Pittsburgh International Children's Theatre

Last Saturday my mom and I took James to see a play downtown at the Byham Theatre.

The Pittsburgh International Children's Theatre is a division of the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust and from October through April they offer one children's play each month.  They typically put them on at local schools around the area and offer one production downtown at the Byham.  I have taken James to most of the productions over the past few months at our local middle school.  This was the first one we went to downtown and it was so fun!  He has loved all of them.  This one was especially wonderful because it was done entirely with puppets.  It was very unique and absolutely adorable.  We have read all of these sweet books by Leo Lionni: Swimmy, Frederick & Inch by Inch.  A special bonus was that the theatre company was from Nova Scotia.  I told James that this is where his Nan was born and raised.

His favorite was Swimmy because a bunch of little fish get eaten by a big fish and only one survives.  He then spends his days exploring the ocean floor discovering all of the wonderful creatures of the sea. We have been acting it out all week!  They encourage the children to be comfortable and ask questions; it is a non-shushing event.  I love that they are free to be kids while starting to understand the creativity and imagination of the world of theatre.

After the play we took James out to lunch at Bravo.  He had fun eating chicken fingers while coloring on the table and playing with his trucks and we got to enjoy a lovely adult meal.  There won't be any more productions until next fall, but James and I can't wait to go again!

It Begins

Look what arrived at our house this afternoon!

For a three year old boy it doesn't get much more exciting than this...

Since Paul and I got married and our family has expanded, we have talked at length about ways we could improve our home.  We have a beautiful home in a great location!  We have a huge walkout basement, a nice fenced flat back yard with ample play space, five large bedrooms and a big three car garage.  We are a quarter mile from the grocery store and within ten minutes of every amenity you could possibly need.  However, are kitchen and family room are a little cramped and with four growing boys... we just need a little more elbow room.  When we found out I was pregnant last fall we made the decision once and for all that we want to stay put.  So Paul started planning for an addition to the side of our house that will give us a new, larger family room and the potential to use our current family room as extended kitchen space.  I am so excited!!  I have always wanted to have a table in our kitchen.  I know that's a small thing and not really a big deal, but it's something I have dreamed about and that dream now has the ability to become a reality in the near future.

The next few months promise to bring lots of mud, potential problems and frustrations, plenty of hard work for daddy and plenty of entertainment for two little boys, but we are blessed beyond measure and I couldn't be more full of joy!

Here it is in the window until the completion of the project.

P.S.  The boys progressed from watching out the back window, to playing gleefully on the deck.  They have been out there for the past hour... nevermind it's so chilly you can see your breath!  I am enjoying a cup of tea and solitude here in the kitchen.  I am really going to enjoy this project!!

30 Weeks and Growing!

Today marks 30 weeks and I am anxiously awaiting the arrival of this sweet little boy.  I can't wait to hold him, to smell that wonderful newborn smell and hear that little cry.  I can't wait to see what color his hair is and how big his eyes are and kiss his little nose.  They told us when we went for our sonogram that he was very photogenic and had the cutest little button nose!  If he looks anything like his big brothers, he is going to be one adorable little guy.

The countdown is on, but for now you stay snug and warm and know that you are so loved already.  We can't wait to meet you!

"God is preparing us and has things in store for us that we can hardly imagine.  No matter what we are now, no matter what lowly tasks our days are filled with, God is preparing each of us for futures beyond what we can imagine today.  Our futures (and our present) are full of promise, full of wonder, full of amazement.  And God is preparing us right now for those futures he has in store for us."  ~Known & Loved

Caryn Rivadeneira

Long Overdue

So I've taken a long hiatus from blogging... I don't even know how long it's been!  The reasons are endless and I won't bore you with them, but I'm feeling guilty and sad that I have not documented many of the milestones that have taken place over the past several months.  This has driven me to set myself down in front of the computer this afternoon rather than taking my siesta (I'm 7 months pregnant people!) and do a little catching up... starting with the present:)

We just got back from a much anticipated trip to Florida.  We were able to escape the cold and snow of a March spring in Pittsburgh and travel to my parents' timeshare in Orlando to spend a few days in the warm sunshine.  We had a wonderful time minus a short vomiting stint!  I will spare you the details... and now we are settled back in to our comfy routine enjoying the beginning of longer days and warm-ish weather.

I was really nervous about flying alone with the two boys, but they did awesome!  They absolutely loved the airport and the plane ride and were mesmerized by the whole experience.  Ethan kept shouting "Whee" and laughing gleefully when we landed, much to the amusement of the people around us.  They watched shows and snacked for the entire two hour plane ride and I even got to read my book!

They slept well, which was a huge accomplishment for Ethan!

We swam, ate lots of ice cream, rode the Merry-Go-Round, went to the Rainforest Cafe, visited Sea World and just enjoyed the pure pleasure of being able to be outdoors.  It was awesome!

James absolutely loved the pirate ship pool and could have swam every moment of the entire five days. I was able to see the benefit of the past twelve weeks of swimming lessons.  He has gained so much confidence and is swimming like a fish!

In Downtown Disney we visited the Lego Store.  I wanted James to stand in front of something really cool like the life size seven dwarfs display or Woody and Buzz Lightyear, but no, he wanted to stand in front of the Sidney Opera House.  Three year olds!

They loved the Merry-Go-Round!

And "Tick Tock croc" at the Rainforest Cafe.  It kept them quite entertained while we waited for thirty minutes to eat overpriced burgers and listen to the waiters shout the volcano song every two minutes as they walked by with ridiculously enormous chocolate desserts.  That place is a well oiled machine that makes you feel a little bit like you are eating in a factory, but the kids loved it!  It was well worth the trip.

I thought they might be scared of the thunderstorm inside the restaurant, but they loved it and wanted it to go on and on!

We got to sit right next to the elephants... best seat in the house we were told:)

The train was a big hit, except the second time around James didn't get to sit in the engine and then it was a tragedy!

The kids loved just playing outside.  We did bubbles and played basketball and thoroughly enjoyed talking to the birds!

The last day we went to Sea World.  It was a bit crowded, there were no whale shows because the theatre was being renovated, we missed the Sea Lion show because we waited too long to go in and I'm pretty sure we ate bad hotdogs that later made the kids sick, but we made the best of it!  The boys favorite things were the Elmo show (go figure) and their Shamu bubble blowers, which were totally worth the $26 I spent on them!

The plane ride home was no where near as fun as the trip down, but it never is when you're coming home.  It was a fabulous week and we're so thankful to my parents for letting us tag along on their vacation.

Now that I have my first post in five months under my belt, I hope to not be a stranger to blogging!

More to follow... soon.

The Patch

We took our annual tractor ride to the pumpkin patch at Shenot Farm last weekend.  Unlike most grown up people I actually really enjoy the hay ride and the pumpkins... even the corn maze.  I waited so long to have children and now I have an acceptable excuse to go to the pumpkin patch.  What can I say... I'm a dork!

But this year was a little different.  The weather was dreary and cold and it was a bit lonelier than in the past since my sister has moved away.

The boys loved it though.  They are all about tractors and running free!  They were not jazzed about the photo ops, but they did their best to cooperate.  Most of my shots are from behind while they were running away from me.  Some years you take what you can get.

This one almost always has a smile on his face. He is our "life of the party" child.

An unusually stoic face.  I just love his cheeks and those long eyelashes and all that floppy messy blonde hair!

This was the closest thing I got to a smile from James on this day.  It was one of the few shots I got of him at all.

That was it!  The day was cold and we were all anxious to get back down the hill and into our warm cars.  Ironically, we never pick any pumpkins.  No one wants to carry a big heavy pumpkin onto the wagon and then stand in line to pay for it.  We will probably end up buying one at someplace really lame... like Giant Eagle.

Happy Fall!

BFIAR: My Blue Boat

My computer has been on the fritz lately... coupled with some internet issues, I am way behind on blogging!  Several weeks ago James and I spent a week reading My Blue Boat by Chris L. Demarest.  It tells the story of a little girl playing with her toy sailboat in the bathtub.  She imagines that she is sailing through the harbor and out to sea.  She passes big and little boats, plays with dolphins and whales and sails through a storm.  Then she drifts peacefully back home looking at the evening stars. The book has beautiful watercolor pictures, which we compared to the illustrations from Yellow Ball that we read the week before.  Our letter for the week was W for Whale and we also talked about ocean life.  Here are some the activities we completed through the week.

W is for Whale

Sailboat watercolor painting

Whale and dolphin sensory bin

Do a Dot W

Coloring

Ethan always has to be a part of the action!

Ocean life puzzle

James loved this.  Don't be fooled though!  He did not put this together.  I gave him most of the pieces and he snapped them together.

Sailboat snack

It was a fun week!