Storyland!

Over Labor Day weekend we took a two night trip up to Storyland in NH.  For those of you not from the Northeast, Storyland is an amusement park geared to kids 12 and under.  There are lots of rides for the little ones, and also a bunch of areas for the kids to just play.  As a point of reference, there were only 5 rides that Zoë was too small to go on.

The drive through the White Mountains to Storyland was really beautiful.  We stopped at one of the scenic overlooks and took this picture of Vince and Zoë:

Not all of the pictures we took came out as nice.  In fact, I'm still convinced our family is cursed when it comes to trying to get descent pictures of us together.  Here's a video Lisa made of a few pictures we took:

That's Vince fooling around and taking Zoë out, then Zoë stomping away.

We stayed at a little motel called the North Colony Inn that had an awesome playground for the kids.  It was the only place that we could find with decent reviews that didn't require a 3 night stay for the long weekend.  From what we read about it, it's great for little kids since they have an awesome playground.  Here's a picture of the treehouse they had there (with Mike and Vince looking out the windows!):

Um, where can I get one of these for our backyard!  This is the coolest little treehouse

Luca and Zoë swinging in the sunshine!

Storyland has a deal that if you enter the park after 2pm, you can come back another day.  Since the park closes at 5pm, that's the perfect amount of time for the little ones.  We went for 3 hours the first day we got there, and then back for more the next day.  Here are some of the highlights in photos.

The kids got to meet Curious George, but Zoë wouldn't get closer than 10 feet.  Instead, she insisted on a constant stare, like a deer in headlights, frozen, until we finally had to pick her up and carry her away.  Only Vince went for the photo op, and he was a bit freaked by the giant George also.

Lisa, Vince, and Zoë taking a ride on the little train.  Any surprise that this was the first ride they went on?

Lisa and Zoë on a ride.  We couldn't convince Vince to get on, but this was towards the end of the first day and he was getting pooped.

The pumpkin carriage ride to Cinderella's castle, and 2 random kids.

Vince loved the pumpkin ride!

Zoë was overwhelmingly excited to meet Cinderella.  Vince was too shy to go up to her.

Zoë had to ride the carousel three times before we could get her off!

On the Storyland equivalent of a ferris wheel.

Towards the end of day 2.  We needed to give the kids something to keep them going, but maybe this was a little too much...at least she didn't yak that cotton candy/popcorn mixture back up! (although she sort of looked like she might when I took this picture)

Both days we were there we went to the Glen Junction restaurant for breakfast.  The place has a train theme, and you can see the train track hanging from the ceiling in the picture below.  It was probably Vince's favorite restaurant EVER, and it made for a relaxing meal for whoever sat next to him.

And it's Vince at it again, making sure to taint our family photos with a funny face!

After our second day in Storyland, we took a ride on the North Conway scenic railroad.  The ride was about an hour total, and it was a nice relaxing way to end a long day for the kids. 

our engine

Views of the White Mountains.  We sat in an open air coach.

I can't believe that Zoë sat still long enough for this photo.

                      Everyone watching as the engine is moved from one end of the train to the other.

This was Vince's favorite thing to watch!

We'll definitely be making another trip up to Storyland at some point.  It was fun to be able to go on some of the 'big kid' rides with Vince..... and makes me look forward to so many more things we can do as the kids get older!  (including get more sleep... haha!)

Misquamicut Beach, RI

Let me just finish up with what we did over the summer so I can move on to things that actually happened this month!

In mid July our friend Kathryn and I packed the kids up in the car, and drove down to Rhode Island to spend the day at Misquamicut Beach.  Mike's sister and mother were vacationing there so we met up with them.  After driving down there that day, there's a few things I will now never forget to do in order to prep for a long drive (anything over 10 minutes according to the kids).  #1-always keep water near each kid so they can have it if they want it. #2-keep a few snacks within arms reach of each kid so they don't have to whine about being hungry while in the car. #3-invent some sort of catching net for when they drop stuff that they want, that they would then be able to retrieve the dropped object.

I never realized how much I actually play airline stewardess in the car when we are going on longer trips.  Usually it's Mike driving, so I end up crawling into the back seat a few million times to get this or that, pick up this cup, get that toy that fell on the ground.  It's insane!  Well, on this trip to Rhode Island, I was driving... and Kathryn was co-pilot, neither of us would be able to get back there.  I didn't prep any water or food ahead of time, and as a result we heard lots of whining on the way down.  Well, Zoë actually whines whenever we get into the car, so that didn't change much of anything.  The rewards of the drive were great however, as the kids had a total blast at the beach that day.  It was great fun running and jumping around in the waves, and letting the kids dig in the sand to their hearts content.

Within minutes of us getting there, everyone was dipping their toes

 Vince loved the waves!  This is a huge improvement over last summer, when he screamed as soon as we saw the beach and waves

 Noelle and Zoë had fun running in the waves

  Luca had fun hanging out in the shade chatting with Nonna

 building some sort of sand sculpture

 relaxing by the pool after a long day of sun and play

Nonna even managed to get a picture with all her grandchildren! You gotta love sweet Andrew, so excited on the left (Andrew,Vince, Luca, Zoë, and Noelle)

And then there was the sad goodbye, which actually makes me giggle with fond memories.  It began with a short dose of bickering between Lisa and her mom on who would get to carry Luca to the car (Lisa won on grounds that Nonna gets to see Luca more often), and eventually ended with Aunt Lisa having to pull a kicking and crying Andrew out of our van so we could drive home.  He was so very sad that we were leaving, and had planted himself in the van next to Vince, ready to come spend the rest of the week with us (which we would have loved!).  It was sad goodbyes all around, but heartwarming to know that  the kids relationships with their cousins are getting to the point where they can look forward to seeing them again.

Too Busy to Write About It

Yeah yeah, I know my last post was like 2 months ago... I even had to look it up to see what the heck it was that I posted on!  Oh yes, Zoë's birthday!  Wow, that was like forever ago now.  Well, it turns out we've had a great summer here in Boston.  It was super warm and sunny for a lot of the summer, and we spent lots of time out by the pool, and exploring around.  That is, of course, when we weren't working on weekends!  Mike and I have both been signing up for extra hours over weekends this summer, so it's been very busy.
Some highlights of our summer include multiple opportunities for the kids to hang out with their New York cousins Amelia and Melina!  They came to visit for a few days so we could all play in the pool, and then we were able to see them a few weekends ago when we drove to New York for Michelle's graduation party, congrats Michelle!  Here's some of the highlights from what I can remember of the last two months.....

everyone getting some story time, cuddling in Vince's bed (with Amelia, Melina, Zoë, and Vince)

 Everyone scream for Ice Cream!

 Zoë plays elephant with the pool noodle (with Aunt Hilde and Amelia)

 We were able to celebrate Melina's birthday when we visited New York!

 This is a typical site when Melina gets around her baby cousin Luca (or any babies for that matter).  She takes good care of him, she'll make a good mommy!

Zoë got all dolled up for Michelle's graduation party

Early this summer Zoë also had her first dental visit, you can tell how thrilled she is....

 Luca gave his first 'thumbs up' pose

And sometime in the last few days Luca figured out how to sit up on his own!

Zoë's 2nd Birthday!

..... it was a great excuse to just invite a whole lot of friends over to enjoy the pool and sunshine in our backyard.  We had a great time for Zoë's birthday weekend.  On her actual birthday we went to Vince's buddy Max's birthday party as he turned 4.  What a super spider man b-day it was!  That was after Vince and I woke Zoë up in the morning to sing happy birthday to her.  I'll spare you the video of that.  We had a small celebration of cupcakes for the family, and spent a relaxing evening outside, as we knew the bigger celebration would be at her pool party the next day.

happy birthday little lady!

The next day we got the backyard ready for about 45 adults and 25 kids.  Thank God we decided to make it a pot luck this time!  Everyone showed up with a variety of super good eats, and the day had plenty of sunshine and warmth, so there were loads of folks in the pool having a good time! 

 Zoë chillin out post pool play

Zoë and her very own signature Costco cake ;)  She had no problem blowing out the candle on her own.

"hurry up already! I want to dig in to my cake!"

ok, everyone's done singing, time to cut the cake!

My biggest anticipation was looking forward to watching the kids beat on the head of Winnie the Pooh

 Winnie the Pooh: pre-toddler/kid attack

take that Winnie!

It's amazing to think how much Zoë has grown up over the last year.  There are too many memories to share all of them, but some of our favorite have been more recently as she's been talking more and more.  Here are some ones that stand out:

• Her first sentence: "No Dada! No Dada!"
• Her favorite phrase to shout when she doesn't want to go to sleep: "Mamaaa! WhereAreYooo!"
• She calls Luca "baby" because she has a hard time with his name.  When pressed, she'll say his name is "Aca"
• She is so attached to her lovie blanket.  It's yellow with a duck head in the corner.  She also asks for "duckie" when she's tired or cranky.
• She's also really attached to her "baba" (bottle).  Mommy and Daddy want to throw baba out the window!
• If it wasn't for milk, she would have starved to death by now.
• She definitely knows how to throw a tantrum.  One day when Mike came home she wanted juice.  Every time Mike said no, she would jump up and shout "Juice!"
• Zoë's love for dancing is amazing.  She can really dance to the music, and uses all of her body, especially her hips.  When we tell her to shake her booty, she really shakes it! 
• Life is soo much better with a daughter to love....Happy 2nd Birthday Zoë!

3 Airline Seats for a Family of Five, Please....

Last weekend we went on an adventure and took our first plane ride with all three kids!  We figured we had to take advantage of the last few days before Zoë turns 2, so we squeezed her in as a lap infant one last time.  Mike having Luca on his lap, and me having Zoë on my lap, made it tight on the plane.... not to mention technically difficult when we would try to get anything out of our backpacks, or pick up dropped toys from the floor, or set up the DVD player for Vince to watch a movie, or go to the bathroom.  There were a few times when Vince had one of the kids on his lap for a minute or two so we could move!!  We also happened to be in the very end row which was bad for two reasons:  no window for the kids to look out of, and extremely bumpy on the landing.  That combination makes it REALLY easy to get motion sick, which Zoë happened to get while we were in descent to Atlanta.  Luckily I had just exchanged Zoë for Luca to sit on my lap-poor Zoë yacked on Mike right before we landed (poor Mike too, lol).  She was fine once we got off the plane, but we joked that, well.... we are about to visit some Silvestro family members so it's time that at least one of our kids gets sick!(they have a tendency of getting a stomach bug whenever we pack up and go to New York).

Luca getting in some reading time with Dad

Mike and I weren't the only ones tired from the plane ride.  Yes-we promptly fixed the booster seat after seeing this!

 Our trip to Georgia gave us the opportunity to see Mike's sister Lisa and her family, and we also got to attend the wedding of a good friend of mine from Peace Corps.  Laura and Matt got married on her parents farm in Brasstown, NC.  It was such a great reunion of old friends and new babies.  I absolutely cherish every moment I can get back together with the amazing friends from my years in Malawi.  That being said, how sad is it that I only have a couple pictures from the whole wedding! (though I was dealing with three over-tired, over-heated children for a while).  Here's my good buddy (and square dancing partner extraordinaire) Dave giving some hugs to Luca.... and then the awesome bluegrass band from PA that played in the barn after the wedding

It was so exciting and fun to be able to stay at Lisa and Neal's house for a visit!  The kids were equally excited to spend time with their cousins Andrew and Noelle.  It was really such a joy to see them have fun with and get to know their cousins.  We spent lots of good time at their neighborhood pool, attended Noelle's swim team awards ceremony (she got the coaches award!), went for ice cream a few times, played at the house, and explored the Georgia Aquarium-which was so impressive! Vince was also super excited to sleep in Andrew's room along with Noelle.  Zoë was so upset when we banished her to another room, poor girl.  Mike tried to be nice and give her a chance to sleep with Vince on the toddler blow up bed.  Yeah right....that didn't last long!  They were monkeys in there until we had to go and finally break it up. 

Noelle, Vince, and Andrew pose at the ice cream parlor

 Mike and Andrew playing chase at the pool playground

Best photo of all the cousins! what a good looking group :)

 Andrew getting to know Luca, although I think his favorite was Zoë.  What a sweet little boy Andrew is!

Cooling off at the spray park

Zoë and Andrew dancing a jig (I think)

The monkeys, I mean kids, didn't leave us any room at the table (that's ok, we ate in the dining room)

 The Georgia Aquarium Rocks!  

Vince's absolute favorite was the tank with 4 giant whale sharks.  Those are amazing fish!

 

We are back home now, and since our trip Vince has been putting himself to bed for naps during the day-ok, that's awesome... please keep doing that!  I think these kids are tired from all the fun, but we can't wait for the next trip!