Let the games begin

In honor of the Opening Ceremonies tonight I thought I'd whip up a quick Olympic post.

The last summer Olympics was quite eventful for us since our baby girl was born in the middle of them. I don't remember much about who won what in my baby daze. Though I'm sure Michael Phelps won a few golds. But I do remember being somewhat grateful for the Olympics that year. It gave us something entertaining to watch through my entire night of labor and subsequent nights of feeding. And Matt even willingly got up with me for night time feedings so he could see the end of the US basketball game. I'm sure he could tell you better if they won or not.

So this year we've been trying to explain what the Olympics are to Kaelyn. I don't think she quite gets it yet but she did have fun making this Olympic paper chain. I think her favorite part may have been scrolling through all the Olympic Ring images I pulled up on Google.

It was kind of a slow (we were working on patterns) and sticky (someone likes to go a little overboard with the glue stick) process. But she liked it so much she kept asking to do more chains. So we made a red, white and blue one for the American flag. And she would have done more after that if we hadn't had to clean up so I could get dinner started.

Hung very appropriately over Big Ben.

The other day when we were talking about the Olympics being in London she asked if we were going to go. Unfortunately not Kaelyn, but hopefully we can go to London some day. And she didn't believe us when we were watching the news and told her Brian Williams was in London. Have I mentioned yet that she's a bit obsessed with Brian Williams? Yes. Every evening she wants to know, "What's Brian Williams telling us?" She thinks he looks like Pop. And now they're on a first name basis. Last night she came up to me and said, "Brian told us half the country is in a drought."

That girl is something else.

Maybe she'll win a gold medal some day. For cuteness. Or the most questions asked in a day. One of the two.

Childhood memories

I just had to share this video. I didn't catch the best of it on camera but it reminded me so much of playing in the sprinkler when I was little. Not sure mom ever let us do it in our pajamas though.

Tried to get a few good pictures too.

A fun way to spend the morning.

Runs in the family

Looks like there may be a chance at least one of the kids will be an engineer when they grow up. Just like their Pop.

Bren has been really into building towers lately.  He can usually get them about 4 blocks high before they fall over. He might help himself out a little if he'd move his towers to a hard, flat surface. I guess the boy likes a good challenge.

So focused.

He was quite pleased with himself. He often claps for himself too.

I think it's about to tumble!

And of course Kaelyn is not one to be left out. She started building little "castles" with him the other day and then was inspired when she looked at the side of the block box.

"Look Mama! You can build one with ALL the blocks!"

And that's exactly what she proceeded to do.

She was concentrating very hard.

Make sure you check out the background of this one.

And here is the finished product. Quite an impressive castle if you ask me.

3 wheelin'

Get off the roads. Kaelyn's riding on her own.

Of course we have to stop for a water break every 3 feet.

She had to wear pants with her skirt on a 90+ day, in case she got cold you know. Plus, her shoes are more comfortable on the wrong feet.

Brennan and Rudy came along for the ride.

Check out that sweaty head. This calls for popsicles.

Who needs the beach

...when you have this in your backyard?

They didn't really like the giraffe sprinkler, but it sure made a fun tunnel to crawl under.

Even better when you add the slide.

It actually came with a blow-up slide (see in the background) which did not function quite as expected. Thanks to some friends for loaning us this cool pirate ship slide.

Bren is afraid to actually go down the slide into the pool after a little mishap where he landed on his back under water. But he likes to sit at the top and pretend he's going to go down.

They both like to sit at the top and steer the ship (which has led to a few discussions about sharing). Kaelyn frequently takes us to St. Martin on her pirate ship.

To hide, or not to hide

I recently (ie. 3 months ago) read an article in one of my parenting magazines about whether or not we should hide, or sneak, veggies into food for our kids. Basically I'm of the opinion that it's ok, but not always. I've been finding it very difficult to get either of the kids to eat veggies lately. Actually, Brennan will eat just about any fruit or vegetable as long as it's pureed and in a pouch. So, I do still feed him those little pouches occasionally but those things are flippin' expensive. I used to be able to count on Kaelyn eating carrots or cucumbers dipped in ranch, but not anymore. I don't know, maybe she just got sick of them. If I serve them she'll usually eat one and then claim she doesn't have to eat any more.

The truth is, vegetables are an afterthought for me. Not because I dislike them. I just put all my time and effort into the main dish of the meal. So I usually end up just throwing a bag of frozen veggies in the microwave to serve along with whatever else I made. This is a reason I love casseroles and one dish meals. But I can only eat so many casseroles. And the kids are pretty skilled at eating around anything green. Actually, Brennan's pretty skilled at not eating anything I cook period. But that's another story.

So I think if I have to sneak veggies in occasionally it's not the end of the world. I love the garden delight pastas for this reason and V8 Fusion juice. I feel a somewhat better knowing they've at least gotten a little veggie nutrition.

I've experimented with some "green" smoothies lately. And the kids love them. They're basically just some greek yogurt, a bunch of frozen fruit (Bren needs some help eating more fruit too, other than bananas that is), a splash of juice and then shove the rest of the blender full of spinach. Oh, and I add a little flaxseed or wheat germ too just to try to squeeze in as much nutrition as I can while I'm at it.

And I love how neat and clean they are while eating them.

He was sad it was all gone.

Begging for more. And if you're curious, no, those green stains did not come out. Now he gets to eat smoothies naked since he refuses to wear a bib.

Now I'm not exactly trying to "hide" the fact that I'm putting spinach in there. I mean the kids are usually up on chairs "helping" me make them. So there's really no chance I could hide it even if I wanted. Besides, I don't want to be caught hiding something. Then I'll lose their trust and they'll really think there's something wrong with vegetables and it'll be even harder to get them to try them. I also don't always come right out and tell Kaelyn all the vegetables in a dish, but if she asks what something is I tell her the truth.

I also recently discovered, after repeated failures trying to get the kids to eat avocado (yum!), Brennan loves it as long as I mash it up and put a splash of lime juice in it. I swear he would have eaten a whole avocado the other night if I hadn't eaten some of it first. Kaelyn wouldn't touch it though. But maybe I'll try adding some to my green smoothies next time.

On the other hand, I want them to actually like vegetables eventually. I'm not too worried right now because I know I wasn't fond of many veggies as a kid either. In fact, I recall many tension filled spaghetti dinners growing up because I never wanted the sauce on my pasta but my dad insisted I eat the sauce. And now I love the sauce! So I do need to work on some more yummy veggie recipes and then get over the hurdle of them actually putting it in their mouths. Our general rule with Kaelyn is that she has to at least try a bite of new food before she decides if she likes it or not. This actually paid off with an asparagus recipe I tried back at Easter. She actually couldn't get enough of it and now she'll eat asparagus. Woohoo!

If anyone has any good - and easy - vegetable recipes send them my way.

Part 2

At long last...

The Wedding:

We all boarded the (thankfully air conditioned) bus and headed off to Mary Star of the Sea Catholic Church, which was absolutely adorable. The entire wedding was beautiful, unfortunately I got zero pictures at the church and only a few at the reception. Kaelyn was a perfect little flower girl and did a great job walking down the aisle. While Brennan looked darn cute, he didn't make it a step down the aisle before running back to Maya. But they were both well behaved during the entire mass. At least as far as I could tell from my view up on the altar. I was actually a little worried Bren would try to run up on the altar when he saw me. But he was perfectly content sitting with his grandparents. I think doggy paci and lots of goldfish helped a little.

Here's Brennan sitting nicely with Buppa (photo courtesy of Maya).

Oh yeah, and I almost forgot, he did not wear shoes. That's right. Care Care even bought him some cute little flip flops just for the wedding but he was barefoot for the entire wedding. Truthfully he was barefoot most of the trip. His feet are a little on the chubby side and with a little extra swelling from the heat some shoes didn't fit at all and others he just didn't want to wear. I guess when you're one you can get away with going barefoot to a wedding on an island.

The steel drums during cocktail hour were a big hit. Brennan couldn't resist the opportunity to dance.

And Kaelyn even got to show off her steel drumming skills.

Kaelyn's dress was actually made from the material from Nana's wedding dress. I thought that was pretty special. Here she is party rocking with the beautiful bride.

And teaching Care some moves, no doubt.

The entire wedding was gorgeous and so much fun. I must say they did a phenomenal job, especially considering they were planning it from another country.

Kaelyn and Pop sharing a sweet moment by the pool.

And there was a lot more dancing after that.

The DJ booth was "conveniently" located right outside our bedroom door. Luckily for Maya and Buppa we decided to move Bren's crib to their room on the opposite side of the house for the night. (Sorry! and Thank you!) We let Kaelyn stay up as late as she wanted, but even she decided to go to bed before the party was over.  She must have been so tired that the music vibrating throughout the room didn't even seem to bother her.

Sunday: Karakter, take 2

The next day it was back to "the Bus" for brunch and beach time with the bride and groom and some of the other wedding guests.

Brennan learned his lesson and was content playing in the sand this time.

Kaelyn made up a very interesting game. Here are the rules. 1) Grab as much sand as you can. 2) Run down to the water. 3) Throw the sand in the water. 4) Run back up giggling and then repeat as many times as you can.

Monday: Pinel Island, aka Heaven on earth

Pinel has become our absolute favorite destination when we visit St. Martin. (Speaking for my husband and myself only, but I'm sure there are others who would agree.) It's a tiny little island off the French side of St. Martin. It's about a 10 minute ferry ride and the only thing on the island is two beach restaurants, a small gift shop and a variety of animals. Our favorite restuarant is Karabuni. So it's always our goal to be on one of the first boats over and get a big group of chairs right by the water and close to the restaurant. They serve probably some of the best food I've ever eaten.  The views on Pinel beautiful and serene and the water is so calm and shallow.  It's great for the kids. Seriously though, words cannot do this place justice.

One of the many beautiful views

Just chillin' in the water

Some goldfish in the shade

A little newlywed kayak ride from the main island. Care and Jay didn't make it on the first boat over with us. When they showed up they were going to have to wait another half hour for the next boat so they decided to rent a kayak and paddle over instead.

Hmmm... what should we get for lunch? So many tempting choices.

So I guess I tap my finger on my lip in an exaggerated manner when trying to make decisions, as evidenced by Brennan's new habit of doing the same thing.  When we sat down and I said, "What should we have for lunch?" Brennan started hmmming and finger tapping which was quite humorous.

The kids have turned into quite the seafood aficionados. If only I was better at cooking seafood at home. I think they both ended up eating Mahi here. As did I. It was delectable. As usual.

After lunch was more swimming. And then Kaelyn got a turn in the kayak courtesy of Dada and Uncle Joey's strong rowing arms.

 

Tuesday: Philipsburg

We decided we needed a little break from the beach. So we headed to Philipsburg, the capital of the Dutch side for a little shopping and lunch. Here are some views from lunch at Chesterfield's, Pop's favorite lunch spot.

Wednesday: Mullet Bay

We've been to a lot of different beaches on the island. A few we try to go back to every time. This trip we decided to try something new.  Mullet Bay can sometimes be calm but can sometimes be a little rough. After driving by in the morning and seeing that it was a calm day we thought it was worth a shot since it's pretty close to the villa which might be good in case we needed to get Bren home for a nap. We were not disappointed.

 

I adored the colorful, striped beach umbrellas here.

There was a little beach bar "shack" here. The food was simple - chicken, burgers, hot dogs - but good. And very affordable.

We met a little iguana friend on the beach.

And Kaelyn invented a new game. Mushy Mango Whoa. I have no idea where she came up with this name but this is what she said while playing. Basically, she sat at the edge of the water next to Maya and waited for a little wave to come up and wash her out a little. When this happened she would scream "mushy mango whoa" and giggle uncontrollably.  Of course she was holding Maya's hand but they decided they needed a "catcher" just in case Maya got washed away too. Uncle Joey got that job most of the time but I think everyone else took a turn too.

Check out the cool pirate ship in the background.

Thursday: Le Galion, aka Baby Beach

Most people call this beach Baby Beach. And for good reason. The water is super shallow, warm and calm. It's like swimming in a bath.

It really is the perfect beach for kids. They were both totally comfortable running around at the edge on their own.

Back at the villa. A view of the ocean with a cruise ship heading out for the evening.

Friday: Straw market, Sunset Beach Bar, departures and pool time

Buppa, Uncle Joey and Dennis (aka Dentist, oh my gosh I can't believe I almost forgot about that!) had to leave Thursday afternoon. We decided to hit the Straw Market in Marigot for some last minute souvenir shopping.

And then we headed to the infamous Sunset Beach Bar right next to the airport for lunch and plane watching before dropping the boys off for their flights. We did see at least one person get blown over by jet taking off. Kids, when you come when you're older, don't be stupid. Do not stand behind the jets. You could, and probably will, get hurt. And Kaelyn, you better not be getting any free drinks there.

Kaelyn had a good view of the incoming and outgoing planes thanks to Uncle Joey.

And then we took one last dip in the pool before we had to say good bye.

Saturday: Airports

We had a super early flight again, so we were up and ready to go before the sun.  After repeated attempts to talk to people at the airport and airline we found no sympathetic ears and were stuck with an eight hour layover in Miami. I truly thank God that Maya decided to travel with the kids and me. I do not think I could have done it on my own.  The kids were actually pretty good in the airport. It was a little difficult when they wanted to run around trying to keep track of them and all of our stuff, which was why it was definitely good to have another adult.  The flight from Miami to Indy was another story completely, but I don't want to dwell on that.

Watching "Jasmine" while camping out at Miami Internationl

Playing cars in the middle of the concourse to stay entertained

So... when can we go back?