Christmas 2009

We had such a lovely Christmas with family and friends, but only barely made it to Michigan before a historic snowstorm hit the DC area and all of the airports were closed. I won't recount the whole flight switching/rushing to the airport in (also historic) traffic/barely making the flight saga but needless to say, I hope never to have to do it again.

We decorated cookies with Grandma:



We decorated a gingerbread house with Nana and Aunt Glee:





We opened...



and enjoyed lots of presents:



We managed to get a decent Christmas Eve shot with everyone in it using the timer:



We played in the snow -- a meager amount compared to what was at home, but very fun nonetheless:



We made snow angels:



And went sledding:



Finally, though I don't have a proper picture of it, one of the kids favorite things this holiday season has been to put on full length, full costume productions of Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite. Eleanor as Clara, Henry as the Nutcracker Prince and whatever adult is handy and willing as the "Mean Rat King". There certainly is some magic about this music and story, which has fully and completely infected the hearts of Eleanor and Henry. I took Eleanor this year to a community production of the Nutcracker and look forward to taking both of them next year.

Thank you everyone for a wonderful Christmas season. Regrettably, I haven't gotten Christmas cards out this year -- maybe I'll be able to get my act together by Valentine's day. Whether or not I end up getting cards out, please know that we love you all and miss those of you who we don't see often.

Easter Eggs!

Anna, Sarah and Charlie came over to dye Easter eggs this morning. We had a fantastic and messy time.



The whole kitchen smelled like hard boiled eggs, which (I never realized before) totally reminds me of Easter. We spent about an hour prepping for the dying -- boiling eggs, mixing those little tablets with vinegar, setting out stickers, crayons and other accessories -- all for about 3 whole minutes of dying.



The kids were grabbing eggs and throwing them (literally) in the cups just as fast as their little hands could move.



So, we ended up with 18, mostly cracked, beautifully vibrant Easter eggs for the Bunny to hid on Sunday morning. Oh, and Eleanor ate about three, Henry and Anna each peeled one and tossed them around like little balls, so maybe it is only 12 eggs for the Bunny to hide!

The Concert

So, there was this little show down on the mall today. When my dearest, sweetest, most generous husband suggested that I go down and see it, I couldn't say no. Though I did lament that he and the kids were not there to share it with me. It was good though to go Beth and Jason, we had so much fun. There were just masses of people but everyone was in a great mood and things flowed so smoothly. The line was long but once we got in there was lots of space to move around and we found a great spot near the reflecting pool to watch and listen to a piece of history.





A few little things that happened near us: There was a sweet family right next to us with a little girl sleeping on her dad's lap, she reminded me of Eleanor and it made me smile to see her there. At one point, a little boy noticed the Washington Monument and comment on how sharp it looked. He was right, it did look sharp against the cloudy sky. And, I have to say thank you to the random guys who gave us their leftover chips after waiting in line for two hours at the concession stand -- that small random act of kindness kept me from passing out from hunger (I forgot to eat lunch in my excitement to get down to the show).

This time I took LOTS of pictures and they are all up and ready to look at. More to come on Tuesday.

Happy 2009!

Happy New Year to everyone!

Lots to share over the past couple of weeks, I just need to get the pictures downloaded. In the meantime, here are a few shots from our trip to the US Botanic Garden. They have an amazing model train exhibit around the holidays, which was perfect for the young train enthusiasts in our family. It is really quite remarkable -- all of the buildings and houses in the exhibit are created out of natural materials such as leaves, wood, vines and the like. They had models of several DC landmarks as well as little cottages, tree houses, and other small creations that looked as if they were straight out of a fairy tale. The kids still liked the trains best.

Thanksgiving

So my Halloween post was two weeks late, why not make the Thanksgiving post nearly a month late? Things have been so busy around here. Henry has had terrible ears, cough and nose for such a long time I can't even remember when it began. The tubes have only minimally helped, though we had a hopeful appointment today where his ENT said that the right tube is, in fact, still in the ear and starting to function properly. I feared that we would have to go through the whole process again since our pediatrician though the right tube had fallen out. Anyway, I was going to post about Thanksgiving...

We had an early Thanksgiving meal at Sarah, Karl and Anna's house with a bunch of other friends. It was so much fun and the food was amazing. I still need to track down Cate's sweet potato/marshmallow goodness recipe. The kids all had a great time running around and tearing up the house.



Mu and Tada came for the week of Thanksgiving and we had lots of adventures. We had another lovely meal, though the kids were on the verge of sickness so they were a bit restless. The only picture I got of the food was the pie. I just can't help myself with pie.



We also visited the newly re-opened National Museum of American History, which has a fantastic transportation exhibit called American on the Move (trains, trains, trains).





While on the mall, we stopped into Natural History for a meal and a quick trip through their new Sant Ocean Hall.



We also got a Christmas tree and decorated it. Since the kids were feeling so crappy, we just picked one up at a nearby nursery instead of going out to cut our own. I think they still had fun putting the "decorates" up.

Halloween -- Two Weeks Later

I know this is late, but the saying goes "better late than never", right?

Halloween was an exhausting and fun time. It was bigger than just the day of Halloween itself -- we had the pumpkin patch with Nonna and Granddaddy two weeks before Halloween,





Boo at the Zoo a week before, a trip to the pumpkin patch with Eleanor's school the Monday before, a Halloween parade the Wednesday before,



carved pumpkins on Thursday,



Halloween itself on Friday (including a photo shoot in last years costume and trick-or-treating in this years costume),





and then Sarah and Karl's Halloween party the day after.







My grand intentions to make costumes for the kids didn't pan out, despite buying the pattern and fabric for Eleanor's blue dinosaur costume. Luckily, World Market had a blue dinosaur hoodie towel-cape thing that was perfect -- easy on, easy off, went over clothes/coats, and most importantly, Eleanor liked it. Henry ended up being Yoda. A costume that I had bought for him at a consignment sale a year ago. It almost didn't fit but I made a few minor adjustments to the hood and we squeezed him in.

Halloween itself was somewhat anticlimactic, but luckily the weather was warm and perfect for being out in the evening. After about a half a block of trick-or-treating with Anna and Karl, Eleanor declared that she was done. So we went home, ate a bit of candy and that was that. She did enjoy seeing a few other kids come to our door though before she went to bed. Henry enjoyed it all, especially the chocolate.

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween to all!! Looks like it is going to be a beautiful evening for tricking and treating. More pictures and a full Halloween rundown to come in the next couple of days.

Happy 4th of July (belated)

I have pictures of the kids in their red, white and blue but between visits with all of our friends who are in town for the festivities, I just haven't gotten them downloaded yet. I'll post it up as soon as possible.

It was nice to see Leah, Rachel, Josh, Mr. & Mrs. Z on Thursday and Sean, Jeannie, and Jason yesterday for the holiday. What fun to have folks in for a visit.

July 8th update. Here (finally) are the pictures to accompany this post!!

Happy Canada Day

Happy Canada Day to all our family and friends (and everyone else too)! Eleanor and Henry wore their Canada shirts today in honor of the holiday -- thanks Aunt Lynda.

Lots of new pictures and notes to post up from recent days but it will have to wait until tomorrow when I am well rested and can think in coherent sentences.

Happy Easter

Happy Easter everyone! Hope the Easter bunny made it to your house too.

Happy Valentines Day

With lots of hugs and kisses we send everyone a message of friendship and love on Valentines Day.

The recent hiatus in writing will hopefully end soon. Mu was here in town for a week and I was back at work for a day so things have been rather busy. That said we have some great pictures to get up and as soon as I get the camera's battery charged I promise to make it happen!

So, instead of a picture of some of the Valentines Eleanor made (not yet downloaded), or the heart shaped pretzels (not yet downloaded), or flowers of some sort, we'll leave you with Eleanor blowing a kiss to everyone in red patent leather shoes, green pants and a purple sweater. No, wait, she's not blowing a kiss, she's pretending to burp and say excuse me -- just like Tiny Tim the frog. Well, you can pretend it's a kiss if you want!

Holiday in Michigan

We had a lovely time in the Great Lakes State over the holidays. Here are some of the highlights in no particular order...


Henry's Baptism:


Finishing a really hard puzzle -- the one on the right. (I know, it doesn't look that hard!):


Christmas dinner:


A walk at the farm:


Trains at Henry Ford Museum:


Nine inches of snow:


Jackson the dog:


A tea party:


And, of course, hanging out with family: