The beach

In the spirit of exploration, we checked out another "beach" this weekend. It was in Maryland along the Chesapeake.  The sun was out and it felt good, but the wind sure was blowing. The kids insisted on swimsuits. I stayed in my coat the entire time. We found a nice little protected area of sand to play on.

Not too deep.

Soft for sleeping on.

And plenty of shells to gather.

They spent a long time making this volcano. 

Afterwards, we were all tired and hungry. We stopped at a local marina area restaurant for some fish and chips. Although the fish was tasty, the meal was pretty disappointing. It literally came with chips. Like the crunchy potato ones. I was really hoping for some nice steak fries. 

Other events worth noting...Neil had pink eye; which has thankfully cleared up very quickly with the help of annoying eye drops..AND...Chris's company(OPower) went public on Friday. They had an all day party to celebrate. No work was done with the mechanical bull riding, sumo wrestling, ping ponging, and other wild and crazy activities that were going on along with the champagne spraying. 

Birthday fun

Yesterday my hubby turned 34. I'm so grateful for all of his hard work that he does for our family. We are lucky to have him around. Since his birthday fell on a school day, we decided to go on a little date in the morning. As soon as the school bus was away, we jumped in the car and headed for DC.
We really wanted to re-visit the Holocaust museum since we didn't get to see it all the last time we were there. I know it sounds like kind of a downer for a birthday, but it was really great to explore together without the kids.

Afterwards we explored the WWII memorial on the way back to the car. It's pretty cool when the water is actually in it. Thank heavens for spring!

All of that walking really worked up an appetite. So we stopped for some super tasty/fancy donuts at GBD (http://www.gbdchickendoughnuts.com/). Lunch of champions. We split 5 giant donuts between us before heading home for Neil's bus.
Once the kids were home, we did presents and went to dinner. He got a new blu-ray player and some new movies to add to the collection. We ate at Smashburger which was nice because all of the kids did really well AND ate their food. We came home and ate the key lime pie that I had attempted to make. It turned out alright, but next time I may just stick with buying one. :) Overall, it was a fun sunshiny day full of calories! Happy birthday honey!

Licensed to drive, Let it Go, and a fire truck

In mid February we toured the White House. It was great and all, but we had to show our ID's a million times. Several days afterwards, we randomly noticed that Chris's driver's license was missing. We searched high and low. Everywhere we could think of. No luck. We thought we'd might as well update them anyway to Virginia. Unfortunately, the DMV here would not issue him a license without having the Oregon one, or a copy of his driving record. They told him he could get a permit. :) Haha! Anyway, that wasn't going to happen. We had to write to the Oregon DMV for proof. In the meantime, it meant no driving for Chris. It was rather inconvenient if I may say. Thankfully, he doesn't drive to work. Just try imagining how things might change if your spouse "couldn't" drive for almost a month. The papers finally came, and woohoo, he is now licensed to drive again. Phew! What a pain.

I had been planning on getting the movie Frozen for my girls for Easter. I, however, just couldn't wait. I ended up pre-ordering it, and when it came I just had to show them. :) I think they've watched it 8 times in the last week. When the movie isn't on, the music is. They have the songs memorized, and I can frequently hear them belting out "let it go" even from the playground. Even Neil likes to sing a few of the songs.

Preschool is going really well for Neil here. He gets to ride the bus to school 5 days a week which has really helped him. Already he is talking way more, and trying more things. I love that they have a speech therapist in house to help him. They have been learning about fire lately. He made this cute truck. They were supposed to see the real thing, but it stinkin snowed again. Oh well. I'm so over all this snow. Hopefully April will be snow free. 

Belated St. Patrick's Day

I was a little bummed yesterday that we didn't really get to celebrate St. Patrick's Day like I wanted to. With all of the snow we all just stayed home and didn't really get to wear our green. I had bought treats for the kids' classes at school, which had to wait for today.

So, today was our redo. We all wore our green paraphernalia. Thank you Grandma Annie for the fun St. Patrick's Day package. The kids took their treats to school (thankfully it was only a 2-hr delay). I made green jello jigglers for a treat. Grace said a Leprechaun had visited her classroom and left all sorts of surprises for the kids! So fun. I guess I did make a tasty kale colcannon for dinner yesterday. That was about as Irish as it got around here.

Happy late St. Patrick's Day!

Here we go again

I feel like there is a pattern emerging to my blog posts. We have a snow storm, then really nice weather, then another snow storm, etc... This is starting to get old.

As you could guess, we did in fact get hit with another 10 in. of the white stuff last night and into today. This is absolutely ridiculous! I have become a bit jaded. "Oh, only 10 in? that's not too bad." Previously we would get really excited about 1-2in. Up until this winter I had never actually shoveled snow before. Let's just say, I've done plenty now, I'm good.

Since this is (most likely) the last storm of the winter, we decided to enjoy the moment. We spent most of the day playing outside. Both of our sleds broke in the last storm, so we just played. It was a nice dry fluffy snow. The kids ate tons of it.

It was very pretty. I'm sure I will long for this in a few months, so I will try to stop complaining. We got to spend our St. Patrick's Day at home with each other. It was a nice day. 

Recipe wins and more DC

The weekend was absolutely gorgeous here. About 70 degrees and perfect in every way. I decided to make a German pancake for breakfast. The family loved it! Next time I need to make two I think. :)

Once our bellies were full we headed to DC to check out the American History Museum. It was so fun to be on the National Mall in such great weather. There were games of kickball and frisbee all over the place. Next time I think we need to bring a picnic. 

We didn't even have time to see the whole museum, but some highlights included the transportation hall, the ruby glass slippers, the First Lady's exhibit, and of course Miss Piggy.

Afterwards, we headed to Costco for a fun family shop. We spent the evening relaxing and playing outside in the sunshine. 

On Sunday, the temperature began to drop as our spring winter storm approached. We stayed inside and I made this yummy dish for dinner. If you like Panda express, then this is pretty good. All my kids wolfed it down. Using the packaged chicken really made it very simple. I only used half an orange...but if you don't really like the orange taste then leave it out. 

Ouch, wax, and planes

The other day I decided to have leftover potato soup for lunch. I knew the bowl would be hot, so I put it on a hot pad, and used two hands to lift it out of the microwave. Somehow I managed to spill it all over my left hand, which hurt so bad that I accidentally tipped it over onto my right hand too. OUCH! I threw down the bowl, not even caring about it breaking or the fact that there was now potato soup all over my stove top and cabinets, and rushed to the sink.

The pic isn't even that bad looking. My forefinger and thumb area hurt like crazy...on both hands. I hate it when I do something dumb like this. 

Yesterday, Claire's class put on a wax museum to finish up the research they had done on a famous person in American history. She had done her project on Dr. Suess and she dressed up in daddy's clothes with a special hat and of course some props. We could walk around the room and ask the students for clues. I was glad that I showed up when I did because I found her upset in the bathroom. Apparently, everyone was too quick to guess her character and weren't asking her for the clues. After talking it through, we opted to ditch the obvious hat and books. Thankfully, this worked and she cheered up for the end. This picture was at the end. She was sure happy to be done with it even though she really did do a great job.

Another one of Neil's particularities is with shoes. He hates getting new ones. Today I decided that I was sick of his one pair that he wears because they really are starting to fall apart. I whisked him into a Payless store and went right over to the "Planes" shoes. They even light up. He started screaming while I tried them on him. I quickly bought them and we left right away. He still wants nothing to do with them. Silly child. As in the past, I have to hide/toss his old pair before he will consider the new ones. It's so frustrating. I guess I should be grateful that he doesn't want many pairs right?

I have to also say that I had a very scary phone call this week. My mom calls me up, and with a wavering voice says, "honey.....you're dad was in an accident in Austria today."....(silence)....(heart skips)...."uh"...."is he..?"..... She then says, "he's ok just very banged up." Geez, my life shortened a little just there. How about leading with that part? Anyway, my dad was riding in a car that was hit by someone running a red light. He has some rib bruising and is very stiff and sore, but otherwise fine. He was very lucky. It really made me think about how precious life is, and how everything can change in the blink of an eye. You really just never know. I guess the take home message is just to cherish the people in your life because they could be gone tomorrow. 

Sorry to bring it down, but I really am grateful that he's ok. On a lighter note, I was excited to buy our plane tickets home for the summer!! Woohoo! That really made my day, or week, maybe month? I am pretty pumped to get back and see everyone. I also joined a gym here, so I am starting to feel like I have a routine. It's a nice break from life.