Happy Feet

Today was parent observation day in Syd's tap class. Ethan and I got to watch Syd and her friends shuffle, ball-change and buffalo around the floor. I don't think Sydney loves to dance as much as I did when I was her age, but love it or not...she is still so very cute!

They are learning a routine to "Everybody Wants to Be a Cat" from Disney's Aristocats.
Here's a sneak peek!

Lemonade Stand

Logan took advantage of a warm, sunny day to set up shop and sell lemonade. He mixed the pink lemonade, made a poster and brought the table and chairs up from the basement. Our corner is actually perfect for these commercial endeavors. Just enough traffic to keep business steady! Ethan and Sydney were very excited to help, but Logan made it clear that he was not going to share his profits! I think he ended up with an extra $4 in his pocket. Not bad for an afternoon chillin' in the sun.

Parade and Carnival Time

Dulles Little League held their annual opening day parade and carnival on April 14. Logan and Dan walked the parade route with their team--the Phillies and the rest of us were there to cheer them on. Following the parade, the league holds opening ceremonies on the Crittenden field and then the fun begins: a big carnival for all of the players and their families. Sydney and Ethan were so excited they didn't know what ride or moon bounce to run to first! Logan and his friends also found plenty to keep them busy. Since it was a gorgeous, sunny day, even Mikelle and I had fun just being spectators.

                                                                    Let's go Phillies!

                                                              A view of the parade

                                                      Ethan, Mikelle and Syd

                                    Ethan and Syd found the mascot for the Loudoun Rockhounds.

                                                         Who are those cuties?

                                                                  Syd goes up...
                                                         

                                                     Syd goes down! That girl is fearless!

Dirty Jobs

Sydney had a sad day on Saturday. As usual, we were doing our Saturday morning chores. One of her jobs is to take everyone's shoes out of the hall lockers and put them away in their respective closets. She said she had already done this job, but when we went to get Ethan's shoes from his closet, we couldn't find them anywhere. We were trying to get to Logan's baseball game on time, and I was getting quite frustrated that the shoes were not where they were supposed to be! I opened the hall closet one more time to check and saw some shoes poking out from under all of the jackets. Sure enough--she had shoved a pile of shoes in the back of the closet--behind the jackets.

"Syd! Why did you do that? You know you're supposed to put them away." I probably wasn't as kind and patient as I should have been.

Poor Syd ran to her room crying and I wondered why she was so upset. From getting "found out"? From getting chewed out?

Mikelle was kind enough to go up to Syd's room and console her. When she asked Sydney why she was so sad, the whole story spilled out. She said it wasn't fair that she had to do all of the "dirty jobs" like emptying the trash and putting shoes away. Everyone knows that trash and shoes have tons of germs! Her first grade field trip is coming up and she didn't want all of those germs to make her sick and make her miss her field trip!

Mount Vernon with Grandma and Grandpa

Dan's parents were in town a few weeks ago. They were actually touring a few East Coast cities and  Washington DC was their first stop. We met them at Mt. Vernon for a chilly day of site seeing. Despite the cold temperatures and the wind, the kids loved seeing the new baby animals--the lambs and the pigs. We walked around the estate and took the mansion tour. When we lived in Alexandria we came to Mt. Vernon frequently, but it's been six or seven years since our last visit. Long enough that Mikelle said, "I don't think I've ever been here!" She definitely had, she was just too young to remember it. Logan had visited Mt. Vernon on the 4th grade field trip this fall, so he was our tour guide for the new visitor's center and museum. We watched several films about George Washington and the Revolutionary War--one was even in 4-D!

Do you love these red tulips?  We used to drive by here on our way to church on the GW Parkway. These red tulips were always a sign that spring had sprung!

In front of the mansion: Grandma Mona, Ethan, me, Syd, Mikelle, Logan, and Grandpa Gregg.

This is one of my favorite spots in all of the DC area. The back portico of the mansion overlooks the Potomac River. They have taken pains to protect the development on the other side of the river, so that the view is the same as George Washington would have seen over 200 years ago.

                                          Sydney and Logan feed grass to a hungry sheep.

Ethan was happy to pick the grass and put it UP to the sheep's mouth, but when he stuck his tongue out, Ethan would drop the grass and back up.

After Mt. Vernon, Grandma and Grandpa came back to our house for dinner. Their visit ended up being way to short, but we were happy we got to see them!

The Space Shuttle Discovery Flies Over Ashburn

Today we saw the Space Shuttle Discovery fly right over our house en route to the Udvar-Haazy Air and Space Museum in Chantilly. I was volunteering up at the kids' school. We were in the lobby and one of the moms saw it go by in the skylight in the ceiling. We all ran outside and saw it pass right over us. Sydney and Logan were out back on the playground.  Their teachers took them out to wait and see it pass over. Logan said they were out there "forever"--about 40 minutes!

Sydney drew this picture titled "Space Shuttle Discovery" and wrote the following:

"We were exciting =[expecting] it to come. It was awesome but it was fun! It was history. It was so cool I kod blev=[can't believe]."

Mikelle was quite disappointed that the teachers at the middle school said they couldn't take instructional time to look for it. Maybe they should have taken notes from Mikelle's 1st grade sister and realized that "It was history!"

Here's a link of the shuttle flying over that my friend Meagan's husband took:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4VcQnYpJ8o

Logan's in the Park HOME RUN!

The baseball season is in full swing. Logan is playing AAA with Dulles Little League. He is on the Phillies with Coach Rick. They played their 3rd game of the season last night and even though it was their first loss, Logan was flying high!  It was a gorgeous evening. About 70 degrees, close to sunset. It was Logan's last at bat and he smacked the ball. It went sailing toward right field and bounced and rolled toward the fence. The outfielders were chasing the ball, but Logan was chugging around the bases. He easily rounded first and second. Kept coming for 3rd. The 3rd base coach, (his dad) told him to keep running. He headed for home and slid into the plate, just as the catcher bobbled and dropped the ball. SAFE! He jumped up and pumped his fist and the crowd went wild! It was an electrifying moment in a game that was otherwise lacking moments to cheer for. The final score was 17-5, but you would never know it by looking at Logan's face. He was smiling from the brim of his hat to the spikes on his cleats!

Easter Sunday

Easter Sunday was a beautiful, but busy day. I ironed all of the clothes the night before, since we had to be at church at 8:20 AM for choir practice! The choir sang 2 songs in Sacrament Meeting: "That Easter Morn" and" Come Unto Christ".  Stefanie Shepley played the violin with "That Easter Morn". Despite the fact that our choir is few in numbers, the music sounded very nice. The kids in my 8 year-old primary class were thrilled with the jelly beans that came with their scripture reference to read. We mostly read verses in the Book of Mormon that testified of Christ's resurrection. I also used the hand in the glove example to show how the spirit and the physical body come back together during resurrection. The main question all of the kids had was whether pets get resurrected. I had to tell them that I honestly don't know!

After church we had the Muellers, the Hamms, the Van Horns, Charity and her kids and John and Nate Evans over for Easter Brunch. We had ham, potatoes, asparagus, fruit salad, jell-o salad, deviled eggs, a veggie tray and pineapple. Nanette brought strawberry shortcake, chocolate trifle and I made my traditional bunny cake for the kids.

We had the rest of the day to relax and the Easter Bunny even managed to make a late appearance. He hid the kids baskets upstairs and they had to run around and find them. Syd's was in the shower; Mikelle's was in the dryer; Logan's was in the master BR armoire and Ethan's was behind the master BR curtains.

Egg Hunt at Claude Moore

On Wednesday morning, we joined a few friends from church at the Claude Moore Farm in Sterling for an Easter Egg Hunt. The gnats were terrible--swarming around in our faces, in our mouths, in our ears! Yuck! The kids were divided into age groups and each group got a chance to have a separate egg hunt. The little ones were first. Logan coached Ethan on not stopping for the eggs in front, like all of the other kids would. But he told him to run to the back and get those eggs. Sure thing--when they yelled "Go!" Ethan ran straight to the back of the grassy field and turned around to smile at us. In the meantime he hadn't picked up any eggs and all of his other cohorts were closing in! Logan ran to help him get a few...so so funny and so so cute!

                                                          Ethan's ready at the starting line.

              Ethan poses for a photo, while everyone else madly searches for the remaining eggs.

                                                   Sydney is a prolific hunter and gatherer!

                                            Sydney laughs with her friends: Eva, Lilly and TR.

                                            Logan is ready to take on the competition!

                                                         It's every man for himself!

                                Sydney, Ethan and Logan smile over the spoils of their egg hunts!

                                Look who we ran into as we were leaving: the Easter Bunny!
                             Here's our whole crew: Nico, Logan, Sydney, Ethan, Eva and TR.

Spring Break

We had an extra-long spring break this year (a full week, plus the next Monday), so it seemed too long to just stay home. Since a big tropical vacation wasn't in the budget, I planned a close overnight trip to Lancaster County, PA.

We left Monday morning and drove north until Gettysburg. Then we took 30 East across PA until we reached the tiny village of Ronks. Our first stop was the Amish Village. We took a 45 minute tour and learned about the Amish lifestyle--how they cook, what they wear, how long and how often they go to church. Mikelle pointed out that their religious beliefs are similar to ours in some ways--Be in the world, but not of the world--we just don't live it to such an extreme degree. The kids loved climbing in the Amish buggies at the farm and taking photos. We also loved the Amish schoolhouse--a one-room school house for all ages. The desks started very small in front and then got bigger and bigger as you moved back. It was a beautiful sunny day and fun to walk around and see the animals.

Next, we drove to neighboring Intercourse, PA--I know, I know--Dan had a great time making wise cracks. It is a small Amish town with quaint little shops, so we just walked around and window shopped. Our noses lead us to some amazing kettle corn--hot, fresh and so yummy. I made sure I bought enough to last the whole trip!

The kids were anxious to get to the hotel and swim. We checked into the Doubletree hotel around 4:00 PM. The swimming pool was a whole water playground and the both the big kids and the little kids loved splashing around.

We started the next day with a nutritious breakfast at McDonalds! Ethan and Sydney were so excited to find out that McDonalds serves pancakes. Of course, Syd managed to spill syrup all over her pants and jacket--oh well!

We drove a short distance to Strasburg and visited the Pennsylvania Railroad Museum. Open since 1974, the museum is a huge warehouse of actual trains, engines, and locomotives that traveled the rails in the past century. Many of the cars were restored to see what it would be like to travel in the dining car or in the sleeper car. A real engineer was there to show us how to drive the train and what all of the levers and gears were for--don't quiz me on this! We did try our driving skills on the impressive assortment of model trains housed in the education center. Each one had multi-step instructions for hooking up certain cars and switching the rails to arrive at different points. The education center also housed any train "toy" ever made--Thomas, Geo-trax, Lego--they were all there to play with. We practically had the museum to ourselves so the kids were so lucky to get their hands on everything. I say "kids" but I think Dan was the hardest one to convince that it was time to move on!

We walked across the street and purchased our tickets to ride the Strasburg Railroad: a real steam engine locomotive. The ride lasted about 45 minutes through the countryside of Lancaster, County. The train was a bit jerky and bouncy, but that just added to the enjoyment. Train travel seems like such an old-fashioned way to travel, but it's only been in the last 50 years that trains have been mostly replaced with airplanes and cars!

We found a sandwich shop close by that actually served excellent sandwiches and wraps--they even offered gluten-free flat bread for me. Yea! We stuffed ourselves with sandwiches, pickles, carrot sticks, chips, ice cream sundaes and peanut-butter pie before beginning the 3-hour journey home!