Carnival

A few days ago I got off school early, and we thought we'd take a gander at a little carnival that was set up in the parking lot of the Staten Island mall. Classy location right? Well... to be honest, can any carnival really be described as being 'classy'? Probably not.

Regardless, the boys absolutely loved it! I didn't think Carter would be totally in to the rides, but he wanted to do it all. Josh had so much fun flying high in the helicopter & airplane rides, and didn't seem nervous at all (also a surprise).

I tried to keep Carter under control by putting him on my shoulders. That lasted a whopping 20 seconds. He didn't want to be held or in the stroller. Either he was walking, or he was screaming.

Katie mentioned that she never ate at the carnivals they went to growing up. Once I heard that, I knew we had to buy some type of nasty carnival food to make up for all those years. It was an easy decision for me to go for the fried Snickers. Heaven on a stick if you ask me. I think that all Snickers candy bars should be fried. Josh & Katie wouldn't touch it, but Carter and I downed it in under 37 seconds.

Big boy

Joshua turned three years old. What a big boy! His birthday was on Friday, so Ryan and I switched our friends for babysitting co-op and had a birthday party for him with the kids. I wish we could've (or would've) invited more of his little friends but I don't think we could've handled more parentless kids, and I doubt the parents that don't do co-op would've wanted to hang out with a bunch of little kids on their Friday night (is this confusing?)... so we stuck with the co-op group. Anyway, the kids had fun, and Josh loved it. He surprised me when he willingly hugged and thanked all of his friends for their gifts, and he shared with all his new toys.

Funny story about his cakes. I told Josh the morning of his birthday I was going to make him a baseball cake. He was adamant against it, so I asked him what he wanted instead. He said he wanted a triangle cake with a big bunny on top...I asked about 5 times if that's what he wanted, and that morphed into him wanting a bunny cake. We looked online for bunny cake ideas, and we came across a video showing how to make these bunnies. We had to watch the video about three times for Josh, and he wanted the same color of bunnies as in the video. Thus Josh got pink and purple bunnies for his birthday cake.

Josh with his birthday presents.

Another funny story: The one thing Josh wanted for his birthday was Batman. He's never seen the show. We had a batman theme party, and Josh loved it. The morning of his birthday I asked him if he wanted me to find him a Batman show on the computer. He said, "No, Batman would scare me."

Still celebrating the birthday boy, we were planning on going to the beach on Saturday. Ryan tucked Josh into bed Friday night and came out saying Josh was refusing to go to the beach. I had my suspicions about Ryan coaxing Josh into not wanting to go :), but in the morning Josh was still adamant about not going. We ended up going to the Children's Museum, and although we've been there a number of times, Josh was still heartbroken when we had to leave. After that, we ran to Target to pick up cute pictures of the boys and then headed to KFC (per my request) and then to McDonalds. After dinner we headed home and played in the kiddie pool Josh got for his birthday. The water was cold and the boys were freezing, but they ,and Matthew, (Josh's "best friend" from downstairs...Josh has about five besties) loved it. All in all we had a fun day together as a family , and I think Josh has gotten the age of three all figured out.

Swinging in a hammock at the Children's Museum.

Josh giving us his fake smile.

The boys freezing in the kiddie pool.

We Are Fam-i-ly!

This was a regular occurrence with Josh and uncle Tom.

Josh and uncle Tom in Central Park. Right here, there was a completely white statue guy (honestly, he would even roll his eyes back so you only saw the whites of his eyes) that started following us. It was funny at first, but then we started getting nervous. Heh.

My brother, Tom, came out to visit a couple weeks ago. It was so much fun! I have to admit, I was excited, but I figured we'd all be exhausted at the end of the week. Usually guys are great fun, but they don't naturally think to help with the kids or clean up much (single guys, mind you). Perhaps my opinion is wrong, or my brother is just really awesome, because I think Tom was the most exhausted at the end of the trip. He helped clean and most of all, he entertained my kids whenever he was with us. Josh loved him the second he saw him, and there wasn't a time that he wasn't asking Tom to read to him, play swords, go in the fort, or look at something with him. Josh usually takes some time to warm up to people, but not with Tom. In fact, Josh didn't even acknowledge Ryan leaving for school when Tom was around, which shocked us all, since Ryan is Josh's favorite.
Thinking about it though....Tom might have been exhausted because New York is not a "vacation", it's a "trip". It includes a lot of public transportation using and walking, walking, walking . One day, Tom walked all the way from the ferry at the bottom of Manhattan to the temple (around 66th street)! He spent all day by himself, and he walked everywhere the whole day until I met him in the temple; and he saw a lot (Statue of Liberty, Rockefeller Center, China Town, Times Square, etc)! I was really impressed and have made a new goal to walk more in Manhattan.
Anyway, we had a great time, and we miss having Tom around! (Except for the times Tom would poke me or kick my shoe off my foot....old habits die hard, I guess).

Cute Carter holding on in the subway. Safety is always our number one concern.

Tom and Josh spending quality time together in the fort.

Getting ready to take Tom to the airport...to Germany!