I need to talk to Dylan

Last night Ryan was in bed with me and we were reading books when Dylan started to cry in his room. Ryan asked why Dylan was crying and I told him probably because he didn't want to go to sleep. So Ryan jumped off the bed and told me he needed to talk to Dylan and he would be right back. I let him go and this is what he said: "Dylan, take a deep breath and calm down. Count to five. Try to relax. I know you don't want to go to sleep but you are not missing anything. You read books with mommy and now it is my turn and then I am going to sleep too, ok? go to sleep ok dillie? ok" and then he came back, got in the bed with me and said "i think that worked"

Calling all Superheroes.....

It is time for Ryan's 4th birthday party!! Ryan had been telling us for a long time that he wanted a superhero birthday party and that is what he got! We decided to have the party at a park next to our building on October 16th and I panicked up until the morning of the party about what we would do in the case of rain. Luckily, we woke up to a sunny, albeit windy and kind of chilly day. The kids didn't seem to notice though, especially the birthday boy who was so surprised when he came out to the park and saw it decorated with all of his favorite superheros.
Ryan had mentioned repeatedly before the invitations went out that in addition to the party having a superhero theme, he also wanted a his party to be a costume party but the other kids could only dress up as superheroes. Knowing that I would have no friends left if we made everyone get a superhero costume, I came up with what seemed like a great idea at the time: I would make all of the kids superhero capes that they could decorate. Ryan wasn't happy with the idea and after trying on a few capes I made, he declared he didn't like them. I felt a little discouraged and was starting to worry if I was wasting my time but, in the end, I think that the capes were a hit: the kids loved decorating them, were running all over the park like they could fly, and even Ryan said he loved his SuperRyan cape!

All of the kids put a lot of effort in to the capes and I really think they ended up being adorable. As the Superhero Crew protected the park (aka played with chalk, went in the tree house, played hide and seek in the dinosaur, and played on the swings), a villain was spotted lurking in the bushes: Oh no, it was Dr. Doom!!!!

As Dr. Doom started coming in to the park, Ryan ran over and started screaming "Who are you? Who are you? You can't come to my party. No Villains Allowed" and blocked the way.

During the very heated showdown, Dr. Doom offered up a present (and reveled himself to be Uncle Brian in disguise) so Ryan allowed him admission to the party. Ryan did tell him to put his mask back on though and the battle of good vs. evil began.

Of course, the good guys prevailed and then it was time for cake. No party would be complete without Costco sheet cake , especially one with enough balloons to make every kid yelling "can i have a piece of a balloon?" happy.


Ryan's favorite part of the party came at the very end when he finally, after weeks of anticipation got to hit the Spiderman pinata! The night before the party, he helped me stuff the pinata and let me tell you, it was busting at the seams. Luckily, the pinata held up long enough for all the kids to get in a few whacks each, avoiding any tantrums or unhappy kids.

When candy started to come out of the bottom of the pinata, all of the kids jumped on the ground and started scrambling and screaming (which gave me time to rip off the bottom so the rest would fall out).

When the bottom opened, all of the candy poured out on Ryan's head which he thought was one of the funniest things ever.

Jay and I were so happy that so many of Ryan's friends and family were able to come to his party - his face lit up every time someone else walked in to the park.

In my mind, the party was a huge success - a few times throughout the day, I caught Ryan across the park laughing with his friends, or spinning his cape or saying something about the "webs coming out of my hands" and then I would see Dylan running behind him, trying to catch up and all I could think was "man, do i love these kids!". There is nothing better in this world than watching them have a good time. By the time the party ended, we were all pretty wiped out, one of us more than the rest

Even though the party is over, rest assured that SuperRyan, SuperDylan and all of their superfriends will continue to protect the city, at least until next year's party. Who knows what that theme will be....

White Post Farms

I love Fall!! I love everything about it and was excited to start fall off by taking the boys to the Fall Festival at White Post Farms in Long Island with my friend Rita and her daughter, Katie.

We had beautiful weather (although it felt more like summer than fall) and because it was the first weekend of the festival, the crowds were not bad at all. There were so many things to do at White Post that we didn't have time to do everything and we were there for over 5 hours!! When we first walked through the gates, there was a big field of pumpkins and I am pretty sure all three kids would have been completely content to have played there all day.

The kids ran around seeing who could pick up the heaviest and best pumpkin, they tried rolling them, tried making piles of pumpkins and kept coming over asking "Can I take this pumpkin home?" We were only able to convince them to move to the next area by promising them they could pick out a pumpkin later.

Next stop was the petting zoo area. Everyone had a blast because all of the animals acted like they never ate before (although they all looked really well fed) and were waiting with their heads stuck though the fence slats. Even Dylan got into it and kept trying to get food pellets out of the machine - unfortunately, he would drop the food about 5 feet from the animals or just throw it at them so it wasn't super effective.

Next stop was the train ride. Dylan threw an absolute fit because just as we got on line, the ride started so we had to wait for the next turn. He was crying, yelling "NOOOOOO!!! NOOOOOO!!" and alternated between trying to break the gate down and trying to climb over it. When it was finally our turn, he ran right to the car he wanted while Katie and Ryan both decided they wanted to be conductors and took turns driving.

After the train ride, it was pumpkin painting time! We decided to do that earlier in the day so the pumpkins some time to dry before we took them in to the car - don't want any paint on our brand new car! Dylan hung out and had a snack while Katie and Ryan painted their pumpkins and every two minutes, Ryan declared he needed more paint. Both Rita and I tried to explain to the kids that they didn't need to paint the WHOLE pumpkin, but they both insisted that they did. As a result, we ended up with two pumpkins that were pretty much just green. Oh well, Katie and Ryan loved their pumpkins, thought they were beautiful and that is all that matters (also, we saw two 12 year old girls picking up their pumpkins and I have to say, Ryan and Katie did much better jobs!!)

While we were waiting for Ryan and Katie to finish their pumpkins, Dylan started to get a bit stir-crazy in the stroller so I was very happy to see right next to the painting tent was a big hay pit for the kids to run around in. Ryan and Katie ran right in and started their hay fight

Dylan was a little hesitant at first but then got in to it too, although he spent more time running away from kids than he did throwing anything.

My attempt to take a nice picture with both boys was not successful, since Ryan kept screaming " You are trappin' me and all the children are going to get me" oy

When we heard that a show in a nearby tent was about to start, we headed over. The show "Rodeo Ricky in the City Slicker Showdown" was kind of boring until they asked for 5 volunteers and Katie and Ryan both got picked!!! They did a great job - neither one was shy at all and they both had the best dance moves, ribbon-waving, and were by far the cutest on the stage!!

Dylan did such a good job cheering Katie and Ryan on, he was even invited on to the stage for the end of the show. He was trying so hard to get out of the stroller to run up the stage steps, I am surprised he didn't rip the straps off.

I think that all of the kids would agree that their favorite part of the day was the Bounce House/Bouncy slide area and I wish I had a picture of Ryan's face when he saw the first slide.

Dylan was not tall enough to go on the slides but there was another area for little kids and he LOVED it. As soon as we got close, he started running , jumped right in the house (which was really a small maze), and couldn't have cared less if I was with him or not.

I was told that parents couldn't go in with the kids so the first time around, one of the festival workers went in with Dylan and helped him climb the "hill".

After he got to the end of the house, the girl helping him got out and went to help someone someplace else. As soon as she left, Dylan jumped right back in. Since I could see in the sides, I just let him run around and figured since he couldn't get up the hill, he would eventually just come back out the way that he went in. I was wrong about that

Much to my surprise, he was able to climb it all by himself and went over the other side cracking up laughing. I am always amazed by how strong Dylan is and how determined is to do what he wants to do when he wants to. To say Dylan was disappointed when we had to leave is an understatement - he headbutted me in the face and split my lip.

Last stop of the day was the Balloon Kaboom Game. In this game, the kids pushed a pump to inflate their balloons and the first one to pop theirs won. Ryan took it very seriously and was very excited when the balloon popped.

By the end of the day, we were all exhausted and the boys slept the whole way home. What a fun day and a perfect way to start Fall!