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!)

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!

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!

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!

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!

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!

just for good measure (and proof that leah spent very little of her party in tears), here’s a shot of jackson enjoying a cupcake with the birthday girl. earlier in the day, jackson attended the ringling brothers circus with his grandpa in trenton, and after this shot he had a sleepover with his cousins, the Barainyaks. so it was a jampacked-with-fun day for him.

also on saturday, we attended sts. peter & paul orthodox church greek festival for some delicious food. jackson’s favorite was “greek quesadillas,” also known as tiropita, or feta cheese wrapped in phyllo dough. basically, it’s spanikopita without the spinach!

jackson also had a few bites of molly’s gyro. (the guy above made the gyros for us — he was super. they were stuffed to the brim! yum!) the “sour cream sauce,” also known as tzatziki, won jackson over with that dish! he and phoebe are also huge fans of the homemade rice pudding. jackson would’ve eaten the entire container if we let him!

on sunday, we all ventured out to ellicott city. what a great, neat little town! dave met a couple there to do an engagement shoot, and molly, jackson, and phoebe spent a few hours exploring “old town.”

first stop was the b&o railroad museum, the birthplace of american railroading! there, the kids enjoyed exploring a caboose.

the train museum was a lot of fun. a few minutes after this picture was a taken, a “real” train drove right past us! jackson loved watching it, covering his ears when it got too loud! we also spent some time learning about how a telegraph works. jackson tried to tap out some letters and said he was “sending a mesh-age to america!”

after the museum, we did a little shopping, found lots of bargains, and lost phoebe’s sunhat! oh well.

finally, we met up with dave as he got done with his lovely couple. (see his favorite shots soon at spence photo’s blog!) dave and jackson got a quick lesson in handspun yarn (below) just before we got back into the car. totally fun weekend.

many months ago, jackson watched his big cousin, jacob, play in a soccer game. his uncle paul told him if he liked it, maybe his mom would sign him up to play, too. nice thought, paul! too bad there weren’t any sign-ups until january, and actual gameplay didn’t happen until april! so, after many months of “mom, is it time to play soccer yet?” jackson’s wish finally came true this week! he became jackson spence, soccer stud!

the whole family went to old national pike district park on thursday to witness the historic occasion. as usual, jackson was timid at first out on the field, but he warmed up quickly thanks to a truly awesome coach. we highly recommend the “uk petite” program through frederick county parks and recreation!

it’s a fun, hour-long games-based approach to learning soccer skills. coach steve had a fast-paced, energetic way of getting all the kids involved. he learned all their names within minutes, and encouraged them to participate with lots of success. jackson really responded to it, and got the hang of dribbling and running while kicking the ball quickly.

every few minutes, the coach sat the kids down to teach them each game, basing it on a popular kids movie or tv show (such as “finding nemo”). the funny thing was, jackson watches lots of “old school” tv, so he didn’t understand some of the references! one of the games they played was called “dora and diego,” named after the show “dora the explorer.” jackson has never watched that. so, when we got in the car after the program, molly asked jackson what was his favorite game. he replied, “the san diego one!”

we all had such a great time that we decided to celebrate with “soccer pizza” (with pepperoni as the “balls”) and ice cream on the way home. another great spring day in frederick!

we had a great trip full of experiences! phoebe took her first airplane ride. jackson, dave, and kurt enjoyed circus sarasota. we visited the palm beach zoo and reconnected there with the limberts (who used to live in frederick). jackson got in a lot of swim practice. marcia helped molly begin to learn to sew. we visited jensen beach, the children’s museum of the treasure coast, and checked out rescued sea turtles at the loggerhead marinelife center of juno beach.

we had such a wonderful time, in fact, that it’s taken us almost a full month to go through all the photos and choose our favorites! so, our apologies for not updating this blog sooner. but we think these photos were worth the wait!

are we crazy? yep! but who could pass up this opportunity? dave and molly first ate at volt in october 2008, and fell in love with the food. one year later, bryan and his brother appeared on “top chef” and became nationally recognized personalities. jackson loved to watch the show with us, and could spot bryan every time he came on screen.

on wednesday afternoon, as winds howled outside, molly fielded calls from her reporters, all working at home. one of them lamented not being able to cover a great story — the fact that volt was indeed going to open its doors to diners during this historic storm. so molly said, “ok, i’ll cover it instead!” she was eager to put her reporting skills to good use again. and, what luck, she happened to live with one of the gazette’s freelance photographers. so, she volunteered dave to work, too!

check out the story and photos by clicking here.

all of us got majorly bundled up, phoebe riding with molly in the bjorn, and headed out for a surprisingly short walk downtown. when we arrived, the staff was waiting for us, and helped us get our many layers off and put away. we settled in for a memorable dinner.

it was such a wonderful experience in so many ways. first, the other diners were all so fantastic! everyone was in a great mood and very willing to talk. our “neighbors” to the right took several photos of jackson and complimented us on our very well-behaved children. another fellow diner offered to take  a family shot of us eating, and a third gave jackson his iPhone so he could play a game on it.

the highlight for molly — aside from the outstanding food — was definitely getting to meet bryan, and hang out in his kitchen for a short while. he is a bit shorter in person than he looks on television. but he’s very kind, genuine, and knowledgeable about food. he talked about getting himself and his staff up to frederick through the storm, about wanting to get back in his kitchen and cook after a long absence, about loving downtown frederick, and wanting to offer those of us living downtown a respite from the storm.

jackson was thrilled with the special chicken fingers and fries the chef made for him — with tiny dipping pots full of mustard and ketchup. molly loved her main course best — pineland farms beef strip loin with yukon gold potatoes, filled with three different sauces: roasted red pepper, chive and sweet golden raisin, with turnips. dave’s favorite was his first course — yellowfin tuna with jasmine rice, sesame lavash, yuzu vinaigrette, chili oil and cilantro. molly liked dave’s dessert better — goat cheese dulce de leche with granny smith apple sorbet.

what a wonderful dinner, and a memorable way to spend a snowy day. we won’t soon forget it!

on friday night, dave and jackson took a long walk down church street to pick up friends roman and zach, then on to la paz for some mexican dinner. the place was packed! we think it was the only restaurant open.

dave also managed to get out early saturday on an adventure downtown, shooting photos for the gazette. you’ll see some of what he saw in the gallery below.

who knows how long the snow will stick around. it’s highly doubtful that school will be in session for at least a few days. molly’s getting ready to brush off her boots for a trek into work on monday, though. the news must be posted online!

for now, enjoy our photos. we’re thinking of printing up some t-shirts:”we survived snowmageddon 2010″. or: “snowpocalypse now, redux 2010″!

phoebe melts our hearts every day with her pudgy cheeks, spread into wide smiles all the time.

phoebe’s favorite things? finding her toes …

hanging out with and watching her big brother …

and watching the world from her little purple bumbo chair.

looking forward to the next six months and beyond!

it was a special year at the spence house for christmas, as dan, cassie, and alex white joined us to celebrate the holiday for the first time in many years. we were all so glad that they could be there, so we marked the occasion with a big family photo.

we all woke up early to open our presents from santa. phoebe seems really excited about that bib she got!

jackson could hardly believe his pile of presents! what was in that giant box?? (a playmobil circus tent, just what he asked for!)

aunt naomi was more than happy to pal around with phoebe for the weekend. they’d never met before, but were fast friends!

despite the sour expression, jackson did love all his presents this year!

jackson didn’t really want to open any other presents once grandpa and daddy got the circus tent set up.

cassie and alex enjoyed the show, even though they had to wake up early to see it!

matt had a good time buying presents for dan. driving goggles? where does he find this stuff??

grandpa liked his new shirt (“Grandpa since 2006″) — he plans to wear it in florida.

portrait time again! dave, jackson, molly, kurt, phoebe, marcia, matt and naomi

it’s always great to have susan and her mom, chris, over for christmas dinner. the ladies looked lovely yet again!

nine years ago (christmas 2000) we took a photo similar to this one of all the babcock grandchildren. and my, how they have grown since then (see original photo below)!

(clockwise from top center in both photos) alexander, matthew, daniel, david and cassandra

phoebe’s first christmas was very special because she got to spend it with so many family members. here she is with daddy in front of nana and pop pop’s christmas tree, just before christmas eve dinner. she ate her first pierogies soon after this photo was taken!

not sure where dave and phoebe are looking, but jackson and molly got the message!

josh just loves his baby cousin.

nana and pop pop were happy to have half their grandkids for christmas eve. the boys are all smiles — and they haven’t even opened their new hess trucks yet!

aunt beth spoiled her little godchild this christmas, as usual.

the fellin family tradition is for the youngest child to place the baby Jesus in the manger once christmas eve dinner is finished. this year, it was phoebe’s turn (with a little help from cousin sarah).

then the portraits began. we started with the ever-photogenic fitzgerald clan. looking good, colin, jill and tim!

next up: mom, lynne and dad!

the proud godfather, colin, with his well-accessorized godchild.

speaking of godchildren… lynne’s godson’s not so little anymore!

thanks for another memorable, and delicious, christmas eve, everyone. dave shot some nice videos of casino day at eagle rock and christmas eve dinner, etc., which we’ll post as soon as we can!

(from left, with their ages at the time of this picture: joshua, almost 5; brody, almost 1; quinn, 5 1/2; maura, 7 1/2; clare, almost 1; phoebe, almost 4 months; sarah, 9 1/2;  eva, 3;  jackson, 3 1/2;  jacob, 6)

we hadn’t seen the twins since their baptism, and boy have they changed! they are crawling everywhere and jackson thought that was hilarious. can’t wait for phoebe to get to that stage. we’re going to have a blast.

the oldest girl cousins, maura and sarah, couldn’t get enough of little phoebe. she’s like their little baby doll!

this was just the beginning! so much snow, and all jackson had to wear was his rain boots. thank goodness that aunt beth came through a few days later with some snow boot hand-me-downs!

brooks likes to dig his nose deep into the snow and bound around, but he’s one of the first who wants to go back inside and get warm!

we don’t get snow like this very often, so we were actually happy to see it all over our patio! the best moment came the next morning when, without prompting, our neighbor came over with his snowblower and dug out our driveway! hurrah!

phoebe seemed unimpressed with her second-ever snow experience. just give her a few years!

jackson was all smiles later, after getting some warm clothes and lunch!

jackson isn’t big on talking to unfamiliar people. and when we walked past santa at a shop this year, he said he didn’t want to talk to him. ever.  so molly figured we should bring the letter jackson wrote and he could show it to santa on the train if he didn’t feel like talking…

jackson got warmed up when the conductor, george wireman, paid us a visit to collect our tickets. we loved him! he visited every seat, and insisted on a photo with all the children. he even showed us his cool train-engraved pocket watch!

after that, we waited… and waited… for the big guy…

phoebe was a very patient traveler

finally, jackson spotted st. nick! he told molly she’d better move off the seat so santa could sit down and talk to him!

and sit down he did… jackson managed to not only talk to santa, but also give him a big hug! dave and molly couldn’t stop smiling in disbelief.

it must have been something about being aboard a train, because jackson did NOT want to cooperate with taking this picture, once we disembarked. ah, the mind of a 3 year old!

this photo is INSANE. so many people have commented that it belongs in a magazine, and we agree. amy captured an awesome moment here — phoebe’s crossed legs and cute little smile were totally unplanned, as was jackson holding his sister’s hand. gorgeous! dave ordered a gigantic print of this for me for christmas, and I know I will cherish it for a long, long time.

jackson couldn’t get enough of this classic-looking tricycle. he’d actually never ridden one before, but he jumped on and started pedaling like a pro. it was difficult to get him off of it!

big thanks to molly’s sister, lynne, who got the kids both sets of outfits you see in these pictures. she has a knack for finding great clothes that look super on jackson and phoebe.

dave and molly didn’t plan to get in on the portraits too, but we don’t have many opportunities for a nice shot of all four of us together! so, that’s how we ended up with this “hat family” shot!

the farmer and his lamb (sheep?) made a second appearance this season, this time on halloween night in doylestown, pa. phoebe rode in style in a borrowed wagon filled with hay, jackson’s barn, and the other animals as we ventured up and down grandma and grandpa’s street searching for candy.

it was a dark and rainy night, but lucky for jackson it wasn’t too spooky. the houses we visited had only friendly monsters and ghosts, and plenty of candy!

grandma and her friend, barb, manned the porch, giving away lots of lollipops in between gabbing!

when we got back to the house, jackson wasted no time digging into his treats.

phoebe was so sad she couldn’t have any chocolate this year!

thanks, doylestown, for a super spooky, sweet and delicious halloween 2009!