The Cutest Heroes in a Half Shell Ever!

This year we let Porter take the lead, 

we told him he could pick whatever he wanted to be.

He chose Ninja Turtle!

I actually had a totally different plan for the rest of us, 

but the second that Ronan saw Porter's costume- he had to have one too!

We decided to just go with it, and it was fantastic!

One of my favorite years yet, I think!

These are definitely the cutest Heroes in a Half Shell that I have ever seen!

Although I loved all my cuties,  but I was partial to this guy!!

Seriously!!! How cute is he??

Trick of treating with the buddies

Miles has discovered the beauty of Halloween

They had a Trunk or Treat and Carnival at our Church as well, 

and everyone had a great time! Ronan is always a fan of the bouncy house.

And here Miles is demonstrating his amazingly awesome Ninja Move!

He's a natural!

He loved trick or treating almost as much as the big boys!

Happy Halloween everyone!!

Fall Fun

We had a bit more fun in the month of October that I just had to make sure we included.  We had Chili and Pumpkin night with our pals C & B, and had a great time! Everything turned out great, and we were all set then to decorate our front doors for Halloween!

Porter decided to go with his version of

"Perry the Gord-o-pus"

It turned out SO cute, 

and he got to enter it in his school's pumpkin competition

Of course we had to have a pretty pumpkin to 

appease the only girl in the household!

And everyone had lots of fun just painting! 

What's not to love when you are a little kid?

C & B's fantastic creations! C is a great artist, 

look at her rocking all those characters from scratch!

 Even Miles totally enjoyed himself.

What a cutie. He was actually really trying!

 And last, but definitely not least in our October fun-

we celebrated our favorite Daddy's birthday!!

The boys are PROS at helping to blow out candles…

look at that technique!

 We celebrated with favorite restaurants, date night, and a delicious Cheesecake!

Happy Birthday Sweetie! We love you!

Frankenstorm Sandy 2012

Porter checking the storm out, as the rain really started to come down yesterday

So, as I'm plugging along in catching up on our fall activities for the blog-

I felt it only right to include a little snippet for all those who have been 

wondering about how we fared yesterday in Hurricane Sandy. 

We actually feel it is a good lead in to the holiday season, as the weather forecasters
 said it was a "Hurricane wrapped in a NorEaster"; kind of reminds us of a Turducken! 

In anycase, it has been a horrible storm for so, so many people a little

 further up the Eastern Seaboard. We feel terrible and are praying for all of

 those who have been more severely effected. For our part however, 

we feel blessed to have really been only slightly effected by comparison.

 We got hit by the southern part of the storm, and it was the worst yesterday 

afternoon into the night. The lights flickered at times in the afternoon and throughout the evening, but the power only went out once briefly and came back on. 

School and work for Noah was canceled yesterday and today as well, so we've been enjoying some time as a family and with our neighbors!  I've done all the laundry and dishes

 in hopes of having it all taken care of incase the power went out! Today now, we are set to go with all of our "chores" now out of the way! We played multiple board games yesterday,

 and I anticipate more today. It was a good distraction last night, 

especially as the storm really picked up. I was most concerned about our windows.

 The big one in our living room, being the biggest concern. They were rattling, and the glass kept bowing in and out with the wind, but thankfully they did not blow out! 

We also had a good amount of water that started seeping in all

 around that big window as well, but we just put down towels and waited it out. 

I'm not going to lie, I was not a huge fan of that 

(being that it was the window that was rattling a lot), but we made it through 

the night and maintenance will come and re-seal the whole window soon we hope. 

All in all, we can't complain. We are safe, dry and happy and the storm thankfully left us far better off than so many others. 

Take Me Out to the Ball Game

One of the the things that we were most excited about being back in America (DC in particular) was that we were going to be able to catch the end of baseball season! If you know Noah well, then you know that he is a HUGE Phillies fan, and baseball in general. We love that the Nats play the Phillies on a regular basis, so we try to catch whatever games we can. Growing up for the most part of their "American" experience for the boys, we (I more so than Noah) have also decided that we can become moderate fans of the "home team" too. Notice the mix of fan attire?

In anycase, we jumped on the chance to take the boys to one of the last games of the regular season, and had a fantastic time!! The weather was perfect, and all of the kids enjoyed the game the entire time! Are we possibly entering an era of being able to enjoy a sporting event like this without too much hassle from the kiddos? Fingers crossed! 

We had also purchased an extra ticket for Miles, then figured out he didn't need one.

 Porter was stoked to get to bring his buddy L along! 

Also, he has officially learned the "bunny ears" in pictures at school this year I guess. Oh joy.

Nothing says a good baseball game like enjoying the ballpark favorites. 

Hot dogs all around, and they were delicious!

 Ronan is also a big pretzel man-

Had to include some shots of the stars of the show:

 And of course, some Chase Utley- he's always been my favorite

Whew, he made it on base!

 You looking at me? 

Yes, I am ADORABLE. And having a great time!

Heckling/flirting with the Nationals fans behind us!

 Porter had such a great time with his buddy L! 

Thanks for coming with us buddy!

(They wanted a picture with Teddy in the background,

 he came up in the stands right by us)

Our Family MVP of the night goes to Ronan!

He was in SUCH a great mood, all night long!

It was awesome, he never sits still thru anything, but he was calm and interested the entire time

except for a few potty breaks. Great Job Roni!!

 Guess he was just in his element, huh?

 He was even being really cute and actually trying to 

smile and pose for the camera! 

Yay! He is unfortunately in the "fake smile" stage though.

 A for effort anyway!

 On the Metro home after a wonderful fall evening! 

(And even on a school night, we are the coolest parents ever I tell ya!)

Love these boys, and the fun memories we made!

Our Little Monster is Five!

Man Alive! I can't believe he's five! 

Ronan recently had a birthday, and we decided to party with a "Little Monster" theme. 

We had some great friends and neighbors come over to help us celebrate!

I just decided to go with lots of fun bright colors for all the decorations, and didn't get pictures of it all, but it turned out pretty cute.

The Cake:

The Little Monsters:

I made these cute softees for all the kiddos that came. 

They were a huge hit.

We played pin the eye on the monster-

And, last but not least: 

 I found these terrific retro paper straws-

I know, these are really just fun for me, but they were awesome!

If there is one thing that Ronan is REALLY good at, it is blowing out birthday candles!

He is a pro. Totally has some skillz.

Also- my amazing friend Courtney helped me by making these

 fantastic monster cupcakes to go with the cake! 

They turned out SO cute. They were perfect, and the kids went absolutely crazy for them.

Thanks again Court!!

We had so much fun with everyone who came, 

and thank you all SO much for the wonderful 

sweet gifts for our little guy! He LOVED them all. 

He's way into dressing up in costumes lately-

so this was a major score as he opens up his new Knight costume!

A new favorite for sure.

Can I say how much I love all these cuties?

And, the round table that we scored in our apartment!

We definitely need to get one for our future homes.

We had his big party a few days before his birthday so it could be on a weekend, then on his actual birthday we just had a little family celebration. We saved a few of the gifts though, and took him to Chick-Fil-A and the play space for dinner. He had a great night.

Oh, and also we can't forget the candles again on a leftover piece of cake!

Enjoying his big gift from Mommy and Daddy, 

this fun big Chuggington race track! 

Also sporting his new fireman outfit. This was one happy boy!

Happy Birthday Roni! We love you so much, 

and are so grateful that you are part our family. 

Thanks for always keeping us on our toes, and enjoying this adventure with us!

Back to School 2012

We arrived in NoVA after home leave just in time to jump into the first day of school!

This is Porter's first experience with school in America! 

There are luckily, multiple little boys his age that are also

 living here at our complex and are FS too.

It has been so fun for him to make new friends and he just loves school!

He's such a great kid, never complained a bit and has been so great to just roll with our lifestyle!

Here he is in his classroom with his cute teacher Ms. L.

This is going to be a good year, I can tell!

Lucky Seven

We did have one event from our time on home leave that I do want to post separately. 

According to Porter also, it was his favorite thing about the summer. 

(We did A LOT  of fun things too, so I guess we hit it out of the park

 for this one if it still comes in number one on his list!)

My baby turned SEVEN!!

I can not believe this day has arrived! How is it possible that it was a whole seven years ago

 when I got to hold my little munchkin for the first time? The time has flown so quickly. 

Aack! Make it slow down, please!

In anycase, hopefully this year turns out to be as wonderful and lucky for him as his birthday! 

As we had recently arrived back in the USA-

 (birthday present number one, being in America for his birthday!)

I went 100% hands off for his party, and booked the local bowling alley. 

They took care of everything-I didn't even make goodie bags.

Well, I did order the cake from Target-which he loved getting to pick it out-

 I know, right? Huge step for me. And you know what?

It was awesome! Everyone had such a fun time, 

and it was completely stress free for me.

He loved every second of it. They went the extra mile, and made sure he

 got to bowl on Lane 7, which he thought was SO COOL.

Daddy even made sure that he let Miles get in on the action! Noah has skillz, huh?!

 Now, for his FAVORITE part of his birthday:

for his final score- he got a 77!

What are the odds, bowling a 77 on lane 7 for his 7th birthday!

He's been talking about it ever since, lucky 7 indeed!

The Cake-Pokemon theme

The Crew

His buddy Ryli was even able to come for a bit, while dealing with their own inter-continental switchup! Thanks for squeezing us in guys, we loved that we got to see you all! 

I love that Porter has friends that understand his whole "international" lifestyle because they've lived abroad too. I think it makes all the difference in the world to help him not feel like he's weird or different. In this picture we've got Turkey, Mexico, Puerto Rico (yes, America but still..) and Moldova covered! 

Can he get them all in one blow?

Pizza time

They also got tokens to play in the arcade. It was a HIT. Maybe even more so than the bowling?

You can never go wrong with arcade games I guess!

Porter opening his "big gift" from Mommy and Daddy-

He was thrilled!

 This Lego Ninjago lover, could not have been a happier birthday boy!!!

We got him the Fire Temple, which he had been wanting for a loooong time.

Patience seemed to pay off though, and that's good because he and Noah both needed it for the 5 hours it took them to build this beauty!! 

Happy Birthday Porter!!

We love you so much, and can't imagine our lives without you!

Thank you for bringing so much love, enthusiasm, and humor to our lives.