Hued For Spring

Baby Party

A Colorful String

Lego My Heart

She loves Legos.

This could not be better news.

Two-Fisting The Rollie-Gigs

Someone PLEASE invent little vacuums that really work!

A Yo Gabba Renaissance

They're back

We always forget the blue one's name

New Toys From The South

Yuula is gonna be good at chemistry someday

thanks Barb & Bill

Front Room Reconnoiter'd

See that? That is the face of contentment. If you had looked at this face before the weekend it would not have looked like that. It was more contorted, stretched and angled, anxiety and panic with a hint of dread. But then we gutted the front room, guest room, storage room, junk room, call it what you will, scrubbed it floor to ceiling and put it back together and now it has a proper title; Baby Boys' Room. 

This shelf just 48 hours ago held old Hardy Boys books, boxes of old photos and negatives, guitar pedals and cords, an actual camcorder, a fake skull from my teens, about three hundred 4-track cassette tapes and a squirrel statue meant for the garden. Now it looks like this.

And I don't think we could have gotten it done with much less time to spare.

Christmas In The City, Part Two

Looking for warmth and shelter, and where better but the best Toy store (that I know of) and the only place where you can run on a giant piano

See

And get glitter tattoos

Fraggle Rock is back people

After dinner at Burger Heaven it was a short walk thru the heavy construction at St Pats, and then the main event

Getting up close and personal

Grandma & Grandpa get in on the action

Just the girl and her Mommy

Just a girl and her Daddy

Then I surprised them with tickets to the Christmas Spectacular at Radio City and got this one shot pre-curtain, and then enjoyed the rest as if I was a kid again. The girls loved it, even if the final acts were taken in thru exhaustion. Being exhausting was proof of what fun we had. When can we do it again?

Old Fashion Funning

some more video from the Quiet Valley Harvest Festival

Can't wait til the Christmas Festival

Dreamhouse Around The Corner

The moment Laura's been waiting for...

Last Song All Toy Crackout

We tell her she has one song left til it's time for nite-nite. Then she goes bananas.

Hidden Gem Mess

I love this game! See if you can find the items listed below...

• a stud finder
• Mickey Mouse
• stack of Tom Robbins
• bottle of ginger brandy
• sleeping child
• sage & frankincense candle

All Easter, All Now

It was Easter!

Yuula got dressed up

We watched the claymation story of the Easter Bunny. It is quite suspect.

She needed no instruction this year.

She was cleaning up the place

She quite enjoyed the huny

And of course she got right to wearing her new dress

Laura whipped up some goldenrod

We played with some of Yuula's new toys and the watched her new Cinderella movie, ate popcorn and drank chocolate milk, which was pretty awesome

Then we busted out some chocolate

-worked on out closet for most of the evening, picked for dinner, put Yuula to bed and watched the season finale of Walking Dead, appropriate Easter viewing. Not disappointed, but not blown away either.

Inundated By Pinks And Girly

This is the kind of crap that's all over my house...

Look how happy it makes my wife.

Likemother, Likedaughter

the apple doesn't fall far, at all

#Ilearnedbywatchingyoumom

Accidental Christmas Awesomeness

We had to drive down to Baltimore on Saturday to pick up a Christmas gift for Yuula that we won on ebay. It was a bargain, trust me. But in order to make it seem like not such a chore we could break it up and stop in Lancaster for a little old world breakfast buffet and check out the National Christmas Center. How bad could it be...

Turns out, it's frigin awesome! We really didn't expect much. Just a chance to stretch our legs and move along. Too bad we had to get going because I could've walked the whole thing again. Grandma and Grandpa joined us for breakfast and the winter wonderland. 

Nice and comfy rocking chairs is a good way to start the tour off

Mom & Dad seemed to get a kick out of the 50' style Christmas. They're old.

"Christmas Around The World" was both informative and imaginative. And slightly scary. I think Yuula was the only one to see that dude lurking in the holly.

There was a legit Woolworth's set up with all the classic toys at classic prices. Some were creepy. Most were amazing. I think I Mom shed a single tear. 

 I think Dad shed two.

They had an impressive collection of true antiques. They could make a killing if they ever put this stuff up for sale. I know I'd try and buy a couple. If I could afford it.

I wonder if it'd be safe to still use these cookie cutters.

Here's a photo of Yuula on Santa's lap. This is as good as it's gonna get folks. She freaked out immediately after this was taken. But it was cool because she really had some fun in the rest of Santa's workshop. It was exactly how I pictured it should be all these years. I remember walking in and saying "Yup, this looks about right".

One of my personal favorites was Tudor Towne, a walk-through animated storybook village that tells the story of Santa's first visit. The whole place is lined with cobblestone and animal families celebrating the holiday in extreme detail. It truly is one of the most impressive things I've ever seen. I may have stayed there a little longer than the average visitor. 

I may have taken more than my fair share of photos in Tudor Towne.

Since we were in Lancaster it seemed only fitting to have a section solely for their Christmas traditions, which surprise surprise, does include Belschnickel. I thought Dwight made it up.

I think the trains were Yuula's (and my Dad's) favorite part. It was the most impressive setup I'd ever seen, and I think the only setup Yuula has ever seen so... 

Looks like we need to get some trains under our tree soon.

I want this.

Towards the end they have different versions of manger scenes depicted by each country followed by a big ol' diorama of the city of Bethlehem. That was pretty impressive. And the viewing pews was a nice touch, even if they only provided a jungle gym for Yuula. 

Pretty awesome place. We may have created a new tradition.