Three Day Trip to D.C.

 Danny had a conference in D.C. last week, so we tagged along.  I planned out 3 days of non-stop fun (well, the girls may question the walking part as being fun).  We were so lucky to have our hotel right behind the White House, so that was our first stop. I personally, like the front better than the back, but they had cranes out fixing something, so this was our best shot. 

 Next stop, American History Museum and Natural History Museum.  We loved the ruby slippers, Kermit the Frog, the Star Spangled Banner, the First Ladies dresses, the trains, and the super hero drawing wall in the History Museum.  At the NHM, we went into the Butterfly Pavilion. It was so much fun!  Here's Anabelle with a butterfly on her head and one landed on Elise's hand.  I had a photo of one on my foot, but who wants to look at that...haha. 

That's one big shark!!!

Future presidents...haha

On our way to the carousel.  Love the poses.  That's my girls!

These sculptures were awesome.  Here's Sadie with her monkey :0).  This was right after the girls got in trouble for touching the water in the fountain.  A screeching whistle blew from out of no where and two security guards yelled, "Get out of the water!!!!!!!"  Yes..that's my girls, too.

After the sculptures, we hit the Air & Space Museum.  Honestly, it's never been a favorite of mine.  I tried to keep up my enthusiasm especially at the Apollo 11, but they were done with museums.  I'm glad we went, but maybe I pushed them too far.  Their feet were aching and we had a long way back. So since we couldn't touch the water at the first fountain, we searched for one we could touch.  Ahhhh...this was a perfect spot to cool off and enjoy the sites.  It was the National Sculpture Garden.  It was a big circular fountain with awesome sculptures around it. 

The next day, we took at cab to the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. This was their first cab experience and I think they were a little freaked out. At one point, I was sitting in the front and the driver started yelling in a different language.  I said, "Excuse me?"  with no answer from him and turned around to the girls who had a look of fear on their faces.   I can only guess he had a blue tooth on the ear we couldn't see and he was talking to someone on the phone.  If not, he may have been a little unstable...haha.  Thankfully, we arrived safely to our destination.  Here are the girls with 1,000,000 bucks! 

It was definitely interesting to see paper money being made and it was free!  Look...Sadie is worth over a million dollars...haha.

After our tour, we headed to the memorials.  Washington Monument, World War II Memorial (which I really enjoyed), and then the long walk to the Lincoln Memorial. 

We made it!  We were sad though because the reflection pool was under construction.  We definitely could have used a little cooling off again.

Now here's where the grumbling started.  It was getting hot, the girls were getting tired, yet they wanted to see Franklin Roosevelt's Memorial with the waterfalls (I think they thought they could climb in).  Here they are at Martin Luther King's Memorial...almost there. 

Thankfully, we could take the path in the shade along the Tidal Basin with lots of puddles for them to jump over.  We made it, but getting wet was out of the question (I did let them put their hands in when no one was looking). As you can see, they liked Franklin's little dog the most.

We can't forget Eleanor!

Beautiful!  Notice Elise's position on the stones...as close as she could get to the falls.  She wanted to move to the wet stone right in the middle, but I told her no. 

Here's the only picture of me with the girls.  Yes...I was with them the whole time I promise :0).

Now this is where it got ugly.  We had to walk all the way back to our hotel which was on 16th & K (behind the White House).  That's a good distance from the Tidal Basin.  So the complaining began.  The the crying began.  Then the fear of fainting began.  By the time we reached the Washington Monument, I was forcing them to drink water and keep moving. We found a clump of trees and collapsed.  Our goal was to get to the American History Museum for lunch which was right across the street.  After a much needed break, we made it.  Pizza was in their bellies and they were ready to go.  On our way back, we hit the National Aquarium.  The girls really liked the crocodiles and the octopus.  Then we walked 7 blocks or so, took a wrong turn, figured out the right direction, and made it to the hotel.  All of us had blisters.  We decided to soak our feel in a nice cool bath.  Ahhh...  Here are the girls after the walk.  They were ready for bed!

Last day!  We only had a few hours, so we decided to go to Ford's Theatre.  It was incredible!  I was worried it would be a little morbid for the girls, but it's a part of history and they seemed okay with it.  Even the gun used to assassinate Lincoln.

So here they are with Lincoln and the close he wore the night he was killed (they're still smiling).  I found the pillow displayed with his blood to be a little creepy. 

After touring the museum downstairs, we went into the theater.  Wow.  We sat right next to the presidential box where he was shot and listened to a ranger tell the story of that night. 

After our tour of the house Lincoln died in across the street, we walked back to the hotel and headed home.  This was the most I've ever done in D.C.!  I hope the girls will remember it~

 

Color Me Rad!

Here's what I did today!  A Color Me Rad 5k Race in Richmond.  Here's my friend Julie & I before....(white shirts required)

A sea of white at the start...

 And then the finish.  It was SOOOO much fun!!!

 If a Color Me Rad race comes to your area...you have to do it!  They give you color bombs (dyed cornstarch in bags) to throw at each other and as you run and there are stations that douse you in color.  They also have people standing along the race squirting you with some form of liquid color in a weed killer backpack mechanism.   The only not so fun part was washing it off.  I had to take a 45 minute shower and used half a bar of soap :0).

Elise's 9th Birthday!

 I can't believe I never posted about Elise's birthday!  Sadly, Elise had to go to school on her bday and take the SOL test, but her mood lifted when she came home to find her long lost friend Boxy Dots hanging out in our garage to wish her a happy birthday.  You see...a few years ago, Elise found a baby turtle in the yard, named it Boxy Dots, and was extremely distraught when we told her she had to let it go.  While she was at school, I found a little turtle in the yard, put it in a box & told her Boxy Dots came back on her special day.  She was so excited, but later said, "Mom...I know it wasn't the real Boxy Dots."  It still made her happy though.

 Here's Elise with her big gift...a real microscope! 

 On the weekend after her bday, we had a little Camp Out sleepover party to celebrate.

 The girls had a great time eating hot dogs in the tent...

 shooting marshmallows at Elise with our homemade marshmallow shooters...

 going on a scavenger hunt around the lake...

making smores, and catching fireflies.  They finished the evening by painting canvas bags, watching the Judy Moody Summer Movie, and sleeping out in the attic (we decided a tent might be too much for girls who weren't used to sleeping out).  It was a fun celebration for a super fun girl.  Elise...we love you so much and we're so glad you're a part of our family.  You are such a determined hard working girl with an adventurous spirit.  I hope you never lose that :0).  Love you XO

What's That?? Why it's a Crusin' Cooler!

So some of you have heard about the Crusin' Cooler that Danny won at a golf tournament.  I thought I'd show you a glimpse of it.  It's definitely the talk of our pool and everyone wants one.  Danny thought about selling it, but the kids would be devastated.  I guess it's now a permanent furniture piece in our office...yay!  Can you sense my sarcasim?  I'm just hoping we don't have any trips to the emergency room because of it. 

Heat Winners!

Here are videos of Anabelle winning in freestyle and Elise winning in backstroke.  Anabelle shaved 12 seconds off her original best!!

In this video Elise placed 1st in the entire county for backstroke out of 375 kids!!!  If she can shave 1 second off her time, she'll beat the county's record for 8 and under backstroke!  In Elise's video you'll hear people yelling for Anabelle...it's actually another Anabelle in the neighborhood, not ours :0).

  Sadie also did well and improved in her stroke times, but preferred hanging out with her buddy the most :0).

Three Hammerheads

The girls had their first Hampton Park Hammerhead swim meet today after two LONG weeks of practice.  Four days each week, we spend 2 1/2 hours at the pool...hence "long".  The girls haven't complained and have actually been sad when it's been delayed because of thunder. So, the fact that they are enjoying it makes it worth it. I am looking forward to summer when we don't have to juggle piano, homework, and church activities on top of swim practice.  The only downside is having to get up at 7:15 to get them to the pool...not fun! 
But...back to today.  Our morning started out at 6:15 and our first event was at 8:00.  Despite our grumpy start, we perked up quickly after arriving to the pool surrounded by our neighbors & friends.  Everyone was so excited and the energy was extremely positive.  I wasn't prepared for the chaos of meet sheets, sharpies, and mites, but figured it all out pretty quickly.  Within minutes of arriving, a friend said Elise was in the first event which was a relay.  So....we got her to her group and waited for her to swim.  Our morning of shuffling our girls here in there for freestyle, backstroke, and even butterfly didn't end for three hours.  We were all pretty exhausted, but had so much fun (well, once Danny started sweating the fun started going downhill :0)).  The girls did such an AWESOME job!!!!!!  Anabelle won 2nd and 3rd place for butterfly and backstroke.  Elise won 1st in backstroke and Sadie won 1st in backstroke! All qualified for silver or bronze, so we might be going to champs in July (I'm still trying to figure out how this whole thing works). We definitely have some serious backstrokers in our family!  Danny and I are so proud of our girls.  All of them handled the pressure well and applied all of the skills their coaches have taught them with each event.  I was simply beaming! 
So...one meet down, five more to go :0)!  Here are some pictures from the day~

 Eat my bubbles was the theme of the day :0).

 Anabelle after her butterfly event & sporting her new swim cap.

 Danny & Elise with her first place ribbon.

 Sadie on the block & ready.

Elise on the block & ready!
Go Hammerheads!

Kindergarten Word Wall Ball

 Sadie had her Word Wall Ball a few weeks ago where all of the kindergarteners celebrate learning their required list of word wall words.  Sadie was SO excited!

 Here she is with her teacher, Mrs Handzel all dressed up for the occasion.

Here she is with her dance partner Chase.  I asked if I could take her picture with him and they instinctively held hands!  How sweet is that?

Here's a little of Sadie's dancing moves.