backyardigan.

Happy Birthday Seth! We found out he doesn't really like candles. Well I think it's actually the fire on the candle. He did not want to get close enough to blow out the candles. Good thing he has an older brother who was more than happy to help.

Seth had so much fun opening presents.

This is a Plasma Car. Our friends have some and Seth loves them. It is a weird sort of thing that moves forward when you wiggle the handle back and forth.

I think he was ready for bed after everything was over. There were no more smiles left for the camera.

C&O Canal and Great Falls

Tade doesn't have preschool of Fridays so we make an effort to do something special each Friday. Today we went with a group of friends to Great Falls. Great Falls is on the Potomac River and can be seen from both the Maryland and Virginia side of the river. We chose to view it from the Maryland side today. The walk out to the falls is beautiful. You follow the C&O canal, then cross over some bridges, then end at a look out point over the falls. The kids had such a great time running all over the place.

Me and the boys along the canal.

This is the view of the C&O Canal. The water was so still compared to the falls on the Potomac River.

Luke, Noah(running away), Seth, Dillon, Tade, and Kelsey checking out the canal.

This was Seth pretty much the whole day. He kept running and running. He's fast and unfortunately I wore flip flops.

When we finally got to the end of the trail where the falls were the kids could have cared less about the falls because there were awesome rocks to climb on.

Seth found the perfect resting spot just his size.

Dillon, Tade, Kelsey, and Seth were good enough to sit together for about two seconds so we could get a group picture with the falls in the background. Then they were off to run and climb on the rocks.

Do you think he was thirsty? Seth found little pools of water in the rocks. I caught him about half a second before he was going to drink that nasty water.

On the way back to the picnic area Kelsey and Seth took a break to play with the rocks.

While Seth played with the rocks Tade climbed on them. He was having so much fun climbing all over the place. He was fearless.

A goose climbed out of the canal and decided to join us for our picnic. We kept telling the boys to stay away from the goose because they can be mean, but they didn't care. Turns out the goose didn't give us any trouble. So the boys now have a twisted view of being able to get really close to geese while feeding them.

See. They weren't phased at all by our warnings.

Seth got so comfortable he just pulled up a spot on the ground right next to his friend, Mr. Goose.

Quincy the Cougar Cub

If you asked Tade where he goes to school he would tell you he's in high school and he'd be telling you the truth. Tade is in the child development program at Quince Orchard High School. Every morning I take him to preschool at the high school. It was kind of strange for me at the beginning because I used to be one of the high school kids teaching the preschool when I went to Quince Orchard.

The preschool program has a beanie baby mascot called Quincy the Cougar Cub. Each child gets chance to bring Quincy home. There is a journal that comes home with Quincy also. The students are supposed to write about their adventures with Quincy and add pictures if they want to. Monday was Tade's turn to take care of Quincy. Tade was so excited and wanted to take the cub everywhere. So we ran errands with Quincy. Here are some of the adventures Tade had with Quincy and the things Tade wrote in the journal.

Tade and Quincy played Bakugan.

Quincy staying dry in my coat.

Quincy was playing in the ball pit at Target.

Tade and Quincy went on a jungle safari.

Qunicy helped eat the Easter candy.

My brother, Seth, was giving Quincy a kiss.

Tball Season Opener

Soccer has been the sport of choice in our home for the past few years. This spring Tade decided to give soccer a little break so he could try tball. I must say that for a 4 year old kicking a ball seems to come a lot easier than catching, but when you add throwing the ball tball becomes a pretty cool sport. Not being able to use his hands was the one complaint Tade had with soccer. Which is why he told us he wants to be a goalie.
This past Saturday was Tade's first tball game. It was Yankees vs. Orioles. The perfect rivalry to start the season.

Tade and his Yankee tball team for opening day pictures.

Seth really wanted to be a part of the team. He kept trying to run out on the field to join Tade during the game. Lately he has been really attached to his brother. It should be interesting this fall when Tade starts kindergarten.

Warming up for the game. He was having so much fun in his new uniform. He felt like a real ball player.

Seth hanging around during the game. He had fun playing in the dirt most of the time.

Waiting for his turn to bat. They all looked so cute in the batting helmets.

Batter up! He was up to bat three times and hit the ball first try each time.

Tade was a very determined runner.

By the end of the game the boys were getting pretty bored. That's tball for ya. Good thing there was dirt accessible to play with.

Seth's day was complete when got to run the bases just like his big brother.

White House Easter Egg Roll

We ended our spring break week with the White House Easter Egg Roll. After several hours of trying online I was lucky enough to get tickets. There were people buying these tickets on ebay for $900 a pair. I could have made quite a profit with six my tickets, but decided the experience was more important.

It took us 2 1/2 hours to actually get through to the white house grounds. They were very backed up on the grounds and wouldn't let new people on until others cleared out. So we waited in line with a lot of other parents and kids with no food or drink. Surprisingly most everyone was pleasant. Our group did make it on the evening news because of our long wait. For a brief moment you could see the back of our heads while they were interviewing someone. Our two second moment of fame. Finally after much waiting they let us through to the festivities.

Group pictures in front of the white house with the Fredins. Our kids did such a good job with no food or naps.

Seth was helping the grounds crew trim the grass.

Throughout the day there were different groups performing on the main stage. Our group was suppose to watch Fergie, but since we were delayed getting it we have to settle to listening to her from the other side of the fence. The delay was a good thing though. Instead of Fergie we were able to listen to the Imagination Movers. Tade and Seth were so excited. The Imagination Movers is a show they both watch on the Disney channel. We were right in front of the stage. Seth was rocking out so hard it was great!

One of the activities was an Easter egg find. The White House used real died hard boiled eggs for their activities. They must have had thousands of eggs.

This is about as close to the White House as you can get without touching it. Pretty cool.

There really is an Easter egg roll at the White House Easter egg roll. Tade was so excited he got to participate. This was our final activity. As we left we got a great green wooden egg then rushed for the hot dog stand. Man were we starving. It was 1:30 and we hadn't eaten since 8am.