The weekend getaway...

mini style!
We had a one night getaway to DC for our anniversary this year.  Our actual anniversary isn't until March 11th, but Bryant will be heading out of town later this week for warmer weather and won't be returning until the weekend of our anniversary.  So, we sent the kids to Adam and Dana's, and we were off to downtown. Our mini getaway was complete with dinner, a hotel, Jim Gaffigan tickets, and brunch in the morning.

... one of these years we want to go on a cruise, or Puerto Rico, Bahamas, you know the honeymoon we never had.    But, for now that's just kind of hard with 3 kids.  So, we'll save those trips for once the kids are older.  And for now we'll keep planning our summer vacation with the kids this year to Disney World.

Stories of my life...

Sunday:  We get in the van, Bryant looks at me and says, "Just so you know, I'm not going to make it home without eating.".  This immediately brought back the memory of me just an hour earlier, leaning into Bryant and whispering in his ear, "my stomach is eating my back".  Well, he claims he needs to eat and I claim that we are not eating at McDonalds.  That's all it took, that one little word; McDonalds, and the kids knew we were eating out for lunch.  They randomly start shouting restaurant names.  Then comes the chant, started by Gracie... "Funnruckers, Funnruckers, Funnruckers!!".  We give Gracie a goofy look and she says, "what?! it's Funnruckers cause it's fun!".  "No Gracie it's not FuNNrukers, it's FuDDruckers.".  "It's still Fun!".  Yes it is, and it's lunch too.

Monday:  (bed time) Bryant is giving Eli a bath and I am with the other two in Gracie's room.

Nathan: "Gracie!! you're missing a toe!!"

Gracie: "what?!  no I'm not."

Nathan: "yes you are! You're missing a toe!!"

Gracie: "mom, am I missing a toe?"

Me: " I don't know, count them.  Do you have six?"

Gracie: "1, 2, 3, 4...." pause, "1, 2, 3, 4... I have 5!"

Me: "check the other foot"

Gracie: "1, 2, 3, 4, .... 5 on that foot too!"

Me: " well, then I guess you're missing a toe on both feet."

Nathan: "see!!"

Gracie: (runs into daddy and begins counting her toes for him)

Bryant: "Gracie, count my toes."

Gracie: "1, 2, 3, 4, 5"

Me: "mommy was just joking, everyone has 5 toes silly!"

Happy Valentine's Day!!

Today our day was filled with cards, flowers, chocolate, candy and yummy food.

This was the box that mommy made for Gracie's Valentine exchange at preschool.  We also used it today for our family Valentine box.

Gracie was very excited to see that a delivery had arrived on the back porch.

The family Valentine's included cards, chocolates, t-shirts and .....

...for Miss Gracie, flowers from Dad.

And flowers for mom.

Dinner was delicious.  We had Balsamic Pork Scallopini, and there are no pictures of that.... we devoured it too quickly.  But, this most wonderful creation is Red Velvet Cheesecake Brownies.  And let just say, that I had 3.

Happy Valentine's Day!

We're just having some fun here...

So, I know it's been like 10 days since I last posted.  But, hey, I'm here now!  Last Saturday it was fairly nice outside.... well, nice enough to play ball.  Eli was so wishing that he could get in on the fun too!  But, he had to watch from the distance, on his stool.  The same stool that has been carried around the house this past week being used as a prop to get up onto anything that he wants to.  That's right, Eli is carrying the stool around the house and successfully climbing on the dining room chairs so that, like today, he can perform science experiments about the volume of water in a cup while being transferred to another cup... all while mommy is making dinner.  Oh, and the volumes in his experiment did not prove to be equal.

 

And yesterday.... exactly 7 days from the ball playing pictures above.... it 

 was freezing outside and very windy.  Definitely not a  ball playing kind of day!

So, we ordered pizza (sorry pizza delivery man that you had to come out in that yucky weather) and played games.  Yahtzee and Guess What I Am?.  It was very fun and very different from our normal Saturday routine.... home made pizza and a  movie.



Have a great week!! I'll try to post again before next weekend!!

Mount Vernon Estate...

On Monday, the kids had a Teacher Work Day.  So, we headed to Mount Vernon, literally just up the road.  Driving time from my garage to the parking lot: 10 minutes.  They had such a good time and couldn't stop going on and on about it to Bryant at supper that night.  I'm not sure what exactly was our favorite thing there, we enjoyed all of it.  But, mostly we enjoyed being in (what felt like) the country side, back in time.  Not to mention the tourists level is very low this time of year... which meant our own personal tour of the  mansion, nobody but me and the kids.  It rocked.

We loved the museum, the mansion, the view of the Potomac River, and the grounds.

This was George Washington's original place of burial.

Then he was moved here along with his wife to another site on the grounds specific to his desires in his will.

The kids has fun completing the Kids Adventure Map.  At the end of finding and solving all 9 puzzles, they received a souvenir token.

This is at the Slave Memorial.  All slaves that worked on this estate where also buried here.

And Eli has had enough.  He soaked up some history and then pleasantly dreamed about days when life was simpler.

Daddy's away...

Bryant is away with work and we can not wait for him to get back!  Since he's been gone things have been going well and happily he will return in just a few days. 

On Monday, a contractor came to fix some floorboards and the kids (Eli in particular) were happy to watch him work his saw outside.

Skype.  It is wonderful.  There is a 3 hour time difference between us and Bryant so talking on the phone and Skyping is rather difficult.  But, just this morning Eli and I got to talk with Daddy on Skype.  Eli couldn't stop giving Daddy kisses and I can only imagine how excited he will be when Bryant comes home.  Just this morning Bryant was looking at his itinerary and discovered that he is coming home a day sooner then we thought.  We decided to not tell the kids, they will be so surprised!!  I told him that he shouldn't have told me either, and then he could have surprised me too... but then he would have been surprised when all he was eating for dinner was leftovers that night!!



The bookworm...

I never enjoy walking into a room and finding things have been dumped out.  Whether it is toys, laundry, or books it doesn't matter, it is one of the not so fun moments of being a parent.

This is what was occurring yesterday morning while I was making breakfast.  No, it doesn't take me long to make breakfast... just about as long as it takes to empty a book shelf.

The culprit?  Well, at first I believed it was Gracie.  She has been known to remove books from the book shelf and sit at the table pretending she's a librarian.  But, these books were not neatly removed... they were Eli removed.

He is the bookworm.