Jul 16 2010

happy 4th birthday, jackson!

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we brought together many of jackson’s biggest loves — train rides, the circus, animals, bright colors, and his best friends — to celebrate his 4th birthday. the centerpiece of the party was a colorful cupcake tower, featuring the birthday boy on top, clowns, and of course, lots of sprinkles! (props go out to martha stewart’s cupcakes book for the yummy recipes!)

but we’re getting ahead of ourselves… we didn’t eat the cupcakes until the very end of the party!

we started festivities at the walkersville southern railroad.

jackson got to explore the engine, and then, once we were all aboard the birthday caboose …

the real fun began!

jackson was joined by his buddies jillian, aidan, lucas, garrett, collin, cayman, and zach, as well as cousins sarah and josh. and of course, little sister phoebe, whose birthday is just a few weeks away!

the kids got crafty with some markers, decorating wooden trains or stars…

games included an elephant ring toss and “stick the nose on the clown,” during which all the kids figured out how to cheat by peeking through the bottom of the admittedly cheap paper “blindfold”!!

circus-theme tattoos included elephants, seals, lions, clowns, or the ringmaster!

guests snacked on popcorn, hot dogs, twizzlers, juice boxes, and lemonade!

aunt lynnie got caught up in all the fun!

the 90-minute ride went by really fast. the views were beautiful, and the trees provided lots of cool shade from the hot sun.

some of the best views came from the upper level seats on the caboose!

the kids spent most of the trip hanging out up there together, climbing up and down the slightly precarious ladders!

molly and dave also got in on the fun!

once our ride was over, we checked out the model trains next door, then headed to casa spence for more partying!

there’s those delish cupcakes again!

pool time!

those monocacy valley montessori kids just can’t get enough of mulch!

jackson’s always a bit timid when it comes time to sing the happy birthday song. we had to literally pull him out from under the table to blow out the candles!

phoebe had such a great time at her brother’s party, she said she’s really looking forward to her first on august 1st!

(special thanks go out to our “second photographer” tom fedor for several of the shots above!)

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by david

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Jul 09 2010

summer begins in ocean city!

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usually we wait until the end of summer to make a trip to the beach, but this year, we did the opposite, kicking off the steamy season with a weeklong trip to ocean city, new jersey, june 20 to 26.

we started our journey on fathers day by boarding the cape henlopen, one of the larger ferries in the cape may-lewes ferry fleet. what a fun way to start our day: a 90-minute trip across the delaware bay! once we, and our packed car, were back on solid ground, we made our way to ocean city to check out our rental. the barainyaks — beth, paul, sarah, jake, and josh — had already checked in. what a great, little place in a super neighborhood, very close to the beach! score!

we were fortunate to have beautiful, hot weather all week, with almost no rain or cloudy skies! we spent many days relaxing on the beach and playing in the waves, rented bikes and a surrey to ride on the boardwalk, checked out “toy story 3″ to escape some sunshine, played boardwalk mini-golf, visited the cape may county zoo, ate lots of tasty meals and desserts, and just generally enjoyed ourselves. check out the last three photos in the gallery below for a sneak peek at a beach portrait session for jackson and phoebe’s birthdays!

thanks to the barainyaks for sharing our vacation this year! what an awesome trip. the only downside? it’s already over!

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by molly

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Jun 16 2010

crafty time – birthday invites!

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molly got a little crafty this weekend, creating circus-themed birthday party invites for jackson’s upcoming 4th birthday bash! we’re excited about the way they turned out…

we found these great stickers at a frederick craft shop, and designed the interior of the invites to look like one of those crazy circus posters — with lots of different fonts and colors. the intro line says “ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, you are invited to…”

jackson is super excited to have his friends take a ride with him on the walkersville southern railroad. we’re hoping for good, not-too-hot weather! and that many people can make it to celebrate with him. can’t wait for july!

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by molly

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Jun 15 2010

first year of school… finished!

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jackson finished his last day of preschool for the 2009-10 school year at monocacy valley montessori public charter school on friday! and as we snapped on his bike helmet for our ride to school, we couldn’t help but get nostalgic about our growing little boy.

on his first day of school, back in august, jackson actually rode in his stroller. we thought the distance might be too much for him. on the last day, jackson rode his bike, as he has done many times during the school year. he’s a big boy now, in so many ways.

after saying goodbye to miss denise and miss rosina, jackson bounded out the back door, ready for summer to begin! he’d been asking us for several weeks before whether summer had started yet, and now we could officially tell him “yes!”

one wonderful thing about this first year of school has been the friends jackson has made. this is his best buddy, daniel, who spent many wednesdays at our house playing this year. we were sad to say goodbye to daniel and his mom, bibi, as they and daniel’s sister, alex, are spending the entire summer in germany with their family. we’ll be so glad to see them again in august, when both boys will be pre-kindergartners!

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by molly

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Jun 08 2010

flower power

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we are just loving all the lovely flowers popping up in our backyard in the last week or so, though we cannot name most of them! both dave’s and molly’s moms have helped us fill in our garden spaces with some colorful blooms. the daylilies’ orange blossoms are sprinkled throughout the borders of our backyard. large hydrangea bushes that came with the house are really producing pretty light blue, purple, and pink flowers as well. molly’s mom helped us plant an absolutely gorgeous electric blue flower (delphinium — thanks Susan!) next to our back stairs that grew very tall and thin. it actually grew so tall that it fell over! so we cut the main stem off and plucked some of the bright blue blooms last night to put in our hair!

our hydrangeas produce mostly blue flowers, but we can get a few pink and purple blooms every once in a while. we grabbed this bunch to put on our dining room table. so lovely!
jackson wanted a flower for his hair, too! he put a few of these blooms in a tiny vase and has been carrying them around with him, up to his room at bedtime, then down to the playroom in the morning. he just loves them.
look at that pretty blue-eyed girl!
yay, hydrangeas!:)

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by molly

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Jun 07 2010

birthday celebrations begin

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jackson’s 4th birthday celebrations started about one month early, with a fun-packed “journey around the sun” ceremony at monocacy valley montessori public charter school this morning.

jackson stood in the center of the circle, holding the earth. each of the sun’s rays represented a month, and jackson started at july, since that is his birth month. 
jackson walked slowly around the sun as his friends chanted the months: “august, september, october …” until he arrived back at july. miss heidi then read a few sentences about that year in jackson’s life, and passed around photos of him during that year for each of his friends to see.
fun fact: the boy in the blue shirt sitting at the bottom center of this photo is carson. his mom, heidi, was molly’s doula for jackson’s birth!
jackson walked around the sun four times, to represent the four years of his life.
little sister phoebe was excited to visit jackson’s classroom. she wanted to be part of the fun…
she parked herself right next to all the girlfriends in the circle.
when jackson was done with his final trip around the sun, he was allowed to choose four different friends who each gave him a wish. he called on andrew, who wished him a “helicopter,” then alejandra, who wished him “an airplane,” then alexander wished him “a spaceship” and finally, his good buddy daniel wished him “a rocket.” do you sense a theme?
all the kids headed to the snack area to enjoy juice and homemade cupcakes. jackson and molly baked them from scratch – devil’s food cupcakes with whipped vanilla icing, courtesy of martha stewart’s cupcake recipe book. the super-cute edible icing decals came courtesy of etsy.com find hello frosting. love it!

just as jackson and his friends (twin brothers) cayman and collin and aysha started eating, the fire alarm went off! impromptu fire drill! oh no! the kids all wanted to carry their cupcakes outside, but they had to leave them behind, at least for a few minutes!

the kids were a little puzzled that they could “eat the paper” on top of the cupcakes, but I encouraged them to do it. one boy said, “I can eat paper?! yay!” then, he tried to eat the cupcake wrapper, too. oops!

on sunday night, jackson had a sneak preview taste of the cupcakes. we have to say, they were super delicious! what a wonderful way to kick off birthday celebrations for our favorite, little almost-4-year-old!

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by molly

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