Open gym

Molly doing a vault last night at open gym. I was less than thrilled that the team girls basically got the entire gym and the other girls had to wander to wherever they weren't. :(

Pre-K heads to Nirchis!

Molly's UPK class went on a field trip to Nirchi's Pizza in Owego, a restaurant owned by one of her classmate's parents. Before they even arrived, the field trip was a hit! Who wouldn't want to go to a pizza joint??

Carson and Molly, working on their placemats

Molly showing off her work in progress, it ended up having lots of flowers, a butterfly, a thermometer and some snowflakes

Joseph and Molly pose with their creations

Waiting for their respective turns to head into the kitchen and make their pizzas, the kids are entranced by a story called, what else, Pizza Party!!!

Molly starting her pizza, where cheese was the main feature. I mean, have you ever seen a tub of shredded cheese THAT BIG????

More cheesey goodness

Pepperoni makes an appearance
Finally eating the finished product!!!!

Happy with Elizabeth, each stuffing huge bites in their mouths

Dante and Molly. Dante's parents own the restaurant and welcomed the madness!!!

Saturday in Arlington

Saturday morning, we were all starting to hate Bobbi's classes and finals, but no one as much as Bobbi. She had until midnight to finish everything and there was SOOOOOOOO much left to do. Wendy and I decided to spend the day in D.C. and do something that would make us (look) smarter. We opted to head to the Museum of American History. We went there last year with the kids during the inauguration, but, given the crowds then, we didn't see much at all. After a lot of fun there during the afternoon, we then met our friends Kate and Rob, who now also live in Arlington, but not really near Wendy. Had a few drinks with them at a bar in Pentagon Row name Sine (there should be an accent mark over the e, but I can't figure that out), then went out to dinner at a cool Lebanese restaurant.

Lin and Dino at the Smithsonian metro stop

Dino bravely climbed up the side of the Washington Monument

At the Museum of American History, Julia Child's kitchen, all of her personal items, donated to the Smithsonian for everyone to enjoy

This captures her theme for life, cooking and eating

A cool display of vintage lunchboxes in the cafeteria of the museum included this Star Wars one
The original Kermit the Frog puppet

Dino riding on the metro, who knows what the guy next to him thought as I did this
Kate, Lin, Rob, at Sine for a few drinks Saturday night in Pentagon Row

Lin and Kate

Kate and Rob
Wendy and Lin
Kate and Rob, with Dino!
Dino at the metro

Friday in Arlington

Friday, Bobbi had to spend all day working, working, working, so Wendy and I decided to head out on some errands. Since Bobbi doesn't like Moe's, we decided to go their first and get something to eat. As you can tell, Dino went along with us as well. What you can't tell is that we then went to get Wendy's birthday present from me (a food processor for her to make her own hummus at home), then we headed over to the Wegmans in search for peppermint syrup for my coffee. Sniff, sniff, I just used the last little bit I had today. Ugh, they didn't have it there either, but since this is Virginia, they sell wine and beer in the grocery store and this Wegmans has a wine and appetizer bar in the grocery store!!! We decided that we HAD to have a glass of wine, so we sat there, ordered the Finger Lakes Reisling, and chatted with our server, who happens to be from New York as well. Small world, lovely half hour sitting there, but we pushed on and finished our errands which included getting all the ingredients for the hummus Wendy was going to make AND for the pizza we were going to eat for dinner. I don't know why, but I took a LOT of pictures of Bobbi putting all the toppings on the pizza, but my favorite was of her dumping the entire bag of cheese on :) And no visit is complete without me dominating Claire for a few minutes!

Arrival in Arlington

After delays and cancellations of my flights to Dulles, I arrived in D.C. late Thursday afternoon and met Wendy and Bobbi (Wendy's sister) at the airport. Since I was to have arrived right around lunchtime, neither of them had eaten, so we stopped at the nearest place on the way from the airport, which was an Olive Garden (yum-o salad!) and sat and talked for a bit while they had a late lunch, well, it was almost dinner actually. Bobbi had brought Benny's cousin, so he hung out with us too. Then after a quick trip to Target to get a few things, we made our way back to Wendy's apartment, where Bobbi immediately got back to work to finish her papers and exams, the last of which she needs to complete to earn her B.S. degree!!! Bobbi also had Dino with her (any of you remember Dino? Bobbi took him all over Iraq when she was deployed in 2008) so he helped her out by sitting on the computer desk, sneaking her the answers. Jake and Claire (Wendy's cats) were happy to see us return, and Jake quickly snuggled up with the stuffed animals the kids sent along with me, so that I wouldn't be lonely when I went to bed at night.

My children made me breakfast!

This morning as my children were clamoring for breakfast, I turned the tables on them and asked 'why don't you make ME breakfast today?' to which they replied, 'ok'. So, here is what we had for breakfast and a picture of the two children that prepared it. Actually, it was very yummy!!!

Cinnamon toast, bananas with raisins, and carrots with hummus.

Proud of their accomplishment!!

Happy Campers

I decided that the kids needed a change, something new and fun. What better than to get out the huge honking camping tent (that has never been used outside, mind you!) and set it up for the kids to go camping!! They have all been 'explorers' lately, laden down with their flashlights, keys, binoculars, wallets, and calculators. (Not sure about those last two, but whatever, they are happy!!) They squealed with delight when we set up the tent, then immediately went to fetch their sleeping bags, blankets, pillows, books and camping lantern. Dave then decided that they needed a campy lunch, so they had veggies, dip, hummus, fruit, crackers and juice boxes. I tell you, you've never seen a more contented crowd!! Dave then got out his guitar and played some camping tunes. Does 'I shot the Sheriff' count as a camp song?? And of course, you can't go camping without your faithful camp dog.

Crash's first bath inside

Today, Crash had his first real bath (he had one when he was very young, but it was out of desperation as he was covered in sh**) and I am not sure who got more out of it, Crash or the kids! The pictures chronicle the entire episode.

Caleb in his bathing suit, getting all in the groove!! (The kids LOVED the fact that they wore their bathing suits, in January no less!!)

Crash before he realizes what is about to befall him.

Potter getting into a good vantage point!

Hundreds of hands, scrubbing, washing, rinsing, it was a flurry of motion.

A good ariel shot of what was happening. To our credit, Crash only escaped once out of the tub!

'Please, someone get me out of here. Hey, you, buddy with the camera........'

Me, now that we are almost done washing. I was wetter than the dog.

Gettin' a good shake goin' on!!!

The boys really didn't want to get out of the tub; that would signal that swimsuit time is over.

'Special' lunches

On the way home from UPK yesterday, Molly requested that I make a 'special' lunch. Knowing what was in the fridge, that was going to be a stretch!!! But, with a little creativity, I did come up with something neat that both she and Caleb loved! Then today, they asked for a repeat, so I had to do it again - oh the pressure to be supermom!!!!

This is actually today's (Friday's) lunch. This is what the scene is supposed to be:

The chicken nugget is the trunk of a tree with cucumber leaves. The black olives are a caterpillar on the ground, the pretzel is a butterfly and the cheese acts as both clouds, and a sun with carrot sunbeams.

This is Thursday's lunch:

Black olives serving as dirt, cucumber sticks acting as both grass and flower stems, ham as the 'tulips' atop the stems, cheese acting as snow on the spring ground, with rainbow rotini acting as, well, a rainbow.