Monthly Archives: March 2013

Picnic in DC

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We did it and did it quite successfully!  Saturday’s weather was perfect….60 degrees and sunny….we could not have asked for a better day for a picnic on the National Mall. The girls were awesome!  We were a little worried that they would want to run around constantly but to our surprise they were quite content to sit on the blanket and eat their grapes, tofu, and pretzels. 

Oh yeah….and they enjoyed a little of mommie’s brownie too!  Emerson was quite the helper with putting the food away in the stroller and wiping Emerson’s hands after they were done with their brownie. 

The girls ran around some and we tried to capture some of the moments.  Most these pictures are documentary because they would not sit still for a poised picture. 

We walked up towards the Tidal Basin hoping to catch a glimpse of the Cherry Blossoms; however, they hadn’t bloomed at all yet.  So we headed to the World War II Memorial where we visited with the girls on a beautiful sunny Sunday morning exactly one year ago.  Hard to believe a year had passed since our first and only other DC Mall visit.  

We had a GREAT GREAT time!!!!!!

March Birthdays!!

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Our girls are popular girls!  The first three Saturday’s in March they have had a birthday party.  Since their friends are all actually the children of our friends maybe that just makes Justin and me popular!  Actually we feel very blessed to have so many close friends.

First was Chase’s party.  Chase is Rich and Kristin’s son and he turned two.  His party was at his house in Purcellville.  It’s over an hour drive to get there but we took Rte. 50 in order to have the scenic view.  It was actually a beautiful day with the first signs of spring.  The girls slept much of the car ride there and when we got there Avery was ready to explore and Emerson was content to sit and take it all in as usual.  The girls wore their matching Zara dresses courtesy of my sister.  I figured they didn’t have much time before they outgrew them!  We had a great time at the party. Rich and Kristen are good hosts and since we were among all our friends this mommy and daddy really did have a great time. 

On a side note, this party was the first time we had seen a few of our friends in awhile so some of our friends found out at the party that we were expecting again.  The funny thing is one girl after another revealed her pregnancy.  While we already knew Augusta was pregnant (due at the end of May), and Kristin was pregnant (due June 1), it wasn’t known by the masses that I was pregnant, or Casey was pregnant (due end of July) or that Leigh was pregnant (due October).  It was actually pretty funny.  Besides Augusta who was already in her third trimester, I swear my belly was bigger than everyone elses!

Here are some pics from Chase’s party.

The following Saturday was Camden’s 2nd birthday at Clemyjontri Park in Great Falls.  Camden is Casey and Eric’s daughter.  The weather forecast was not looking good even through that morning; however, once we got to the park it warmed up some and actually turned out to be a good day.  Camden had a Minnie Mouse theme and the girls, especially Emerson, were not impressed with Minnie.  It was the first time they had seen a dressed character, courtesy of Eric’s mom, and they were just not having it.  The girls had fun playing on the playground especially on the slides and the train. While I was impressed with the lunch food, the girls are picky when outside their routine, so they ate mostly fruit.  At least they didn’t throw the food that they didn’t want.  The party wore the girls out so much that Avery even fell asleep on Mommy for about 20 minutes during present time.  They missed their morning nap but when we got home, we put the girls down and they ended up sleeping for several hours.

Here are some pics from Camden’s party.

 

The following Saturday was Dylan’s 2nd birthday at Little Gym in Ashburn.  Dylan is Danielle and Matt’s son.  This was the 2nd time we had been to a party at Little Gym…that same exact Little Gym in fact with the same exact instructor.  The first time we were there was when the girls were about 10 months old.  Emerson was crawling then but I don’t think Avery was yet (I have to go back to look at her baby book…I can’t believe I already can’t remember!).  This time the girls were able to participate in a lot more which was neat.  They definitely enjoyed it especially the rings, the tunnel, and the basketball hoop/balls.  It was a quick party…scheduled for 1 ½ hours and the last 15 minutes is really for the staff to clean up so they really do throw you in and out.  Truthfully, I am not certain that much more time was necessary though.  The girls enjoyed the party!  Justin didn’t bring his camera in since he knew the expectations of being able to leave the girls unattended were almost non-existent, but he did take just a couple with his phone.   

Besides that first weekend of March, the weather hasn’t been very warm. In fact, we have had over 4 inches of snow on two different occasions in March…once this week and once two weeks ago.  The past few Sunday’s we had been hoping to take the girls downtown.  If it was nice we were going to have a picnic near the Washington Monument.  We did that exactly a year ago on a sunny Sunday towards the end of March.  We were hoping to see the Cherry Blossoms but they had peaked early last year and nothing remained.   The girls were not yet eating solids but we timed it around their bottle time so while Justin and I were having a picnic catered by Cenans bakery, including plastic utensils to cut a baguette, our girls were drinking their bottles on a blanket.  They weren’t mobile yet.  I imagine the experience will be quite different this time. If it wasn’t that nice but still fairly mild, we thought about taking them to the Museum of Natural History or possibly the aquarium.  But the truth is I like being outside and I love the start of spring so I am hoping that this weekend is going to be nice.  So far the forecast isn’t looking great, but it’s not too bad so I am hopeful!  The Cherry Blossoms have not peaked yet.  They are expected to peak midweek next week which means that this weekend could potentially be very busy downtown especially considering it is Easter Sunday and Spring Break for many.  Part of me is a little scared of their mobility amongst the masses but assuming the weather is nice, we can find a space to park downtown, I’m up for the challenge.


Udvar Hazy

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This winter has been very blah for the Maddy household. When the weather is warm we love getting out of the house and doing things with the girls. During those warm months our days are generally jam packed. But come the cold winter months my desire to go out always diminishes.  The cold dark days coupled with my first trimester morning sickness made for a lot of very low key weekends the past several months.  It’s not like we didn’t do anything these past few months.  We have had some play dates and trips to the park but we have also had weekend days where the girls outing was a trip to the grocery store or BJ’s.  Now that I am finally starting to feel normal and am getting excited about the prospect of spring, I was thinking of all the fun things to do with the girls this spring and I wanted to get an early start this weekend.  Last Friday I looked at the weather forecast for Saturday and it wasn’t looking so good so I thought what a great day to take the girls to the Udvar Hazy National Air and Space Museum in Dulles, VA.  And it was free admissions…even better.  Well free admissions with $15 parking!  On a side note you only have to pay for parking until 4:00 and the museum is open until 5:30.  Assuming that works with the girls nap schedule we need to keep that in mind for the next visit.

We took the girls inside in their stroller and for the first 10 or 15 minutes they were content in their strollers while Justin and I strolled along the upper levels of the museum and pointed out the planes.  We quickly made our way to the first floor where we took the girls out of their stroller.  They were a little hesitant at first but it only took a few minutes before the hesitancy turned into pure excitement as they were free to run in some very open spaces along the outskirts of the exhibit. 

After the girls had been running around for a little while, we started making our way towards the exhibits again where we came across a reading area where a librarian was having children’s story time.  We stopped and encouraged the girls to sit on the rug and participate and were surprised at how interested and quiet the girls were for story time.  Justin and I were truly amazed at how interested they were. (I guess I should look into the children’s story time at the public library.)

We made a few stops at the benches along the way for some picture time.  Some worked out…others not so much.

 

As we headed to see more exhibits Emerson decided she wanted to be a helper and push the stroller. We stayed for a little over an hour which was probably perfect for the girl’s attention span.  And although they were getting tired, I managed to keep them up on the car ride home so that could have their afternoon nap in their cribs.  It was definitely a fun time.