All at Once

We've got some stuff going on.

Ed's mom was here visiting last week. Tomorrow I leave for a long weekend in Utah (Hickman women bonding at Women's Conference.) Four days after I get back we leave for a British adventure, visiting Dave's family and some other touristing, including the most awesome ex-pat ex-mission companion ever in London. (So this is also a call for clever ways to keep kids occupied on a long trip.) And a week after we get back we close on our new house (here in Arlington, see picture above - it's yellow!; there will be a post about it eventually.)

Meanwhile trying to keep everyone fed and healthy, and the (current) house clean for potential renters to see. And, ahem, yes, lots of baking. So the blogging has fallen a notch or two on the Must-Do List, but I'll be back, here and there. Thanks for checking. Happy Spring.

We Make DC Look Good

We recently did a photo shoot of the girls with our favorite local photographer, Andrea Marie, in Georgetown.

Check them out on her blog. Be prepared to die.

Park Party

When it came to Hazel's birthday party this year I gave her two choices:

1. A small tea party with only a few girls, or
2. A big party at the park next door, and she could invite more kids.

I thought she'd at least have to think about it but there was no hesitation: PARK PARTY!
It was great to take advantage of living literally next door to a park. I figured it would be pretty easy because all the entertainment is taken care of; they just play at the park and we provide food and supervision. Which was mostly true. Of course there's the weather, and it's been an especially rainy spring this year. We only had to reschedule once and on the second try got a sunny, if blustery, day. There were no major injuries or problems beyond one friend from preschool who demonstrated her mortal terror of balloons by screaming bloody murder when she arrived. We quickly got rid of the balloon bouquets I had tied to the park entrance.

Activities were jump roping, sidewalk chalk, bubbles, soccer and "monster" with Ed.
Snacks were pretzels, strawberries, bananas, juice boxes and water bottles. Cupcake cones for the treat.

Goody bags contained 4 sidewalk chalks, a pencil and one candy-filled Easter egg.
Most parents dropped off but a few made the party a whole family thing and stayed with younger siblings to play and hang out. It was an awesome time, but I'm so glad we're done with birthdays for the year!

EBX09 Follow-Up

It has been another unbelievably fun and successful Easter basket exchange. Not to say it wasn't without its...anecdotes.

Totally unpredictable mail service rushed some baskets and dragged others. (I think the key is to send Priority Mail; I'll mention that in the instructions next year.) My friend Margaret opted out this year due to gestational diabetes so I jumped at the chance to make TWO baskets, and the challenge of making one for her (nearly) candy-free. My beading friend Shanna went to painstaking measures to create a cherry-blossom-ish bookmark for my cousin Celeste who misses the East. Sydney emailed me for Erin's coloring to get her accessories just right.

And I think the best was when I got a frantic phone call the Friday afternoon before Easter. Gabe had driven from Culpeper to Leesburg, VA (over an hour each way) to hand deliver her basket to Marie just so it would get there by Easter. No one had been home so she'd left it in the bushes and called me to call Marie to make sure she got it. I told her, "You know hand delivery was not required, right Gabe?" She answered seriously, "I didn't want to risk the chance of being kicked out of next year's exchange! I know you have the power to do that." She knows me well...

One theme I picked up on, that many of you mentioned in letters and emails, was that you (we) made a much nicer basket for our person than we ever would have for ourselves. What a great chance to treat and be treated. What an awesome atmosphere of fun gifting this exchange created!

See for yourself:


As for me, I've got to tell you about the basket I received. I admit, I manipulated the assignments. I've been missing New York a little so I assigned myself to my friend Emily in Brooklyn, and happened to mention a few things I wanted from there. She came through and then some. Cadbury mini eggs and creme eggs, the only milk chocolate treats I like, check. Smoked almonds - lots of them - from the Turkish store on 5th Ave in Bay Ridge, check. Some awesome beads, check. Chocolate covered pretzels, almond bark, and turtle candies from another store on 5th, check. YUM! And on top of all that, THREE BOOKS I've never heard of or read! Which is good because I really need to pull myself out of the Twilight series and move on with my literary life. THREE BOOKS that all look awesome and that obviously took some time to pick out.

And all my stuff was packed in amNewYork newspaper and used-up metro cards; I loved that touch. And I almost - almost - cried when I turned one of the metro cards over and saw a magic marker "A" on the back. Emily's husband's name is Adam. Ed and I used to do the same thing to distinguish his metro card from mine in the drawer by the front door. It took me back. Emily, you're awesome.

But aren't we all? I was pretty proud of the package I sent Sydney, too. Egg timer (who doesn't need one?), Penzey's spices, Lake Champlain bunny, Trader Joe's chocolates, cookie cutters, dish towel, handmade earrings & bookmark, lip gloss, note cards, shopping tote, and my latest CD mix. Truly a package I would love to receive. What can I say?

Thanks again to everyone for participating. See you back here again next year for EBX10!

Our Beautiful Easter Girls

Respect the Van

Seriously.

Easter Baskets

I look at making Easter baskets for the kids a lot like filling stockings. A little fun stuff, a little practical stuff, and a little candy - perfect! Last year I gave them tiny felt bags big enough to hold about 2-3 plastic eggs, and that was it. But this year I got sucked into the Easter aisles at Target and got them real baskets:
I've been collecting a few things here and there to put in them, but when my friend asked me last week what I'm putting in baskets, I realized I better get it all out and see if I have enough, or - more likely - too much stuff.

So in those same Target aisles I was happily surprised to see some toy-filled egg packs in addition to candy eggs. I know it's a marketing racket but I'm the target demographic and I liked them. They had Hot Wheels, Monster Trucks, My Little Pony, and Little People eggs to name a few. We love Little People at our house, so I got a pack of those:
For Christmas stockings last year each girl got a pack of Crayola twisty crayons and they really liked them, even used them up. And all our markers have been dried up for ages, so a couple of new packs of art supplies are always popular. Check out the flip-top markers - perfect for our "I-don't-know-what-happened-to-the-lid" family:
And no Easter is complete without little battery-operated light spinner things. We get them every year and they last a few months and then get broken and thrown away:
Now that we're starting to move out of tights season, the girls need dressy church socks - a perfect Easter basket filler:
And of course no Easter basket is complete without a pointless impulse buy from CVS. I opened it up and tested one - these Bunny Blasters can really shoot far! Guaranteed to get the pieces lost the same day, especially if you take them outside!
And while I don't favor the idea of loading my kids to the brim with sugar, a chocolate bunny is traditional. And if they're getting chocolate, it might as well be the good stuff. Train their palates early. I ordered a couple of these 3-inch dark chocolate "place setting" bunnies from Lake Champlain Chocolates in Vermont.
As I laid it all out and put it all together, everything fit perfectly. I'll probably also throw in an egg or two of jelly beans or maybe a Peep. I think they're nasty but the girls like them and we love Kevin Henkes' book, Owen's Marshmallow Chick, so maybe just for that.
Ed will just get a little bunny. It only hurts my feelings when I make him a basket that goes neglected, so we're all happier this way. And of course I've insured my own excellent basket via the exchange. It arrived yesterday but I'm waiting to open it until Sunday.

So I know this is probably too late to really help any of us, but maybe it can be a resource for next year. Other potential ideas of things that could go in a kid's basket:

• bubbles
• sunglasses
• small toys like Ponies/cars
• small bag snacks like goldfish/fruit snacks
• could line it with a new shirt or washcloth instead of plastic grass - I SO don't do plastic grass
• new toothbrush/toothpaste
• small bath toys (like duckies from World Market)
• packets of seeds with mini garden gloves/spade/watering can
• framed picture to put on their wall/dresser
• books
• sidewalk chalk/watercolors/art supplies
  
• a new special "quiet" toy for church (we have some of these Magnetic Fun sets and they are gems at church or on plane rides)
• videos (we are on a Dragon Tales kick here, and also love The Bedbug Bible Gang)
• music (love Justin Roberts)
• socks of course (little ones fit in eggs)
• band aids
• chapstick/lip balm
  

What other ideas do you have? What's going in your kids' and spouse's baskets this year?

We Wii

After I finished Breaking Dawn last week I was once again able to tear myself away from the house and participate in real world social interactions (though now, a week later, I am still trying to catch up on lost sleep.) My cousin Aaron and his wife Katy and super cutey son Reuben invited us over for a "sweet" Family Home Evening.

First, Katy, ex-supreme nursery leader, led a short lesson/discussion on what it means to be "sweet." We went around the circle and said something sweet about the person on our left. Then we moved to the table to frost and decorate a sweet treat - homemade red velvet cupcakes - yum!
Then we did a sweet activity - Wii! This activity was further evidence of our family's lag in technology. I had done one turn on a Wii once at a church activity; Ed had never done anything, and of course neither had the girls. Katy had gone to the trouble (it's actually her favorite part) to make each of our avatars ahead of time, so we were already in the system. First we helped the girls do skiing and soccer:


Ed and I also tried our hands but mostly did worse than the girls and at one point I was downright embarrassed, like I was back in high school gym class, completely athletically inept.

Then Aaron and Katy convinced Ed and I to do a little boxing. The competition was fierce, and all self-consciousness went out the window in our attempt to beat each other down.

It was super close but Ed did knock me out, and the only reason I couldn't get up is because the game is rigged. Now we'll just have to go back sometime so I can make it right. Thanks for a super fun night, Cummings!

Junkie

Crack
Crack with a remote control

Crack laced with heroin in Italy

Heroin crack with adrenaline and a diamond

Crack-heroin-crack layers dipped in caramel and double coated with Jacques Torres chocolate, which also contains crack

And that's all I'm going to say about that...

for now.

Happy 4th

Some people say it goes fast. And it does in a way - they grow and change so quickly it's amazing to behold. But in another way it slows the passage of time down to a crawl. It feels like we've been parents forever, or at least longer than four years. And it all started with her:

Hazel turned 4 yesterday. Thursday night we had a family party with dinner, cake* and presents.Ginger couldn't stand it so we relit the candles for her. And she was heavily involved in the present-opening.

At preschool Hazel was the special person of the week all week, with her pictures on the bulletin board. And then on her actual birthday she was the special helper and I was the cooperator so I could bring cupcakes* and take pictures. As usual, it was all unbelievably cute.

I've been telling her "I love you" more often the last few days. They're pathetically inadequate words but I know she understands the feelings I'm trying to convey because she looks me in the eye and smiles big each time. She knows I think she's amazing. She knows I love her to death. And she knows being a 4-year-old is super hot stuff.

*What did we bake for Hazel's birthday? I'll post them this week on The VGP.

National Building Museum

Last weekend Hazel's friend Levi had his birthday party at the National Building Museum. His dad is an architect so it seemed only fitting. I'd heard of the museum, and vaguely knew they had stuff for kids there, but I'd never gotten around to going, partially discouraged by the unknown parking situation. It was tight but we found a meter spot as someone was leaving. It's literally across the street from the Judiciary Square metro station, so maybe in the future we'd take the metro. As we entered the building, this is what we saw:
It was breathtaking. Cavernous. Palatial. I immediately envisioned bringing kids here on a cold or rainy day to run around, though the running part might not be allowed. Hazel was fascinated with the fountain and probably could have stood and watched it all day. But we were late for a party upstairs.
The party was great. Adorable. We started with building, of course.
And knocking down.
Then a NBM worker read us a book about trains, handed out engineer hats, and opened bins of craft materials for the kids to make their own train cars.



Then we sang Happy Birthday to Levi and ate cake and juice. The museum gave him a t-shirt from the gift shop, and everyone got pencils and patches to take home.

After the party we wandered around the museum a little. On the other side was this transportation street projection thing. It has sensors so when you stand on a bus, car or bike and then walk, the vehicle moves and stops with you. The girls were entranced. We probably hung out there for 20 minutes, and Hazel was sweating from running back and forth, and never tired of it. We finally had to pull her away, literally kicking and crying.
On the way out I popped my head in the Building Zone, a building playroom just for 2-to-6-year olds. We didn't have time to stay and play, but I put it on my mental list.
As you can see, I'm actually learning there are some cool things to do with kids in and around DC. And the parking and traffic so far have not even approached New York, so I'm getting braver and more confident to go into the city. Speaking of, check out my VGP post on Georgetown Cupcake - yum! And with spring and summer approaching, well, there's almost no end to the possibilities!

Thursday Field Trip: Botanic Garden

Last week the Thursday field trip was a visit to the U.S. Botanic Garden, just south of the Capitol on Capitol Hill. It was the maiden voyage of the new minivan into the city, and I lucked out with a close - and roomy! - metered spot, phew.

We came here with Ed in January when they had a massive miniature village & trains set up everywhere, and it was magical. This time it was a simpler, and less crowded, pleasure, but still a pleasure to wander through room after room of plants representative of different ecosystems and climates.
Everyone took turns looking at the map to decide where to go next.


In the west gallery was an interactive "Plants and Culture" exhibit, where we spent the most time. This table taught about scents, how they're extracted, and where they're used.
This one taught about plants and cultural rituals, like henna for tattooing, tabacco for smoking, coffee and chocolate for drinking.
And this column told about plants whose names are used for people names, like this one:

When we were done, it was raining outside, so we had to scrap our plans for a Capitol Hill picnic lunch. But since we had 30 minutes left on the meter, and a room-on-wheels, we sat in the van and had our picnic there. The girls fell asleep on the way home and I didn't even get lost.