Mommy and Me at the Y

Gabriel and I participated in a fun Mommy and me class this past year (the same one that Noah and I did when he turned 2) at the YM & YWHA. We had a great time. I was so pleasantly surprised with his teacher this year. She was just so experienced, warm, and friendly towards the children and really made the year a great experience for Gabey. I'm hoping to sign Gabey up for pre-school prep next year so this as a good pre-school prep-prep class :) Hopefully Vicky will be his teacher next year and it will be a nice, smooth transition.

Our day consisted of art time, music time, dance time, bubbles!, snack/story, free time and circle time at the end. Gabriel's favorite things to do were reading stories in the book corner -- he would always, without fail, walk straight to the books and plop himself in my lap for the first 15 minutes of class. It's almost as though he knew he had some one-on-one time with me finally and wanted to take advantage of it. I kind of loved it :) He also loved playing with the trucks, sliding down the slide of the big block area, and catching bubbles during bubble time. He HATED the "We are the Dinosaurs" marching song for some reason and would start crying EVERY time we did that activity. He also wasn't a huge fan of art time, but had a nice breakthrough on the last day. All in all, it was a successful class and we had a great time.

art time!

this was a rare scene... he seemed to finally participate in everything on the LAST day, of course!

kitchen time

fireman Gabey

fireman baby!

bubble time!

last day party snack - chocolate cake

story and snack

sliding

playing horsey with Vicky

EleFUN!

birthday fun, part 2!

So, we jam-packed Noah's birthday fun into one long weekend and topped it off with cupcakes for his school friends, a trip to Chuck E. Cheese, and super awesome presents from the fam! I was extremely exhausted by the end of the weekend (and pretty sick of making cupcakes by that point!) but whipped out some mini cupcakes for all 26! of his classmates. I opted for the minis because that meant I didn't have to make 2 batches, right?!? We topped the cupcakes with a monster eye-ball ring to continue the theme and brought them to school with Nana and Gpa-pa's help. The class was extremely well-behaved (you could tell they've had about 26 b-day parties at this point because it was a very regimented affair!) and they enjoyed my cupcakes. Luckily I had brought the extras because apparently the minis were not quite filling enough. Howard, the preschool director came and played the piano while we sang happy birthday and Noah felt extremely special on his big day. It was a really nice time.

Then we met up with daddy and headed to Chuck E. Cheese for some rainy day playtime for the birthday boy. We pretty much had the place to ourselves which is always fun.

We also opened presents from the family, which didn't disappoint. Thanks for the great gifts, everyone!

candles!

the extremely-well-rehearsed group shot with the birthday boy

(look at that class full of boys!!!)

the birthday boy :)

mom and Nana

Gpa-pa gets in on the action

daddy shows up for a group pic

Chuck E. Cheese fun!

Skee ball!

hopefully this will be the only time this will ever happen

the long-awaited "King truck"

new alarm clock

super awesome pirate diary from aunt Chrissy

super awesome detective disguises from cousin Eliza

sweet kid-laptop from Nana and gpa-pa

cool new razor scooter from gma s!

Noah's Monster Party

Noah turned 5 this year... so hard to believe! Back in September (when he was planning his May birthday party for some reason) he asked if he could have a "monster" party. Not knowing what that actually meant or how I might pull it off, I simply said, "okay honey, we'll see." As his actual birthday got closer and I started looking for other ideas around the monster party, I was perusing the party aisle in Target and came across a monster party theme! I quickly grabbed all of the stuff and loaded it into my cart -- done!

Soon the party planning started to come together and we had ourselves a rockin' party. Monster coloring pages, a monster mask craft, reading of "Where the Wild Things are", a monster relay, monster Bingo, cupcake monster face decorating, and a monster pinata! I decided to invite 4 boys and 4 girls so things were nice and even (and for the girls to fulfill my need to have a craft! -- they didn't disappoint). And other than the fact that Nana got sick on the morning of the party that she flew in for!!! :(, it was a roaring success.

Happy Birthday, Noah!

fun with the party balloons

working hard at their coloring pages

(I can thank Eli for teaching Noah how to color within the lines!)

Eddie being coaxed to do the craft... come on, it's fun!

I am lucky to have a crafty little boy!

reading "Where the Wild Things Are"

Monster relay race, step 1: wrap your partner up like a mummy in toilet paper

Monster relay race step 2: put on the monster feet and walk to the bean bag toss

Monster relay race step 3: bean bag toss!

baby Leo sleeping right through it all!

SNACKS!!!

Lexi, our guest Monster Bingo caller!

monster face cupcake decorating

OR just eating the candy!

birthday boy and mom

Gabey holding his own

PRESENTS!

custom made pinata from the Domincan party store... so awesome!

Nana and Gpa-pa visit!

Nana and Gpa-pa flew in from Oregon to visit for Noah's 5th birthday in May. We had such a great time with them. We hit some new city sites that were fun for the whole family and vowed to start taking visitors to new places when they come. This adventure started out with a trip to Chelsea Market for thai food, gelato, and some wish-making in the fountain. Then we hit the Highline, wandered through the village and crashed at Bleecker playground for awhile. Then topped the day off with some cupcakes from Magnolia. I'm finding that if we plan some adult-time fun around a playground (and cupcakes) everyone can be happy!

lunch!

(i.e. gelato)

this kid knows how to eat a cone!

making a wish

funky yellow Highline elevator

everything is a "slide" to Gabey

trying to run and hide from mom

on the lookout

Gabey and gpa-pa

playground fun

twisty slide dance

view from the Highline

topped the night off with some bedtime stories from gpa-pa