Sunday adventures

A few weeks back the kids, and I went to Fort Foote, which is an old civil war camp.  We had a nice picnic, and we enjoyed a good hike.  It was nice to get out and play.  

We also stopped by a colonial homesteading area where we met an actress acting like a slave.  It was pretty eye opening to hear her speak about belonging to someone.

Cousin weekend

Mr. T's cousin came to town with her family.  We had a fantastic time.  We did lots of DC type things, and I was able to use my new badge to get some sweet perks!  

Basketball is done!

This year I had the pleasure of being the assistant coach to a bunch of girls who could play some ball!!  They were the runners up, and many of them had never played before!  

I hope we get to do it again next year.

Another weekend

We do a lot of weird random stuff here.  Last weekend, we caught the end of a Bolivian parade.  Or, we thought it was the end, but maybe it was the beginning.  The whole thing was hard to figure out since we do not know enough Spanish to get us around DC or read signs or generally do anything but get us a beer and a toilet.

  

 

Wintertime fun

It snowed!  Which, it actually did a lot, but this time it snowed to such a degree that the sledding was really great!  It was still too "dry" to build a snowman, but we at least got to explore the neighborhood some more to examine where the best hills are.  I think we are close to figuring it all out.  The snow gave us two snow days, but it also gave us the opportunity for a number of other things to do. 

We went to Mt. Vernon in the snow.  Mt. Vernon is probably my favorite place to go in DC.  I have turned into a BIG FAN or reenactors, kind of embarrassingly so.  I think about my kids doing that and wondering how to get them involved.  Then I realize how well they ride horses and dollar signs flash before my eyes and suddenly, I am no longer a big fan.

We were able to go skiing about 1.5 hours from our house.  For someone like me who does not know a whole lot about skiing or snowboarding, I thought it was pretty great.  It did get really icy in the afternoon, but we still had a good time.  The kids were in ski and/or snowboard school, so I had an all day date with Mr. T!  

The kids did well on the ski lifts.  They had a bunny slope that moved very slow for them, which made it easier.  Even BabyP on the snowboard was able to get on and off.  More importantly no one crashed in a firey death!

 

We all had a nice time.  BabyP was able to handle the snowboard, and Peanut was planning for when she was going on the blacks.  No complaints from these proud parents!

 

Special girl- A nine Year Old Birthday

My gorgeous wild haired child turned nine.  We opted for a smaller birthday party this year, which involved a number of her closest friends.  This was the first time we have had a large sleep over party.  Thankfully for pintrest, we were prepared.  

Peanut is at a funny age where she is a 26-year old in a now nine year old's body.  She is confident but not to a fault.  She is smart and capable.  She is also prone to going off by herself to read.  She is easy to parent, but she is not easy to focus.  We are trying to work on organizing ourselves a bit better.  She is a whirling dervish of creative genius; however, she is not able to complete things and often leaves tasks without her best effort being put forward.

We had a small birthday at home, and then we had a small group of girls over on the weekend.  I am amazed by the little girls she hangs out with.  They are just all really good and low drama people.  She only has one friend that she struggles with, but in the end, she asks for the space she needs.  Sometimes that space looks like screaming at 10 at night for her to leave you alone so you can sleep.  :)

Peanut started basketball and competitive swimming this year.  She liked basketball, but she did not like the swimming.  She really improved in basketball, which is good, because there was a lot of room for improvement.  Peanut does not have to be great or even good at anything; however, my expectation is that she tries.  The team she was on was supportive, and she did try.  She did improve.  And she will get better.  

For her birthday, we made a number of different crafts.  We made candles, tie dyed, and made some lip balm.  Some of them turned out better than others did.  However, we all had a good time, until it was time for Peanut to sleep.  She really likes to sleep and there were tears because some of the girls would not leave her alone.  She went to her room and stayed there the rest of the night.  My Aunt Genie tells stories of being amazed I put myself to bed.  I think this girl would too, if we let her stay up late enough.  

Our neighbor MC game to be with us at the party.  I am glad I asked her because it was nice to have another pair of competent hands. 

Rainbow cake for the rainbow girls.  

Again, this is not how they stayed at night, but they all seemed to have a good time.  Everyone was still talking in the morning, even if they did not want to talk at 10.  

Christmas Time

Mom and dad came over for Christmas.  Since we were not going on out of town this year for Christmas, we were able to get a number of "Christmassy" type things done.  The first was to make a lot of cookies.

On the face of it, it seems like making cookies is a good idea.  The kids are occupied, and we get something delicious to eat.  Except, since I like to have my life in chaos, I chose to make 4 different types of cookies.  None of which, I have ever made before.  Peanut does a good job of staying focused on crafty things, BabyP makes me want to drink wine.

We made our traditional Bill Clinton Christmas cookies.  You know, because we are from Arkansas, and that is how we roll.  The cookies did (eventually) turn out nice.  We had a few lessons learned with the icing, but we did an after action review and will not make the same mistake twice.  

The big thing that the kids like about Christmas is their advent calendar.  Above is BabyP thrilling me with his magic kit while I cook.

One hot Arkansas July, I found the perfect sweater to wear for any ugly sweater contest.  I wore this sweater to work, and a man I work with, but not in my organization said, "Good God!  Is there an ugly sweater contest today."  I was able to wear this sweater to two different ugly sweater contests.  

Santa left a note on Christmas day telling where his present was.  His present was downstairs hooked up to the TV!  I had two very excited little kids.  

Our bounty.  It was a really nice Christmas with a beautiful tree, which promptly came down the day after Christmas because THE WALLS WERE CLOSING IN ON ME!  Goodness, I needed some more space in my house.  We had things piled everywhere!

One of the unknown treasures is the Smithsonian Postal Museum.  It was delightfully more interesting than we would ever think it could be.  

This was a visit to the Coccran Museum, which was closed.  So, we took a stroll around the white house lawn and found the White House Christmas Tree, which was shockingly not tree like.  However, it was interesting to see the state trees and toy trains that were set out.  

We took a family day to the Postal Museum and to the Botanical Gardens.  On our walk to the Botanical gardens, we came across this spring in front of the Capitol building.  I am so curious as to what the origins on it are and why it is fenced off.

For New Year's Day, we went to my friend MC's house.  Her parents entertained us with stories of what DC was like before in the 60's.  Peanut thought that listening to them was better than listening to Martha Washington.

And then MC came over to our house to see the new Year in.  The kids stayed awake, but one of them was barely awake.  

And this was how he paid me!  He was crying and throwing a temper tantrum in the store.  Good times!

However, I did make them go on a bike ride, while I ran next to them.  I have wanted to take them on the Woodrow Wilson bridge for a long time, so I was glad that we were able to do so.

And no Christmas time is complete without a trip to the ice skating rink.  Peanut bragged about her mad skilz and BabyP was upset that he was not good.  In the end, you see the little one zipping away and the two older girls hoovering over a helper.  It appears that age is the great equalizer.