Human Hungry Hippos

This month's pack meeting was going to be a fun one. The prep work wasn't too bad either. Every leader brought what was needed and all was set. My den leaders are great and our new Cubmaster, Brother Doyle, is fantastic. After the awards were given out, he explained the rules to the boys. They were divided into teams and some adults were needed to push the boys out of the dollies to grab the balloons with small laundry baskets. Jason teamed up with one of the Webelos leaders to help Brendan's team.

The boys had and absolute BLAST! So many smiles and so much fun to be had!

 They played two rounds and then everyone, including little siblings, got to run out and pop all the balloons. Paige didn't like the loud popping.

Then clean up commenced and I was amazed at how fast it went. Parents commented on how this was one awesome pack meeting before leaving as well. Its times like this that I really like being part of Scouts.

Clothes

This girl doesn't like clothes. I found her like this in the backyard. At least I can convince her to wear them when we go out.

Easter

Despite speaking profusely about the real reason for Easter, the kids were most excited about Easter baskets. This year I went simple and I'm glad. They each got a book and some candy. I made a special brunch of stuffed French toast with strawberries for the occasion. It was yummy but added to the sugar factor. Before church I found this little girl on the table, with the French toast topping bowl and a spoon. Sigh. That girl.

I forgot to get a picture of the Easter outfits until we were in the car so this will have to do. The whole crazy gang on our way to church.

Church service later was wonderful. I am glad that Easter is always on a Sunday. Paige's Sunbeam teacher posted this cute picture of her class and telling how much she loved them. I'm grateful for good Primary teachers.

The weather was beautiful and our backyard tree is blooming. It is nice to see evidence of Spring.  And what a pretty daughter I have.

After church we went over to the Maney's house for Easter dinner. The invited the Thompsons and us. What a great time. Sister Maney taught the kids a small lesson about Easter and then we ate and they went off to play. As I was lamenting to her about the current challenges we are having with Paige she assured me that she had one like that, and that he turned out to be a quick witted, bright and creative student and that it would be fine. Her child's name is Landon. The funny thing is that later Paige came inside to tell me, "I love Landon. He's my best friend." Of course. :)

Happy Easter everyone! May you remember all that Christ has done for you!

The Best Laid Plans

We knew we wanted to go to Washington DC for part of Spring Break. We haven't been as a family since we moved here. It looked like Friday was going to be our best day. Since the weather looked rainy in the morning we figured less people would be there and traffic would be less. The kids were very excited, especially Brendan. We promised them we'd visit one of the Smithsonian Museums. Jason and I were excited to see the cherry blossoms as it was almost festival time.

Well, we were very wrong about the lack of people. Not being Catholic, and Jason having taken the week off already, I hadn't factored in Good Friday and the fact that LOTS of people get that day off. Traffic was bad. We tried for over half an hour to find parking. Finally, Jason (the driver) was so exasperated that we decided we had to go home and try again the next day.  We got this sole picture of the blossoms.

Brendan was devastated. The girls were sad too since they wanted to have an adventure that day. We tried to make it a bit fun by eating out for lunch (Famous Dave's - YUM!) but the kids were still disappointed.

The next day we promised the kids that we would try to find parking again and if we couldn't, we would park at a metro station and ride in. But a friend had given me advice on a close but not too expensive parking garage and we arrived early enough that it was not full. Yay!

We decided to see the American History Museum. It is HUGE and we only got to see a small part of it before they were worn out. We saw a dental chair of the first dentist to use x-rays, Rodney Mullen's skateboard and Frank Sinatra's hat from Singing in the Rain. 

We also went through the Thomas Edison exhibit. 

Paige was running low on energy and it was almost lunchtime. 

However, before we left we made sure to see the sunstone that was on the second floor. It was neat to see that bit of Mormon heritage there.

Its hard to go to a museum with little ones who cannot read yet as they just run from place to place anyway. But we will be here for years so I'm sure we will get more out of it as time progresses.

We exited the museum and let the kids run around a bit on the lawn.

We ate from a food truck that was actually quite good. We discovered that Eva likes gyro. The kids ate all their food. We were sitting on a grassy area outside and suddenly I couldn't see Paige. After a short walk I found her, picking tulips outside the museum. Arrgghhh! After a talk about "leaving the flowers alone so other people could enjoy them" we took off to walk to the Washington Monument.

Foot traffic was bad but once we got to the monument and the grassy park below there was lots of space and lots to see. The cherry blossoms were gorgeous and the day was lovely.

 

Unfortunately, after a while, the kids invaded a small birthday party in the park and we had to go fetch them and walk back to the car. Never a dull moment.

Springtime at Belvoir

The blossoms are divine!

Community Easter Egg Hunt

The housing offices on post are always doing fun things for the residents and Spring Break was no exception. Each village had their own Easter Egg Hunt on Thursday. Ours was split into age groups. Jason went with Paige in the littlest one, I was with Darby in the next and Brendan and Eva were alone in the big kids one. They were all within sight range of each other though. One of the officiator shade the mistake of telling the big kids where there hunt was before he mentioned that it wasn't yo start yet. They all ran their and swooped down on the eggs before he could rein them back in. They were told to put them back and wait, which I could tell just killed them.

The littlest kids had their hunt first. Apparently Paige found quite an egg cache. She came back with a bucketful.

 The Easter Bunny was kind of creepy and not many kids wanted anything to do with him.

Darby's group had a hard time waiting and was beyond antsy when they finally got the go- ahead. It was over in about five minutes. It was fun to watch. 

Then the big kids' hunt was to begin. It was at the playground. They were all tensed and ready. When they got to go, most of them leapt over the fence. The little kids watched the madness.

It was complete chaos for two minutes and turn the eggs were wiped out. I didn't see any kid with many eggs. Brendan and Eva each had less than 8. That was a hard pill got Brendan to swallow when he saw Paige's bucketful.

But we all had a good time and got to spend time with the Thompsons. Thank you Villages of Belvoir. 

King B

The girls made a crown for everyone today. Even Buddy. Sweet, patient, long- suffering Buddy.

Wood Theater

Since we live on post we decided to try out all the wonderful amenities it has to offer. The movie theater was having a lunch matinee over Spring Break. I thought that was just a movie around lnchtime so imagine our surprise when popcorn and a meal were included in the price. We paid 36 dollars for dinner and a movie for a family of six. Sweet!!

The theater is nice enough but not huge (just one screen). It's not luxurious but clean and neat. We were there to see Kung Fu Panda 3, which was tons of fun, by the way. But the most unique thing is that before the movie they played the National Anthem while showing still shots of soldiers in action. Everyone in the theater stood and put their hands over their hearts. It was actually quite moving. 

Living on Fort Belvoir is proving to be pretty nice. There's still the pool, archery range and the golf course. :)

First Easter Egg Hunt

Our Relief Society President, Sister Maney, has an Easter egg hunt at her house every year. She invites the primary kids and their families and so we decided to go. The Maneys are great people. Paige remembered their house from a birthday party that we had attended there earlier in the year. She kept saying that she wanted to go to the "playhouse" I told her that we would be hunting eggs soon and to stay in the house. Well, as I should have expected, she snuck out. Daddy Jason found her playing on the outside toys, with empty eggs all around her. Yep, she had found, and eaten the contents of about 10 eggs. That girl!!

Back in the house, I was surprised at how many people came. There were a TON of kids just waiting with baited breath to hunt some eggs.

She had different areas set up for the different age groups. Jason went with the bigs and I went with the littles. 

Eva found her eggs quickly and went back to help a friend. What a sweetie.

When I later saw Brendan he had his bucket on his head. I asked where his eggs were. He pointed on top of his head. I could see disaster in the future but he thought it was funny.

Until he slid down the slide and the bucket came off his head, dumping all his eggs done the slide and breaking some open at the bottom. I made him abandon the unwrapped things like jelly beans in the dirt. That put him in a bad mood for the remainder of the morning.

We ate brunch at the Maneys and sat and chatted with members of our ward. It was a good get-to-know-you time. We had to rein in Brendan a few times when he freaked out about lost candy and taken toys. Paige spent most of her time on the trampoline (having won over a few of the older boys to let her have more turns than anyone else). Darby played with the toys inside and Eva walked around with her friends.

When it came time to leave we had to clean up and round up the kids. They were not excited to leave. I guess that means they had a great time, right? :)

Science Fair and STEM Night

At FBES,  fourth graders do science fair projects. I knew Brendan would be excited at the idea but that the follow-through would not be as much fun. Luckily these projects were not ranked and awarded like the fifth and sixth graders but they were still a grade. We have been working on the project for a month now. After much trauma deciding what his topic would be (he had some grand plans that we just didn't have the resources for - corrosive acid, anyone?), he settled on a rust experiment. With guidance, it came together rather well. I hoped to teach him more about project planning than science, since he's got that well in hand.

Last Wednesday was the Science Fair and STEM Night. First we saw the upper grades' projects. I was amazed. Science fair projects have come a long way since I did one. I mean, there was one project about NASA and orbits. Then we saw the lower grade projects. We ran into Brendan's teacher there. She said his in-class presentation went well. We found his project display too.

Apparently even the younger grades did projects, though they completed them with their class. Darby found her class' project. :)

Then we went in the gym for the activities. It was fun but crowded. The kids got to experiment with all kinds of stuff - from surface tension to velocity to astronomy. It was another great family night.

No More Diapers

We are almost there! Paige is finally having potty training success. I tried just about everything but she's very stubborn and doesn't care if she's wet. We went from pull-ups to cloth hoping that feeling the wetness would help. Nope. We've been working at this for months and months. I decided that we had nothing to lose by just putting her in underwear and riding it out. I was already cleaning up pee anyway. I realized that she does so much better with a positive but relatively hands off approach. I set a timer for one hour and every hour she had to sit in the potty. I played up the "big girl" angle. Keep in mind I'd tried this all before but she must not have been ready.

For the past six days she's only had three accidents. She even went through three hours of church dry and goes to the restroom in her own now. As a reward for so many dry days she got her new toy (which had been a "carrot" for over 4 months). She's so proud of herself. And we are so are we. Yay!!

3.14

Treats for FHE were ice cream pies in honor of National Pi(e) Day. Brendan thought this punny "holiday" was great.

Air and Space Museum

Last weekend we went with the Thompsons to the Air and Space Museum. We had been before years ago and when Jason told Nick about the SR71 Blackbird in exhibit there, they decided we all needed to go. Here's all the kiddos by the place that Jason "would give a small digit to be able to fly".

 It IS one awesome museum. Personally I think the space section is the most fascinating. There was even an astronaut there giving a presentation. The boys kind of drifted off with the two husbands, leaving Erica and I with all the little girls. At least Paige and Sohvi decided that they were great friends today.

 The girls put on some parts of a spacesuit and we learned that the suit, in total, weighs over 300lbs.

We also saw the space shuttle Discovery, which is SO VERY cool!

Later we found the menfolk again and ran across the Enola Gay exhibit. Pretty amazing.

It was hard to really enjoy the exhibit with 8 kids (most of whom can't read yet) but it was still an enjoyable time. And it's free so we can go back again many times if we want. 

Afterwards they went home because Viktor wasn't feeling well but we went out to lunch. I got my first taste of Famous Dave's. Oh. My. Goodness! I had the best BBQ brisket I have ever had. Everything was really, really good. I think I need an excuse to go back really soon. . . and on a regular basis. ;)

When we got home, Buddy was on the couch again. I guess if that's his only "bad dog" behavior, I can deal with it.