St. Patrick's Day 2014

Each year our neighbors host an elaborate St. Patrick’s Day party complete with beer kegs, a moon bounce and Irish music and dancing.  This is always a great occasion to reconnect with neighbors after a long winter hibernating indoors.  Despite a really rough winter, the weather this weekend was perfect—sunny and seventy degrees.  Below are some photos of the kids and us enjoying the festivities.  Just to be clear, the keg in the picture below is filled with rootbeer.  Slàinte!

 

  

 

 

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!

 

November Happenings

Mimi Joanne visited in early November to attend “Special Persons” (a.k.a. Grandparents) Day at Vivi’s school.  Mimi got to see some of Vivi’s artwork and also heard a special concert performed by the 4A class.  While she was in town, Mimi also took Vivian to the American Girl store in Tyson’s Corner to select an early birthday present.  Having studied the AG catalogue at home, Vivian had no trouble picking out the red party dress she wanted for herself and her doll.  Mimi’s visit also coincided with Bryant’s 42nd birthday, which we celebrated with a family dinner at Clyde’s.  Also in November, we finally got around to ordering Henry a twin bed.  It was long overdue; for months he has been hanging off the side of his toddler bed.  No sooner had we set up Henry’s new bedroom furniture than Vivian started asking for a “big girl” bed.   Before the weather got too cold, we also managed to squeeze in some outdoor ice skating at Pentagon Row.  Henry was able to skate on his own, and Vivian did pretty well with the help of some special double blade “training” skates (see below).  Finally, at the end of the month, we celebrated Vivi’s fourth birthday.  We decided to hold her party after the Thanksgiving break (more about that to follow), but marked the special day with breakfast at Krispy Kreme.  

  

  

 

Father's Day 2013

As a special Father’s Day treat, Henry and Vivian took Bryant to the local Krispy Kreme for breakfast.  Apparently other children had the same idea, because the place was filled with dads and their families.  We first watched the doughnuts being made on the special doughnut conveyor belt (that curtain of icing is mesmerizing) and then ordered a box of hot doughnuts for ourselves.  The cashiers gave the kids hats and balloons, and we all proceeded to get a huge sugar rush.  Below are pictures from our morning out.

 

 

Bake-Off at the O.K. Corral

While the kids were preparing for their Christmas concerts, Bryant was enjoying his office holiday party (western-themed this year!).  After some hesitation (and a fair amount of ribbing from Elise), he decided to enter the annual staff bake-off.  That meant cooking until midnight and getting up at 5am to apply the finishing touches.  But the effort paid off: his chocolate framboise (a chocolate bomb covered in whipped cream and raspberries) won first place!  Bryant was very proud but a little annoyed that folks kept asking if his wife made the dessert.  You can keep up with Bryant’s culinary successes (and failures) at his new blog: Mercy Buckets—Adventures in (Mostly) French Cooking.  Check it out!