The Alexandria Farmer's Market

While we were in Alexandria,VA this weekend, the kids and I went with Cathy to the farmer's market they hold every Saturday morning in the town square.

We picked up fresh squeezed orange juice, blue berry muffins, lemon poppy seed muffins and cinnamon bread.  Breakfast never tasted fresher! 

And while we were at the market, I snapped these shots.

Is that a swoosh on my forehead?

Whew!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving Day in beautiful Hickory, NC with my mom's side of the family.  At the end of the day, my  mom  said, "That was a really nice day, wasn't it?"  And I couldn't have agreed more.

After we got home Thursday evening we put up the Christmas tree and packed our bags.

We got up Friday morning and made the six hour trip to Washington, DC to my sister-in-law's house.  She was bringing my father-in-law down with her from Massachusetts.

On Saturday, after a trip to the Alexandria Farmer's Market, we headed to the outdoor ice skating rink in Washington and let the kids try ice skating for the first time.  I got lots of pictures but would have been happier with them if all of those other people that I don't know weren't in them all.

How dare other people be at a public ice skating rink when I am trying to take pictures of my children????

Well, I guess that's what the crop function in Picassa is for!

We came home on Sunday with a very special passenger!  My 92-year-old father-in-law (Grampa, as we like to call him) will be staying with us until Christmas - maybe longer if he can put up with us!

That's what we've been up to.  And now it's back to the normal grind.  I've already been to the Walmarts and the dump.  I'm in the middle of a large mountain of laundry.  And Peter needs a haircut and then we have lots of homework.  And then it's Scouts and basketball practice.

Oh, and I keep forgetting - I really need to start Christmas shopping now that Peter's birthday and Thanksgiving have come and gone.  Oh, how I love to use Peter's birthday and Thanksgiving as excuses to put off Christmas shopping.  Oh, how I don't enjoy Christmas shopping. 

But y'all December is in 2 days.  TWO DAYS!

Deep breath.

No more excuses.  Just do it. 

(When did I become a Nike ad?)

Spoiled and blessed.

Can you believe that I am 42 years old and I have never cooked an entire Thanksgiving dinner? 

My mom and grandmother have always taken care of that in the past. I have brought side dishes but I have never done the whole enchilada.

And this year, we are going to my aunt's house and she and my cousin and my cousin-in-law are taking care of the entire meal so I don't even have to bring a side dish.

I am feeling a little spoiled right now.  And blessed!

Enjoy your special day with your people and good luck if you are in charge of the turkey.

I'll leave you with one of my all time favorite Bible verses:

¹⁶ Rejoice always, ¹⁷ pray continually, ¹⁸ give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. 

- 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

Jenga! Jenga! Jenga!

We had some time before time to put the kids to bed the other night so we decided to play Jenga.

I love Jenga.  It is very simple, little kids can play, and because it is relatively fast moving, it doesn't bore me.  But mostly I like it because there aren't a lot of rules to keep up with. 

We had lots of family fun until the very end. Because ,of course, there was a winner and a loser.  There were accusations of taunting and of gloating. There were raised voices and hot tears.

And then it was bedtime.  And lucky for the kids, because if it wasn't already bedtime, it would have been early bedtime.

And now Peter knows more about Arkansas than I do.

I loved Peter's October project because it was done entirely at school.

At the beginning of October, the kids in Peter's class paired up and drew names of states.  Peter and Daniel worked together on Arkansas.  They researched the state in the library and online and then worked together to create a Power Point presentation.

Yesterday, they got to present their information to the class and to any of the parents that were able to come.
My mom and I were there with bells on!  Grandma doesn't like to miss anything that involves her grand babies!

Peter's teacher requires each of the kids to make a presentation to the class with each of their monthly projects.  I remember first giving presentations in middle school and I hated it.  I was always so nervous. 

I've always hated public speaking and I still do to this day. I wonder if I had been required to do oral presentations in elementary school if things would be different.  

Here's my sweet little man before the presentation:

Here he is during his presentation:

He spoke loudly, clearly and didn't mispronounce anything he was trying to say.  Great job, little buddy!

Imagination Station

The kids got out of school early on Thursday and were out on Friday for teacher conferences and all I can say is "I can't believe it's Monday already!"

The conferences went well.  Both kids are doing great at their new school.  Peter is "very intelligent" but needs to "focus a little more" and "talk a little less".  All of these were things I knew.

Sarah is "curious" and "keeps the teacher laughing".  Apparently Sarah asks her teacher questions all day long...like starting even before school starts!  What?  That's interesting.  I never would have guessed that! 

The teacher said she didn't mind and that she likes to joke with Sarah about her curiosity.  Hopefully curiosity doesn't kill the cat!

When I got up on Saturday morning, there was an email from the mom of one of Sarah's classmates.  She was asking if Sarah and 2 other girls from the class would come for a sleepover - that night.  THAT NIGHT! 

Who invites someone they don't know for a sleepover THAT SAME NIGHT?!  I declined on the sleepover, Sarah had ball practice that night anyway and I don't know this family yet.  But they did say that if the little girls couldn't make it for the sleepover THAT SAME NIGHT, they were also invited on Sunday afternoon to a party at Celebration Station.

Sarah had been talking all week about being invited to a party at Imagination Station so I assumed this is what she was referring to.  I knew she really wanted to go and since we had a good 24 hours lead time on this party, I let her go. 

Although at first, I didn't want to let her go, partially because I figured we were being invited last minute because someone else who was invited several weeks ago had to back out at the last minute.

But in the end, I'm glad I let her go because she had a blast.  She went on an on about all the fun things they did which led to Peter getting upset because all he got to do was "spend the whole afternoon at home with mom and dad" and "why does Sarah get to go to all the fun parties"?

To which I can only answer, "I don't know.  Maybe it's because she's curious and keeps the teacher laughing?"

Way too old...

The kids and I got our flu shots yesterday.  Our doctor's office runs a flu clinic 3 times in the fall.  We first got flu shots two years ago when I was working at the preschool.  I just KNEW I would get the flu if I didn't get a shot so we all got flu shots and none of us got the flu.

Last year, it was the middle of November and I called to make Peter's well check appointment and to make flu shot appointments and they said, "We've already done our clinics and we have no more shots."   I  tried to get the kid's flu shots at Walgreens but apparently only doctor's offices can give the flu shots to people under 18 so we ended up not getting flu shots.

And Sarah got the flu.

It was horrible.  She was miserable.  She missed a week of school.  Then it snowed and the kids missed another week of school and then I was miserable.

So I called in October this year to get an appointment and got one of the last spots in the last clinic they were offering.  I guess next year I need to call for flu shots in August

Anyway, we went yesterday and I have to say, my kids can put on quite a show.

The clinic is always held in the waiting room. You just go to a nurse who has your chart, sign a form and get your shot  right there in the waiting room.

Two years ago, the waiting room was packed.  My kids took their shots like men, so to speak, and other than a few quiet tears from Sarah, there were no histrionics.

This year, however, we got there and the waiting room was empty.

So Peter decided to see how much he could get away with. There was whining, there was complaining and a couple of times there was even turning and walking away from the nurse right as she was getting ready to stick him. 

When it was Sarah's turn, she did everything she saw Peter do and finally when she got the shot she screamed, "OOOOOOOOUUUUUUUUUUUCCCCCCCCCCHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

I apologized multiple times to the nurse who assured me that she had been a pediatric nurse for 8 years and had seen it all.

That may be the case, but I know that she was thinking a 7-year-old and a 9-year-old are waaaaaay to big to be acting like that.

Because that's what I was thinking.

Red.

The sun was setting and was casting a reddish glow over the trees and grass. I tried to capture it but I didn't quite get it...

 

So I opened the shutter (I think!) and got this...

Smores in the chiminea.

Saturday night after dinner, my husband fired up our chiminea and we made smores.

Well, tried to make them is more like it.  We wrapped them up in tinfoil and laid the in the fire but they got a little too done.  Dan and I decided that we need to use two layers of tinfoil.

When the smores didn't work we switched to marshmallows so the kids didn't mind.

I took quite a few pictures on Auto that looked like this:

 And then I switched something and turned something and it looked like this:

I liked the way that looked so I left it that way and we took a few more pictures.

I really do need to figure out what I'm doing. It's fun playing around though!