A visit from friends

Last weekend we were treated to a visit from our friends from Indiana who moved down the street from us in New York. We had a great time catching up and spending time together. The kids played great together...Tyler was so excited to see his good friend Reece (and I think Megan may be developing a little crush :) ).

The men took time out for some serious golfing..

...and a train ride.

Happy 4th birthday Tyler!

It's hard to believe just 4 years ago we were in the hospital in Lafayette, Indiana celebrating the birth of our beautiful little boy.

Just look at him now...still beautiful, not so little.

He acts more and more like a little man every day. He's so sweet, sensitive, funny, outgoing, and loving. He calms me down when I overreact and reminds me not to take life so seriously. We're so blessed to have him in our lives.

For more pictures and videos of the birthday celebration, including our trip to the National Zoo, click here.

Is something stinky?

We're not sure where this came from, but her new "trick" is pretty cute.

Megan's stinky face from Teri Schmidt on Vimeo.

Granny and Grandpa visit our new home

Last week we were treated to a week-long visit from Granny and Grandpa. As you can see from the pictures, we had a great time during a week that included another show and train ride at Burke Lake Park, a drive-in movie, frozen custard, some fun time in the pool, and much more.

Are we there yet?

Here are the numbers from our vacation a couple of weeks ago:

8 days, 40 hours in the car with a 7 month old and 3.5 year old...

13 cousins visited...

...and a great time had by all.

For 108 more pictures from our road trip to Kalamazoo, MI to visit Melissa, Andy, Drew, and our new niece Lily and to my family's cottage in northern Wisconsin, click here.

More fun outings

Have we mentioned we like living in VA? It's so fun to have a new place to visit each day. Two new destinations this week were a huge playground in McLean and a water feature at a local shopping/dining area with some new friends. And yes, Megan finally got to get out of the carrier and have some fun too. Click here for some more photos.

A move milestone for Tyler

Despite the fun that he's been having at our new house, Ty has repeatedly said that he likes NY better than VA. He mentions how he misses our friends, his old school, his old yard, his old room, etc.

Today, it was absolutely beautiful weather (80 degrees and sunny--pretty much how it's been ever since we moved here). Jeff has been in Italy since Tuesday (returning this Thurs.) so I wanted to make sure that Ty had a fun day planned. I saw that as part of their free summer entertainment, the Fairfax County Parks department has an "Art in the Parks" series made up of shows for kids that educate them about music, theater, and art. So, we headed to Burke Lake park, which we've heard people rave about, for the Percussion Duo from the Fairfax Symphony. It was a show in the outside ampitheater about all different kind of percussion instruments, led by a clown. Ty even got to perform on stage.

We followed that show with a ride on the carousel (our big boy went all by himself) and a 10-minute train ride through the woods (much better than the "potty train"). We topped it off with a hike around the lake through the woods, a picnic lunch, and an ice cream cone.

(Click on the collage for all of the pictures and a video of the "performance.")

And wouldn't you know it, as we were walking to the car Ty looked up at me and said, "Mommy, I like Virginia better than NY."

PS: Megan was with us too...it's just hard to take pictures of someone strapped to the front of you.