Our Town (Washington)

This weekend we took the kids to Washington DC. We told them that we were taking them to the Smithsonian where they would see dinosaurs and where Barack Obama lives. They were very excited about this and about the fact that they were going to get to ride a train (the Metro)! Riding the escalators and waiting for and seeing the Metro was, off the charts, exciting for them! Mike and I decided that if we went home at that moment, their day would still have been fantastic. We parked in East Falls Church and rode the Metro into the Downtown Mall.


Riding on the Metro was another adventure for them! They loved that they could see the cars going by until it went underground. They were a little puzzled by the fact that it was dark all of a sudden, but once they grasped the whole underground thing, their excitement continued.

Once off the Metro, our first stop was the visitors center at the Smithsonian. We got a map to plan out our day, and sat under a tree on the Mall and ate our packed picnic lunch. It was such a perfect, beautiful day! We were able to enjoy the weather as well as the historic scenery of the Mall.
Our plan was to see the Museum of Natural History as well as the Air and Space Museum and then see what kind of time we had and what else we wanted to do. In addition, we wanted to walk to the Washington Monument and to see "Barack Obama's house," but with all the walking we did not know what would be possible. This picture is of Mike and the kids walking up the steps of the Museum of Natural History.
The architecture is so beautiful!
This is Lydia and Emily in front of a Tyrannosaurus Rex. I was not able to get far enough away from them to get everything in the picture.

We went all through this Museum of Natural History and saw so many neat things. The evolution of various sea animals was my favorite part. Measuring ourselves against an elephant's leg bone, and seeing how much shorter we were than just their leg!

Ryan did this too, but moved before I could get the picture.
We saw lots of insects. Ants, beetles, bees . . . the kids loved the Insect Zoo. Funny thing . . . it was sponsored by Orkin--the pest control people :) .
I have a picture of myself, when I was a kid, touching the tooth of this Tyrannosaurs Rex. I thought it would be cool for each of the kids to do the same thing . . . even though you are not supposed to touch the display :).

Mike and the kids sitting on the steps outside the museum after our hour and 30 minute walk through.
All of the "visiting the Smithsonian with children" literature I read recommended taking small breaks with your kids so they would continue to stay interested in the exhibits. This was a good suggestion. In between the Museum of Natural History and the Air and Space Museum, we stopped to see the Carousel on the Mall. The kids asked if they could ride it so we walked around to pay what we thought would be a dollar per child to ride . . . it was $2.50 per child. CRAZY!! But . . . yes . . . we let them ride anyway. They loved it!

This was a waterfall that we saw on our way to the Air and Space Museum. It was in front of another museum. The waterfall would go way up high and then come back down lower. They had so much fun just playing in the water.

In the Air and Space Museum there were several planes that were set up that you can walk through and see how planes have changed over the years. This is the kids going into one of them. This museum was pretty crowded. It was hard to get to the exhibits and the kids lost interest a lot faster. They did enjoy seeing all of the planes and rockets, but that ended quickly and we were only in this museum for about 40 minutes.

"Test Driving" the planes.
On our way to the Washington Monument we stopped under our same lunch picnic tree to rest our much walked feet and have some juice and snack. While there Ryan and Mike walked to a bathroom. Lydia and Emily decided to pose as statues and for some pictures. It was so cute!
Lydia
Emily and the Monument behind her
We walked around the Monument, but did not go inside this trip. I enjoyed telling Ryan the story my mother told me years ago that my Great-Great-Grandfather (Ryan's Great-Great-Great-Grandfather) helped build the Washington Monument and he carved his initials somewhere near one of the windows. Ryan seemed pretty impressed with this bit of information!
In telling the kids that we would be going to Barack Obama's house, we thought we would be able to see more of it from the Washington Monument. Unfortunately, the trees blocked a lot of it, but they were able to see this much of it. They had asked earlier if we were going to see President Obama since we were going to his house. We are going to someone's house and not going to see them? :)

Since everyone was pretty tired of walking, we viewed the Lincoln Memorial from the Washington Monument. Strange though . . . the reflecting pool did not have any water in it. This was the first time I had ever seen the reflecting pool without a reflection.

"There it is!" "I see it!" Our last look at DC was the "M" sign to show us the Metro station. Down the "sescalators" and on to a very crowded train. All 5 of us had to stand at first, but then two people moved and the kids shared the two seats. Emily stayed on the floor--it was easier for her than trying to hold on. Ryan sat in the seat in front of them. Lydia passed out before we even hit our stop :).

Off the train and down to the van. This was, hands down, Emily's favorite thing!! She kept calling the "sescalators" or "the moving stairs." We stopped at an Olive Garden for dinner on the way out of NOVa and headed home. Everyone asleep the whole way. We could not have ordered a better day!! Everyone had a great time and I can't wait to go back!!

Baseball Season!

It is Baseball season for Ryan again! We thought about signing up Lydia and Emily this year, but since they are still just 4 and won't be 5 until after they are in Kindergarten, we thought we would hold out one more year for them. They do love going to Ryan's games though!! :).

Ryan is playing for the Orioles this year! Mike is his coach this year! The dad of a good friend of Ryan's is helping Mike in his coaching venture. Dennis is Kemper's dad. Kemper's twin sister, Makenna is also on the team. They are having such a great time!!

Coach Mike and Ryan

Makenna
Kemper
Ryan, in his catcher's position

Our First Carnival

Let me start this post by saying that I took these pictures with my phone. They are not very good!!

The kid's school had a really fun carnival tonight. Each grade had a booth with a specific activity/game where you would present a ticket, that you purchased, to play the game and win a prize. Also, with your tickets, there were a few fun "rides" outside. Ryan wanted to climb the rock climbing wall. As soon as we got there, we got in line to climb the rock wall. Lydia wanted to climb as well, but I told her she had to be 6 to climb. Ryan climbed twice, but once he got up there he could not figure out how to get down :). The spotter guy had to help him. He loved it though!! Quite a rush for him!

We participated in the cake walk. We figured with Kara, Lynnea, Emily, Lydia and myself walking that one of us would CERTAINLY win a cake . . . nope, not one of us!! The picture of Lydia . . . she is waiting to start the cake walk. Kara and Olivia are to her left.

They also had a really great bounce house. Emily LOVED this one!! Ryan and Lydia also got in, but Lydia got out quickly. She is not real big on not feeling stable. I figured Emily would be close behind, but she was having such a great time! She had to take off her glasses to go, but she bounced and bounced and slid down the slide that was attached to it. She kept saying "the slide is so fast!" They had a great time!!

Following the carnival, there was a live auction. There was a silent auction during the carnival, which had items for kids to bid on. Ryan and Emily each got the items they bid on. Each classroom had one of these beautiful pieces of art. Each child had their fingerprint and their name on it. The art teacher made these with the different classes. Some of these things went for $100! Lydia and Emily's class's watering can was the first to come up for bidding. We decided on a limit and started bidding. We were bidding aganist a Grandfather who was determined to get that watering can. We stopped bidding and did not end up getting that one. Ryan's class's came up to bid and we were competing aganist one other parent and ended up getting his for $35. We were pretty excited, but sad that we did not have one for the girls. It was a fun auction and fun time!! I am anxious to know how much money the school made. The kids came home and passed out and now I am going to go do the same!!

There's a new cousin in town!!

On Friday, Feburary 26, 2010 Stacey's brother Paul and his wife Allison had another little girl! She is just beautiful!! Her name is Penelope Maeve Leftwich and they are calling her Penny. I had the good fortune to be able to see her the afternoon of the 26th and then my family and I went to their house on Saturday after they had come home. We all took turns holding Penny and having our picture taken . . .

Proud Cousin Ryan

Cousin Lydia . . . she has such a way with babies!

This is big sister Adella! She is VERY proud now that she is a big sister!!!

Cousin Emily

Proud Grammy (Stacey's mom). Makes 5 Grandkids for her now!!

Uncle Mike

I took about 15 pictures of all 5 grandkids and sadly, this was the best one :(. Tough to get all of them looking at the camera!! I failed to get a picture of proud Paw Paw (Stacey's dad) or the proud parents! Hopefully other cameras managed to get these shots!!

Welcome to the world Penny!! We love you!!!

What an adventure!!

Yesterday Mike and I took the kids to the Rockingham County Fairgrounds. Mike won tickets from the radio to the Big Game Show they were hosting there. The kids were free so our admission was cost free. The main purpose of the show was for hunters and outdoor people, but our reason for going was the fact that the monster truck, Virginia Giant, was there giving free rides. Ever since taking him to a monster truck show last summer, Ryan has been a HUGE fan of the monster trucks. He was quite excited about it!

After getting our van stuck in the out of control mud, in the grassy, melting snow plowed parking area (there were two tractors there pulling people out of the mess),

Mike and the kids got on the Virginia Giant truck. The ride was pretty quick, but they LOVED it!!!

Once they finished their ride, we went inside to the Game Show. They had some baby bear cubs, a wolf, mountain lion and tiger cubs too. The kids enjoyed watching the bears. They were playing, but the other cubs were just resting.

We went by the new Transformers edition Camaro, that was on display, it looks like Bumblebee from the movie. Ryan was in complete awe! He kept talking about how if Bumblebee transformed he would be so tall and would poke a hole in the roof. He kept asking about it transforming and notified us that he wanted to have this car. :) We think he thinks it WAS Bumblebee. :) After getting balloon animals, we headed home. What a fun day!!

I have Ziplock Power!!

Today, at our center, we served the kids bagged lunches instead of the normal lunch on a plate. They were all so excited with the change!! Many of the older kids were excited to have "chips instead of vegetables!" My two year old class was so excited! In their lunch bags they had a sandwich, chips and apple slices. So much excitement!!

I required the kids in my class to eat their sandwich before they were allowed to eat a lot of their chips. After I had helped one little guy in my class open all his bags 'o lunch, he began munching on the chips. His sandwich was just sitting there and I told him to eat his sandwich. When he didn't I zipped his ziplock bag of chips shut, telling him he could not have anymore until he ate some sandwich (I really am mean!! :)). As a result, he tried and tried to open that bag and could not do it. So, he began to cry. As a last resort, he gave up and ate his sandwich, to which I rewarded him by opening his chip bag again. It was too funny!!!

Enough Already!!!

Snow arrived in Rockingham County again today :(! Really ready for spring!! On the upside,

Mike was finally home during snow for the first time today! He has been working each time and the kids have been wanting him to play outside with them as well as I have been wanting help shoveling the snow! :) We all went out today and made a snowman and had some snowball fights and did some sleigh riding.

Before the snow really started sticking to the roads, we went up to see the skiiers in Massanutten and took some pictures of the snow around the area.

Watching the skiiers