Category: Family

The awesomeness of being close to cousins for day trips to the zoo! Not sure who was more wild- the animals or our children!

#cousintribe

Welcome to Maryland Barbas! Look forward to many mor ‘let’s meet halfway’ adventures! ❤️

While we’re EXCELLENT at growing weeds, but apparently we’re not so bad at growing tomatoes either. And even a few peppers too!

So happy to see these guys picking vegetables in the garden…. now if they’d only eat the damn things!

Andrew spent the weekend with CoCo and Papa leaving Teddy all alone with his tired (more on that later!) parents for the weekend. My observations:

(1) He’s clearly the 2nd child who is used to the built-in entertainment of an older brother. The cardboard boxes were a poor consultation prize…

(2) He’s smart! Teddy seized the opportunity to play with Andrew’s favorite Buzz Lightyear, sit in his chair, drive the jeep, watch his trains and even snuggle with Mommy all by himself. Shh! Don’t tell Andrew! 

(3) Andy and I are way more relaxed with #2 than #1. On a few occasions we found him upstairs playing with his toys. I want to say that we knew where he was the whole time but that would be a lie….

Big brother returns tonight and I’m sure the decibels will crank up when they’re reunited!

Andrew and Teddy visited their favorite locomotive Thomas on the island Sodor this morning (translation- we went to Thomas Day in Phillipsburg, NJ). It was an absolutely gorgeous morning and both boys loved visiting Thomas, riding the rails and watching the trains! Andrew’s good buddy JP joined us for the ride. Meeting Sir Topham Hat and the bounce house were also highlights! Overall a great morning, complete with a victory for England in the World Cup! All my boys were happy! (yes…. we’re too cheap to buy the official photo)

We celebrated a little early down the shore last weekend and then had a low key day at home complete with a mommy- Andrew solo trip to Starbucks for cookies and coffee, water balloons, BBQ with friends and sparklers! ????❤️

Despite the forecast calling for rain and thunderstorms all weekend, we managed to cram in a whole lot of fun and family into this past weekend. On Saturday morning we went to the zoo. Per usual, Andrew’s favorite part was the train ride. But if you force him to choose a favorite animal, he said it was the lions. He also informed us that Teddy’s favorite animal were the penguins.  Both boys also got into feeding the goats. Note that Mommy was happy as can be taking pictures and staying several feet away from anything pertaining to the feeding of animals. Goats, sheep, horses, dogs….anything! With the exception of my own children, I HATE feeding animals!

On Saturday evening we visited the local beer garden for dinner and drinks outside with friends. And on Sunday we went to our first baseball game as a family. We went to see the Somerset Patriots play the Maryland Blue Crabs at the minor league stadium in nearby Bridgewater. We had front row seats right behind home plate for less than what it would cost to park our car at a major league game!  We ate the food, drank a beer and tried to introduce Andrew to a whole new set of American traditions. He liked the french fries and mascot, Sparkee, most. 

And Teddy….he was simply a terror. All he wanted to do was run around and climb on the railings….which was precarious with the foul balls flying around. At one point he literally got stuck in a folding seat. After 4 LONG (but fast in terms of actual time) innings, I finally put him back in the carrier and stood under the roof till Andrew was finished watching. Take a good look around Teddy. You won’t be seeing this place for another year or two at least! Exhausted mommy pictured below.  For the record, we lasted 5.5 innings which was better than we expected!