Skating Lessons

Another way we kept the kids busy this winter: ice skating lessons.  Both kids had been skating before and Henry had previously taken “mommy and me” lessons, but this was the kids’ first time on their own with an instructor.  We must say, they both did a great job—arguably the stars of their class.  Henry is fairly comfortable skating on his own, and Vivian quickly learned to march and glide while mostly staying upright.  Next up is Snow Plow Sam II starting in May.  Hopefully we’ll all be skating on our own next winter–or at least well enough to help dad.

 

  

Cures for Cabin Fever

Keeping the kids occupied during the bleak winter months is always a challenge, especially with a season like this past year’s (we were still receiving snow and freezing rain in late March).  To keep from going stir crazy, we got out of the house when we could.  Museums are always a good bet, and two of our favorites are the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History and the Port Discovery children’s museum in Baltimore.  We visited both and learned that the kids have a curious interest in Egyptology and mummies (see below).  Our diversions weren’t limited to indoor activities: on milder weekends, we ventured outdoors for visits to Great Falls Park (near the Potomac River) and Huntley Meadows Park in Fairfax County.  Both excursions were a little slushy from the melting snow but provided some much needed fresh air.  Our trip to Great Falls was particularly memorable for the post-hike dinner and drinks we had at The Old Brogue Irish pub in the town of Great Falls.  As the season drew to a close, we even had a few spring-like weekends.  One particularly fine Saturday in March, Bryant and Henry paid a visit to the Mount Vernon Estate and learned all about our nation’s first president.  Bryant was impressed with Henry’s interest in the various historical exhibits and spent a lot of time answering questions like: who was the shortest president (John Adams) and who was the tallest president (Abe Lincoln).  Below are some photos from our various late winter/early spring outings. 

 

Dinosaurs and mummies at the Smithsonian

 

 

More mummies and water play at Port Discovery

 

Nature walk at Huntley Meadows Park

 

 

Family hike at Great Falls Park

 

 

Father and son fieldtrip to Mount Vernon Estate

Sledding Fun

As you can see from the videos below, the kids—and Bryant—had a great time perfecting their sledding skills this winter.  It didn’t hurt that the Winter Olympics (think bobsleigh and luge) were running at the same time.  Hope everyone appreciates the sled-cam action: it wasn’t easy to produce!

 

Valentine's Day 2014

We're getting accustomed to school projects.  This week's assignment was to construct a container for Valentine's Day cards.  Inspired by one of his new favorite movies, Henry decided to make a minion container.  Elise found some examples online and the rest was from our imagination.  As you can see, the final result wasn't half bad.

Snow Days

At some point we lost count of how many delayed starts/snow days we’ve had this winter.  Suffice to say it was many—way too many.  The first 2-3 snow days are always fun: lazy mornings by the fire and afternoons playing outside.  After that, the shoveling, bored children and missed work grows tiresome.  The biggest challenge is keeping the kids occupied.  There’s always TV, but after a while, even that has diminishing returns.  After the first few snowfalls, Bryant ordered some plastic sleds from Amazon.  A park around the corner has a mid-sized hill that is perfect for junior sledding.  After one particularly icy storm, we even sledded down our street (see below).  When we weren’t romping in the snow, we passed the time playing board games (Candy Land, Chutes and Ladders and Hedbanz are popular in our house), baking (see Snow Day Baking) and enjoying happy hours with our neighbors (whose families were similarly stir crazy).  So far, no make-up days have been ordered, but if we keep up at the current pace, the kids made be looking at a shortened spring break or summer vacation.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Disney World 2014

Like lemmings to the sea, we marched off to Orlando in January for what has become our annual visit to the House of Mouse.  This trip was significantly shorter than past visits.  With Henry in Kindergarten, we’ve had to limit our travels to school breaks.   A teacher in-service day tacked onto the long MLK weekend provided a four-day window for our yearly Disney fix.  We could visit during spring break or summer, but as experienced WDW travelers, we knew to avoid those high crowd seasons.  As an added bonus, Mimi and Paw Paw joined us for the long weekend.

The weather was unusually cold for Orlando, which made for some chilly mornings at the resort bus stop but also helped keep the crowd levels down (MLK weekend is a popular time for Floridians to visit).  Despite the compressed time frame, we hit all of our favorite attractions/restaurants: Cinderella’s Royal Table, Pirates of the Caribbean, Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique, Soarin’, Maelstrom, and Oktoberfest in Germany.  We also returned to the Be Our Guest restaurant for dinner and were lucky enough to be seated in the mysterious West Wing.  Henry graduated to the grown-up roller coasters on this trip and tackled both Expedition Everest (Animal Kingdom) and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad (Magic Kingdom).  The former proved a bit too scary—not so much the coaster as the Yeti that jumps out at the end.  However, his favorite ride remains the Barnstormer in Magic Kingdom (check out the video below).  Vivian was fortunate—very fortunate—to meet two of her favorite princesses: Anna and Elsa from Frozen.  We heard the wait to see them could be as long as five (5) hours!  Miraculously, the line moved faster than anticipated, and it only took about 50 mins for Vivian’s turn.  She was the last visit before Elsa went home for the day—we were that close.  Mimi and Paw Paw gamely joined us for what they figured (between visits with kids and grand kids) to be their 20th+ trip to WDW.  We packed a lot into those three days.  On our last night in the park, we stayed until 9pm and saw Main Street Electrical Parade—something we have never done before.

 

 

 

 

 

 

And check out these videos from our trip:

New Year's in Huntsville

Morris cousins photo-op

We flew to Huntsville at the end of Christmas break to visit with Uncle Kevin, Aunt Templa and the girls.  Mimi Joanne drove up from Mobile to be with us.  We discovered that Baby Regan is no longer a baby and is very fond of her uncle; she climbed right up into Bryant's lap.  As always, Henry and Vivian enjoyed seeing their older cousins.  While we were in town, we visited the local children’s museum and all went to the movies one afternoon (Walking with Dinosaurs for Henry, Micah and Rylan and Frozen for Vivian and Regan).  Mimi bravely agreed to watch all five grandchildren one evening while Bryant, Elise, Kevin and Templa went for dinner and drinks with their cousins Carrie and Quitman Turner.  We are especially grateful to our Alabama peeps for introducing us to the Nook, which we later learned is ranked as one of the best bars in the country.  Below are some photos of our brief visit to Huntsville.