Four generations…
….and three little ladies who stole my heart.
Happy Mother’s Day to me!!
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Life Recently
Life recently has been busy…..Emerson has been sick on and off the last few weeks. I traveled for work last week to Tennessee. Harper has been sick running a fever the last few days. Appointments and schedules have been non-stop the last few weeks between medical, vision, and grooming appointments; school related meetings; and extra-curricular activities (ballet, gymnastics, and swimming). Weekends have been busy but overall a good mix of pleasure and play. Work has been very busy and because of all my appointments I have been going to during the day, I have been working late at night many nights. My schedule and the girls schedule will continue to be just as crazy through May. While it is busy, I really am trying to enjoy the little moments because I know they won’t be little forever.
Meadowlark
It’s been a year since we were last at Meadowlark. We didn’t have a lot of time today in between gym, cleaning up the house and going to my parents for Passover tonight but we managed to squeeze in a little over an hour there.
My mom and I took the girls to Kohl’s yesterday and I bought them (okay mostly Avery and Emerson) new clothes to play in. I really didn’t buy them much last year and they literally have only a few pairs of pants left that fit them and are without holes or stains. Everything was 50% off and I had another 30% off coupon so I the dresses that Avery and Emerson are wearing I got for $7 each. And the dress that Harper is wearing is a hand me down from Avery and Emerson….Gigi actually got it for Avery and Emerson a few years ago!
We have been coming to Meadowlark at least a few times a year since Avery and Emerson were born and just watching all my girls run around non-stop, I just take it all in….I can’t believe that they are already this big! I adore each and every one of them….they each have so many qualities that just make me smile…I am so fortunate to be their mama!
Exploring
Playing in the tea garden and attempting to get them all in the same picture (playing a game of who is taller) 
Running
Watching the fish and turtles
Attempting to get a picture of Daddy and his three girls.
Dog Bones
You know….that time when one of your daughters draws a picture of…dog bones!!
Easter 2016
The girls woke up a few minutes earlier than normal today in anticipation of finding what the Easter Bunny had put in their baskets. He brought each girl their own jump rope, bubbles, coloring activity, and chocolate. They were very excited!
We decided to go to the 11:00 Church service so we didn’t have to rush. That gave me time to make pancakes and sausage for breakfast, which is usually a hit with the girls. Avery loves the pancakes while Emerson and Harper are all about the sausage.
This year Avery and Emerson went to Sunday school during the service and Harper came with us since she was still too young for the Sunday school class. That was fine by me as she wanted to cuddle with me the whole time and for one hour, she had all my attention and love. After the service was over, we picked up Avery and Emerson (who had a great time and requested to go back to Sunday school again) and made a quick stop at Giant to pick up the rest of the groceries for the week. We ate a quick lunch and then it was time for the Easter Egg Hunt in the yard. We started in the back. The girls were so excited that they ran out the porch door so quickly that it slammed on Harper and she fell. She was not a happy camper and Ludmila helped her pick up her first few eggs.
Meanwhile Avery and Emerson were having the time of their lives running around to find eggs.
We eventually made our way to the front yard where the girls found more eggs and we attempted some posed pictures. Avery and Harper cooperated but Emerson was not in the mood. We got new mulch two weeks ago and our yard is so beautiful this time of the year with the cherry blossoms, even without the majority of the tulips blossoming as a result of the crazy warm weather we had in December.
We attempted to move picture locations a few times in the hopes that Emerson would partake. 
We had a little luck at times.
Cherry Blossoms, Shaved Ice, and 145 Active Minutes!
Thursday was the second day of the girls Spring Break that we took off. We had decided to go to D.C. for the day. We didn’t have specific plans but when the forecast showed temperatures of 75 degrees, sunny skies, and peak cherry blossoms, we knew the Cherry Blossoms, walking and being tourists outside were on our agenda.
We decided to drive and parked in a garage near China Town. We started walking towards the mall and then decided we would walk by the White House. How crazy is it that in my 36 years of living in Northern Virginia, I have never been to the White House….not even the White House gates! My first experience was with my girls!
Next stop (after a coffee and bathroom break) was the Tidal Basin.
We started walking towards the Jefferson Memorial but we stopped before we made it there and enjoyed a snack on the picnic blanket.
After a stop for lunch at Corner Bakery, we headed back towards the mall with our first stop at the Sculpture Gardens.
Avery fell at one point and Harper came over to hug her…it was so darn cute.
Next stop was the Carosel. The five of us were going to go on, but Avery chickened out at the last minute so her and I watched Daddy, Emerson, and Harper. 
Then because we still had two tickets, Emerson got to go for a second time…this time with Mommy. 
Last stop was soft serve ice cream and shaved ice from a street vendor.
We had an awesome day exploring D.C. as a family! And as an added bonus, I had 145 active minutes and 18,000 steps!
Winning Isn’t Everything but…
Justin and I took Monday afternoon off. It was the first day of the girls spring break and we wanted to do something fun as a family. While it is now officially Spring, it was cold and windy today, so we decided bowling would be the perfect indoor activity for the day. The last time I was bowling was about 10 years ago and the time before that was five years prior to that. We were impressed at how easy it was for the girls to bowl….bumpers were on every lane if you wanted them (we did) and they even had these cool ramp things that kids could use to bowl. Ms. Harper loved when it was her turn and often couldn’t wait until she found the swivel chairs behind our lane.
Avery had a great time and intently watched to see how many pins her bowling ball knocked down each time. She also loved to watch the ball come up each time.
Emerson getting a little coaching and encouragement from Daddy! She was also quite the helper in making sure each person had the right ball before each turn.
Mama wasn’t so bad either. Yes, the bumpers were there….but I only had a few rounds were my ball would have been a gutter ball. In fact, my first frame, I had a spare!
We know winning isn’t everything BUT check out that final score!
Manis and Pedis
I have been promising to take the older girls to the nail salon for several months now. The real hold up was that my nails were sadly so disgusting that they weren’t even worthy of a manicure or pedicure. But with spring around the corner, I decided it was time! The girls picked out their own polish….a shade of purple for Emerson and a shade of pink for Avery. 
Avery sat to my left and seemed to thoroughly enjoy each stage of the pedicure.
Emerson sat to my right and was very stoic the entire time but when I asked her to look at me for pictures, she would smile real big. 
The kids pedicure was shorter than mine so I decided to let them get manicures too. 
They were very quiet, relaxed, and enjoyed the mani/pedi experience. And it was crazy to me that I was already at this stage of life with Avery and Emerson. 
Daddy and Harper met us at the salon and then we went across the street to Church Street Pizza for dinner and then to Cafe Amori for dessert and coffee. Turns out it was open mic night so we ended up staying for about an hour enjoying the music. It was an evening of a lot of smiles and a lot of laughs.
D.J.
While lot of things bring me joy, there are only a few things in life that leave me with an unwavering smile from ear to ear….watching The Notebook and Full House re-runs are among them. I grew up a Full House fanatic. I looked forward to TGIF every week especially those few years I had a T.V in my bedroom. I loved everything about the show but mostly D.J. Tanner. I wanted to be Candace Cameron. I had BOP and Teen Beat Posters plastered of her in my room. I loved D.J. and Candace so much that I went out and bought the same comforter and sheets that D.J had on the show and each night they tucked me in for four years. Even when I did get new bedding years later, that comforter stayed close by in the closet as an extra blanket. The quality of the blanket was superb and sometime in my early 20’s that comforter took on the name D.J. when Justin and I brought her to our condo. D.J. has been a staple in our home ever since. At first she was with us in the condo, then she made her way to my parent’s basement for a few years when we hung out there at night, and most recently D.J has remained in our room the last two year as the blanket to cuddle up on the couch. Even our girls refer to the blanket as D.J. D.J has led to many friendly fights over the years as there is no other blanket that comes close to being as awesome as she is….D.J is simply awesome!
So imagine my excitement when I heard that the cast of Full House was reuniting. I’m not sure I actually thought I would watch it, but the other night as Justin and I were cozied up on the couch under D.J and deciding what to watch, Justin pulled up NetFlix and Fuller House. He was kind of joking at first, but joking or not, the ear to ear constant smile appeared out of nowhere and was plastered on my face; Justin knew what was on that night’s agenda.
The same week we started watching Fuller House, our girls were sick. They had all had colds with fevers last week and while we thought they were improving over the weekend, their weakened immune symptoms led to Emerson catching pneumonia and Harper an ear infection. Emerson’s head was really bothering her and she was having a lot of trouble sleeping at night. This resulted in some long naps during the day which left her wide awake at night. Two nights ago her head had really been bothering her again, so we were planning on having her sleep in our room. Since she was wide awake and the T.V. did take her mind off her head hurting, we let her watch an episode of Fuller House with us. Last night we told her she had to sleep in her room as she seemed to be improving some. About an hour after we had put her down to bed, she came in our room with the biggest smirk ever saying her head hurt. She was LYING and it was so obvious! We had a long conversation with her in which we were trying to get the truth out of her;she finally admitted that the real reason she came in was because she wanted to watch the grown up show with Mommy and Daddy. Since she was so ridiculously cute and told us the truth and she wasn’t tired, we obliged.
Who would have thought that that little ten year old girl who loved Full House and wanted to be Candace Cameron would be sitting with her own five year old daughter twenty-five years later watching Fuller House with my little girl cozied up to D.J both of us grinning ear to ear!
Chocolate Ganache
The weather today – absolutely amazing! Seriously, here we are on February 28 with georgeous sunny skies and a tempeture of 65 degrees. AMAZING!!! We again decided to forgo the gym so as to get out of the house earlier. Plus, I LOVE any family activity that also doubles as a workout. We decided to head to Vienna for a picnic via our backyard. Seriously, how cool is that. I love that just beyond our backyard are woods that are so amazing and beautiful. I love to just give it a panoramic gaze and take it all in!
Our adventure took four hours door to door and included a nice walk through the woods to get to the bike path, a 2.5 mile trip on the bike path each way, playing on the Caboose, a picnic on the Vienna Green, a quick visit from Grandpa and Grandpa while we were picnicking, and a few minutes more of playtime at the Caboose under Grandma and Grandpa’s supervision so that Mommy could check out the chocolate shop on Church Street. Chocolate ganache…..umm…YES!!! I ate it right there in the store and was enjoying it so much that Justin asked me if I had wet my panties. There was a little whining on the way home, some from mommy wanting more chocolate ganache, but mostly from Harper who crashed the moment we got home. 