Our new life in MD

I am waaaaay behind on this blog... but for a good reason... we've MOVED from NYC to Columbia, MD!!!!  We went from the 5 of us living in an 800 square foot apartment in NYC to a 3 bedroom, 3 bathroom townhouse in Columbia.  I couldn't be more thrilled.  We have a small backyard (complete with a little picnic table for the kiddos and a grill so we can BBQ!), an unfinished basement (that will soon, hopefully, be transformed to a huge playspace/art area for the kiddos) and amaaaaazing community access nearby....  behind our house is a new park complete with three large enclosed soccer/football fields and huge playground.  We are a 5 minute walk from the high school track.  We are a minutes's drive away from basketball/tennis courts, an ice skating rink, baseball fields, etc.  We have access to 23 outdoor pools, 3 amazing gyms, a mini golf course... it just goes on and on and on.  Every day, we're discovering new and fun things to do.

My/Our life has improved a MILLION percent.  We live close to my mom and can call her up to meet up for lunch, drive over and hang out or have her over here.  It's SO GREAT to be so close to her and LIFE CHANGING to have HEEELLLLLP.  I've gone out to dinner with Mike more times in the past month than I have in the past year.

Mike started his job on Monday and I will hopefully start mine next weekend (waiting for orientation).  Eli starts school on Monday the 25th.  We went to orientation today and he got to meet his teacher and a few of his classmates.  His room is HUGE compared to his room last year.  I am so excited about his schedule.  They go to the school library every monday, have music on tuesday, gym class on wed and thurs and art on friday.  They have 30 minutes of complete spanish immersion every day.  It'll be his first time being FULL day at school and his first time eating lunch at school.  It will be very interesting carving out our new normal come Monday!  I'm hoping that me, Liam and Brielle will be able to take advantage of some of the amazing programs at the library and do some other fun classes and things while Eli is in school.  Because one thing is for sure...  at these ages right now, I absolutely cannot take the three of them indoors inside stores or places alone.  They are TOO crazy.  My mom and I had the hardest time wrangling the three of them in the library today.  Brielle is like a little firecracker..running here and there like a crazy person.  I don't even want to attempt shopping solo with them again for a long, long time.

We still have a lot to unpack and I don't know when we're ever going to be able to do that, but so far, SO GOOD!