Rogue One at the Senator

After missing out on a chance to go to the movies on the boys' birthday, Michael was leading the charge for us to go see Rogue One. He had gotten himself ready to go and was heading out the door not knowing the times for the movies and without Connor and I.  He was kind enough to wait for Connor and I to get dressed and plan on a movie theater to go to.

We decided on the Senator because of timing.   It was so nice to enter the classic movie theater with the boys.  Michael has seen a couple of movies there and I have maybe seen one.  They were mesmerized by the entrance and waiting area.  The boys spotted several pieces of Star Wars art.

As the Senator is a historical landmark, it only has 4 theaters, which only allows them to play 4 movies and you have to wait for the theater to empty completely before you can enter.  There was a lot of pacing and waiting for the doors to open. It was such an exciting experience for the boys.

We learned the story of how the plans to the Death Star were retrieved, caught a glimpse of some old friends and met some new heroes and an amazing heroine, Jyn Urso.  It was AMAZING.  We are super thankful that the boys have introduced us to the galaxy far far away and there was no way better to celebrate New Years Eve knowing that our little men wouldn't make it to midnight and their parents might not either.

Birthday celebrations

Michael always stays home to celebrate the boys' birthday and thankfully on this day, he was home and could take Connor in for a quick sick visit to the pediatrician.  He was diagnosed with an ear infection, which confirms our initial suspicions at Christmas.

We had planned to take the boys out to lunch and to see Rogue One.  Since the movies are adjacent to Bobby's Burger Palace, we decided to have lunch there.  Connor was not interested in eating his food and didn't want to go to the movie.   So, we opted to have Michael and Connor go home and Jackson and I got tickets for the 3D showing of SING!!

The movie was fantastic and we are going to make sure that Connor is able to see the movie.  The SINGing was fabulous.  Gunter was hysterical and all of the other character interaction were great to watch.

When Michael came back to pick us up,  he confirmed that Connor now had eye discharge... Once we got home, we called the pediatrician who confirmed that eye discharge was a common side effect of an ear infection and that the antibiotic he was on would help with the symptoms.

After dinner, we gave the boys their birthday gifts.  Jackson and Connor had been asking for an alarm clock so we got them a BB8 one and pillowcases to complement a Star Wars inspired room.  We will have the boys pick out some prints to replace the train ones that are currently in their room.   The boys loved the new Star Wars books and definitely didn't wan to put them down.

Happy 7th Birthday Jackson and Connor!! We hope that Connor feels better quickly.

Kenilworth Trains

We had missed so much with the weekend plans we had made that it took us until the day after Christmas to get the boys to Kenilworth and see the trains. Connor wasn't feeling his best but we wanted to try and do something.  And, he had lots of opportunities to sit down and rest.

From where we entered, we immediately found the Ocean City display, including favorites like the Kite Loft and Fishers popcorn.  We haven't been to that area since before the boys were born but it was exactly how we remembered.  Rehoboth has Dumsers and Fishers so we were able to point those familiar spots out to them.

Things were moving slow as there were several smaller kids whose parents wanted them to soak EVERYTHING in for extended periods of time.  I guess we were there once too.  Connor spotted R2D2 in the stock yard and was all kinds of happy.

Once we turned the corner, we found all of the sugar coated structures and it was bright and beautiful.

The last display was dedicated for football and baseball fields. It was so nice that they commemorated Ray Lewis and the last Super Bowl victory for the Baltimore Ravens.

This picture captures yet another lost tooth by Jackson.  Connor is holding strong at none lost. It's almost like when they were drooling babies and  Jackson had 6 before Connor lost his first.  In Connor's defense, he lost 4 in a week.  We haven't been counting but we think that it could be his 10th.

The boys continue to be in awe of this display year after year and so do their parents.

Night before Christmas

After the boys got some much needed haircuts that were delayed the prior week due to an ice storm, we were able to get started on banking some cookies for Santa.  Connor wasn't feeling very well and was a little warm and we would find him laying on the couch at random times.  Just like Thanksgiving and with Connor not feeling well, Jackson took the lead on the cookie baking.

His latest addition was cutting the butter in slices before adding it to the mixer. I love to see our little lefty in action.  Even though he predominantly uses his left hand, he will mix it up and add his right. I was able to teach him how to stick it and drop it into the mixing bowl.  This was something that he was adamant about taking care of.

We moved on to add the sugar and flour.  After being given some direction on Thanksgiving, he is now able to negotiate the KitchenAid.  He knows to be gentle in dropping down the beater, secure it once the beater is down and slowly increase the speed after making sure there is nothing spilling out.

Once everything was mixed, the boys were happy to take care of the beaters and the spoons. I worked on getting the cookies on the baking pans and they were ready to help with the bowl once all the cookies made it to the oven.

After a yummy dinner, the boys selected their pajamas for the night.  We worked together and got a plate ready for Santa Claus and the reindeer and placed it under the tree.  Before we sent the boys off to bed, we read our last book in the basket, 'Twas the Night before Christmas.

Apparently Santa thought that the boys were good and came through with an abundance of gifts under the tree and in the stockings.