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!)

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!

it’s all too rare when all 11 of the fellin grandkids are at the same place at the same time! this thanksgiving, 10 of the kids managed to sit for a photo. we were missing the oldest, colin, who really seems more like an adult now than a kid, at 15 years old!

(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!

it’s become an annual tradition — sarah comes to visit Frederick the week after jackson’s birthday. and this year was no different.

we started out the week with a bang at the urbana carnival on monday night. crispy french fries, chicken and lemonade were followed by creamy soft serve ice cream and some games.

on tuesday, aunt molly took a break from work so she and sarah could meet a real, live author. deborah wiles lived for many years in nearby urbana and has since found success writing children’s novels and picture books. we listened to her speak about her writing journey, then sarah and aunt molly each purchased some books and waited in line to meet ms. wiles. what a nice woman she was! she greeted each of us, asked us about ourselves, shook our hands, and signed our books. aunt molly’s friend, tom, even took our photo while we spoke with her! sarah said maybe she’ll be an author someday.

later that day, jackson, molly and sarah went to kids eat free night at california tortilla, and enjoyed yummy tex-mex cuisine. jackson couldn’t stop saying “que-sa-dee-ya” or just “dee-ya” as he ate!

on wednesday afternoon, we all took a long walk to the baker park pool for family night. in total, we walked almost two miles to the pool and back! whew! we all needed a dip after that!

thursday was a stay-at-home day, playing with play-do, reading and just hanging out.

on friday, aunt molly took a vacation day from work, and treated sarah and jackson to a trip to the catoctin wildlife preserve and zoo in thurmont. what a day! it was one of the hottest and muggiest on record, but we all had a great time, anyway. we saw so many different kinds of monkeys, watched a bear, and sarah even threw some food at a bunch of deer and goats. (no worries — we didn’t let them eat out of her hand!) after a quick hot dog lunch, we walked through the creepy snake house and scoped out some way-cool tortoises.

we ended up near the safari area, where sarah saw her first live camel, in person! when aunt molly asked sarah whether she’d like to ride it, her eyes got huge. it was a big yes! after sarah bought her ticket, jackson showed an interest in riding, too. the nice lady who worked with the camels told us it was ok to put jackson on the camel with sarah, for free!

after some more monkey-observing and a long browse at the gift shop, we were headed home. aunt molly bought huge lemonades for everyone and we were all so grateful for them, and the car’s air-conditioning!

on saturday, sarah again braved the crazy heat to help aunt molly and jackson shop at the farmer’s market. we had to wait in line so long at the meat stand that all the corn on the cob was grabbed up before we could get there! ugh! we could hardly believe sarah’s last day had arrived already!

on sunday morning, we all woke up early to drive to baltimore, where we met up with sarah’s long-lost family. another way-too-hot day greeted us there, so after a nice lunch, we decided to head home.

it was another successful, fun visit from sarah this year. special thanks for all her help, her positive attitude, and for teaching aunt molly how to make some way-cool bracelets!

can’t wait for next year!

grandma and grandpa arrived on their way back from florida last week and brought with them lots of warm sunshine! we were glad to have it. it felt like summer all week.

we celebrated grandpa’s and molly’s birthdays with a trip to la paz and ben & jerry’s in downtown frederick. it was jackson’s dream dinner — cheesy quesadillas and ice cream. dairy, dairy and more dairy!

check out the aftermath of giving a 21-month-old a whole ice cream cone to eat by himself. crime scene or chocolate treat? you decide.

we’ve also posted a few photos of sarah’s communion weekend. check out the little widget to the right. they’re mostly of jackson playing. i think jill got the best shots of the actual communion and portrait shots afterward!