Birthday visit from Nana

September was the month for visitors! Tim's mom, AKA Nana, flew out from Kansas to visit last weekend for Brady's birthday. It was a really quick visit-she arrived at 9:30 pm Friday night and left at 7 pm on Sunday night. But we had a wonderful time as always! Saturday morning we got up and opened presents, then Tim and I left the boys with Nana and we went for a date-a 30 mile bike ride! It was great! It has been at least a year since we have ridden together, so it was really nice to be out together. Besides, he had to see if he could still keep up with me. I definitely gave him a run for his money, but he held his own and pushed me quite a bit as well. Ah, good times! Then on Sunday we went to the Baltimore Aquarium. We all really enjoyed the aquarium. My pictures didn't turn out very well and don't do the aquarium justice.
Thanks for coming out for a visit Nana! We can't wait for our next visit!

Poor Nana had to sleep on an air mattress smooshed in Brady's room. This apartment is sooooo small! Brady woke Nana up requesting she read him a story.

Birthday cupcakes! De-lish!

Bike Date-we went for a ride together! Wahooo! Thanks Nana!

Entering the aquarium.

Jelly Fish invasion.

Crocodile in the Australian Outback exhibit. Brady kept saying "crocodile-snap snap!".

View of the Baltimore harbor from the aquarium.

Visit from Grandma & Grandpa Mann

Over Labor Day weekend, Tim's Grandparents, uncle, cousin and her husband came out to visit from Indiana. The last time Grandma and Grandpa Mann were in the DC area was in 1968, so we thought we would take them on a tour of the city to see how it has changed. They all really really enjoyed themselves. We went on an all day trolley tour that started at Union Station. The tour was really neat because you could get off and on as many times as you wanted at any of the 19 stops and a trolley came by every 30 minutes to pick you up. We only got off twice-once for our picnic and once for the Korean War memorial. It was really nice to be able to see a lot of sites, but not get exhausted from all the walking. Here are some pictures from our trip. Thanks for coming to visit Mann Fam! We were so glad you were able to make the trip and we had a great time!

Waiting for the trolley at Union Station

Look closely at the lawn of the White House-the Marine One is there to pick up the President perhaps.

Our picnic

We had to get our usual picture in front of the Washington Monument. The sun was right in our eyes, hence all the squinty faces!

Grandma & Grandpa on the trolley
Tuckered out after a long day of site seeing.

Fun times hangin out at the apartment.

Happy Birthday Brady!

On Saturday, my Brady Bear turned 3! It was a pretty low key birthday. Some of Tim's family were in town visiting-Grandma and Grandpa Mann, Uncle Tim, cousin Trisha and her husband John. They all came over for the day as well as our good family friends, Dan and Cathy. As I mentioned in a previous post, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse is Brady's favorite thing at the moment, so this was the theme of his birthday party. Tim and I put up all his decorations the night before, so on Saturday morning when he got up there were balloons, streamers and banners with Mickey Mouse on them. He was like a kid on Christmas morning when he saw them-precious! I also had his birthday presents on the table which he made a bee line to and from that moment on couldn't wait to open them! He was totally into the idea of opening presents and playing with balloons this year. I think we could have wrapped some empty boxes and let him open them and filled the room with balloons and he would have been perfectly happy. The biggest excitement of the day though was his birthday cake. Every year I try and out-do myself as a wanna be super mom and make this amazing cake. Well, this year, I bit off a bit more than I could chew. I decided I wanted to make Mickeys clubhouse. I did some research online and saw other clubhouse cakes with descriptions on how they made them. I thought, well that doesn't sound that hard. All the decorations on top of the cake are made with fondant and well that's like playing with play-dough. How hard can it be?! Well, turns out, it wasn't too hard, just time consuming. I may have wanted to skip the bike ride I went on that morning. Ooops! So anyhow, I got the cake made and decorated finally at around 3:30 that afternoon! Uggghhh! But in the end, Brady absolutely loved it! He is still talking about the cake. So really that is all that mattered.

Thank you for the "My Very Own Name" book Aunt Sara!


The Mann Family


Thanks for helping to celebrate Brady's birthday Dan and Cathy!


Did I mention (in case you hadn't noticed by Tim's jersey) that Notre Dame had their first game on Saturday. So after we had birthday cake and opened presents, it was football watchin' time!

Brady's Fancy Dancin

One of Brady's favorite things at the moment is Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. I think he could watch this show all day if I let him! One of the episodes that just cracks him up is Goofey's fancy dance. All the characters are trying to teach Goofey a fancy dance for the fancy dance at Mickey's clubhouse. So the other night while I was cooking supper I had the little mantra in my head that they use to teach Goofey-Step, step, hop, shake (your tail feather's that is! Haha!). I was saying it out loud and I look over and Brady is standing at the fridge playing with his fridge magnets doing the shake part. It was sooo cute! So of course I ran with it and got him to do the whole dance and of course that cracked him up to! It was hilarious! And yes, he is running around in his tighty whities. He's not a big fan of pants and since he looks so cute in them I let it go. Enjoy the silly video!