Children's Museum...Again and Again

We truly can never get enough of the Children's Museum, especially since they continue to open new areas to explore! We visited twice this week and enjoyed completely different things each time.

First, we hooked up with all the Halpin cousins and Gigi. We spent the majority of our time in the house area, experimenting with style and practicing the culinary arts.

O donned this happenin' outfit. When asked what he was dressed up as, he exclaimed, "A DADDY!"

Handsome Cowboy Clayton

So many cooks in this kitchen!

Firewomen to the rescue!

Cutest firefighter I've ever seen!

Even Baby Noah found toys just his speed.

The very next day, Gramps and Yaya were able to check out the museum with us.

Big smiles for Yaya

The amazing floating ping pong balls are still a fave.

Gramps and No-nos get musical

Belly laughs with Yaya

The construction crew hard at work

A new discovery! The fire alarm. Much to the annoyance of others, O rang it...and rang it...and rang it. Very fun stuff!

We Got Rhythm

If you think the Halpin Family can't dance, check this out!

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1173864263

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas!

The House of Halpin has had its annual tree-raising festivities. What a great night it was!

Owie and I made homemade pizza, a special meal for a special occasion. After I cleaned up all the flour that had been ceremonially sprinkled all over the kitchen floor, we brought forth the tree.

Aaaaaaah!

Check out O's reaction as we plugged it in! Priceless!

He loves the lights! To accompany our decorating, O sang Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star over and over in honor of the twinkle lights.

The tree box received some extra-special attention.

As always, Nosy is right in the middle of all the action! He was on tippy-toes straining to look inside the ornament box.

Each year, I find an ornament for the Boys that reflects in some way their current interests or personalities. For Owie's first Christmas I found a glass rubber ducky ornament, since the Boy was enamoured with rubber ducks. This year, O is old enough to actually hang his own ornament on the tree!

Just as quickly as O could get the ornaments hung, No-nos was right behind him, removing every one!

Noah found a big red ball ornament. You can almost see his wheels turning in this picture.

"Hmmm. I can think of a much better use for this ball than hanging on a tree!"

Making a sneaky get-away.

Good throw, Scooter! Thankfully, it was a non-breakable ornament!

After Noah got frustrated trying to undecorate our tree, he played some wonderful music on the "bongos" to accompany our festivities.

My beautiful children...and grandchildren. John and Jeremiah were very involved in our tree decorating!

Please note that all decorations are now placed out of Noah's reach. The bottom of our tree is completely bare!

A Song for You

O is quite the vocalist. He fills our home with happy songs, those both well-known and known only to Owie. I love to hear him expressing his heart and mind through music. His sweet voice is truly the most beautiful music to my ears. Here's a sample of his work:

Giving Thanks

What a blessed Thanksgiving we enjoyed this year. We had a busy, wonderful day, filled with family, laughter, and way too much great food!

For you two, I am truly grateful!

First stop, Gramps and Yaya's house for such a delicious lunch.

The Boys spent quite awhile building a super-cool train track all around the living room. Never one to be left behind, Noah is right in the middle of all the action!

The hit game of the day: catch the bouncing ping pong ball. Fun times!

Gramps and Nosy share an inside joke...
...and then give the secret head bump.

Stop number two: Julianne's house, which was full of crazy cousins and sinful desserts!

Clayton was a pirate most of the day. Pretty scary!

Promising artists, O, Mia, Maddie and Ally created masterpieces

The two tiniest cousins (who can hardly be called tiny any more!)

No-nos is also quite fond of Bailey, the family dog

Last, but not least: Off to the McCracken's for one more round of turkey

Noah gets some LouLou love

Such handsome men! O loves his Uncle Kyle!

Feel Good about Your Housekeeping!

This is the kind of housekeeper I am:

Not a good one.

I would do almost anything to avoid cleaning the house, especially when there are sweet Boys growing up too fast begging to be played with and snuggled on.

Thus the following occurred.

Something odd on our door frame caught my eye. Upon closer inspection, I recognized that it could possibly, maybe could be a cocoon.

A COCOON?!?!

I did vaguely recollect seeing a caterpillar sitting in that very spot a few days prior. However, I do not recall ever catching and releasing it. Bummer. A cocoon growing, hibernating in our house. How embarrassing!

Oh well. We will make the best of it! I ran and got O to show him my discovery. He was quite impressed, and made absolutely no derogatory remarks about my cleaning skills. We thought maybe we should read our Very Hungry Caterpillar book. "That's a great idea, Mommy!" At Owen's suggestion, we decided to include the cocoon in our story time. We plopped right down next to our cocoon and Owie "read" the book aloud, stopping several times along the way to inquire whether the caterpillar could hear him.

We were still hanging out with our cocoon when Daddy came home. He, unfortunately, was not as impressed as I had hoped. He grabbed a paper towel and whisked our friend away before we could argue. It was fun while it lasted!

(I hope I have not scared any of you away from our humble abode. I do clean from time to time, and your chances of encountering a caterpillar are slim!)

Not So Much a Baby

Scooter is ELEVEN months old today. I am getting very sentimental about it. My baby is almost ONE! He surely does not seem very much a baby at all any more.

Sweet profile

He walks quite well with the help of his push toy. He feels so proud of himself and laughs all the while, thinking he is such a Big Boy.

The peepers are still mostly blue, but they will sometimes fade to gray or darken to an olive green color. Who knows how they will end up!
Still a man of extremes, Noah is either happy, giggling, grinning, delighted or screaming, upset, fit-throwing. Usually it is the former, thankfully! He is a flirty, social guy who loves to engage others in his little games (patty cake, high fives, lip smacking, echo). He laughs and laughs and his precious giggles are contagious. Things that seem to be fit-inducing: getting strapped into any type of baby equipment, such as the stroller or car seat (This usually leads to high-pitched wails of protest, total body stiffness and much flailing of extremities.), diaper and/or clothes changing, being held aloft when there is food or an interesting object below. We do have several fitty episodes every day, but they are short-lived and, thankfully, Noah is not prone to grudge-holding. He recovers quickly and is once again his giggly self.

These Brothers love each other so much!

Where I found No-nos perched this morning. Just look at that face. Is he proud, or what?!

Scooter continues to be such an affectionate little guy! He frequently pauses in play to fling his chubby baby arms around my neck in a big bear hug. Wide open-mouthed, slobbery kisses are passed around freely. We are all well-loved by our Noah! And he is definitely well-loved right back! I delight in you, Nosy-Posy!

Ba-cation: The Finale

All good things must come to an end. Alas, it was true of our vacation, but we went out with a bang!

The Boys and I took Jeremy to the Children's Museum. We've had our membership for eight months now, but he has never experienced the wonderfulness of it!

Our enthusiastic fire fighter

O and J build with pipes

I think Jeremy enjoyed the toys more than the kids!

Noah discovered the tunnel

Owie is one tall boy!

Making beautiful music together

Owen's new favorite part: The suspended ping pong balls. How amazing! The ball just floats in mid-air! It is so much easier for O to catch the ball when it hangs suspended just for him! He played this game for almost half an hour, and we still had to tear him away! Fascinating!

What I saw in the backseat on the way to lunch. Such sweetness!

We ate lunch at a new place called Mooyah. Now that is one good burger! The fries were outstanding as well!

We topped the day off with an evening of bowling. When listing what activities we wanted to include during our vacation, bowling was a high priority for Owen. I was impressed that he remembered bowling, since we have not been since May.

That Boy is proud of his orange ball!

What a great send-off!

This is the victory dance. When accompanied by a "Whoo-hooo!" it celebrates true bowling greatness.

And so, our vacation is over. What priceless memories were made this week!