Dirty but Happy

These last couple of weeks have flown by for us. With soccer and softball almost every single night, we are starting to feel a bit worn out. Thankfully Chris has been here to help. He even suffered through a case of strep throat for most of his time here. He was still a big help. I'm not sure how I would have managed all of the chaos alone.

Neil had his last day of preschool this last week. It was bittersweet for me. As I walked down the hallway that was decorated with all kinds of adorable preschool art, I got a little bit teary eyed. This is it. My last baby is done with preschool forever. How did this come so fast?

We had a farewell picnic lunch out on the playground and enjoyed popsicles. We will really miss this great school and all of his friends. He really enjoyed his time here and it was so good for him!

The rest of our time was spent out on the fields. Claire has really started to enjoy softball. She has built up her confidence and is starting to do really well. She's had a couple RBI's and today she had a nice single. Most of the weeknight games don't end until 9pm, so everyone gets home dirty and exhausted. It's been really hot and humid here, so the kids are usually dripping with sweat and dirt. You can tell that Neil loves it though. At least they are all getting some great exercise. 

Yay! Claire is safe on first!!

The Power

My cute but very dirty little boy.

Grace has also been doing really great with her soccer skills. She's improved a bunch over the season. Today she scored a goal that she kicked from mid field. She was pretty excited about that. I think she's done the best on defense though. She is a fabulous sweeper. Go Orange Tigers!

The regular season of softball has now ended. We just have one tournament left to go. Soccer has a party and one more game next weekend. Hopefully it will all go smoothly. Chris flies back to CA tomorrow. All I have to do now is: end of school stuff/parties, teacher presents, a birthday party for Claire, close on a house, pack for our trip to OR, get the house ready to move, ship off my van, relocate the kids and me to a hotel, and lots of little stuff in between. That's all before Chris comes back. Oy. These next 20 days are going to be INSANE! Please forgive me for the hiatus in posts that I know will be coming.

Underground

Since our time here is quickly winding down, we are trying to see as much as possible. This weekend we headed to Luray, VA. It's a small town out in the Shenandoah Valley. The big thing to see is the caverns.

We hiked down a couple hundred feet overall from the surface and saw some really cool rock formations. There were stalagmites and stalactites as well as a few other interesting creations from billions of years ago. As soon as we got down there our guide informed us that we'd be down there for about an hour and be walking for a mile and a quarter. My first thought was, "I hope there's a quick way out for us when the kids get bored." 

This picture below was a small lake that perfectly reflected the ceiling. It was really impressive in person. It gave the appearance of being quite deep, but in fact it was only about 10 inches. 

The columns inside were really impressive. There was so much space! They even had a few  areas that had been paved with bricks that they allowed weddings to take place in. It was very beautiful. In the biggest "room" someone had crafted an organ into the stalactites. Using electrical pulses, a rubber mallet would softly tap the different formations to create the proper tones. They briefly played us a song.  

There was even a wishing well. I was surprised that they allowed people to toss coins into this pool. The water turned green from all of the copper pennies. Apparently once a year they collect the change and donate it to charity. They've raised over a million dollars.

Thankfully all of the kids stayed entertained for the entire walk. After climbing almost 70 stairs to get back to the surface, I was a little bit tired myself. Our tickets included entrance into two other small museums on the property. One was all about cars. It started with old wagons and carriages and then chronologically showed cars as they developed. It was interesting to see some really old cars.

The other museum was all about the old ways of life in the valley. It had old furniture, guns, and other household items from the 1800's. My kids really weren't interested so we went through it pretty fast. Then we headed outside where we played with this mining replication. We liked floating the sifters down the "river". It was crazy hot outside with like 95% humidity, so any splashing in water was welcome. Unfortunately, we got in trouble with a cranky worker so we had to move on.

We found a cool stump to take some pics. We tried our best to get a family selfie. Didn't work so well this time.

On our way back towards home we stopped at The Shenandoah River State Park to explore a bit. We were hoping to find a place where we could play in the river or throw rocks in. We ended up leaving after a short time. There weren't really any good places there and it was really hot. 

The scenery was beautiful though. Glad we made the trip. We stopped at Spelunkers on the way home for burgers and frozen custard. It was a fun day!

Mother's Day Tea

Today was a special day. It was Mother's Day tea at Neil's preschool. I had never been to one of these before so it was a pleasant treat! The kids escorted us into the room and together we picked out a tasty plate of goodies. There were lots of selfies going on.

Once everyone had eaten, the kids sang to us. Afterwards, we got to see their special portraits that they drew. 

I absolutely loved Neil's portrait! He said, "I love my mom because she gives me butter, my beautiful mommy."  I have no idea where that came from. No, I don't regularly hand out sticks of butter to my kids. It was so sweet though. It made me laugh. He really knows how to melt my heart. What a sweet boy he is! Truly a fabulous mother's day gift!

He also painted me a flower pot that had marigolds growing in it. I'm glad I have a small picture of it because we accidentally dropped it on the way home. Ceramic doesn't do well on concrete. He was pretty sad about it. :(

We ended our little date on the playground with friends. The weather was perfect and it was so fun to spend some time with Neil at his school. Now that preschool is wrapping up, I am starting to feel nostalgic. My baby is going to kindergarten this fall! I am leaving behind this cute world of preschool forever. Part of me just doesn't want it to end. Where does all the time go? How did he get so big?

National Cathedral

Today we decided to do a bit more exploring before Chris had to fly back to California. We checked out a fun little place in DC called Friendship Park. It was a nice shaded park with sand and rolling toys all over. I forgot to snap any pictures of the park, but it was a relaxing way to spend an hour or so.
Afterwards we headed to the National Cathedral. It was just a few blocks from the park. What a magnificent building! It was beautiful. We got there just before the evening worship and had just enough time to tour the inside. We even took an elevator up to the 7th floor where we could see the surrounding city for miles around. It was breathtaking! I highly recommend checking it out.

 

5k for Grace

Grace really loves to run. Not only does she play soccer, but she has also been training every week with a good friend from school. For several weeks now she goes out around the neighborhood with her friend and her friend's mom on a nice 2-3 mile loop. Thank goodness for her mom! I have never really been a fan of running.

Race day finally arrived. Grace woke up extra early, ate some toast, and got herself all prepped for the 5k. It was held in the town of Vienna just down the road. Participants could choose to do a fun run mile or a 5k. All of the proceeds go towards our elementary school.  She was only one of seven other kids in her age group doing the longer race.

Chris was able to go cheer her on and watch her cross the finish. I'm so proud of her and all of her hard work. There were some pretty tough hills to climb, but she hung in there. She made it to the finish in good spirits. Then she got some face paint and we all went to Zinga frozen yogurt to celebrate!