Weekend

Matt worked navy make-up Thursday and his cws Friday, then again all weekend. Lots of days with no daddy, we are glad he is home.

We got up on Saturday and made rice crispy treats and put on our matching skirts from Ghana.

When grandpa brought these from Africa the girls were swimming in them. Now they fit perfectly and they looked so sharp!

Now all three of these girls have been baptized. It's been a big year for them!

That afternoon was Abby's birthday party at the shoeny's pool. It was fun.

I didn't get in the water because a. I'm a wet pool blanket (ocean all day, pool, not so much) and b. we had a dinner to go to that night.

They swam, slipped and slided, and ate pizza and turtle cupcakes.

And between the baptism and the party I spent another hour on the phone with Verizon. My final credit tally (even though they tried to take away the first credit they gave me) was $179. Rotten, dirty sucks. The sad part is that I'm quite certain metrocast, or any other company for that matter, wouldn't be any better. It's a sad state of affairs.

That night was a couples dinner for Tracie and mike's birthday. We went to Silver Skewers in Waldorf and it was sooo good. There were just enough people there that we could all talk, and the service and food were so excellent.

I got a rib eye that melted in my mouth. Seriously delish.

I rode up with Lisa and Richard, and Laura and David, and then met Matt there as he came straight from work. Then we rode home together. Happy times. (:

Today is September 11. Solemn day as we remember. We watched a documentary on the smithsonian and all the 9/11 items that had been donated and the stories behind them. This morning I showed the girls some of the news stories from that day. Frank's and lanes said "oh that's sad," and then were done. Addie has thought about it all day. It was unbelievable, it still is. I hope we as a country never go through something like that again. We'll never forget. 

21 Questions for Addie

The last in my "21 Questions" installments. It's only taken me 5 months to finish. Frankie's here and Laneys here. To hear my poor children you would think all any of us ever do is clean, talk about cleaning, yell about cleaning, and then clean some more. My house shows that none of those are true, but it does give me cause to wonder if we're talking/complaining about it too much? Or if somehow we can flip the script and emphasize all the other fun things we do that were not mentioned here at all. I see how these questions are more fun for the younger crew. I had high hopes for Addie, but turns out 8 year olds aren't always super introspective and thoughtful. Who knew?

1. What is something mommy always says to you?

"Clean up."

 

2. What makes mommy happy?  

"When we clean up."

 

3. What makes mommy sad?

"When we don't clean up."

 

4. How does mommy make you laugh?

 "If you wrote a movie you would make me laugh."

 

5. What was mommy like as a child?       

"You were 80's." upon further interrogating "Did they have cars back then?" (gave up)

 

 6. How old is mommy?

"37, no 38! Cause I knew I'm even and you were supposed to be even."

 

7. How tall is mommy?

"Skip. Uhhhh, about a few feet. A few yards. Three yards."

 

 8. What is mommy's favorite thing to do?

"Clean! Talk with your friends! I don't know. Yeah, talk with your friends."

 

9. What does mommy do when you're not around?

"Clean. Drive. PTA meetings. I don't know."

 

10. If mommy becomes famous, what will it be for?

 "The most clean of all houses."

 

11. What is mommy really good at?

 "Talking, yelling, I don't know.

 

------------------------- insert talking to here - maybe she's right, I am good at talking... -------------------

 

12. What is mommy not very good at?

"Kidnapping, even though you've never done that before." ???? I guess I should be grateful?

 

 13. What does mommy do for her job?

 "PTA." (anything else?) "No, not that I can think of?" maybe she thinks I get paid to PTA?

 

14. What is mommy's favorite food?

 "Diet coke." (not ever)

 

15. What makes you proud of mommy?

 "Having a nice mom." (except when I'm yelling, apparently, which I'm very good at)

 

 16. If mommy was a cartoon character, who would she be?

"A lighthouse keeper." (finally an answer I can dig)

 

 17. What do you and mommy do together?

"Movies". (anything else?) "Dates." (anything else?) "Going to school? Everything?" :/

 

 18. How are you and mommy the same?

"We both have brown hair, we're both girls, we both like to eat."  (can't argue that)

 

 19. How are you and mommy different?

"I like ramen, but you say it's not a meal, but it is a meal." (beg to differ)

 

 20. How do you know mommy loves you?

"You let us watch tv, you kiss, hug, everything."

 

 21. Where is mommy's favorite place to go?

"Lighthouses and home."

Cherry blossoms

After the White House, we stayed and walked around the cherry blossoms. We were after peak bloom, but it was still breathtakingly beautiful.

And it wasn't crowded at all, so it was super nice.

Girls picture of us. Cut off the top of the monument.

And the gang.

It was finally clearing up, so we had to carry all of our rain gear, and also walk all day with no stroller, with very tired girls, so that was drama-rama.

But we survived.

And took lots and lots of pictures.

Lots on the nice camera too.

This little leaf/flower thrower was in heaven.

Goose.

The girls really wanted to paddle boat around the tidal basin, but only 4 people are allowed so I let Matt choose if he wanted to stay on land alone or take the girls out.

 He chose to take the girls out.

There were tons of missionaries there for P day, and our mission Pres and wife were there. They recognized Matt and girls, and took this picture and sent it to him. They commented on what a good dad he was and told their missionaries to be like him, or to marry someone like him. He's a keeper for sure. 

While I meandered the beautiful trees and cute shops. It was a nice day. 

And because we'd arrived when it was still dark I forgot my sunglasses. I have the worlds wimpiest eyes, so I had to go buy an awesome pair of cherry blossom shades. And I rocked them. 

The walking back to our car part of our day was not fun. D was done. We were all done. And hungry too. We pushed through the pain and stopped at chicfila, of all places. It was an experience for sure! Overall good and wouldn't trade it for the world, even though the actual doing wasn't the most fun ever. But that is a lot of life.

And one more White House shot for good measure.

Kanye

We are working our way into a routine. Of course, after school activities start next week and then all bets are off. And Addie is starting the teen photo dodge early.

I try to keep my after school time clear to spend time with the school-goers.

The silly, silly school-goers.

We've been doing something together as soon as they get home. A game, puzzle, craft, just something together for a few minutes where we can talk and they can unwind.

This little chic still loves pre-k. Don't even think about calling it preschool though, because it is pre-k, thankyouverymuch.

She's a hard working lady. I'm dying to hear how she's doing at parent teacher conferences in a few weeks.

Chris was off on Wednesday and wanted to hang out. Awesome! I had two appointments in the morning, so he helped get Laney to school, and then we took our new 'yaks out. Thank you, dad!

I loved this mile marker in the middle of the bay. I'm thinking this marks the end of Macintosh Run, but we'll need to 'yak it to find out.

It was so fun being out there with my Bubba. We only had 2 hours total, so we didn't go far, but it was great.

Bubba with the waterproof phone took lots of pictures. I was too scared to get mine out.

Love this guy!

Last night Matt took franks to church with him and Chris watched ads and lanes so I could go to our PTA general membership meeting. It was so good! I presented the budget and it was approved. Our new board this year is fabulous. I really like the new vp's we have. And Mrs. Ramsey is such a great principal, she is supportive and a great leader. I am excited that our difficult first year is behind us and things are on the up and up! 'Twas a great meeting!

Chris and brenna decided to go to salsas, and they decided to take Laney with them. At first he'd texted me to see if he could drop her off with me. His text came through "can i drop Kanye off with with you?" Hahahahaha, I love autocorrect. And this little nerd alert.

Today I finally got my kid free day. I'm cleaning up and cleaning out and spent all day in the basement. I've got lots of stuff to get rid of and the basement looks great, so it was a good day! 

Chris went deep sea fishing with the crabknocker crew and brought home some mackerel and another fish I can't remember.

He had fun, and we're grilling up fresh fish tomorrow!

Today after school we did perler beads.

And I even ironed them together for them, which I don't always do.

And they got chores done, homemade dinner (just Mac and cheese, but it was made from scratch), homework, and books. The only thing we missed was piano, and since we haven't technically started yet, I don't feel too bad.

Tonight lexi and Cade are driving to Oregon to meet all of his family. They have a list of things they want to do together before they seriously think about marriage, and taking a road trip is one of them.

She wants him to come in October, so we shall see!

Labor Day

Darlaina set up a fun Labor Day swim party. We worked and cooked all morning, and headed over to the pool around 3.

It was a nice day, warm but not too hot, but the pool water was cold cold.

The kids swam pretty well. We all grilled meat and everyone had brought yummy side dishes to share.

We visited for hours and closed the pool down for another season.

Labor Day is always a nice little day off after our first few weeks of school. Big news for this next year though, Governor Hogan has signed a law that schools will start after Labor Day. We'll see how that goes. Not complaining, longer Summer's will be great, I'm just wondering how late we'll be at school in June.

Clearly I didn't take many pictures, but I did take this series, and I always think the jumping ones are fun.

The kids alternated from the pool to the park since it was so chilly in the water.

This is the summer that made Laney a swimmer. She's pretty awesome. She swims, pokes her head up, takes a breath, and swims some more. 

We already miss the pool. Especially since it's been in the 90's this week.

The girls love the water and we're at a point where I don't even have to get in. It's totes awesome. 

Matt did some flying with the girls.

Since we watched Parent Trap last weekend, they were dying to try this. They were pretty cute.

Aaand throw.

Another good pool season.