Friends

6/18
Princess Sparkley went over to her friend's, A.D., for a play date and afterwards, the friend's mom posted these pictures she'd taken of the girls playing on Facebook.

Decorating Cupcakes

Our homeschool family book club book this month was My Monster Mama Loves Me.  And it worked out perfectly that we had to change the date of book club and ended up with it being on Halloween so the kids could have a Halloween party and decorate cupcakes to look like monsters.  Except the family who was hosting came down with a case of lice and had to cancel.  Instead, we invited one of the other families (the As) who lives in town (the host family lives about 35 minutes away) to decorate cupcakes with us.  She made little chocolate train cupcakes and I made orange frosting.  The kids had a great time.

Br. is a year younger than Princess Sparkley and they are also in the same Girl Scout troop (except Br. is a Brownie and PS is a Junior this year).  A is maybe 6 years old.  And there are two little boys not pictured, Be. is 4 and J is 2.

National Zoo

I got a Facebook message a couple weeks ago from a friend in Kansas who was spending their family's spring break in Williamsburg, VA and Washington, DC so we met up with them at the National Zoo on Friday morning and had a fun visit.

Santa at the Church

Our ward had a Christmas breakfast/brunch Saturday morning complete with a visit from Santa (and then ending on a more spiritual note with a nativity play and Christmas songs). The girl in the picture is Princess Sparkley's friend... you might recognize her from PS's party this summer. She wanted PS in her picture and Buddy refused to be in a picture on his own. That's how all three ended up with Santa.

When Santa was announced, the kids all ran to get in line. Once Little Guy figured out what the line was about, he decided he definitely didn't want to be there. A bit later he discovered that Santa was handing out candy canes and he talked Daddy into getting back in line with him. Then he wasn't so sure again. After he finished his candy cane he told me he wanted to go see Santa again (for another candy cane).

Fall Day at the Battlefield

I drove near the near the Manassas Battlefield the other day and saw all the beautiful autumn leaves and decided we needed to go back later in the week and walk/hike around. We invited some friends to join us Thursday mid afternoon and one family (from our homeschool group) took us up on the offer. So here we are with H (6 years), S (4 years) and E (17 months). We asked a guy to take a picture of all of us, 6 kids and 2 moms. He supposedly did it, but there is no proof on my camera. So either it didn't work, or he acted like it worked, but it didn't.


After climbing on the canons (which you aren't supposed to do, BUT every kid does so how can I stop just mine. Especially when it's their FAVORITE part of the Battlefield?) we wandered further on the path and some of the kids ventured into the tall grass fields (mainly Buddy and H). PS was a little hesitant of the grass, as you can see in the pictures, and stuck by the short grass. As did Little Guy at my request because the tall grass was taller than him. They started playing Little House on the Prairie while in the grass and kept that going for awhile.



Then back to climbing on canons. After our friends left, we drove over to some other parts of the Battlefield we haven't explored yet and wandered around. The close up picture of Buddy is him missing both top teeth. I had to pull the 2nd one out the other morning when B wasn't around. Bleh. The close up of Little Guy's teeth is because he has to do everything his siblings do. So if I took a picture of Buddy's teeth, I had to take one of his as well. Little Guys' Bandaid is just to prevent a sunburn on his cheek where it's glued shut. It's not quite ready to be covered in sunscreen yet.

Apple Picking

One of my Facebook friends mentioned apple picking earlier this week and it got stuck on my mind. So we went to Stribling Orchard in Markham, VA to pick apples Friday (on the way to Shenandoah to use our 7-day pass to see the trees all colorful again). We were lucky enough to be joined by some friends. And the kids totally outdid any past "pick your own" categories I'd placed them in. Before when we've gone apple or blueberry or asparagus picking, they just sort of help and I do most of the picking. This time, I didn't realize how all out they were going with their picking until I got all the bags together to figure out their weight and price. Yikes! We picked almost 30 lbs. of apples. Needless to say, we'll be making A LOT of apple recipes this weekend.

Here are a few I'm going to try out:
Apple Dumplings and Crock Pot Applesauce
Crock Pot Apple Butter or I might make a similar recipe a Facebook friend recommended
Freezing Apple Pie Filling




We looked at their farm animals when we were leaving. And a special trip to see the horse because Little Guy requested that we go see the "Forsey" which is what he now calls horsies unless we correct him.

Visitors

When we moved to Kansas almost five years ago, everyone thought we were nuts, and we knew we'd get very few visitors. And we did. My parents visited twice. My brother once. B's family was all closer in the Kansas/Misssouri area, so we saw a bit more of them. But that was it. When we announced last year that we'd be moving to the Washington DC area, immediately everyone wanted to visit. This weekend, Erik and Cristin came to town for a friend's wedding and stayed with us.

We had a lot of fun while they were here, and stayed up WAY too late every night chatting. Sunday, after dinner we walked around our old downtown. Photos, courtesy of Erik and Cristin.
















And to reminisce, before they left we made sure to take a repeat picture of one of the last times we were all together more than eight years ago.


This trip.
June 1, 2010


At their apartment in Provo, UT circa February 2002.
I'm wearing Cristin's SLC Olympic beret because it was cool. Erik and Cristin are brand new newlyweds (4 months maybe). I'm pregnant with PS, but not showing yet... just very very sick.

National Aquarium in Baltimore

My March picture file is about to overflow... we've done a lot this month. Today was no different.

For Baby X's birthday in January, Grandma and Grandpa L wanted to send money for something fun we could take him to do. We decided to use that money for a trip to the National Aquarium in Baltimore. My friend and former roommate, Kate, moved to Baltimore this summer and we've been trying to get together for months, so it was convenient that we were heading to Baltimore, and it also happened to be her spring break, so we met her there.

Strollers aren't allowed into the National Aquarium (too many escalators and people movers, etc.) so Baby X got to break in his doggy leash he got for Christmas. So far, he's just worn it around the house pretending to be a doggy.

None of the pictures are great because it was dark and full of reflective glass... but we tried.


Here are some month old sea horses PS wanted a picture of. Teeny.


Baby X loves fish. He yells "FISH!! FISH!!" excitedly every time we enter a pet store. So this was all especially fun for him.


Turtles. Baby X liked the turtles.

I splurged and paid a few extra dollars per ticket to see the dolphin show. It was worth it... the kids had a blast. Baby X kept saying, "dolphins. dolphins jump. up down. dolphins jumping." He sat on my lap and was mesmerized for the 20 or so minute length of the show.





Dolphin dancing... the kids think this is hilarious and incorporated it into their own dolphin show when we got home.


This was Buddy's favorite part. Plus there was a big splash (and we weren't in the Splash Zone).


This is the best of all the pictures I got after the dolphin show... you can barely see a couple dolphins in the background.

After the show PS asked the dolphin trainer taking questions what the most fun part of being a dolphin trainer was. She said working with the dolphins, forming a relationship with them and getting to know them as individuals, etc. PS was very brave. She has added dolphin trainer to her VERY long list of future careers.

The kid area had dress-up props.

Buddy as a dolphin.


Baby X as a fish.


I was surprised by how much he wanted to wear this and not take it off.


PS as a dolphin.


Their first synchronized dolphin show (with puppets). When we got home, they took turns being the dolphins and the dolphin trainers.


Shark jaw. PS liked this.


Jellyfish. These spooked/bored the kids. I thought they were neat.

The favorites.
Princess Sparkley: Nemo fish, dolphin show, sting rays, baby sea horses, rain forest room
Buddy: dolphin show, rain forest room, escalators that were flat (not steps) but still inclined
Baby X: octopus (even though at the time it freaked him out a bit), dolphins, turtles
Me: dolphin show, sting rays

National Gallery/American Museum of Natural History

I need to go back through this and edit the pictures, especially the red eye but my computer was in the shop and B's laptop doesn't have a photo editing program.

A woman in our homeschool group organized a fieldtrip with a docent tour that focused on nature at the National Gallery today. The kids and I rode the Metro in to the Smithsonian Metro stop and sludged our way through snow and ice to get across The Mall and to the National Gallery. Afterwards we ate lunches we brought downstairs in the cafe and the kids got to see the people mover, which was one of Buddy's favorite parts of the museum from last time.







Our good friends got a late start leaving their house, got stuck in traffic, and took a different Metro route than us that had them switching trains/lines which took forever, so they missed the National Gallery tour, but we met up with them afterwards at the American Museum of Natural History. PS is fearful of natural history museums because the University of Kansas had one that was filled with reptiles, bugs, stuffed animals, and bones. Once we got inside this one, she decided she might like to come back and tour the whole museum (we mainly just saw bugs, some bones, and the Hope Diamond). She may just want to come back to see the Hope Diamond again and the other jewels that we didn't have time to look at.


Baby X crawling through a bug tunnel.




Ants. Baby X yelled out "Bug! Bug!"


PS looking at the Hope Diamond.





EG, PS, Buddy and CG


The Washington Monument

Then we all road the Metro home together. Two moms, and 6 kids. Yikes!

Four of the kids.

Field Trip: National Postal Museum

Friday (January 29) was our homeschool group's field trip to the National Postal Museum. B was nice enough to take the kids since I had strep throat. I dropped he and the kids off at the Metro station and then I went to the doctor to have my strep throat (with a scarlatina rash aka Scarlet Fever) diagnosed and treated.

Sorry for the poor picture quality, the flash had to be turned off and our camera takes horrible pictures with the flash off. And our kids have blue eyes that are always red and especially creepy and not able to be fixed in the following pictures.


The arrived a little bit before the tour started, so they explored the museum on their own and found this big rig truck cab.


An old timey postal carriage.


Our friends the G-----s.
In order, Baby X, Buddy, CG (5), Princess Sparkley, EG (7) and KG(3). (Their baby, LG, was home.)


That's the Capitol in the background peaking out behind the trees. It was in the 20s, but they didn't want to have to deal with hauling giant coats all over the museum, and the Metro stop is right across the street from the museum, so they braved it with sweatshirts/sweaters.

Coming soon... a picture from B's camera phone of the kids on the Metro.

Kansas friends visit from Texas

Now that we live somewhere "cool," or so I'm led to believe because no one ever wanted to visit us in Kansas, we have had a lot of friends tell us they'll come visit. Tiffany and her family were the first to follow through with that promise. She's originally from Philadelphia and came up for her brother's wedding in the DC Temple. They came to our home and visited with us for a few hours on Friday and then we met them at the temple Saturday morning to watch their three boys for them. It was fun to visit and see how much her boys have grown.


Two months apart (Baby X is younger)




PS is 6 months older than their oldest. And I think Buddy is about a year older than their middlest.



Beautiful temple picture with the clouds (note the wedding couple -- NOT Tiffany's brother).


In case you couldn't see them, here's a close up. Interesting.