Alex's 4th Birthday/B&O Raiload Museum

We celebrated Alex's 4th Birthday in Baltimore at the B&O Railroad Museum.  Yet another gorgeous September day. I may need to move to San Diego so that we can have days like this all year long ;)

 

Inside the Museum

Riding the Carousel

 



Ethan

The birthday boy!

 

Audrey riding the train. She looks unsure, but she loved it!

The boys

Audrey & Daddy on the Carousel

 

Playing with the trains

One of the many trains inside the museum.

Train ride!

Waiting for the train to go.

Tired after a fun day.

Happy 4th Birthday, Alex! So glad we got to celebrate with you :)

2012 FAAN Walk for Food Allergy

This September was our 2nd FAAN Walk for Food Allergy. It was a 2.3 mile walk in Ellicott City, MD and the weather could not have been more perfect!

 

"No pictures, please"



 

The Walk

We walked as part of a group called Linda's Legacy (set up by my sister's food allergy moms support group), which happened to be the #1 fundraising group this year, raising just under $4,000 for FAAN (Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Network).



 

Ready to "walk"



The boys did walk some...and at one point, Ethan pulled Alex and I in the wagon :)





Wildlife

Alex



Ethan





Ethan & Alex with Captain America & Mickey Mouse

 

 Such a fun morning and a great experience for the boys. The only thing that would have made it better is if Kyle Dine was there ;)

Food Allergies Rock!

 

In September, we traveled to Philadelphia to see Kyle Dine at the Strides for Safe Kids Food Allergy Expo. I cannot say enough good things about Kyle Dine. He is a rock star in so many ways. My nephew, Alex, has several food allergies (although, thankfully, the list has gotten much shorter over the last couple of years!) His food allergies impact his life daily and there are many more challenges to come as he gets older. Kyle is a Canadian song writer who entertains and educates about food allergies. He performs at school assemblies, but we have seen him at my sister's food allergy support group and two years in a row at this expo. It is so sweet to see how he encourages these kids. I just love him.

Kyle Dine :)

 

My nephew, Alex, rocking his Food Allergy Expo T-Shirt

Ethan & Alex getting their very own Kyle Dine guitar picks!



After the Expo, we had lunch at one of our favorite allergy-friendly restaurants.

My sweet girl...always sucks her thumb when she's tired.

Ethan & Audrey LOVE the egg drop soup at PF Chang's...I love that they eat all kinds of things I never would have eaten as a kid.

 

Before heading home, we visited my grandmother in Philadelphia--notice the billboard (I LOVE Revenge!)


Have I mentioned that we LOVE Kyle Dine?!? Audrey's favorite song is "Food Allergies Rock!" The kids always want Kyle Dine in the car and Audrey always insists we start with Food Allergies Rock. I'm pretty sure I've heard it at least a million times, but I don't mind because Kyle Dine rocks! :) 



Catching up, Part 1: September

Wow, so we've been a little busy since school started...Let's catch up! (I just may be the worst blogger ever!)

Here are some of the highlights from September:

Back to school shoe shopping...

Audrey's navy Tom's are in that bag...Love her. Lover her Toms :)

My little shopper :)

Ethan picked these out himself :)



The kids LOVE getting balloons from the kids shoe department.

Playing outside while we wait for Daddy to come home from work...

Tricycle Ride! (To whoever invented the long handle on Audrey's tricycle, you are my hero).

Ethan on his bike (given to us by a generous neighbor!)

Wildlife

Trip to the ER (because we do that...regularly)...

This time it was an eye issue. Ethan started rubbing his eye on a Friday. By late afternoon, I was concerned, so we visit our pediatrician. They put some gooey stuff on his eye and examined it under a black light, but didn't see anything, so they said maybe it was an allergy issue (I had my doubts) and we came home. Later that night, Ethan woke up crying that his eye hurt, so on Saturday morning it was back to the pediatrician. They examined his eye under the black light again, still didn't see anything, but could tell by Ethan's level of discomfort that something was going on. Since it was Saturday, they sent us to the ER to see a pediatric ophthalmologist.



Waiting for the doctor...

Right eye problems.

Waiting some more...

 We LOVE the new pediatric ER at AAMC...glad it's there, wish we'd stop having reasons to visit ;) Anyway. Ethan had to do the gooey stuff/black light thing again. He was not a fan (especially since it was the 3rd time in 2 days), but he did a great job cooperating with the nurses. They didn't see anything either and were going to send us home with the "allergy" diagnosis...I wasn't happy with because I knew something was up, but thankfully the doctor called our pediatrician to discuss. I don't know what Dr. G said, but they came back and said they were going to flush his eye in case there was something in there they weren't able to see. It was torture. The nurses basically had to swaddle him so he couldn't move his arm and then squirt water into his eye. It broke my heart having to help hold him down, but as we tell our kids all the time, "sometimes we have to do things we don't want to do to help us feel better." Ethan was a champ.



Reward for water torture.

...And the toy machine, conveniently located right outside of our room.

 We still don't know what was in Ethan's eye, but after the nurses flushed it out, he felt much better. The doctor said his eye would probably hurt for another day or so from the pressure of the water, but I could tell a difference in him very soon after. My boy was back!


First Day of School

Wednesday was Ethan's first day of 4 year old preschool. He has the same teachers as last year (we LOVE Ms. Jen & Ms. Krista!) and some of the same classmates, too (along with a new classmate and cousin, Alex!) We are SO excited for the year ahead!

Ethan & Alex -- Ethan loves preschool. He does not love smiling for photos.

The kids wanted pictures of their backpacks :)

Audrey

 Audrey was SO ready for her first day of school. She got out her backpack, posed for pictures...she was ready!  I told tell her that it was Ethan's first day of school and that she would get to go to her class on Friday at MOPS, but she was convinced that she was going to preschool. When we dropped Ethan off and Audrey realized that she didn't get to stay, she was not pleased at all.  Mommy made it up to her with some Chick-Fil-A and she was a happy girl again :)

"Snack Helper"

One of the first things Ethan always tells me when I pick him up from school is what "job" he had that day.  Last year he LOVED being "calendar helper" and would choose that as his job whenever he could.  This year, on his first day, Ethan was "snack helper."

And because I LOVE good food and sharing recipes:

Tonight for dinner, we had Paleo fish sticks (my cookbook calls them "fish stick-o-licious") and let me tell you, they were yummy!

Paleo Fish Sticks

18 oz cod or catfish (I used Wild Caught Cod)
1/2 cup coconut flour
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/2 cup almonds, finely chopped
1/2 cup pecans, finely chopped
2 large eggs
1 tbsp olive oil

1. Rinse fish and pat dry with a paper towel. Cut into 3- to 4-inch lengths. Try to make them all the same thickness.
2. Preheat your oven to 450 degrees.
3. In a medium bowl, combine coconut flour, garlic powder, and black pepper. Place the finely chopped nuts on a small plate and whisk the eggs in a medium bowl until they begin to froth.
4. Coat the fish in the flour mixture and pat to get rid of excess. Dip the floured fish into the egg and then into the chopped nuts. Press the fish into the nuts so they stick well on both sides.
5. Place strips on well-oiled baking sheet (I used coconut oil). Use the olive oil to drizzle on each and bake for about 20 minutes. They'll be golden brown and ready to go.

I served my fish sticks with veggies and they were delicious!  And because the baking sheet I chose was too small to hold all of the fish, I cooked the last 6 fish sticks in coconut oil on the stove.  Both were yummy, although next time I will just choose a bigger baking sheet ;)

Enjoy!

My Kids Call Him "Baby Brandon"

My sister (in-law), Allison, is a child-birthing ROCK STAR!  Chris and Allison welcomed baby Brandon into the world a little after 10 pm tonight!  6.5/7 hours of labor and 25 minutes of pushing--yes, Aunt Allison is AWESOME!  We are so thankful for a smooth delivery and a healthy baby. 

Baby Brandon!!!

Chris, Allison and Baby Brandon--doesn't my sister-in-law look amazing?! She gave me permission to post this photo on the blog (and why not?  She seriously does not look like she just gave birth!) Love you guys!!!

Can't wait to introduce baby Brandon to Ethan and Audrey.  They will be in LOVE - I know I am :)

Labor Day Weekend: Part 3

Now here's a day that started out pretty ordinary and then proved to us that even though we have kids, we can still be spontaneous!

Here's how it happened:

I love Craig's List.  I love reusing/recycling.  I love that one man's trash really can be another man's treasure, so this morning, we drove to Baltimore to pick up an accent table for our living room.  Truth be told, my living room is my least favorite room in my home.  Since we've had kids, it doesn't know if it wants to be a living room, an office or a play room...it's a combination of all three, which drives me crazy, but I digress...

As we drove into the city, past the Raven's stadium, we noticed some unusual traffic and road closures...and then we remembered...the Baltimore Grand Prix!  Thankfully, the traffic wasn't terrible and we could see a little of the race from the road, which was awesome!  I was hooked.  After we picked up our new (to us) accent table, we headed toward the Inner Harbor for the Grand Prix.

It was around 1:30 PM by the time we parked, so there was only one race left, but it was the BIG one (we were told--I actually know nothing about IndyCar, except that Arie from Emily's season of the Bachelorette is an IndyCar driver--and yes, he was there, but no, we didn't see him).  Since it was so late in the day, we hadn't had lunch yet, and the tickets were expensive, we decided to have lunch at Brio and then watch the race from outside of the fence.  It worked out great.  There was a spot by the sharpest curve of the track where we could see through the fence (they're pretty good about making the track so that you have to pay if you want to see much of anything). We heard a crash while we were inside the restaurant and it was LOUD, but thankfully no one was hurt.

Miss Audrey at Brio in Baltimore (she would have eaten the butter by itself if I had let her...instead she licked it off of her bread...yum?)

Brian & an Ethan who wouldn't stay still for a photo.

Audrey and I (this did not last for very long!)

Brian and the kids (I'm not sure why Brian and Ethan look mad, they were having a good time...I promise!)

Ethan--and here you can see the view we had.  We could see the cars as they went around the curve.

Mommy and Audrey (doing her "silly face")

I love that they won't smile on command, but ask for their silly faces and you'll get them!

This car was right behind where we were standing.  I don't know what kind of car it is. (If you do, I would love for you to leave a comment!)

Surprisingly, Ethan did not take an interested in the car, but Audrey wanted to see, so we went to check it out.  This particular car does not race anymore, they only use it for show.

Audrey didn't want to pose for a photo by herself, but thanks to the reverse camera on my phone, here we are!

  We had such a fun day!  I wouldn't have even thought about going if we hadn't been in the area, but as it turns out, I LOVE fast cars! So glad we went!  Grand Prix 2013--we just may have to buy tickets ;)

 Since we were a little far away, it was hard to get a good video, but while Audrey and I were still in the restaurant, my trusting husband took Ethan outside and gave my new droid to a stranger who had tickets to the track side suites (which were right next to where we were standing) and he took this video for us (that after 30 minutes will not upload--but I'll have my technical assistant husband work on it, because it's a really cool video). Thanks random stranger!--For the video and for bringing back my phone!

 The kids and I napped in the car on the way home--thanks for driving, honey (and for carrying my solid wood accent table down three flights of stairs!)

We also made 2 other amazing Craig's List purchases tonight--dinning room chairs (finally, after 6 years, I have chairs to go with my dining room table!) and another accent table to replace the Ikea table in our family room (I like to call the new table our "grown-up" furniture).  Ikea served it's purpose, but it's time to move on :)

And how did we get all of these awesome finds home?  Our new (to us) mini van, of course!  I will post pictures tomorrow :)