DC – Spring Break Visit
Last year Justin and I took off 1 1/2 days during the girls spring break. One day we went to DC and the other afternoon we went bowling. We had a great time so we decided to do the same exact itinerary this year. We drove into the city, easily found a spot with Parking Panda, and started our walk. We took the single stroller and the girls took turns but obviously with one stroller and three kids, they too did quite a bit of walking. First, we walked by the front of the White House making our way to the World Word II Memorial. There was a service going on in honor of World War II vets. It is crazy to me that that time in history was 70 years ago….is 70 years a long time ago or not? I think it depends on your own age and where you are personally in your life. I just couldn’t help thinking that there are only a few more years, maybe a decade for some lucky folks, where there will be living World World II vets. It’s certainly a sobering fact.
Here the girls are at the World War II Memorial.
We headed towards the Tidal Basin where we walked until we were fairly close to the Jefferson Memorial (a strategic decision so to be sure that was the next stop) and then we stopped for a picnic lunch that we had brought from home. 
The Cherry Blossoms bloomed early this year and were long gone as were the crowds of people. The girls were having fun with the camera.
Up next was The Jefferson Memorial. It has been YEARS since I had been there. I walked up the stairs with Avery and Emerson while Justin took the long ramp for strollers with Harper. Avery was wearing her sunglasses and I think the darkness coupled with the white flooring, threw her depth perception off to the point she was crying and shaking and wanted to leave. We hung out for a few but were pretty quick to leave – making sure they knew some basic facts about Thomas Jefferson.
The girls really wanted to see the MLK Memorial again so we headed there next. We took a quick stop to enjoy the beautiful tulips. Okay, maybe the word “enjoy” is stretching it slightly….
Poor Emerson…her allergies, especially her eyes, had been driving her crazy. The pollen was horrible and her eyes were so itchy:(
We relaxed for a few minutes at the MLK memorial. Where’s Waldo? 
Then we walked along the Reflection Pool and made our way to the vicinity of the Washington Monument where we took an ice cream sandwich break.
Justin wanted to head back home but the girls (and me) wanted to continue as they wanted to go on the carousel. It took some nudging and promising from the girls that they wouldn’t complain (they didn’t) and we walked for about another 20 minutes to the carousel. I was afraid to let Harper go on by herself so I bought a ticket and went on the ride. As soon as it started, she didn’t want me holding on to her so I decided I too would jump on a horse. I haven’t actually had my own seat at a carousel since I was a kid….I was grinning ear to ear and Harper and Avery thought it was hilarious. Emerson was in front of us so I think she knew I was on the horse, but couldn’t really watch without turning around….which I wouldn’t let her do! 
A much needed potty break was necessary after the carousel so we headed across Constitution Avenue and made our way to the Museum of Natural History where we briefly explored the marine mammal and mammal exhibits.
And then it was dinner time. Originally I thought we would be at a restaurant just prior to 6:00 avoiding any wait times. We were just a few minutes behind that schedule due to another potty break that Harper needed to take which set us back about 20 minutes. I originally wanted to go to Matchbox but it was too far out of the way so I thought Old Ebbit Grill would be a perfect choice! Wrong…it was slammed! So we started walking as I got on my phone to do some further research and we came across a Mexican restaurant. I was the third party in line and after they seated both parties ahead of me (one a party of five), the hostess told me they were no longer taking any walk ins. I politely turned around and exited while cursing the hostess in my head. Justin spotted a Corner Bakery (the same one we ate lunch at last spring break actually) and I agreed. On the way, another restaurant Hamilton caught our eye. It didn’t look busy so I went in to check it out….the wait was an hour. Corner Bakery it was! I start ordering only to find out they are out of pasta! No pasta meant no Mac and Cheese for Harper and no plain pasta for Avery. Bagels I asked, in which the response was no:(. So we left. Justin wanted to go home or get something in Arlington and I knew we would just be sitting in traffic so that option also wasn’t a very good one. Again I turned to my phone and found a Pot Belly’s. We headed there…..it closed at 7:00…we made it in at 6:45! We ate pretty much in silence as the girls were exhausted and Justin pretty much wanted to chop my head off for not leaving hours earlier. The good news is that he is long over it and I’m sure will laugh when he reads this…at least I hope so!!
Celebrations, Observations, and More Celebrations!
Celebrating Mila’s 28th Birthday Mexican style!
Observing Harper’s ballet class during observation week. She is so cute to watch, but she easily gets distracted and forgets to do the steps at times. She also doesn’t like when another student gets too close and invades her personal space!
Watching Emerson perform her kindergarten school play “Over In the Jungle”, which by far exceeded any and every expectation I had. The students, costumes, set, music….was ALL AMAZING! Seriously, I was beyond impressed. And once again, I had to hold back from tearing up.
Observing Avery and Emerson’s ballet and tap class during observation week.
Celebrating Papa’s 67th birthday Italian style!
Celebrating meeting baby Elinor, Becca’s 4 month old daughter!
(Four kids looks good on us, doesn’t it) 🙂
Celebrating Harrison’s 2nd Birthday!
Celebrating a beautiful afternoon at Quattro Gumba Brewery with the Russos!
Celebrating the first night of Passover at my parents!
And all this before we even make a dent into the second week of April!
Quattro Gumba
Quattro Gumba…or should I say Seis Gumba? It has been WAY too long since the Maddy and McMillan kids got together….sadly over a year! About a month ago, we decided on a date with the destination being either a winery or a brewery. We couldn’t have picked a better day to start off spring. After two weekends of cold weather, the weather was finally warm. With the sky being overcast, we didn’t need to worry about sunglasses or sunscreen! The brewery and winery were packed. We stayed for over four hours and the time flew bye! It was great to catch up with Robyn and Ryan and the kids had a great time playing with one another. We need to get this crew together more often!!
Oil Pistachios
This past week I traveled for work to Indiana. The girls were great for Ludmila and Justin! Way better than they behave for me actually. Anyway, the girls put up a Welcome Home sign in the kitchen upon my return. Harper and Mila made me chocolate chip cookies and all three girls made me cards and pictures. One picture in particular looked like it was made with chalk at first glance, so I asked Avery what she used to make the picture and she said “oil pistachios”. While I just stood there perplexed, Justin said to Avery, “oil pastels?” Ah yes, oil pastels!
Don’t Speak English
Ludmila’s brother Nicholas, who is quite the ladies man, came to visit Ludmila and therefore the Maddy family for just over a week. Girls, young and old, swoon over Nicholas. One night Ludmila and Nicholas were in line at a club and a lady (older lady) apparently started to try to kiss Nicholas. Nicholas responded by saying “don’t speak English”…hahahaha! Hate to break it to you Nicholas but I don’t think you need to speak English to understand that language! Seriously though, Nicholas is a ladies man! My own girls were all over him and continually talked about marrying him!! Harper especially, who had a lot of one-on-one time with him while Avery and Emerson were in school, LOVED Nicholas! They were besties, to the point that Ludmila was even starting to get jealous! It was really darn cute! Anyway, the ladies man is on his way back to Brazil where I wonder how his “don’t speak English” response will play out. Hopefully pretty well as I have a few little ladies who want to marry him in the future!
I mean just look at these two!
She Can Cook Breakfast, But She Can’t Wipe Her Own Butt
This morning Avery woke up at 7:15 (that is if you don’t count her waking up at 5:50 and coming into our room) and was wide awake. Despite my best efforts in my morning stupor to get Avery to go back to sleep or play or read quietly in her room, she was loud and ready to start the day. Avery was hungry and asked if she could get herself a cereal bar, to which I said yes. It wasn’t long before Emerson and Harper too woke up and decided to join in on the breakfast preparation. The cereal bar idea exponentially increased. While I could hear the commotion lying in bed and I was thinking of the potential spills and the wasted fruit and money (I had just gone to Whole Foods last night and the fridge was stocked with all sorts of fresh berries) that was involved with this preparation, I was willing to accept the outcome, because they were showing their independence and beaming with pride as they did so. I finally pulled my tired ass out of bed and brought the video camera and camera downstairs so that I could document this amazing experience I was witnessing.
As I was on my way downstairs, Emerson called me from the bathroom. Upon not answering her immediately, her request for me got more demanding and in a very loud matter of fact voice I heard “Mom, wipe my butt.”
I tried to peak in the kitchen a few times and was met with resistance as they really wanted to make me proud. They told me they were making brunch so we wouldn’t have to have lunch. I managed to snap a few quick pictures on my way out.
Meanwhile Harper became bored so she decided to be Santa Clause by putting panties on her head.
An hour after Avery and Emerson started breakfast, it was ready! They had a common bowl each of raspberries, blueberries, and strawberries. They each had an apple cereal bar and a huge bowl of dry cereal. Avery and Harper had yogurt and Emerson some cheese. They even made me salad…arugula with raspberries on top!
We had a feast…I couldn’t be more proud of them and they couldn’t have been more proud of themselves!
Half Birthdays
I typically write two blog posts a month and with my last post being three weeks ago, I’ve been feeling like I’m overdue. I haven’t had much out of the ordinary to write about. Our weekends have been pretty ordinary….those cold winter days don’t make me want to do too many of the fun outdoor activities on our standing “to do” list. Instead, we have been content going to the gym weekend mornings and spending a few hours most weekend days doing “homework”, primarily activities centered around sight words. With the school day being so long and the few hours each night being so short, having the weekend as an opportunity to catch up is appreciated. But realizing we could use a little something to spice up the weekends and realizing the official dates in which the girls were turning 5 1/2 and 3 1/2 were coming up, we decided we would celebrate half birthdays. Avery and Emerson’s was last Saturday and we celebrated with an ice-cream sandwhich purchased from Trader Joe’s earlier that day. Harper’s was today and we celebrated with pancakes for breakfast and mini ice-cream cones for dessert. And we have already sang Happy Half Birthday to Harper three times today! She is feeling quite special today! Ironically Harper’s half birthday falls on the anniversary that Justin and I started dating (16 years today!). We never realized it because I guess we don’t celebrate half birthday’s very often…but this year we did and it was great to break up the ordinary!
Harper’s First Haircut
My baby finally had her first haircut at just shy of 3 1/2 years old! I took all three of the girls to Bellini Salon and Harper was to go after both Emerson and Avery. She was very excited to be getting a haircut; however, her excitement quickly turned to fear as it was her turn to get her hair washed. 
Instead of a shampoo, we settled on a spray bottle to wet her hair. Once she got in the chair to get her hair cut, she did great.
It is still long…we just trimmed the ends and it looks much healthier. And afterwards…we celebrated with Dairy Queen ice cream cones!
Lincoln Memorial and MLK Memorial
We’ve been trying to take the girls to DC more the past few years as there is so much history and sights to take advantage of visiting. So often when we go to DC, we go near the Washington Monument and stay within the general vicinity as the girls aren’t as enthused about walking mass distances as much as Justin and I are. The last time we went to DC, I knew that the next time I wanted to visit the Lincoln Memorial. I don’t know that I had ever seen first hand (at least from what I can remember) the famous view of the wading pool and the monument from the steps of The Lincoln Memorial (I know…slightly embarrassing being that I am 37 and have lived in Northern Virginia my entire life). Anyway, so we went today finally….we drove and parked with ease. I didn’t give any thought to the upcoming inauguration and how the view that I had been longing to see would be obstructed by massive amounts of scaffolding in preparation for this coming weekend’s inauguration of Donald Trump as the 45th President of the United States. 
A different angle allowed for a slightly less obstructed view. 
Despite the obstructed view, it was really cool to see all the preparation going into the inauguration. Avery and Emerson are starting to learn about Presidents and U.S. history at school and they both were adamant that they wanted to come to the city again Friday to participate in the inauguration. Avery was very excited to get her picture taken with Abraham Lincoln so that she could show her teacher. 
Avery also wanted her picture with Mommy to show her teacher.
Emerson was moody off and on and if she was going to participate in any pictures, it was going to be on her own terms.
Although once Avery wanted her picture with me, she suddenly felt like she might just not want to miss out….although, she still clearly wanted to get her point across.
Meanwhile, Harper was sitting in the stroller where she refused to get out for much of our time in D.C. (If you look real closely above Avery’s head in the above picture, you can see her sitting in the stroller….our only picture of her today). I also only captured one photo of Justin.
Our next stop was The Martin Luther King Junior Memorial. The girls learned about MLK at school this week since tomorrow is MLK Day. It amazes me to hear them explain who he was and what he represented. Clearing they are taking everything in that they learn at school and it amazes me and makes me so happy to hear them explain U.S. history and all the other things they are learning at school. Anyway, the MLK Memorial is about a 12 minute walk from the Lincoln Memorial; however, Justin and I are both directionally challenged so we managed to turn it into about a 35 to 40 minute walk. Emerson wasn’t impressed and she kept track of how many times Justin and I took a wrong turn. While the day was enjoyable, this was a weak moment for me as I let my frustration get the best of me and I was taking it on Justin and the girls. I realized it though and was able to snap out of it pretty quickly but I shouldn’t have even let it get to that point. Forty minutes later we finally found the MLK Memorial where again Avery wanted her picture with MLK by herself so she could show her teacher. 
We ate a late lunch (close to 2:30) afterwards at Potbelly’s, where the girls even got to have dessert as a special treat. We took our time eating and were home by 4:00 AND Justin, Emerson, and I took a nap for an hour after we got home while Avery and Harper quietly played together! It was a great day and I can’t wait to go back to DC again soon.