Port Discovery

This is my 100th post! I can't believe I've written that much since I started this blog only 10 months ago. Here's to another 100!

Anyway, on Monday Peyton and I took a trip to Port Discovery. It's a children's museum downtown. It's geared towards kids 2-7 years old. There are three floors, with several exhibits on each floor.

We started out the day in the Royal Farms gas station and convenience store. Peyton drove a VW Beetle.

And then he shopped for some groceries. He chose lots of fruits and vegetables.

I had to pry Peyton out of this exhibit because he was having so much fun. Next we headed over to a room that was filled with drums and cymbals. This was Peyton's dream come true. He loves to drum on anything at home, so he was in absolute heaven! He just ran around from drum to drum banging and banging.

After I finally convinced Peyton to move on to another exhibit, we found an arts and crafts room. Peyton practiced his cutting skills. He also did a little coloring.

We headed over to the "train station" where Peyton played conductor and then took a ride in the caboose.

We found a room with lots of activities geared towards the under 4 crowd. Peyton played on this jungle gym for a while. He loves to slide.

There was also a ball pit in this room. Peyton had fun playing in the balls and also jumping off the walls of the pit and into the balls.

We found more things to do, like this game where you use the steering wheel to try to keep a ball on the road. Let me warn you, Peyton is a crazy driver, so if you ever see him on the road, stay away!

There was a room that had several stations set up. Each station had a book attached to it and a toy/game/puzzle that went with the book. This station had the book "One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish" and a bucket full of fish that you could hook into a chain.

Next, we headed up to the diner. There were appliances, lots of fake food, menus, trays, plates, cups, and utensils. Peyton enjoyed cooking food on the stove, putting food in the refrigerator, and serving me. We were in this room for a really long time as well.

After the diner, we went down to the farm. There was a life-sized cow that you could "milk," a vegetable garden that you could harvest food from, and a horse that you could groom. Peyton dug for potatoes and onions in the garden, but didn't really want to be near the horse or cow.

Peyton asked for the drums after each exhibit that we visited. We stopped back by the drum room on the way out. The first time we went in there it was just Peyton and one other child. This time, the room was full of kids. I don't know how the Port Discovery staff member sits in there all day. My head was pounding after about 5 minutes! After the encore of drumming, we went home for lunch and a much needed nap! Peyton had a good time at the museum.

I wanted to include this picture of Peyton driving Mickey around in his Mini. He cracks me up.

Christmas, Part 3

Two days after Christmas, my dad's side of the family met up at my parents' house to exchange gifts. We had dinner of subs and potato chips. There was also desserts like cannolis, fruit tarts, a walnut cake, and cheesecake. Yum!

Of course Peyton opened his gifts from everyone first. My son is so spoiled! Aunt Bev gave Peyton a special book about Christmas and a fun learning game which plugs into the tv.

Kim, Bo, and Dougie got Peyton lots of gifts, including Gator Golf, Giraffealaugh Limbo, an outfit, and a special Mickey Mouse pillow that Kim made herself. Peyton liked all of his gifts, especially the pillow.

Nadean, Vester, and Austin gave Peyton two Christmas DVDs with Barney, Thomas, and others. They also gave him a huge set of Play Doh (which he may have mostly liked because the container could be used as a drum, haha).

We gave Dougie and Austin their gifts. We gave Dougie two games that he asked for.

We gave Austin some Ravens slippers and a Best Buy gift card.

After the boys opened all of their gifts, the adults exchanged gifts. Each family picks another family. We picked Nadean and Vester. We gave them gift cards to Olive Garden and Buffalo Wild Wings. And they got us. We received a gift card to PF Changs. We can't wait to go out to eat!

We finally gave Jeremy and Jill their gifts too. We hooked them up with tickets to the aquarium and zoo in Atlanta. They will be there in February to go to some hockey games.

Last, but certainly not least, Uncle Jeremy and Jill gave Peyton the last part of his gift. It is a Mini Cooper! Who looks more excited about it - Jeremy or Peyton? Ha. Peyton loves it. He rides it all around our house.

We had a really nice marathon Christmas. Peyton got so much stuff. Our house is a mess. But that is how it is supposed to be! We actually still have to get together with Kate, Dave, and Noah, so it isn't quite over yet... Merry Christmas everyone!

Christmas, Part 2

We went to my parents' house for Christmas dinner around 4:00. It was a delicious meal of lasagna, ham, meatballs, cracker corn, and rolls. We hung around just long enough to eat dinner and then we headed up to my grandparents' house in Bel Air to have Christmas with that side of the family. All of my aunts, uncles, cousins, and their kids were there except for one who was in Texas for the holiday.

Here is a picture of our family on Christmas.

Each of my aunts and uncles gave Peyton some gifts. Aunt Donna and Uncle Tom gave Peyton this GeoTrax set to go with his train tracks.

Aunt Marie and Uncle Jay gave him a Spiderman bath set that contains bubble bath and a basketball net and balls. He loved that, of course, since balls and baths are two of his favorite things.

Uncle Donald gave Peyton the game Topple and some cars.

After the kids opened their presents, we did a secret Santa-type gift exchange among the adults. Each adult brought a gift which was wrapped and put it in a pile. Everyone was given a number. Then my grandmother called numbers one at a time. When your number was called, you got to pick a gift. Kyle ended up with a pack of flashlights. I got picked last and won a nice smelling candle.

Next, my grandmother called everyone's numbers again, but this time each person picked a wrapped gift card out of a box. I chose an Exxon gas card, but since there are no Exxon gas stations around our house, I traded it with Aunt Marie for an Applebee's gift card. Kyle got a card to Home Depot. Next my grandparents gave everyone gifts from them. Thanks for everything! We hung out for a little while longer, but it was getting super late and my grandparents live about an hour from us, so we had to get home to put Peyton to bed.

On the day after Christmas, Peyton took some time to play with some of his new toys. He built some buildings with his new blocks.

And he played with his power tool workbench. He was very safe and wore his safety goggles!

Later, we finally got around to opening our stockings. Peyton got a little Mickey Mouse book, a Mickey sticker/coloring book, chalk and dry-erase markers for his easel, and some scissors.

After stockings, Peyton opened his gifts from Uncle Ryan, Aunt Becky, Lindsey, and Sara. He got a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse book, another book/puzzle, pajamas, Fridge Phonics, and some PlayDoh. He loved everything. He even loved the wrapping paper because it was Mickey Mouse and there was Mickey and friends on the inside of the paper too.

Finally, Peyton opened his gifts from Uncle Adam, Aunt Suzie, Adam, Branden, and Hailey. He got another Fridge Phonics, some Color Wonder markers and paper, and a Magna Doodle. He liked all of that stuff too!

One more Christmas post coming up... It's like never-ending Christmas around here.

Christmas, Part 1

We had a crazy busy Christmas day and I literally took 180 pictures on that one day alone, so I'm going to split the Christmas blog up into two separate posts. There are still a ton of pictures to look at though!

Peyton woke up around 8:00 and when we went downstairs, we saw that Santa came!

At first Peyton wasn't too excited about the idea of Santa coming to our house, but when he saw all of the presents, he changed his tune quickly. Santa ate the cookies and drank the milk that we left out for him. He even wrote Peyton a little note back. We found the end of the carrot that we left for the reindeer outside of our house.

Santa even filled Peyton's stocking up with some goodies.

Peyton ran right back into the living room and started ripping into his presents. He did a really good job this year. He didn't really need any help from us. He wanted to start with all of the big presents in the back. Here are just a few pictures of him opening and enjoying his presents from Santa.

He really liked this Mickey Mouse Clubhouse keyboard. He stopped opening gifts a few times just so that he could go back to play with the keyboard for a few minutes. Then he would resume the gift opening.

Peyton also got this Sesame Street play set. He already has little figurines of all of the Sesame Street characters, so I guess Santa thought Peyton would like to play with his characters on the actual Sesame Street. I think he was right!

Here are a few more pictures of Peyton opening gifts. I think Santa brought 20 gifts for Peyton. That kid is so spoiled!

Adam called while Peyton was in the middle of opening his gifts. I made Peyton stop opening his gifts while Kyle was on the phone, so that he wouldn't miss anything. I told Peyton he had to wait until Daddy was finished on the phone, so Peyton said to Kyle, "Daddy, off phone yet?" It was so funny (but you probably had to be there).

Peyton got lots of books, which he liked. We read a ton of books around here.

It took Peyton about 45 minutes, including the time that Kyle was on the phone, to open all of his gifts. This is what the living room looked like when Peyton was finished opening his gifts. What a mess!

My parents and Jeremy came over for breakfast around 9:00. We made french toast, bacon, sausage, and eggs. I thought everything tasted good, but maybe I was biased. Peyton ate so much for breakfast. He had french toast, a piece of bacon, an egg, and SIX sausage links. What a piggy!

After breakfast, Grandmom and Pop-Pop gave Peyton more gifts.

The highlights were a Home Depot workshop with working power tools, the coordinating tool belt, a Corvette, building blocks, and Elmo K'nex blocks.

Then we gave Jeremy, Mom, and Dad their gifts. We gave Jeremy this "Rock, Paper, Scissors, Lizard, Spock" t-shirt. We had another gift for him, but waited to give it to him until Jill was around too, since we gave her the same thing.

Mom's favorite gift from us was this picture of our family in a pretty frame.

Dad's best gift was tickets to a Maryland Terps basketball game in January.

Where's Peyton? He totally blends in with the wrapping paper!

Kyle and I also got our gifts from my parents and Jeremy. Kyle's favorites were gift certificates to the driving range and a surround sound system. I got the Wizard of Oz collector's edition DVD set, a mixer that I wanted, and a promise of some new maternity clothes.

After everyone left, Peyton played with some of his new toys. After lunch, he took a nap. Kyle and I opened our gifts from each other. I got Kyle a new flat screen tv for our bedroom. He was very surprised.

He also got tickets to the Capitals hockey game when they play the Redwings and "The Hangover" which is "the best movie ever."

Kyle got me lots of stuff, including some maternity clothes, a new watch, my necklace (which needed to be repaired), and two new Guitar Hero games.

There were more Christmas festivities later in the evening, but I'll talk about those in Part 2.