Dinosaur and Sunshine

The kids celebrated Valentines at school on Monday. I was able to spend the day with Neil at his school. He really got into it and enjoyed opening his mail. One valentine he got was reptile goggles. He wanted to wear them all day and "rawr" at people. He made a very cute dino.

On Friday we met with his team of teachers and decided on a new plan for him. They offered him 5 days of preschool/week! I was shocked. Of course I am happy for him, but wow! What am I going to do with myself all week? Most days he doesn't get home until 1:20. Craziness! I do have to say that I have been impressed with the programs that they offer here for kids like him. I think he will really benefit. I guess this is my silver lining, and I am grateful.

This weekend was absolutely gorgeous. After all the nasty winter weather that we've had, it was a welcome change to see the sun. We took the opportunity to check out Leesylvania State Park which wasn't too far of a drive. It's along the banks of the Potomac and has a nice beach area, hiking trails, a playground, and picnic areas. The kids all went in the water of course. We are from Oregon, so we are used to cold water. We built sand castles, hiked, and played. It was so nice to just be outside and soak up some sunshine.

The view from the hike. A revolutionary battle was fought here. There's still a canon and mounds in the dirt where the trenches were. They could shoot canons at approaching English ships from up here.

I'm looking forward to more days like this. Spring can't come soon enough!

The White House

Before we left Oregon I set up a White House tour through our congresswoman. I had always wanted to do it, and the last time I was in D.C. we missed out on that opportunity. Well, Saturday was the day. Unfortunately for us, our given time was 7:30 AM. It was also a really cold and wet morning. We stopped on our way for some donuts, and then made our way downtown. Thankfully we were able to get free parking at that time of day.

We went through probably 4 security checkpoints before being allowed inside. It is a self guided tour through the main floor. We saw the green, red, and blue rooms. It was neat to see all of the intricate details throughout, but especially the eagles on the furniture and walls. No pictures are allowed on the inside, which is a little sad. We walked through the East room and saw the original painting of George Washington that was saved from the fire that destroyed the original White House. I also liked seeing all the china dinnerware sets from the different administrations. Overall, it was pretty neat to be on the inside and to see the old and beautiful artwork displayed. We were a bit disappointed at how short the tour was. We were hoping to see a bit more. Oh well. It was all over by a little after 8am. Then we headed home for a nice long nap. :)

It was very beautiful in the snow.

Do you wanna build a snowman?

We went to bed on Wednesday night knowing that we were expecting a big snowstorm. A few flurries had started and school had already been canceled for Thursday. We woke up to the most snow I've ever seen fall in one night. About 18 inches! It was crazy!

The snow on the deck. You can see it is deeper in the middle away from the house.

The cars are buried. A plow came through on the street, but we are in a corner. That meant there was a good 20 ft. of space between our van and the plowed area. Guess what we had to do?

First we had to shovel to even get our front door open.

Then we took a break to play...(err eat) in the snow.

The snow was so deep, we couldn't even sled. we sank down into it. Neil had a hard time walking without help. It was up to my knees.

The snow was perfect for snowman building. We got this base so big that it took Chris and I both to push it into place.

It's hard to make out against all the white, but here's our snowman. We had to get creative to find pretzels for eyes later on since the ground was just too packed with snow to find any rocks.

So, then we got to work. The whole neighborhood was out in force to tackle the giant problem that was our road and parking area. And remember how there was a good 20 ft. to get to the plowed area? All of that had to get shoveled. It was exhausting! We were out there with tons of people for a couple hours breaking our backs to get the snow cleared from the cars before it all froze. 

It was pretty intimidating at first. So much to do! And it was really heavy snow.

The kids trying to walk through the area that we had to shovel. It was really deep!

Neil was a good helper. He'd go pick up chunks of snow to throw in the pile, and take bites of it along the way. It was pretty entertaining. I tried to talk him out of it (it was coming off the road), but that was a lost cause. 

Almost done. You can see we had a ton of people out helping.

The kids had fun helping out, and building snow forts in our piles.

It really was an intense workout, but it felt good too. The crisp air and hard work coupled with nice neighbors to chat with made it all go by quickly. We finally had our cars cleared and we could go back inside to rest.

That night we watched as all our hard work was covered up by another layer of snow. Thankfully, it was only a couple inches, so we didn't have to do any shoveling. They did cancel school again. So we have spent our Valentines' day playing outside.

We were invited to a fun park for some sledding. The park had a great hill and tons of kids were there to play with. We got there just fine, but the parking lot was sorta a disaster. It hadn't been plowed at all, so you can imagine deep snow with ruts all over from other cars. Yeah, I got my van stuck three or four times. Pretty bad too. I learned the technique of rocking the car. Back and forth, a lot. I had to have people push me out twice. It was pretty horrible. By the end of it, my legs were shaking. I'm just so glad that we made it out.

The sledding was fun though.

I guess Neil is a little traumatized. I couldn't get him to go down today. Maybe next time. Instead he played with snowmen and played on the playground covered in snow.

Today was perfect because it really warmed up. Almost 45 degrees. So we were stripping off layers. It was so much fun to play in the snow and not be cold. Besides the whole getting stuck part, we had a fabulous day.

We spent the rest of the day at home, and the girls went back out for hours to just play. It really was a wonderful Valentines Day!

Everything is Awesome

Last weekend wasn't quite as adventurous for us, but we still had a good time. We headed out for Friday night dessert to a old style mom & pop frozen custard place called Nielsen's. It was really tasty, and we'll have to go back.

After we were freezing from our frozen custard, we headed home to warm up by the fire. It's taken some getting used to, but having a real fireplace has been fun on these cold winter evenings. My hubby is sort of a fire master so that always helps.

On Saturday we headed to the movies to check out The Lego movie. We really enjoyed it. Especially the fun song that really gets stuck in your head..."everything is awesome, everything is cool". You'll know what I mean when you go see it. It had plenty of celebrity voices and plenty humor to keep parents entertained. 

I also tried out a new vegetarian recipe that was a real winner. Super easy, and everyone (kids included) really liked it. So, if you're looking to try something new I recommend this. Check it out.

http://www.readyseteat.com/recipes-Spinach-Walnut-Penne-5293.html

The spread it talks about is just butter. And I used pecans not walnuts. You can totally personalize it if you want, even add meat. I doubled it, but we had lots of leftovers even with all of us having seconds. Although, it's pretty good the next day too.

Now, we are gearing up for another major snowstorm heading our way. It should be here tomorrow night. Guess I need some ideas for more indoor fun. 

Life be like

Well, I got my wish. Life has been pretty much in cruise control for the past week or so. We really haven't been up to a whole lot. Last Saturday we continued our weekly tradition of heading into the city for some fun. We checked out the other Air & Space Museum. It was much more geared toward space, and much more hands on. We had a good time.

 Family shot, minus the little one who usually refuses to take pictures. I promise he is there with us.

The rest of the week was pretty dull and honestly kinda boring. I have been waiting for Neil to get back into a preschool groove. Because of all the weather closures and 2-hr delays that we've had, he FINALLY got to start school today!! It's been like 3 weeks since he was supposed to start. Having both my girls gone most days, and just Neil home has been a little rough. Poor kid wanders the house calling for "Gracie". 

So, today was the day. I gave myself a stomach ache with all of the anticipation and dread about how it would go, especially with the bus. He flat out refused to go near the bus at his last school. Well, we got up early, ate breakfast, had a family dance party, and got coats and backpacks on everyone. He was pretty excited to be just like the girls. His bus came and he ran out to it with them. He had a moment of trepidation when he realized they weren't coming with him, so Chris scooped him up and carried him on. As the bus drove away, my fears started to subside. Maybe he was figuring it all out. Thankfully his teacher called me to let me know he was happy when he got off the bus and was doing really well. What a huge relief! 

I get about 4 hours to myself 2x/week now!! What should I do? Today I celebrated with a trip to Target by myself. It was so nice to do in the middle of the day!

After preschool we went to see Grace's parade for Chinese New Year. The kids all wore red and had made a dragon. Grace got to be the head. She looked quite pleased with herself.

Everyday here gets a little easier for me. I'm still not quite acclimated to it all. It's a very slow process of meeting people and remembering their names. I know it's just going to take time, but I really miss everyone from home. I could really use a GNO about now. My kids are starting to talk about it too. Claire checks the mail daily hoping to get a letter from someone. Just yesterday something did come for Grace.

She was very happy to read her letter. Thank you Ethan! Hopefully, my feelings won't rub off on them too bad. They are making friends and enjoying school. We just need some better weather so that I don't feel so cooped up.