Daddy's Birthday

Well, at least we celebrated Daddy's birthday on time! Better late than never for posting about it on the blog, I suppose! (We'll just say that Kate's birthday post to Ron counts for us, too!) We celebrated Ron's birthday with a yummy lobster dinner (even Scottie ate some lobster!) followed by a special cake that the boys helped "design" and make for Daddy. We had been talking about what kind of birthdays Robbie and Scottie have had in the past and want in the future, and the boys decided that Daddy should have a "Football Birthday." And for this football birthday, Daddy would need a football cake. (Imagine my relief that they settled on the football theme instead of the tool theme -- don't know how I would have done that one!)

So the boys helped me bake the cake and Robbie helped me decorate it to make it look like a football. I'm proud to say that this cake showed marked improvement over the last homemade cake I baked for Ron the year we moved to Charlotte. I didn't know you were supposed to let the cake cool before icing it, or even out the layers so they don't slide off each other. It was the funniest, most lopsided cake ever, but at least it tasted good! Thanks to the Food Network and Martha Stewart show, I actually made something that resembled a football and was tasty to eat, too!

We celebrated his birthday again at my parents' house on Sunday with more family. Happy non-birthday to Aunt Kate and thanks again for her much-more-timely birthday post!!

Halloween Fun

Well, the boys definitely LOVED Halloween this year! Sadly, I think my years of coordinated Halloween costumes with a theme are over. Sniff, sniff. I loved the Buzz and Woody combo from last year, complete with them singing "You've Got a Friend in Me" to each other. But this year, accessories won over costumes. Instead of going as Captain America (Robbie) and Batman (Scottie), they both saw plastic swords and changed their minds at the last minute. Scottie went as a knight and Robbie ended up being a ninja. Or, as Ron coined it, our little Mujahedin warrior when he wore his hood and mask. He was all about being a "bad guy", sneaking around in all black

Allie went along for the ride and looked adorable as a little baby bunny, although she had no clue what was going on. She made it until the last 2 houses and started to cry and just wanted to be home in her jammies and drinking her last nighttime feeding.

I did have to do a little experiment with her earlier in the day, though. I still had the Tom Arma skunk costume that Robbie wore for his first Halloween. Since they're both June babies, and so many have commented on how much they look alike, I had to try to stage a similar photo of Allie in the skunk costume. There is definitely NO denying that these kids are all related!

And one final update on Allie. We had her 4 month doctor's appointment last week. She weighed in at 13lb 12oz (50th percentile) and measured 25" (75th percentile) with her head maintaining the 25th percentile measurement. She had her shots and cried for all of 15 seconds before I had to pass her off to one of the 4 doctors and nurses in the room so we could give the boys their flu shots. Three kids and four shots at the same time. There was hot chocolate, a movie on DVD, and pumpkin carving when we got home to make up for the needle pokes!

Nittany Lion Pride!!

Ron and I went away this weekend to Penn State by ourselves and left all three kids with my parents. We dropped them off Sat morning and drove out the 3 hrs to get there. We even managed to score a room at the Nittany Lion Inn, right on campus. We parked when we got there and didn't drive again till we left Sunday afternoon to go home. We walked all over the entire campus, visited our favorite bars from when we were students there, shopped for lots of PSU gear for gifts, and just had a great time. No wonder I was so skinny in college -- the campus was huge when we went there, but it's gotten even bigger in the last 10 years since we've been back!

It was cool to see the same old stuff we remembered, but weird to turn a corner or go up a path and be confronted with a huge new building that had just sprung up out of nowhere! The downtown area is just a quaint as ever and we went by our old dorm buildings, apartments, and Ron's fraternity house (there are no sorority houses at Penn State -- my sorority was in a dorm suite). We had lunch at Cafe 210, which was famous for cheap pitchers of Long Island Iced Teas. They still had them on the menu and Ron convinced me to split a pitcher with him. Whew! They don't taste like alcohol at all, but do pack a punch!

Sat night we pulled off an unbelievable feat. The most popular bar in town is the Gingerbread Man (aka "The G Man") and there is ALWAYS a wait outside. It was a HUGE game for us: Penn State (ranked 3rd) vs Ohio State (ranked 13th). Whoever won would pretty much take the Big Ten title. The game started at 8pm,. so we took our chances and tried to get in around 6:45 for dinner so we could just have a table for during the game. We go there and, of course, there's a line. We tell the hostess that we'll stand at the bar, but to put our name down for a table anyway on the off chance we could get one. Then she says, "Wait, just two of you? I can't believe it. We don't have anyone waiting for a table for just 2 and a table for 2 is leaving right now." The owner came by and laughed and told us, "You two should go out and buy a lottery ticket. I can't believe your luck!"

So we got in, had dinner and were in THE BEST place for the game! The entire bar is packed with PSU college students and every single TV has the game on. Even the bartenders, wait staff, managers and owners were all in Penn State gear and shouting along with the students. Everytime something happened, the place would erupt in cheers and fight songs. We were high-fiving tables near us and just had an absolute BLAST. Many, many, too many beers later, Penn State won and it was CRAZY!!

We left the bar and students were flooding out of buildings into the street shouting cheers of "WE ARE..." from one side and answering with "...PENN STATE!!" from across the street. Then, without a band or music anywhere, the crowd just started erupting in chants and singing the Penn State fight songs. The streets were filled, students were crowd surfing and everyone was just jumping, laughing, cheering and having a ball. And we were right there in the midst of it! We decided to walk back to the hotel when we saw the riot police come out (nothing bad, just some kids climbing light posts to try to take pictures and kids throwing stuff into the crowd from the apt balconies). We walked back and got to our room around 1am. I can't remember the last time we were out so late and we had just THE BEST time EVER!!!!!

And to make it that much better, all three kids were great for my parents. I'm so glad we went through what we did last week breaking Allie of her paci habit cause my parents said she was an absolute angel for them. She's giving me a hard time this week in payback, but that's to be expected. I'm just so psyched that we had so much fun! It was sorely needed and it was the best way to spend our anniversary. I'm so glad we went!

Family Fun This Fall

Well, I've been a bad blogger. I just realized how long it's been since my last post and I can't believe I let it lapse so long. We certainly haven't had a shortage of activity!

A quick recap to catch you all up:

October began with my cousin, Barbie's, wedding. We had Ron's parents come up to stay with us to help out with the kids so Ron and I could enjoy the festivities. The kids all enjoyed having Grandma and Grandpa "sleep over" at their house and Ron and I loved getting away for a night!

The following week we went apple picking. Allie is now the youngest member of the Maisch family to go to Riamede, where our family has gone apple picking for over 20 years! The boys had a blast picking apples from the tree, and Robbie probably devoured about five apples while we were there. No matter how hard we tried, or how much fun he was having, Scottie still refuses to eat fruit. He did, however, eat every last bite of the apple crisp I made with the apples we picked, so there's some progress!

Last weekend we had a visit from our good friends from Charlotte, Sarah and Dave and their two boys, Grant and Drew. All four boys had a blast playing together and made me miss our friends from when we lived there. Allie just got a kick out of watching all the craziness from having four boys ages 4 and under in our playroom and backyard!

This weekend, we took the boys to a nursery in Westfield to go pumpkin picking. The nursery went all out for Halloween and had a haunted house backdrop for pictures, a hayride, pony rides, cut outs for posing, and a maze. We spent a couple of hours there and all had a great time. This week, we'll help the boys paint faces on their pumpkins and carve the big family Jack-O-Lantern.

And, to top it all off, yesterday Penn State broke our losing streak and beat Michigan! Penn State is now 7-0 for the season and 3-0 in the Big Ten. We couldn't be prouder to be Nittany Lions and Ron and I can't wait to head out to State College for our anniversary next weekend!

And, at some point in the past two weeks, both Robbie and Scottie became video gamers. Scottie has mastered a number of games on the Thomas laptop computer toy we have and Robbie has moved on to online games on Nick Jr and PBS Kids websites. It's been a while since our last attempt at these and I'm just amazed at the progress of his fine motor skills with the mouse, not to mention "getting" the games. He asks to play computer games nonstop now. We've created a monster!

We're gearing up for Halloween here. It's a beautiful fall so far in New Jersey!

Allie's Baptism

We had Allie baptised in the church today. It only took us three tries to finally get one of our children baptised as an actual infant! (Robbie was almost a year old, and Scottie was 2 when he was baptised.) My cousin, Barbie, and her fiance, Greg, are Allie's Godparents. Allie was lucky enough to wear the same gown for her special day that Barbie wore many years ago when she was baptised, too. So a very special hand-me-down for Allie and me this morning (thanks, Aunt Mare)!

After many comments from Ron and Poppy about the "Little House on the Prairie" bonnet that she wore, we left the house to head to the church. My mom and I simply LOVED Allie in this adorable hat, no matter what the boys all said! (Thank you again, Aunt Bev!)

She was simply an angel in the church. Pastor Ian Rankine baptised her and she went to him, all smiles, as he spoke of what baptism means. At one point, she turned her head as if she was actually listening to what he was saying. That expression of rapt attention was then quickly replaced by a huge baby yawn. The whole congregation laughed! Ian even asked Robbie and Scottie if they would play their part in helping Allie to understand that God loves her very much and they both responded with an enthusiastic high five to the pastor!

We then came back to the house for a small brunch with Ron's awesome egg, cheese, sausage, ham, and hash brown casserole. (Simply the best breakfast ever! There was almost some fighting over it!) And Allie got her very special hand-knit blanket from Nana today, too. This has become a tradition borne out of necessity since our children have all become so attached to these very special blankets that Nana has had to knit backups for them when they get worn out!

Allie must have known that the party was all about her because she refused to take her morning nap. Instead, she wanted to be held so she could be part of the party. We all had a great day!

Wonder What They Chat About

We're trying to enjoy what's left of summer by spending as much time outside as possible. The boys play in the backyard while I get dinner ready since I can see most of the yard from the back door. When I peeked out and didn't see them the other day, I had to walk around to the side of the house. There they were, sitting at the top of the steps that go down to the driveway. The very outer edge of where they know they're allowed to go when no adult is with them. So I snuck up on them and snapped a few pictures with the zoom on. They were just so cute off by themselves, deep in conversation, obviously enjoying each other's company. I love what great friends they are to each other.

Allie has also found a brand new friend. The rearview mirror we have in the minivan is an Elmo mirror. Now that she has found her voice, we hear her "talking" to Elmo all the time in the car. So the boys grabbed one of their Elmo slippers and put it next to Allie. Now we get to hear her talking, cooing and squealing to Elmo all the time! She's just such a happy baby!

Her other favorite activity is standing up. She loves to put weight on her legs and stand in your lap and just chat away. She makes eye contact and coos and tries to mimic the sounds we make. Such fun new discoveries everyday!

School Days 08

Well, the boys have started school for the year! Robbie and Scottie now both go to the same preschool here in town. It's great to have them together. Robbie goes 4 mornings (Mon - Thu) and Scottie goes 2 mornings (Mon and Tue). Their rooms are even right across the hall from each other, which is perfect for this Mom of three!









This is Scottie's first year EVER of going to school and he just thinks he is such a big boy!

Robbie's first day was last week (Thurs.). I tried to get this picture of him on the front steps like I did last year. Look how much he's grown!

And if the First Days of School pictures aren't cute enough, how's this for an adorable thing to overhear? I was walking by the playroom and saw Robbie and Scottie "reading" to each other. This is what I heard:

Robbie: A girl named Mary had a lambie

They got lost on the way to school

Everybody laughed at both of them

And it was all okay. The end!

Scottie: Somebody had a little sheep. The end!

Here's to a great year of school for the both of them. I can't wait to see what this year holds for the Maisch boys!