Her first season of soccer has come and gone. She was named the “Most Improved Player” by her coaches and was told she should continue to focus on hustling.
She just signed up to play again in the fall…we’ll continue practicing an hustling to get ready for the next season!
Apple Cider Press Demonstration
Cinderella’s Pumpkin Carriage
Obstacle courses
Slides
Corn Fields
Farm animals including a filthy pig
Cool barns and doors
Rope Swings
Wagon rides
Apple picking
Some were more appreciated than others. 
The fan favorites amongst the girls were the roasting marshmellows, the jumping pumpkin, and the roller scooters. Who could argue with the girls on the roller scooters….that was mom’s favorite too!
Justin’s favorite was the filet at Tuscorara Mill….a spontaneous decision to eat in Leesburg and an awesome surprise to find out that the café section serves the full dinner menu in the evening! 
Happy Daddy!
It was a muddy but great family day at Great Country Farm in Bluemont, VA.
Not the best picture, but seriously look how grown up they are! I seriously just can’t believe how quickly the girls are growing up! Anyway, yesterday we went to see Peter Rabbit, a rare family occurrence for a Sunday afternoon. We recieved an AMC gift card so we went to the Tyson’s Theatre, which has stadium seating. Avery deep belly laughed her way through the movie. Harper smiled and lounged comfortably in her seat through the movie. Emerson was stoic through the entire movie, but said she liked it. I was sitting between Avery and Harper and caught myself laughing out loud too. I don’t know if it was Avery’s deep belly laughs that were contagious (highly likely) or if it was the kid in me (only somewhat likely) or the fact that the movie was truly funny (likely) or a combination of all three (highly likely) that I truly enjoyed the movie and family outing too!
January has been a cold low-key month. Justin and I did a 21 day meal plan where we ate primarily lean meats, chicken, fish, lots of veggies, fruit, raw nuts, and some whole grains (i.e beans and quinoa). Honestly, we ate well….I utilized fresh herbs (parsley, ginger, garlic, scallions, cilantro, chives, etc.) to really create some delicious meals. We refrained from drinking any alcohol and no sugar (except natural sugar found in fruit). We also didn’t eat after dinner even once! For 21 days, healthy meals and working out were really our priority. Honestly, I didn’t think I would be able to do it, but having Justin as my accountability partner enabled by success. We’re going to do some things more in moderation, but overall we liked the way our bodies felt and are going to continue to experiment with similar nutritional meal plans. At the same time, it was really cold….I think for two weeks straight the temperatures hovered in the teens and twenties. We were content staying inside. On weekends, we have been watching movies, reading, practicing sight words, playing board games, and overall just not rushing through the day. It’s been a nice change of pace….nothing extradorinaiy, but ordinary and great!
The Tooth Fairy came to visit Avery! She lost her first tooth!! Her two bottom teeth were loose…one on the verge of falling out with her adult tooth coming in behind it. So when we were out Saturday night and she came running home from the Gladwells (during the ten minutes I had run home with Harper) with Justin because her tooth had just fallen out, I thought for sure it was the looser of the two teeth. Turns out it was not…and it had fallen out when she ran into a pillow…yes, a pillow…a hard one apparently! She was visibly upset at first but as the hour passed by, she was pretty proud of her accomplishment!
Prior to the start of last year’s school year, I had contemplated signing Avery and Emerson up for Daisies (Girl Scouts for kindergarteners). In the end I decided against it, primarily because I thought it would conflict with a gymnastics class, one in which I was not able to sign them up for due to limited capacity. For several months, they kept asking me about Daisies and I told them I would sign them up for next year if they were still interested then. When several months later, they were still expressing interest, I decided to contact the troop leader. While that troop was full, another kindergarten troop had recently formed. They started going in February twice a month and they LOVE it! This past weekend was the end of the year celebration in which both kindergarten troops joined forces at Camp Crowell. I was in such a rush to get out of the house that I had forgotten their vests that Justin had ironed patches on that morning. I was so upset with myself for having forgotten them. Emerson who in the past probably would have been upset for me having forgotten them, simply said, “It’s okay mom, we don’t need them.” I guess she is learning the meaning of those Daisy petals!
There is a little boy in Harper’s class…Ricky also referred to “Rick-o” by Harper. Harper has talked about Ricky all year long, frequently referring to him proudly as her boyfriend. She rarely mentions any other boys unless it is in reference to one of them having a birthday that week. She told Justin and I separately that she kissed Ricky last week at school. When we further asked her about it last night in front of Avery and Emerson, she proudly chanted and danced around the room “I kissed Ricky”. She thought she was something else. These two pictures were taken by Ms. Miller last week. I think she really may have kissed her boy crush!
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!
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!
