Little B

B is now 14 months old! 

"Hey, look at me!  Hi there!"

Look at that smile!  What a little cheesy expression, huh?  They are my favorite kind!  We were just enjoying the sunshine outside.  She was playing with all the dry leaves and sticks on the ground while watching her sister and brothers throw the football around.

B is such a happy baby.  She has been raising herself up to the standing position and hanging out there with a big smile and once she realizes that she's gotten everyone's attention, she will fall back down.  She will now show off her new abilities and stand up and clap her hands in pure delight!  Just this past weekend, at the Port Discovery Children's Museum, she decided to stand up and take a few steps.  Yeh, B!  You can now catch her practicing her walking. 

B is the baby that took the longest to walk.  A started walking at 13 months and my boys were in between 10 and 11 months.  She is still so tiny and it makes me marvel at how cute she is when she's standing up!

Even though A still seems like a little girl to me, she is definitely a "big" sister to B.  A is always helping her along and looking after her.  So do all her brothers.  It's the neatest thing in the world and it gives me all these warm fuzzies.  B is so blessed to have her siblings there for her.

Till next time!









The Other Washington

Guess where Coach and I went for a weekend with no kids?  I'll give you a hint.

Yup! We went to Seattle, WA.  I've never been there, but have always wanted to.  I had some friends in college who were from there and they always made the place sound so attractive to me - except the rain.  And of course, I loved Sleepless in Seattle!  There is a city amidst tall mountains and oceans, plus great suburban life.  Everything I like in one place and everything nearby. 

We also were able to take this trip without the kids, even without Baby - yeh!  Thanks to my wonderful in-laws.  Another way I am very blessed in my life.  Coach & I didn't drive - we flew Southwest.

Everyone in my family (even the kids) seem to like road trips, I really prefer the plane.  We only had a weekend in Seattle and I wanted to make sure we saw and did enough in Seattle to make the time we had there worth it.  Coach was attending a Football clinic outside of Seattle in Redmond, WA.  We rented a car for the weekend so we could get around easily.  It really would have cost us just as much or even more if we used the public transportation over there.

As soon as we landed I already liked Seattle.  What a great personality it had.  We were lucky the weather called for no rain while we were there, yeh!  However, I had to keep reminding myself that flying west didn't mean warmer weather.  It was still VERY cold.  As soon as we got to our hotel, Coach went to his clinic and I went to the gym to work out.  It was my job to research where to eat that night in the city.  It sounds simple enough, but I seemed to put a lot of pressure on myself.  It's sort of like a one-shot deal of getting the perfect place to eat so you don't have regrets later.  All these places to choose from for the best eat?  Coach and I love seafood, so that was the type of restaurant we were looking for.  I eventually chose a popular restaurant on the pier which was highly rated, Elliott's Oyster House.

Driving to the city was really beautiful.  Seattle really was everything I imagined it would be.Before we got to the restaurant we had a little time to kill around the pier before our reservation.

This is a view from the pier.  A city at night is so beautiful.  I kept wondering about Frasier Krane and which highrise he lived in.  I was also wondering where that coffee shop was that he and his brother, Niles frequently went to.  I know, it didn't really exist...right?

I really wish I had a tripod for these shots.  We got there in time for the sunset!  Sigh...It was cold!  So very cold.  We didn't last long and headed to the restaurant for dinner.  I love oysters and was looking forward to some raw ones.  They had an elaborate oyster bar with many varieties.  I'm not used to having a selection.  Check this out...

There are oysters under all that ice in each basin.  I ended up ordering just a half dozen of an assortent and when they arrived, to my disappointment, were tiny but delicious!  We paid $14 for them, too.  Coach and I ordered our food and when it arrived was nothing it seemed to be.  Mine was still delicious, but Coach's meal was definitely hard to eat even for a seafood lover like us.  Oh well...Still a nice evening.

The next day, we slept in and when we finally we got out of bed, it was still very early in the morning due to the time difference.  Coach went to a clinic and I got dressed for a jog on one of the many trails around our hotel.  Woah...it was so very cold!!  The jog was fantastic, though! I jogged on a trail along a stream and went under many bridges, neighborhoods and buildings.  It sort of reminded me of Austria when I was abroad.  Nature seemed to be all around and very clean but it also had a modern element to it as well.

I ended up hanging out at Starbucks packing on the calories I just lost.  Coach and I were planning to see all the sights in the city that afternoon.  I was reading on the outdoorsey stuff to do, but there was no time to do it and it probably made sense to save that for warmer weather anyhow. 

I wanted to see the Pike Place Market!  I was most excited about that.  We've all seen the sign, right?

Well, there were a lot of them, not just one. 

There were so many things to see!  I don't know what it is about the market place that gets me so excited.  The people?  The food?  Doo dads here and there?  Here are a few things we saw.

We saw a lot of flowers!  They had people who made these personalized arrangement of flowers.  The variety of flowers and accents to choose from were so neat.  I'm not huge into flowers, but it looked like a lot of fun.

Perhaps, it is the food that I like at the Market.  I took enough pictures, huh?  You just want to buy some of this gorgeous food and take it home and create something delicious, but I didn't have a kitchen to bring it home to, unfortunately.

Have you ever heard of chocolate linguine?  I certainly have not.  I can't really imagine how you would begin to enjoy this.  I asked the vendor how you would eat it (he was dressed very goth like with weird piercings and facial hair, not someone I'd imagine selling pasta) and he mumbled something about a martini concoction of some sort...um, ok.  Well, the samples they gave out were raw strands of this linguini.  It wasn't bad raw.

Now this is something that makes me jump up and down like a little girl, a seafood stand! 

This made me squeal like a little girl - oh yum!!  Check out the price...so much cheaper than what I paid for at Elliott's Oyster House.

This made my day and I could go home a happy, satisfied woman.  Thank you, Seattle.  I know some of your are just squirming at the sight of this, but it's pure delight for me =-)

 He's kinda new to this sort of thing. 

  Seattle is a great place to eat salmon, but I only had some mixed in and hidden in cream sauce in my pasta the other night.  That doesn't count.  It looks so yummy.  Next time.

As soon as we arrived in Seattle, it wasn't unusual to see many Starbucks around since they are everywhere in this country!  However, while walking around in the market place we noticed this crowd in front of this  Starbucks.  They didn't have the traditional signage outside like all the others and why did they have entertainment outside?  What was so special about this one?  Could it be that this was the original Starbucks?  I think that's what I've read in the past but have forgotten.  It must be!  I paid hommage to the coffee establishment that sucks in all my money (and now recently gift cards from my credit card points) that pays for my Cafe Mochas and Frappes!  It's where it all began.  What a nice surprise.

I let Coach choose where we'd have lunch since I was overwhelmed by the many choices in front of me at the Market Place.  He chose a tiny Mediterranean food restaurant.

Red lentil soup with pita bread - so good, especially on a cold day.

It wasn't all about the food!  Even Coach found something interesting at the Market.  We stumbled upon a place that sold sports cards and other collectibles.  He ended up buying $50 worth of 20 year old Topps football card packs with the gum still in it.  A post for another time because my oldest daughter is very into them now. 

Coach is also into different types of beer.  We found the Pike Brewing Company and got a little sampler.

We did leave the Market eventually and visited the Space Needle and walked around the city.  We took the monorail as well.  We enjoyed the rest of our time there before we flew back home to our kids. 

Bye, bye Seattle.  Till next time. 

Haircuts

I cut all the hair in the family but mine, of course.  I never cut boys hair before.  When I was dating Coach, his father used to cut his hair.  He gave me a lesson on how to do his hair so that I could take over.  It's really not that hard.  I changed it up a little since then and now I only know how to do one or two types of cuts for boys.  One is Coach's haircut and the other is a full buzz.  In both cases, it's pretty simple.

Cutting the boys hair used to be a long hour of crying and restraining in the bathroom.  I would start with Coach and then he'd hold one boy in his arms while I cut their hair.  The boys would start crying and squirming around making it difficult to get that right angle.  And then all of the hair would stick onto their face from all the tears and snot - even worse!  But at the end, I would have really cute, handsome little boys.

It's getting easier as they are growing older.  Now, I can cut their hair without coach's assistance.  There is still whining and squirming, but it's all manageable. 

Before

After

P-A-T-T-E-R-S-O-N in Cincinnati

This is the time of year my husband travels to attend footall clinics.  We take this opportunity to travel to different places together.  I think I mentioned this before.  We decided to hit Cincinnati, OH since we haven't been there before and it's a driveable distance. 

The first thing I think of when I hear Cincinnati is that old television show WKRP in Cincinnati.  I never liked that show as a kid.  Perhaps, it wasn't kid-friendly content anyway.  You know when you watch something and it leaves you with an icky feeling?  I sort of never thought I'd choose Cincinnati to visit because I associated that feeling with the city.  However, I know better than that.  I'd like to say one day that I've been to most of the cities in the country I live in.  Cincinnati, check!

So when Coach is attending the clinics, I have all the kids with me.  It's a bit stressful for me to handle all of them by myself in a strange city.  I'm so scared I'm going to lose one of them.  I was happy that we were in the middle of the city and right next to a lot of places we could walk to.  There was a mall connected by a skywalk to our hotel.  By the way, George Clooney was in town the same weekend shooting his upcoming movie, Ides of March, at that same mall!  I think Ryan Gosling is in that movie, too.  We saw movie equipment being taken in and out, but no sign of celebrity anywhere. 

So, I planned a trip to the Children's Museum which was just a mile or two away.  We love going to all of them, it's sort of our thing.  We eventually bought the membership that gives you free admission for a year.  We've used it twice already this year and will visit the one in Baltimore before the year is up in July.

Nope, don't have pictures taken here (except this one) because I was busy chasing and handling 5 kids.  I was also video taping the kids for our family videos.  My kids are very good at staying together, thank God!  My kids would rate this museum as a 9 out of 10, I think.  They had so much fun.  I didn't have high expectations at all.  The place was smaller than the great ones in Pittsburgh and Boston, but the places they had here were very creative and fun, but compact.  I think the other reason they enjoyed it was because we went on a Friday afternoon - the place was practically empty and they were able to enjoy everything freely.  We left the museum in time to meet Coach for a nice dinner out.

Hey, did you know that Cincinnati is right across the Ohio river from Kentucky?  Geesh, I didn't realize that at all.  Just admitting to that tells you how great my geography is.  Anyway, we decided to visit the Aquarium that was in Kentucky.  There was a huge line that we waited in for over an hour.  We were ready to leave and go to the Zoo instead, but the kids insisted on waiting it out.  There was some street entertainment to watch while we waited.

We found the Newport Southbank bridge right next to the Aquarium that crossed the river over to Cincinnati.  It was just for pedestrians. 

Since it was a beautiful day for a walk, we decided to cross it.

Alongside the bridge were these grates.  If you looked down through them you would see the river.  You've probably seen those before, right?  My son just had to stop at each one of them and scream my name to make sure I saw all of them.  "Wow, great sweetie."  I saw about 25 of them that day.

"Mommeeeeeeee!"

 Fascinating.

I would have to say the walk across the bridge was my favorite part of the trip.

What a cute group of kids, eh?

My mother-in-law suggested we attend Mass the next day at the Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption in Covington, KY.  This church has the largest blown stained glass church window in the world! 

The stained glass depicts the Council of Ephesus, the ecumenical council which, in the early fifth century, proclaimed Mary as the Mother of God.

Gorgeous!

We left for home after Mass.  It was a great weekend trip.  Cincinnati wasn't so icky after all. 

100 days

When I was younger, I do not remember celebrating our 100th day of school.  If so, I'm sure my mother or father would have taken a picture(s) like this, too.

I picked T up from school and he was wearing this head gear!  He looked so darn cute.  We drove home and I said for him to wait outside so I could take a picture of him.  I pointed the camera at him and all of sudden he started to vogue!  Strike a pose, there's nothing to it.  Wow, what a ham :-}  Where did all of that come from?  Love it.

Zoo Visit

Sometimes, I just don't understand why I don't take the kids to the zoo more often.  We are so close!  My kids love animals, too.  Well, they prefer the ones deep down in the ocean and the aquarium is so expensive.  We decided to go to the zoo a few weekends ago to see what was new.  The winter is a good time to go because the crowds are few and the animals seem to be out more and are pretty active.  It wasn't too cold the day we went either which made it even better.

There is something about this hat on E.  He's so stinkin' cute.

Our zoo, the Nationl Zoo in DC, is under a lot of renovations.  They took away our favorite animal, Happy the Hippo, that lived in the elephant house and shipped him to the Milwaukee zoo because they are expanding the home for the Asian elephants into this big "Elephant Trail".  It's almost done.  He is missed terribly, but we have aquired a huge hippo collection of stuffed animals and figurines in his memory - all currently stored in my son's bunk bed.  They are also renovating the Sea Lion's home.  Yeh!  However we have to wait till, um I don't know.

My kids seem to be interested in all the telescopes that they pass just as much as the animals.  Sigh...

The biggest attraction at the zoo that day were the Lions and their baby cubs.  I think I counted 7 or 9 cubs.  Here are two of them and their Daddy.

Doesn't he look like Scar from the Lion King?  I rarely see a lion with a black mane.  There were so many people at this exhibit!  All of them having some monster camera with a monster lense longer than my arm.  Perhaps, it's a special photographer day at the zoo?  I unfortunately have one lense which produced these shots.

I don't like snakes.

I loved this reptile's expression.

The zoo is always fun for my kids.

The zoo should be really pretty in the Spring.  See ya then!