Battlefield, museum, and hit and run

The last couple weeks have been busy around here with typical summer time activities. The girls had swim lessons everyday and Neil has been going to summer school. It's been great to have him occupied for a few hours every day! In the downtime we've managed to make plenty of trips to the library, pools, and even a few outings to DC.

We live really close to the big Manassas Battlefield. It's where the famous Bull Run Battle was fought during the Civil War. Pretty cool place to explore. It was really hot that day so we didn't walk around too much. We'll have to go back.

On another day we checked out the upper floors of the Natural History Museum. That place is huge! We've been twice and still haven't seen it all. We checked out their giant mineral/gem collection as well as a big space dedicated to geology and volcanoes. It was pretty cool. There's also a big section on bones. We saw this sea turtle that lives in the Atlantic. They average 8ft! Craziness. It's a very fun museum for kids!

On one of the random days in between, the girls and I ran to Walmart for a few things. We were in the store only about 15 minutes tops. It was a very quick trip. I remember clearly parking by no one.  No car on either side of me. When we walked back to the car I immediately noticed damage to the drivers side of my van. I couldn't even believe it. This is my new van dang it. There was no one there to explain or offer help. There was no note left on my windshield. Nothing. I sat there for probably another 15 minutes unsure about what to do and hoping someone would come back. I looked around the parking lot for any witnesses, but there was no one. At last I called my insurance agent and asked what I should do. Since it's considered a hit and run I'm only on the hook for the first $200 in damages. When I took it in for an estimate it was over $1000. Sheesh! Makes me super angry. Not only do I have to shell out a couple hundred bucks, and live without my van for a week, but I had to file a claim. Now who knows what will happen to my rates. They better not go up. Enough of my ranting. It was a less than awesome day.

Fab Four

It's hard to believe that it's been 4 years already since my last baby was born. I feel like time is just cruising by. Neil is such a remarkable little boy. I am so impressed with all of the progress he has been making over these last six month in particular. He's gone from hating buses, diapers full time, and flinstone feet to happily riding the bus everyday, daytime potty trained, and pedaling his new big boy bike. This is in addition to all the additional words and sentences he's been using. Preschool has been very good for him and he loves it.

For his birthday this year I made him funfetti cupcakes with green frosting. He is obsessed with the color green, so we all suffered the green teeth look. The girls and I surprised him at school with the cupcakes. It was so cute to see his excitement and surprise at seeing us in his class. We sang to him and the teacher even got him a present to open (Brown Bear book).

We spent the day mostly playing outside and riding his new bike. I never thought he would get the hang of pedaling, but within 2 or 3 times of trying he had it. I have to say it makes such a difference when kids are motivated. He really seems to be in a new mindset lately of wanting to master new things. The more the better.

For dinner we took the kids to Chuckee Cheese where we ordered a pizza and a zillion tokens for a fun evening. Thankfully it wasn't too crazy there, and all three kids had a great time. After exchanging our tickets for the silly prizes we headed home for more celebrating.

We thought it would be fun to invite our family to his "party". So when we got home we got out two laptops and connected to both Grandparents over skype. It turned out really well. We all sang to him and watched him blow out his candles. Then poor Grandmas had to watch us eat the tasty cupcakes before we got to the presents. He got some pretty fun stuff including dinosaurs, stackadoos, a book, crocs, legos, playdough, and Mater.

He's a lucky kid to have so many people who love him dearly. Thank you to everyone for all the cards and gifts. I think he really enjoyed his birthday!

Take me out to the ballgame

For Father's Day I decided to get Chris tickets to watch the Washington Nationals play his favorite team, the Chicago Cubs. The day finally arrived this weekend. Thankfully, it wasn't too hot outside. We also lucked out with getting shade for the entire game.
Our kids were troopers. It was another train ride downtown followed by plenty of crowds and heat. We packed food and water and somehow managed to escape the game without buying any of the overpriced concessions. Overall, we had a really good time even if a couple of the kids were bored by the end. The kids and I were cheering for the Nats and we pulled out a narrow 2-1 win. Here are some of our pics:

Nation's Capitol

Can i just reiterate how much I LOVE the 4th of July!! I know I say it every year, but it is just that awesome to me. Honestly, I was a little down this year not knowing what it would be like here in a new place. We decided that since we live so close to DC that we might as well go see how the capitol celebrates.

It was quite the day! We left after breakfast and rode the metro into the city. There was a fun parade down Constitution Ave about 5 minutes after we got there. It turned out perfect since we were able to find a place to see.

It was pretty cool to be in DC for this important American holiday.

The weather was the best too. No more 100+ with crazy humidity. It was a beautiful 80 with a breeze. Couldn't have had a better day. After the parade. We ate our picnic lunch and explored the mall area where they had a big folk festival going on. It focused on Kenya and China. There were lots of hand on areas with activities for kids.

Craft area with clay for sculpting and markers for coloring.

Neil made a snowman.

Claire made...a red crayon....

Once we had done lots of crafts we headed into the Museum of Art to look around in the AC. There were some pretty old and neato things in there. We didn't even see it all. After looking around we made our way to Subway to grab some dinner to go. Then we hiked down to the Lincoln Memorial to find a place to wait for the show. We spent the evening sprawled out on the grass, eating our dinner, wrestling, playing in the dirt, reading books, and people watching. 

In the last 30 minutes of waiting I broke out the glow sticks and candy. We all loaded up on the sugar crack and got ready for the firework show.

The sun finally went down. The sky was beautiful. Then the fireworks started.

The pictures don't do it justice at all. This was hands down the most impressive firework show that I have ever seen. They did cool ones that spelled out USA and even ones that did shapes like stars. There were many, many displays that I have never seen before. It was crazy how good this show was. Totally worth waiting for all day. It was amazing. So cool to be where we were celebrating the fourth. 

I loved it!

Afterwards we walked about a mile to the nearest metro station. There were lines of course but we only waited about 5-10 minutes until we were through and onto a train headed home. The train was super packed, but we got on and we made it. I was expecting much worse. It was nothing like inauguration day. No problem. We'd totally do it again. Next time we could probably show up later in the day and be just fine. If you ever have a chance to spend the fourth in DC, I would highly recommend it.

Happy 4th of July!