spring break in d.c.

For spring break this year we decided to stay with my brother Doug in Maryland and take the kids to D.C. while it was still relatively easy to do so. We left Sunday after church and had an uneventful drive down. The forecast had predicted snow and we worried we might run into it, but it didn't start until early Monday morning, so we were fine. Doug and Lesli had beds and cookies waiting for us when we arrived. 

Monday, because of the snow, my brother called into the meeting he'd had scheduled in Baltimore, Daniel had a snow day, and we all played around the house. Daniel got down any toy the kids asked for and they had a blast playing with balls, cars, legos, and board games. Anna asked for dolls and when Daniel produced some Star Wars and Indiana Jones action figures, she wasn't very impressed. She did however, love the legos (which was what she got for her birthday this week, but that's for the next post). After lunch we went sledding on a big hill across the street and had a wonderful time.

Lesli made us a delicious pot roast for dinner and I made brownies for Levi's birthday dessert. We put some candles in and sang and Doug and Lesli gave him a new teddy bear and a macabre book about dinosaurs that got lots of laughs that evening. That night, Daniel offered his bottom bunk for the kids to sleep in and they couldn't have been more excited. One of the very best parts of this whole trip was seeing the cousins interact and have fun together.

Tuesday, Doug and Daniel came with us and we all took the (completely overpriced) Metro downtown (I missed my $2 rides back in Boston). We spent the morning at the Air and Space Mueseum. Levi still talks about the propeller planes, rockets, and space shuttle. Anna liked the moon lander and seeing how astronauts work in space.

 We used to have an inflatable space shuttle (I admit to giving it away because I couldn't find anywhere to put it away) and Levi was enamored with this big space shuttle that was "just like mine."

After lunch we played on the mall as we crossed over to the National Gallery of Art to see this Pre-Raphaelite exhibit. Sam was kind enough to wrangle a tired Levi so I could see the whole exhibit. It was fun to see some of my favorite pieces from the Tate in London and to see some new ones. The landscapes and textiles were new pieces I hadn't seen before and especially liked.

Wednesday we went to the Natural History museum. We started at the dinosaurs. Anna had been very impressed at the fossils Doug had shown her on Monday and pointed out every single fossil she saw, and tried to match it with the pictures of the animals in the exhibits. Levi loved all the dinosaur skeletons and had fun recognizing species from dinosaur train and the later dinosaurs that looked more like the modern animals we have today.

After lunch we went to the gem exhibit and Anna was in heaven. Beautiful shining gems of every color of the rainbow, princess jewelry, and the magic that one mineral can make so many different colors! Levi liked the volcano rocks and anything that was huge or funny shaped. 

Thursday was the first day of Daniel's spring break so we took him to the National Zoo. I think we saw almost every single animal there. The big hits were the sea lions, otters, tigers, giant panda, and the amazon exhibit. The elephants were a bit of dud. My favorite part was seeing a big python shedding its skin. It was so neat to see it rub across itself to pull on the old skin which would pop off scale by scale for an inch or so, and then it would accordion up its muscles and do it again.

 Daniel was our photographer for the day and took photos of most of the animals we saw. He's got his mom's talent and eye. I think Anna and Levi enjoyed looking at his photos almost as much as actually being at the zoo. Probably because it involved Daniel paying lots of attention to them.

 Those trees were fake, but still really cool.

One big event of the day was during a potty break. I put Anna in one stall and went in one a few stalls down with Levi. As I finished, I heard a little scream and saw water flowing down the floor. I ran out to find Anna sobbing with her pants down, her panties soaking, boots wet, not knowing what to do. She said, "The water didn't go down the first time, so I kept flushing and flushing and it wouldn't stop!"

I stripped her down, threw away her panties, and put on one of Levi's diapers (the indignity of that caused another outburst of crying). Meanwhile, Levi tripped and fell into the puddle of water getting his hands all wet. I told him not to touch anything while I finished with Anna. The seat of her leggings was a little damp, but it was freezing cold outside, we'd just gotten to the zoo, and I knew the diaper would keep it off her skin, so I ran them under the hand dryer and just put them back. I gathered everyone to go scrub their hands when I saw Levi sticking his fingers in his mouth making faces in the mirror. (So gross). We all washed our hands about 5 times and then used hand sanitizer. Anna was still crying so I assured her she had done nothing wrong, gave her my coat, and we took a break for lunch. Thankfully, the rest of the day was uneventful, and Daniel assured me he was extremely happy about getting to go to the zoo.

Friday was our last full day and the warmest while we were there. We picked up Daniel's cousin (on the Summers side), Merrick, and drove in and parked along the Mall. It wasn't much faster than taking the Metro but it was a whole lot cheaper. We walked along from the Washington Monument to the WWII Monument (I was sad the fountains were off) to the Vietnam Memorial. After that we went over to where we had seen some food trucks and got lunch. We ate in a little plaza with a baseball statue and the kids had fun pretending to play baseball together. Anna was smitten with Merrick and did anything he did the whole day.

After lunch we went to the Lincoln Memorial and walked back along the reflecting pool to the car. Sam drove us up to the Natural History Museum and reparked. We saw the mammals exhibit and then went back to the gems because Anna wanted to show Daniel and Merrick the rainbow gems again.

 I asked for Doug or Sam to take a picture of the kids in front of the Lincoln Memorial while I ran to the restroom, and these two pictures are what I got.

After dropping Merrick off, I made some buttermilk pancakes for dinner and we had ice cream for dessert. Pancakes are a Summerstay favorite and I was glad to oblige. A week later, they used the rest of the buttermilk for a second batch which they assured me were "the best pancakes ever."

Saturday morning, Anna, Levi, and Daniel dyed Easter eggs. Lesli made hundreds of filled Easter eggs and some more friends and family came over for an Easter egg hunt. Anna and Levi had a blast and I was completely off the hook for planning or buying anything fun for Easter. Thanks Lesli! While all the kids were chowing down on their candy and jumping on the trampoline, Sam and I finished up packing the car and we were on the road by noon. After another beautiful and uneventful drive where we finished up Little House on the Prarie and started Little House in the Big Woods, we were home.

Thanks Doug and Lesli for hosting us! We had a marvelous time, and especially loved being with family and getting to play with Daniel who is the kindest, funniest big cousin a kid could ask for. Can he come visit us in TX? We'll take him to Schlitterbahn.

levi turns 3

My parents have now been in Germany for about 2 weeks on their mission. I'm hoping to post a bit more regularly to keep them updated on our lives.

On March 25, Levi turned 3! He is in the 91st %ile for height and 67th for weight. He is our long, skinny boy. Being 3 is not without its challenges, but we absolutely adore our snuggly little boy.

Levi is starting to ask "why" questions, which I think is coming a little bit earlier than when Anna started. It keeps me on my toes.

He still loves anything to do with actual cars, trucks, and trains, and the movie Cars. Grandma Ruth sent Levi a Cars backpack filled with Cars clothes, toys, and books. Grandma Becky sent a car and truck quilt and pillowcase. Levi wraps up in his blanket (he won't sleep with anything else anymore) and opens up every single Cars book and is happy for hours. I don't think there's ever been a happier birthday boy.

Levi plays alone amazingly well. He is content to lay on the floor and roll his cars around for as long as we give him to do it. He has several excellent sound effects under his belt. He loves to play basketball in our little hoop and loves to wrestle and get tickles.

He is still very affectionate, though it comes in shorter bursts these days. It melts my heart when he runs to me with arms wide open yelling, "Mama!"

Levi naps a few times a week, and goes to bed easily on days he doesn't nap. He loves his friends and is always excited to see them on the playground.

I made Levi a racetrack cake for his birthday and we invited his friends to come eat it with us. I bought a checkered flag banner from the dollar store and Levi was so excited by it. I love how easily pleased children are.

We love our Levi and are excited to see how his personality grows and develops this year. Happy Birthday Buddy!

march in pictures

Anna and Bitty had lunch on the porch one afternoon.

St. Patrick's Day. Anna is dressed in green and "gold" 

We hosted toddler time. We were learning about the letter L and the number 10. Lucky the little leprechaun left 10 pictures of things around the house that started with L that led to this treat in the fridge. 

 A silly photo shoot on the bed.

 I am still so in love with her hair. Who knows if we'll ever cut it.

 Great-great-Aunt Shirley sent $5 for each kid for Valentine's Day and we finally went shopping. Anna chose this purse that she colored herself. Levi chose a car from Cars 2, Jeff Gorvette, who has been hiding somewhere in the house for weeks. Levi asks if he can have him periodically and it makes me so sad to have to say no, since we don't know where he is.

We went with our friends the Reuels and the Cutlers to Parker's Maple Barn in New Hampshire and ate breakfast for lunch and watched maple syrup being made.

During the last week of March which was MIT's spring break, we went to Washington D.C., but that's a post for another day.

art time

Here are some recent art projects we worked on in February when we needed something to tame our raging stir-craziness. You know, because record-breaking Nemo happened. And then two more winter storms the following two weekends. And Saturn coming tonight. Sheesh.

 This is the best photo to see how high the snow really got. It was very drifty inside our courtyard, so some places were bare, but most was very deep. That balcony that the snow reaches is at least 4 ft off the ground. The kids could just step from snow bank to snowbank over the fence into the playground. Once the wind died down we had lots of fun playing in the snow and one family even built a huge igloo that could fit 7 or 8 little kids inside it.

Now on to the art. I've been wanted to try this with Levi for a while considering his love of cars. He did the paint rolling for a while, but mostly ended up painting his cars and then giving them a long car wash in the sink. It all added up to fun in my book.

Here's Levi with some of his car collection lined up and ready to race on the Radiator Springs playmat I made him for Christmas.

I got a book for Anna at the library called Artist to Artist in which famous childrens book illustrators write to children about their art. Most of the artists have some piece of artwork from their childhood included, which I really enjoyed. Eric Carle's portion included a little step-by-step instruction for how he makes his collage illustrations. Anna looked at it and said, "I want to do that. Right now." So we did. (I actually looked online and found this which was more helpful than the tiny photos in the book).

We started by drawing the caterpillar. Anna made the head and attempted the bumps but couldn't figure out how to get them right, so I made the first two bumps and she finished it.

  

Then you paint the tissue paper. I showed her how to use a big brush and thick paint to make interesting brush strokes to show up in the picture. She liked making lots of designs.

To speed things up, I used a blow-drier to dry the paint, though it didn't need much. Then we traced the shapes we'd drawn onto the painted tissue paper, cut it out (with a little of my help), and glued it down (with quite a bit of help- she kept tearing the paper as she tried to glue)

Here's the finished product! Isn't he cute?

Anna drew his legs that evening and took markers to him the next morning. She gave him a hat, a tutu, and a smile. She also named him Ahcu Mone Cran (pronounced Ach-ah Moan-ee Crown)

And here's a little looser interpretation of art. Anna saw these groundhog day treats in Family Fun magazine and begged to make them. So we did.

 And I had this vision for Valentines Day decorations that worked out beautifully. I cut out all the hearts from construction paper. I let the kids decorate a few of them with smaller hearts, pom poms, and stickers. Then I strung them all together on pink yarn. The heat from the radiator mixing with the cold air from the window kept them constantly moving and we had lovely heart shadows all through February.

It's been a fun month, but I am OH SO READY for spring!