New York/Connecticut Trip 2023 - Part II

 

After a nice healthy breakfast at Katherin's, we headed for Connecticut again, stopping for some fun kid time at a museum in Norwalk. 

The museum was super cute and the boys all had a lot of fun! After exploring transparent blocks through light, they discovered the fun house mirrors. 

Dinosaur exhibit!

I think it's safe to say the water room was their favorite activity. 

A little video with Kade explaining how his water build works. 

While in Norwalk, where else to go besides Stew Leonards?? Does your grocery store have animatronics?? And hello rainbow bagels! 

Push the button, then run! 

Dancing and singing avocado girls - I almost bought you a stuffy Aunt Nancy! ;) 

Everyone was hungry after roaming the grocery store, so headed for Duchess for hot dogs. Wouldn't you know it - my hot dog loving boy preferred the chicken nuggets? Alas, I can't win. 

We visited with Aunt Beverly for awhile, then only Kade and I made the journey to the cemetery. Maddox is still a bit young. My inquisitive little boy was asking all sorts of questions, which helped in a sense of keeping me out of the intense sadness. He is very thoughtful and very helpful - after explaining why we think of Kensie as still a baby, he wanted to put the bear "just so" for her. 

I had Maddox and Kade pick out the flowers in Stew Leonards, but didn't exactly explain who they were for at the time. I'm sure Grandma loved the selection. 

Our Uncle Bob passed away in April. His stone had just been set and, unfortunately, we were visiting about a month early from his celebration of life gathering.

We returned to Aunt Beverly's with the intention of being back in White Plains for dinner. In true Aunt Beverly fashion, she could not let the boys go without some goodies to take home. Both families scored all things water toys - float rings, diving toys, inflatable balls - even Maddox collected a treasure chest! 

A natural picture - capturing everyone in their moment during dessert! 

Alas, the next day it was time to return home. We had a lovely time and ate some wonderful food - Kade tried (and liked) black rice! 

Picture pose time!

With Amelie too! 

New York/Connecticut Trip 2023 - Part I

The day after Kade's birthday, we woke early for the RDU airport and a Starbucks breakfast!

 

After a little wait for our rental car at JFK, we arrived in White Plains to Katherin's home! The cousins settled right in playing games and running amok throughout the house - their favorite game was "basement ping pong" - per Kade.

Lots of energy, so we decided to walk over to Claire's school for the boys to play on the outdoor equipment.

Maddox was cute - "Can you send the picture to my mom please?"

It was a bit of a humid day, so even the adults got in, relaxing on some swings! 

The following day, we headed straight for Aunt Beverly's in Fairfield for a nice brunch with family. 

Uncle Mike, Christine, Bo and Alex also stopped in. Alex just turned 2 in May and is a solid little boy!! 

Look at that scowl! He knows about taking pictures!

Even though the weather looked iffy the entire time we were there, we ended up with a nice beach day after all. Kade kept asking me "where are the waves??" Sorry bud, only tiny waves in the Sound. 

Looks very New England-ish, doesn't it?? 

Maddox is so patient. Kade buried him in the sand and he waited even longer for a picture!

Siblings!!

The appeal of the beach was wearing thin - lots of debris floating in the water (seaweed, little sticks, plastic garbage - see above video - ugh) and the water was a bit cold. Soon after, we decided to walk to the playground and go crab hunting (same place as Brock and I did last year). 

We found them! Crab with BIG pincher!

Cutie cousins!

We headed back to Aunt Beverly's to get cleaned up and then head over to Christine's for dinner. Pizza and hot dogs! (hot dogs for those who don't like pizza.... aka Kade)

Alex was such a trooper with those bigger boys!

The boys were mesmerized by Boss Baby playing on the tv. It was also getting a little late for my little guy. Time to head back to Katherin's for another fun filled day tomorrow!!

(And yes, Christine is 9 months pregnant in this picture!)

Happy 8th Birthday Kade!

We have a Guest Author for this blog.... the following is all by Kade!!

This was my birthday party. I invited Ayaan, Anivin, and Ollie, and Nico.

we did the slip and slide I had to show them how to do it.

 

We brought the pool over to the slide. 

we had fun going down the slide with the hose on the top of the slide so the water go's down the slide.

Here is a video of me going down the slide. 

I went down the slide the pool was under rocks so I hit my but on the bottom of the slide.

We did this for a wile, then we went inside.

We had chocolate cupcakes with blue frosting.

I blew my candles out.

This is were my friends had to go back home I wanted them to stay here.

My birthday party was before my real birthday.

This is one of the presents that I had, and I also got a camera. The camera was very fun.