Little Train Engineers

We went with our Mommy Group to the Jackson Street Roundhouse this week. The boys both really got into exploring the different trains. They pretended to be train engineers, rang the bell, tooted the whistle, and investigated all the old trains.

One of the trains was furnished just like it would have been in the 1940's. The furniture was velvety and fancy in the more elite rooms. One room had a toilet right in the middle. When we got to the gully, we had a little lesson on what may have happened there.

Happy 3rd Birthday Owen

Jim had to work on Owen's actual birthday, so we decided to invite some friends over. Since the monkey costumes went over so well with our family, we tried them again.


The moms and kids all seemed to have fun making the costumes. We gave each friend a bag with some treats and a spotting scope, then I told the story "We're Going on a Bear Hunt" and renamed it "We're Going on a Safari." The kids looked through the spotting scopes to see what kinds of animals they could see on a safari. Then we all made the animals' call. After some cupcakes, we snuggled on the couch for one last story. It was a really fun day!

Lunar Eclipse

Owen was very interested in the lunar eclipse last night. He always tells us stuff like "when the world turns and the sun goes down, we can see the moon." But now he's added phrases like, "the Earth is making a shadow on the moon" and "sometimes we can't see the moon because we (the Earth) are blocking out all of the sun's light." These aren't our exact words, so we think he actually understands this on some level, but that seems so impossible.

Evan is really into the moon right now, too. You can hardly read a book to him if it has moons in it because he'll flip through the pages so fast, pointing to all the moons, saying "moon. moon." So, the eclipse seemed like a perfectly times lesson for both of the boys and they really enjoyed watching it with Daddy out Owen's window.

Owen's Family of Monkeys

Owen had his 3rd birthday party a week earlier so more of our family could make it. Since I've always called Owen, "my little monkey" we went with a jungle theme. The highlight of the day was getting ALL of the guests to make monkey costumes. Everyone had a good time deciding how the ears should be cut. I heard many family members suggesting to use the image of our current President as inspiration.


Owen LOVED his pirate ship from Ya-ya & Bumpa.

The kids had a lot of fun playing. Gus found his calling on the Ukulele and serenaded Brenna.

Evan-always the little charmer.

Even Addie seemed to be having a good time.

And Owen, as always, was so sincere in his appreciation for his gifts (even the clothes & cards) and, also as usual, was a little rough with his love.