5 on Friday

As always, here are 5 special reasons I am loving my boy this week: 

5.  The other day, Marino stood on his trampoline and announced, "I'm a rocious." It took a few minutes to decipher he meant to say "ferocious." 

4. My mom and stepfather came to visit us a couple weeks ago. They asked Marino if he wanted to go to mass with them. "No, they just have peace songs there," he said.  They asked again and he said, "No, it's too fancy."

3. I took Marino to the dentist for a checkup this week. Here's some quotes from that visit: 

"It smells like shots in here. Are you going to give me a shot?" 

::mid-cleaning:: "Can you wait a minute? I just need to breathe." ::takes deep, meditative breaths:: 

"Do you have wifi in here?"  

2. The other day in the car, Marino rolled up his pant leg and showed me his calf. "Check out my leg guns" he said.

1. Evan and Marino have been watching old shows of Voltron and Transformers (from the 80s) on Netflix. They both love it. The other day in the car, Marino said, "Mommy, can you turn down the music? Did you know Voltron is the king of robots? And he defends the galaxy from evil robot shadow menaces, like Laser Beak. Ok, I'm done talking. Turn the music up, please."

Pictures of recent fun times....

Monster Mini-Golf with Jace and Landyn

Marino and Landyn love Chipotle!

Marino and his cousin, Raiden, on Super Bowl Sunday

"Look, Mommy. Take my picture, I'm being cute with Max!"

With Captain Planet at the DC Car Show

Playdate with old pals

Fun with family in New Jersey

These two are double trouble - Marino and Josiah

We went to The Pop Shop - the best restaurant, especially if you are on a gluten-free or vegan diet!!

Visiting with aunties and besties in NJ and celebrating Cat's 6th birthday

Marino adores Sabrina's boyfriend, Steven. He wrestles and punches him every chance he gets. 

Happy Birthday, Cat!

The kids love Sabrina!

My forever friends

Memorial Day Weekend

The past week has been all about visiting with old friends, and its been amazing. 

Last week, Marino and I went to dinner with my friend Joelle and her fiance, Maggie. Joelle lives in San Francisco and I haven't had a chance to see her in many years (10 maybe?). It was so great to catch up and meet Maggie. Marino fell in love with them right away. He wanted to sit on Maggie's lap, eat dinner with her, whisper in her ear, etc. He immediately decided he loved them and it was so sweet. 

By the way, we went to the Silver Diner and between all of us and our various food limitations: 1 vegan, 1 vegetarian, 1 egg-free, 1 gluten/dairy free, we all had plenty of menu options. They've really expanded their vegetarian options! 

Saturday morning we headed to New Jersey to spend some time with my bestie Sonia and her girls. As always, the kids immediately picked up where they left off and had a great time playing and performing musical numbers for us :) 

Baby Alana will be chasing after them very soon! 

Love this picture and these kids! 

Sunday afternoon, we all  headed to Adventure Aquarium in Camden. My friend Robyn and her family met us there. We've been once before, but they've added new attractions since then and it really is the best aquarium we've been to. Its very interactive and Marino loves it! 

Here's Matthew, Ryan and Marino with Mike the Alligator. 

Marino hamming it up outside...he decided there were so many seagulls around, there must be a "seagull party" and started dancing. 

Poor Alana was cutting all her molars and not a happy girl all weekend, but she's still adorable! 

Look at that sweet face! 

Marino and Ryan waiting to touch "Splashy" the stingray with two fingers. 

Here he is! 

Cat, Nena and Marino saying hi to the penguins. 

Sonia and I

After the aquarium, we went back to Robyn's house to play. The boys had a great time together. They are like puppies, constantly pouncing on each other and wrestling. They disappeared for a bit at one point and came back like this...

Gotta love the marching band! 

We had such a great time visiting with all our old friends! 

A 5k and a 1st Birthday

Last weekend we headed to NJ to visit Sonia and the girls. Sonia invited me to run with her in her first 5k, the Big Chill at Rutgers University to benefit Toys for Tots. I was really excited to be able to run this race with Sonia. She was amazing (do you see her body? She has 3 kids under 5!), ran through a belly cramp and beat me by almost 2 minutes. It was a lot of fun and I was so happy to get to run her first 5k with her!

Marino came with us. Wil was nice enough to push the jogging stroller so Sonia and I could run (there were some hills that would have killed me with the stroller). Of course he was still MUCH faster than us. Marino was really well behaved and had a lot of fun. He particularly enjoyed the cadence chants from the ROTC.

The kids always get along great (except when they want to play with the same toy). Here they are looking like they are doing a great job sharing ::wink::

The big kids got busy decorating cupcakes for Alana's birthday. They loved it, of course. My boy has no interest in "art" unless it involves food!

Sweet girlies.

And this happy, sweet girl turned 1. Time flies. And this girl is a twin of her big(gest) sister.

Marino had a great time with the big kids. EJ, Sonia and Wil's nephew, is 12 and Marino thought he was so awesome. As soon as he walked in, Marino asked me "What's his name? Why isn't he talking to me?" Later EJ said to me "That kid is cool. Most kids that age are just, like, babies. But that kid is awesome."

Instagramming fun with Uncle Wil.

Love these girls!