Sunny Summer

I've been trying hard to get out and enjoy every sunny day since I know that this is Belgium and these days will eventually disappear and I won't see the sun again before moving stateside.  We've been to George Henri park a couple times.  It is the closest sand park to our house.  On one of our visits, Kevin had climbed up to the top of the blue part below the slides (in Kherington's picture) and got stuck.  I could hear a kid calling 'mommy, mommy' and it clicked that that was mine because it was in English.  He was content down in the sand for the rest of the visit.

We also went to Technopolis again and the place was empty.  I guess since it was a sunny day all the daycare went to the beach instead because normally it is packed with groups of kids.  The kids had a fun time exploring the entire building.  Kherington even did the space jump thing twice.  The second time she did added in spins while she jumped.

Birthday Celebration

Saturday we celebrated my 29th birthday by driving over to Aachen, Germany to my favorite kebap place.  You might guess from the number of times I've wrote about this that this place is amazing.  For me, it is right up there with Cafe Rio which really says something.  We made a stop at Toys 'R Us to let the kids play on toys and get some wiggles out and picked up some blueberries and sour gummies at Metro before heading to the restaurant.  After eating, we walked down the street to an ice cream shop.  We're always so full after the kebap place we don't normally eat anything else, but we decided we'd give it a go.  The ice cream was a good price (70 cents a scoop), but Kherington had a meltdown which sucked the fun out of it.  Then once we finally sat down on a bench, a bee kept attacking us so we decided to start walking back to the car and it just kept coming with us.  Sad way to end that trip.  On the bright side, I got to have leftover kebap for dinner and again for lunch the next day (Kevin and Kherington's leftovers).

Monday Ryan stayed home a little later than he normally does during his busy time so I could get up and go for a run.  The rest of the day was pretty normal, with the exception that me and both kids took a good afternoon nap.  They even slept longer than I did! We did presents and cake when Ryan got home.  We decided for both Ryan and my birthday's we'd have the kids each choose a candy for us then we'd go on our UK trip.    Kherington got me some snickers and Kevin got me some caramel waffles.  Plus they picked out some birthday plates/cups and a singing candle and Ryan got me some Ben and Jerry's Half Baked ice cream.  Sugar overload.  The kids had a fun time getting everything ready.  Kherington made my cake (funfetti with frosting and sprinkles) with a little help from her daddy.  She was really proud of it.

To top off the evening, we talked to some family and a friend came over with some more treats and conversation for me.  A pretty nice 29th Birthday.  We'll see how the rest of the year treats me.

Sunday Routine

One of my favorite things about Sunday afternoon is that when Ryan comes home, he sets up and watch's a movie with the kids.  It usually ends up like this:

Nap time for Ryan and Kevin while Kherington moves herself closer to watch the movies.  I hope we keep this little tradition as they get older...but I'm guessing Ryan will be the only one napping.

Mickey's House

Friday was a holiday at Ryan's work so we decided to do a day trip to Disney.  Kevin had been begging to go for weeks.  He just knows you need the car and it's a long drive.  We left our house a little after 4am and got to Disney around 7:30am.  Which gave us enough time to change the kids out of their pajamas, get the stroller out and packed and get up to the gates before they opened at 8am.  We also stopped at a little grocery store right out side the security check (in the train station) and grabbed some baguettes to add to our snack stash (way cheaper than inside the park).

We ended up inside the park and were able to ride Dumbo once just by ourselves before anyone else joined for the second turn on dumbo.  Kherington really wanted to see a princess again so I stood in line for a reservation time while Ryan rode a ride with the kids.  It worked out well.  They got to meet Jasmine this time.  I was a little shocked when it came time to take the pictures and Kevin without prompting went and made himself comfortable on Jasmine's lap.  Apparently he is no longer a shy little boy. 

Around 1pm we headed over to the adjacent park to Disneyland and started off by watching the Lilo and Stitch Live performance.  Ryan had Kevin propped up in his arms to watch and he almost immediately fell asleep, then slept in the stroller while Ryan and Kherington rode a ride.  He woke up in time to go on Slinky Dog. Then when we were watching Animagic (Kevin's favorite performance...it has Mickey and Donald), Kherington, Ryan and me all fell asleep.  Kherington slept until the parade (we woke her up for that) then we headed home.  So 8 straight hours of Disney...a pretty solid day.

Shoes

Kevin loves playing with our shoes.  He will go find us the correct shoes for whatever activity he wants to be doing...walking, church, workout, dress-up, etc.  The pictures below are from work-out time since his tennis shoes are too small :).

Kid Time

Kherington was invited to a friends (Sethy's) party and I totally blew it.  I miss read the time and was 2 hours off...for a 2 hour long party.  Oops.  On the up side, I caught it early enough that she was only about an hour late.  I would have been in huge trouble if we had missed it.  Anyways, it was a ninja themed party.  They had headband for the kids but Kherington grew really attached to this make shift one Jenny made out of her skirt and didn't want to trade it in for a nice embroidered one so Jenny (she's pretty awesome) decorated Kheringtons.  It is now a prized possession worn nearly every day.

I built a fort with the kids one day and we've kept it up so they can continue to play with it.  Their new big thing at bedtime is to do Lego's under it.  Here's what Kevin created one evening.  He's getting to be quite the builder.

Sweet Little Man

We went back to potty training last Monday and it had been going pretty well.  Kevin had 3 pees the first day, 1 the second, then was good until he pooed his undies on Sat (after throwing up so I'll give him that one).  Then he pooed it again on Monday.  I thought we were home free with the pee and would work on the poo.  Ugh, then today he peed again.  I guess it's more that he can hold his pee longer, but I still need to remember to put him on the potty every couple hours. He is pretty funny when he uses the potty.  He uses the big one and can get up and down on his own, but the funny part is that if I come walking by he says, "No, mommy go out!"  He does not want our help.

After peeing, I stuck him in the tub to wash off.  And when I pulled him out he stood there and tells me, "Mom, rock-a-bye baby" over and over.  So I scooped him and and rocked him.  We got his clothes back on and he started saying it again.  He is just so sweet.  He went right to sleep.

Another super sweet thing about Kevin that melts my heart is that if I'm starting to get frustrated, he looks me right in and eyes and in the cutest voice says, "sorry mommy."  He also says thank-you without me prompting him to which actually catches me off guard most of the time.  Such a sweet little man.