Why do we Celebrate Father's Day?

To honor and commemorate our fathers. How do we do this? By living by the examples they have set for us. Here are a few that our fathers and my husband have shown.

Discipline/motivation:

If you have something to do, get it done. Do it well, and don't procrastinate. That is Ben Stromberg, and he has instilled in us the discipline to succeed.

Protective/loyalty/loving:

Dan is one that has always shown his love by being protective and loyal. You know that he will do anything to protect the ones that he loves.

Selflessness:

When I think of my dad I think of all that he has done for us. In this picture for example, he saw three babies on the ground and he had to get down in the middle of them to ensure they were all happy. If he sees a need, he will fulfill it even if it means playing on the floor.

Sunday at Smithville

Today was beautiful, so we decided we had to do an afternoon walk. We decided to try Smithville Park, about five minutes from our house. For four years we have neglected this little gem, but no longer. Sam had a great time with it, until he took a header on the trail. He has a nice tiny raspberry on his temple, but it just gives him more street cred. Walking on the floating trail provided the best views of the lake.

Necessity is...

the mother of invention. For our super exciting Memorial Day, we did absolutely nothing. I am leaving on a trip this afternoon, so instead of the traditional barbecue with friends or trip down the shore, we are doing a lunch and mall trip. Not too exciting, but what can you do. As far as inventing goes, I thought I would post these pictures for fun. Sam had a rough night last night as he was very congested (we think it is the amount of pollen in the air right now). I have mild hay fever, so we think he may also, who knows. Anyway, this morning he had a very runny nose and we were constantly calling for a kleenex. As I was in a different room Laura rigged this little contraption up as a joke. I guess we should call it the "Kleenex Katcher" and market it as the newest thing for toddlers with a runny nose. I kind of think it looks like a sumo wrestler belt or something. That is what happens when we are bored!

A Visit from Lisa

A few months ago my cousin Lisa (who was a best friend to me growing up) moved from New York to California. I was sad to see her move so far away, but luckily since we are cousins we knew we would see each other soon. This last week she flew in for business and we were able to meet her and her boyfriend Ryan who flew in from California as well for dinner in Brooklyn at Grimaldi's (awesome pizza). It was so great to see her and I miss having her around, but we are so glad she is having such a great time in California.

Happy Mother's Day from your boys!

Happy Mother's Day from your two favorite boys! We love you! For mother's day we took Laura shopping to the King of Prussia mall in PA. We had plans to go to Cape May for the weekend and hang out on the shore but unfortunately the weather disagreed, so we went shopping instead. I have to tell you, for not being much of a shopper I was impressed. Cartier, Tiffany's, Bloomingdales, Nordstroms, and just about anything you wanted was there. Of course, I passed on the $10,000 Cartier diamond necklace, but we were able to find some nice things for Laura anyway. Apparently it is the second largest mall in the nation and I believe it after seeing it. Today Sam and I cooked her breakfast and lunch. Well, OK, Sam wasn't really much of a help, unless you count systematically destroying the kitchen, then he did really well. The highlight of the day for Laura was when I gave Sam his card to pass along to her. He actually grabbed it, then waddled over to Laura with a huge grin on his face and deposited it in her hands. This for Laura was finally a true testament that she was indeed a mother.

Haircut Trauma

We finally decided it was time to get the little one's hair cut. He was still super cute, but we figured he was getting a little shaggy. Here are a pre-cut bath time picture and a picture of the curls on the back of his head.
We came prepped for the breakdown, with treats, toys, books etc... but they all failed to sooth his troubled nerves as captured below.
Once the cut was done he actually relaxed a little in his car chair. However, his mouth is still stuffed with Nilla wafers.
From baby to little man, we think he looks great!

Watch out...

Sam might be calling you next. Apparently he has seen his mommy and daddy on the cell phone enough to know how to use it. We caught him the other day with a cell phone up to his ear trying to talk to someone. If you notice on the screen he has actually dialed 411 (I guess he needed some information). Luckily it is a non-working phone! For some reason he enjoys our real phones, not the 4 toy phones we have tried to get him to play with. I guess he really does notice what we do, hopefully he doesn't pick up our crack habit now...

The Merry-go-round is the Winner!

Since Sam can get around a little more, we thought he might enjoy the playground more than last year, so we enjoyed the nice weather as we let him decide on his favorite playground equipment. The fire truck was cool!The rock wall, different and little crazy and silly with dad's head popping out from every where.

The swing, quite relaxing.

The merry-go-round was the winner! I made several attempts to gently pry his hands off the bars when it was time to go, but as far as Sam was concerned he was not leaving!

Rocky Balboa/Philly

After eating Geno's Cheese Steaks, we felt we needed a bit of a work out so we made an effort to conquer the same steps that Rocky Balboa climbed. Sam did well with once again a little help on daddy's shoulders as he ran up the stairs. Sam seemed to think our silliness was fun, I believe the smile on Sam's face said it all as I congratulated him for making it to the top!
After the steps we played on the lawn and as we did we discovered that this was Sam's first attempt to walk on this green prickly stuff we call grass, so we gave him a little extra help.

D.C. Escapades with Aunt Ashley

We're still alive! We've been having fun with Aunt Ashley, then Danno went on a week trip to the Caribbean Islands and lastly we've been mending Sam's war wounds from falling on the driveway.
At Ashley's request we visited Washington D.C. and began with capital hill. Trying to keep Danno from his constant teasing of Ashley proved to be difficult.
Next we visited the Air and Space Museum, I think Sam is the one who made out on this one, walking out with a bag full of toys that mom and dad couldn't resist buying for our Little Red!
We think Sam's got it made, not only being carried on dad's back all day seeing the sights but sleeping when he feels like he's had enough. Do you think he is overdue for a haircut? We do, future blog coming.
Day two of our trip to D.C. with Ashley started with a trip to the National Zoo. Our favorite highlights were Mei Xiang, and his father, Tian Tian (panda bears).

Taking a break while eating our animal crackers.
On the way home we showed Ashley the Washington D.C. Temple. We were also able to get a family picture outside, something we've wanted to do for a long time.