Milo Is Four!

Today Milo turned four. After school this afternoon we headed to Leapin' Lizards and had some fun bouncing around. Tonight we'll be having chocolate chip pancakes for dinner (at Milo's request) to celebrate. We are, of course, still eating leftover mint chocolate chip ice cream cake too. Yum!



Yesterday Milo's class celebrated August birthdays, including Milo's birthday. Calder and I joined in the fun--Calder really enjoyed the chips and sprinkle-laden cupcake. Milo was happy to have a candle to blow out in light of the candle fiasco at his birthday party.

Congareeeeeeeeeee

This summer Justin taught the boys the name of one of our local rivers that we like to visit and walk along. Now every time we cross a river, any river, regardless of what state we are in, the boys yell out in tandem: "Congaree!" Giving them the proper name of such river only causes them to yell louder: "Congaree!"

Let's Party!

This past Saturday we held Milo's and Calder's joint birthday party. The boys had a blast playing with their friends on Fort Weinberg, splashing in the kiddie pool, and rolling around the beach ball sprinkler. The pinata was a big hit too, as were the water balloons.



Milo and I made a mint chocolate chip ice cream cake for the occasion, just like last year. While the ice cream cake was delicious, it was so frozen solid when we removed it from the freezer that a machete would have been the best tool for hacking out pieces for everyone. Sadly, because of the cake's frozen nature, we could barely even push the candles into the cake, causing one to break in the process. To top it off, there was a slight breeze (making the 90-plus degree weather sort of bearable) preventing us from lighting the candles. Justin asked Milo and Calder to pretend to blow out the candles. As you can see from the pictures, Milo especially was none too pleased about this "pretending."



All in all though, the boys had a fabulous party and lots of fun with their friends.

First Day of School

Milo's first day of school was much like his first day of school last year. The day started off rather normally. When I went in to wake Milo up at 7:30 am he moaned, groaned that he was "too tired to go to school," and rolled away from me under the covers. Once we got him to school though, he was pretty happy to see his teachers and friends, and quickly abandoned Justin, Calder, and me at the doorway to his classroom. The children were assigned a project to draw a picture describing how they felt at school and Milo's picture was entitled "I'm happy to be back at school." There were lots of new toys and other learning tools in Milo's classroom, including the above tape recorders and headphones for listening to music and stories, causing Milo to rush around the classroom in a hurry to check everything out.

In the afternoon, the minute Calder and I walked through the school door to pick Milo up, Milo rushed over to me and encircled me with a big, long squeezy hug (apparently he'd been watching for me from the lunchroom doorway). He said he "wanted to make sure I was okay." I guess he might have missed us after all.

Calder Is Two!

Yesterday Calder turned two years old. We celebrated by having lunch with friends and playing at Leapin' Lizards. We'll be having more fun at the end of the month when Milo and Calder have their joint birthday party.

New York Trip

Yes, as if our back to back trips in July were not enough, we followed them with a journey up to New York. We seem to have a love-hate relationship with NYC. Every trip up there reminds us of how much we love the city--seeing friends, eating good food, visiting world-class museums and shops--as well as how we could never really live there. Pretty much, NYC infrastructure is slowly crumbling. On the first day of our visit an early morning rainstorm (with not that much total rainfall) halted the NYC subways, leaving public transportation a giant mess. The following day, we, and all the rest of NY, decided to drive into the city, making our commute extremely long and tiresome. Anyways, I digress. Thankfully the boys were good sports about all the crazy commutes. They were just disappointed they didn't get to ride the "choo-choo" trains a bit more. They did get to ride a NYC bus for the first time, which Milo thought was "really cool" (me not so much since the bus drivers make you fold up your strollers, which is quite a hassle with two children and all their gear).

The boys had a good time in NYC, mostly playing in playgrounds, eating junk food, and making big messes. We had fun while they were napping in their strollers or somewhat cooperating while we tried to have conversations with our friends and family.



After eating our way through NYC, we headed up to Elmira, NY, not too far from Binghamton, NY, where Justin and I first met (15 years ago this fall!!!). Gramma and Granpa Bienkowski recently moved to Elmira and we got to see their wonderful new home and celebrate the boys' upcoming birthdays. Even Auntie Alli drove in from Ohio to join in the fun. While in upstate NY we visited the Corning Glass Museum and the lovely, albeit frightfully fast, Eldridge Park carousel. Milo was particularly enchanted by the glass blowing demonstration at the museum.





On our way home from Elmira we stopped in Williamsburg, VA, for an overnight visit with our friends the Wawersiks. Milo, Hannah, and Calder had so much fun playing they were too wound up for their slumber party. By 11 p.m. they were all separated and sleeping soundly. Our trip ended the next day when we arrived home tired and drowning in dirty laundry. It's good to be home.

Oak Island, July 28 - August 4

That's right, following our relaxing trip to Asheville, NC, sans screaming children, we headed to the beach at Oak Island, NC, with the doggies, grandparents, and Uncle Ben for a week. The boys loved the beach and had so much fun playing in the water and sand. Daddy dug giant holes for them daily and on our last day at the beach Milo even dug his own hole and constructed a seat in and stairs exiting the hole ("just like Daddy does"). Milo caught his first two fish on a fishing trip with Uncle Ben, Daddy, and Oom-Poppa, and Calder loved trying to catch fish with Uncle Ben using a net in the surf. Calder also, thankfully, no longer eats sand (this is a big improvement on last summer's trip to Cannon Beach, Oregon).

Very soon more beach photos can be found here.

At the end of our trip Uncle Ben returned to Columbia with us for a few days before he headed off on his long journey back to Israel.

Busy, Busy July

July was a very busy month for the Weinberg Boys (and their parents too). Following our fabulous trip to Williamsburg, Milo had his first trip to the movies! He and our fun neighbor Carroll, whom Milo just adores, went to see "Ratatouille." Milo loved the movie, as well as all the yummy junk food one can eat at the movies!



Toward the end of the month of July, Justin and I left the boys with their grandparents, Grammy and Oom-Poppa, while we visited Asheville for a few days to celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary. The boys had a blast with Grammy and Oom-Poppa, visiting all of their favorite places to play in Columbia and, of course, being spoiled rotten. Upon our return from Asheville we all headed to the beach.