Anna's Birthday

Anna's birthday started Friday night when we went to one of the last Orioles games. Anna was a little jealous that Jared got to go to a game with Kevin a few weeks ago so she requested going to a baseball game for her birthday. Since the Orioles aren't any good this year tickets are pretty cheep ($1.00) we went ahead and bought the tickets. We rode the Metro into down town and walked to Camden Yards. Anna's favorite part was dancing to the music they play in between batters. The game ended up getting rained out in the 7th inning and we went home early, but it was still lots of fun. Anna designed her cake herself and took a lot of pride in the out come. I did help with the frosting with constant supervision. Saturday morning Anna wakes me up and says with a smile, "I really, really, really want to open my presents now." We ended up making her wait till after lunch. Every half hour she would ask if it was time to open presents yet, but that was probably because we put all her presents out for display on the kitchen counter (shameless!) She really wanted to have a pj party so she stayed in her pj's all day.

She was really excited about her gifts from grandmas and grandpas and she said thank you thank you after she opened each present. She is so fun and full of all kinds of personality. We love her so much and are glad she had a great birthday.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KRISTEN

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SONNET

Sonnet turns 27 today. We love you and hope you are having a great birthday

Cousin

My cousin Patrick called me yesterday and told me he was stationed about 45 minutes away and wanted to know if we could get together. I said sure and so today he came over to visit with a friend. He is in the air force being trained in something way too complicated for me to follow all I know is that he will be working on F-17's. He will be headed off to Italy in about 5-6 weeks. It was great to see him. He is so grown up and mature since the last time I was around him (of coarse that was about 10 years ago) Here are some pictures for the family to see us and the significant "friend" that he brought with him. She was great by the way too.

Glyndon

Glyndon is a small (and I mean really small) town that is almost literally just around the corner of us. We live in the Northernmost part of Reisterstown and Glyndon is right on our boarder. The other day someone took me to the Glyndon park and I fell in love with the park and town. This little park is really small and doesn't have a whole lot of toys, but it does have swings and a little putting green. The city doesn't maintenance it the neighborhood does. Everyone has their own job. When we were there a man that lived around the corner was mowing the grass. Someone else picks up the trash, weeds the gardens, washes the toys, and so on and so on. I told Kevin about the park and of coarse he wanted to see the putting green. We loaded up everyone (putters and balls included) and headed off to play.

The Post Office is just down the street and it is so small that the locals have to pick up their mail from the Post Office everyday! And I thought BV was small! The streets are small and most of the homes are old. There is almost a small beach town feel to the area...old town San Lious Obisbo or Morro Bay... Needless to say we will be spendng a lot of time at the Glyndon park and looking to move near by when our contract is up here.

Sleeping Beauty

Anna has never been a sleeper. She has fought sleep since she was a little baby. Usually she plays in her bed or looks at a book until she falls asleep. Last night when Kevin and I went up to bed we found this waiting for us on the stairs. The funny thing is we didn't hear a thing. She is so sneaky. I told Kevin we are going to need to put bars on her window when she gets older. Kevin found her actions endearing. Apparently he use to sneak out of his room and spy on his parents when he was little too.

LIFE (really not that interesting)

My dad was giving me a hard time because I'm not updating our blog on a regular basis even though they haven't updated theirs in a few weeks. Something like the pot calling the kettle black came to mind. So here is a day in the life of the Parks family.
6:15 am Kevin wakes up and gets ready for school. If I need the car that day then we all get up with him and drive him to the metro station.
7:00am breakfast for everyone else
8:50am we walk Jared down to his bus stop for school. School starts at 9:00am! crazy late if you ask me.
9:00am-3:45pm Anna and I hang out. We watch some PBS kids, play with polly pockets, do the barbies hair, play games, build forts, and just about any other thing kid you can imagine. When I'm not playing with Anna I'm readying the Twilight series (I've read it about 5-6 times in the last 3 weeks including Midnight Sun pathetic I know)p.s.thanks Sonnet for the book list. I'm going to the library this week to see what I can find.
3:50 pm-6:00pm Jared comes home has a snack and finishes his homework. Play, watch T.V. and make dinner
6:00 pm Kevin comes home and we eat dinner. Right after dinner Kevin pulls out the skipbo cards and plays a game or two with Jared. It has become a routine for the boys. (Sometimes they let me play but I usually win. HEHEHE)
7:30pm The kids head upstairs to brush teeth and get ready for bed.
8:00pm Kids in bed. Kevin and I relaxing
Well, there you go dad a day in the life! Now you know why I haven't blogged in a while. We really aren't up to much. Jared does like school and so does Kevin. Anna and I are making it through the day. We are all doing our best to adjust to city living, although we would all go back to small town living in a heartbeat. I'll try to do better in the future.

MLB

Every year our good friends Brent Dryden and Nate Sharpe get together to watch the Baltimore Orioles play the A's and this year they called up Kevin and asked if he wanted to go. Last night Kevin and Jared rode the Metro into downtown and went to see the game. This was the first MLB game either one had been to and they had a blast. It wasn't much of a game with the A's winning 5-1 but who goes to a baseball game for the game only anyway. I remember going to baseball games when I was little and looking forward to the hot dogs, nachos, and playing around in the stadium. Jared apparently ate nachos and a hot dog all by himself. He was a little disappointed that he had to sit way at the top and couldn't see the game very well. Kevin let him stand down a little ways but apparently one of the workers was staring at him and he came back to sit with Kevin. Kevin asked him why he came back and Jared said, "That guy kept staring at me. He was freaking me out." What a funny kid. They had a great time. Thanks Brent for inviting us for a boys night out!