Snow Dec 09

Canoe

Joel with the snow in the background.

Still snowing & would be several hours later.

The above pictures are from during the blizzard and the day after.

Our Backyard early Saturday morning.

Gideon is 4!

My big boy Gideon made it quite clear from the start of his birthday that he did not want his picture taken! So you won't see any good smiley pics of the birthday boy in this entry. He did have a great birthday though!

On the big day, we had cake and ice cream and presents (no this is not Christmas morning, as the picture would lead you to believe...) with Uncle Paul, Uncle Pete, Nana, Pop-Pop and Great Grandmom.

All week we had discussions about the cake for the party. For weeks he had been saying that he wanted a "Great big "glue" (aka blue) cake, but when it came down to it, he wanted a brown cake on the outside and a yellow cake on the inside. Perfect for my dad! Of course, when it came to actually eating said cake, he wouldn't do it. I tried many many times to remind him that he doesn't eat cake, but I can understand wanting an official birthday cake anyway. Ice cream didn't go over too well either, as it wasn't soft serve. Thank goodness we had made lots of extra chocolate pretzels with sprinkles- a favorite!

Joel, naturally, LOVES cake and ice cream.


OK, so here was the most exciting adventure of birthday week, and I'm so glad we pulled it off without any major hitches!

As Gideon loathes the spotlight and big crowds, we opted to do a birthday trip this year and not a party, with just a few, special handpicked friends. We took the Metro downtown to Union Station to see the model train exhibit and have lunch.

It was a cold day up on the train platforms, but the kids all loved riding.

Union Station looks beautiful at Christmas!

We had lunch at Pizzeria Unos, where I had reserved us a table. It was kind of funny to see our big group of preschoolers in the midst of all of the Washingtonian business types having their power lunches. We had a great time.

A Backyardigans theme, which is the reigning favorite show right now.

And I wanted to catalog all of Gideon's buddies that came along...

Little brother, Joel!

William Zuba

John Thomas Zuba (I promise that is only lemonade in there!)

Mikayla Robinson

Jayden Robinson

Erin Waterhouse

And Luke Waterhouse

After lunch we went to see the main attraction- a really cool train display put on every year at Union Station. It was a big hit.

The last event was getting frozen yogurt cones from the food court. Gideon got to have the fancy sprinkle cone, since he was the birthday boy. He did let me film the cone, if I promised not to have him in the picture. ;)

Things started to break down rapidly when we had a cone casualty....

So we got out of there pretty quickly after that, and headed home for naps. Overall, a great day!

Thanksgiving in Columbus

We took our trip to Columbus a little early this year, at Thanksgiving. It was my (Annie's) first Thanksgiving away from home, so I was a little sad to miss my mom's fabulous turkey dinner, but we had a great time...and great food too! Jeff and Becky Sturm were our gracious hosts. Joel (avoiding the flash as always) had a little of almost everything, and loved it.

Gideon...not so much. He did enjoy his peanut butter crackers, carrot sticks, corn and grapes though. Mmmm....nothing like a traditional Thanksgiving dinner. ;)

Aden...obviously a little overwhelemed by Kevin's colossal pumpkin cake, and all the other dessert options.

Joel was busy all afternoon with his many admirers.

While Gideon took refuge from the chaos in the coolest basement ever! Kaylee's haven. Perfect sensory experience for a child with SPD. Gideon felt like he was at OT with Ms. Shirley!

And then passed out from all the excitement. A perfect Thanksgiving Day. :)