Playgrounds and Carousels, or San Francisco with Toddlers

I like to think we take A a lot of places and expose him to new things. But if I'm being honest, he sticks to a nap schedule and we always work in stuff that he enjoys no matter the location.  Our recent trip to San Fran was a clear example of this. But guess what? We had a great trip, spent time with family and had some awesome experiences. 

How did we do it? Well, every day included a playground. Yep. We saw the playgrounds of SF and loved it. 

Duboce Park, just a few blocks from our house

Giant cardboard/concrete slide at Golden Gate Park

Riding the carousel (Koret playground here but Pier 39 not pictured and also enjoyed of course).

Alta Plaza for a picnic with friends

By keeping him happy we got to do some awesome stuff too like see the sea lions

And ride the cable cars

And go to the Japanese Tea Garden

And of course celebrate Cousin Bryan's wedding 

So for all you parents out there...stop and enjoy the playgrounds. We did and had a great time. 

Hoppy Easter!

Wow it's been a while since I posted ! So many things going on in McNew world and I won't begin to explain now. That said a few pictures are in demand so we better hop to it! 

A had a fantastic Good Friday with an egg hunt (probably the 3d or 4th of the season because if there is one thing this kid loves it is an egg hunt), making deviled eggs and of course QT with DD and DaDoc. 

And then we continued the festivities with egg dying, cake decorating, and of course more egg hunting. 

So here's to an amazing spring. We certainly have a busy one already beginning here, and if you don't know what we're taking about, well you best pick up the phone and call us!

Snow at Last

It's been a pretty mild winter here in VA, but we finally got some snow this week. A is loving it, though not as much as Fella of course. Here are a few pictures from playing the snow. He especially loves eating the snow and icicles...and throwing snowballs. He isn't too bad at shoveling either :)

Of course my favorite thing about the snow is hot cocoa, so we've had some of that too. And today it's snowing again, so I predict more hot cocoa in our near future!

Style Sense

Kyle laughs at me when I dress A because I want to him to wear that cute shirt or sweater or whatever. Well, I guess I finally won because now he's picking it out himself. Our little preppy kid sure does have spunk. Here is this morning

Yep it's January and he's wearing Crocs but that's ok. He likes to wear an eyepatch sometimes too. Channel that inner prep or pirate or whatever buddy. It's your world. 

Happy New Year!

2014 was a pretty great year, and if you need a reminder read through the archives here on the blog. But I think 2015 is going to be great. A even did a little celebrating this year with us at a friends house. Everyone had a blast. 

But what are your resolutions this year? Last year I pledged to read more and do more yoga. Well I did both, but the yoga could still be increased. This year I plan to keep the upward trend on yoga, cut back on added sugars consumption, and try to put down the phone more and just play. Disconnecting is hard when this shiny fun object can pander to my short attention span, but I think we could all do better at that.

Ironically, I want to mention two apps out there I plan to use more...one of which requires no actual use of it during the day and the other of which will help me cut back on added sugars. The first is Breeze, which is a pedometer. My mom is a champ with her pedometer, and while not being able to carry my phone for 8 hours a day at work, it will still be a good check on the nights and weekends. The other app is Fooducate, which tracks your meals/calories/nutrition, will help you diet (if you so desire), and has a database of 25,000 foods including the added sugar data. The FDA is going to start requiring that labels carry this information, but until then you can use this app. So cool! It also rates foods for you on an A-F grading scale. 

So here's to 2015...and hopefully by laying this all out there I'll have some more accountability this year!

(belated) Merry Christmas!

Well, I'm only 6 days behind...not too bad considering the whirlwind our house looked like after a house with a 3 year old celebrating Christmas! But here they are...a few action shots...and a few shots by the youngest photographer in the house himself! Santa was quite good to us all this year...perhaps best of all for mom and dad who get to take a little vacation in February! (Thanks in advance to all the grandparents for helping with that!) But A had a pretty darn good one too! Here's a quick recap...

First Santa came, bringing instruments and Jake gear!

But the Jake gear needed some more Jake stuff to go with it...

and of course a Lego/train table! (the picture of the car and man are courtesy of said young photographer)

So from our merry family to yours...hope you had a fabulous holiday season! Bring on 2015!

The Giving Season

I like to give back and I think it's an important way to connect with the community. But I don't want my time with the community to take time away from me and A, and so it just happens that taking him along provides that connection on multiple levels. 

The last few years I've just done an angel tree (or 3) gifts. But this year I decided it was time to step it up a notch. (We still did 3 angel tree gifts too, don't worry!)

Enter Meals on Wheels - Charlottesville, just after Thanksgiving. 

And then packing boxes of food in Rockbridge County with DD and DaDoc. 

It doesn't take much, but I'm hoping he eventually remembers these times. It's so important to keep us all humble and remind us of the reason for the season

Oh and sometimes it even pays off quicker than you expect. Here he is just after receiving a special fireman hat just after doing Meals on Wheels. He was ecstatic. 

We followed up with a thank you note of course :)