Spoooky Time

Henry loves Halloween and all things “spooky.”  At the first sign of Fall, he began asking if we could carve pumpkins and break out the Halloween decorations.  Under Henry’s direction, we added a hanging skeleton, gravestones, and an inflatable ghost to our front yard display.  For pumpkin carving, we decided it was best to avoid knives and stick with the “Mr. Potato Head method” again this year.  As you can see, Henry enjoyed making a pirate jack-o-lantern.  The pumpkins were so big, Bryant had to use his electric drill to make holes for the eyes and ears.  Although he had asked to be a skeleton, Henry decided at the last minute to switch to Spider-Man.  Fortunately, he received a Spider-Man costume for his birthday.  Vivian chose to be Minnie Mouse and made a valiant effort at wearing her mouse ears for at least part of the evening.

On Halloween night, we met up with our friends the Mates for some neighborhood trick-or-treating.  Halloween is always a big event where we live, and this year one family had a particularly impressive Harry Potter display.  They used plywood cutouts to transform the front of their house into Hogwarts and enlisted friends to dress-up like Professors Dumbledore, McGonagall and Snape.  They even had a Sorting Hat to assign the neighborhood children to different houses!  Henry wasn’t so sure about the hat and just watched from the sidewalk, but we’re thinking he would have been a Slytherin.

 

  

Fall Fun

October was filled with fun Fall activities.  Over Columbus Day weekend, we made an excursion to Sperryville, Virginia near the entrance to the Shenandoah National Park to shop for a new dining room table.  We’ve been wanting a farm table for years and finally decided it was time. After some research, we found a furniture maker in Sperryville who is going to build an Irish immigrant table for us – he promises it will be ready for Christmas!

That same weekend, we ventured to Cox Farms in Centerville, VA for the mother of all Fall festivals.  We usually visit the pumpkin patch at Butler’s Orchard in Germantown, Maryland but decided to try Cox Farms this year.  While it was bigger and more elaborate, Cox Farms was also much more crowded and somehow not as quaint as Butler's.  We missed getting to pick pumpkins from an actual pumpkin patch (as opposed to a stall on the way to the parking lot).  Next year we’ll head back to Butler’s.  

 

  

Later in October we returned to Claude Moore Colonial Farm for their Fall market fair (think Colonial Williamsburg meets Renaissance Fair).  We explored the old tobacco farmstead, visited the toymaker's booth (Henry chose a clay bird whistle and Vivian chose a rag doll), and enjoyed a delicious lunch of grilled sausages, meat pie and ale.

   

Finally, toward the end of the month, we went to Disney on Ice at the Patriot Center.  To Henry’s dismay and Vivian’s delight, the theme this year was Disney Princesses.  A busy month, and we hadn’t even begun Halloween celebrations!

London 2011

Having survived several natural disasters, Henry’s four-year-old birthday party, and a new school transition, we were ready for a break.  Fortunately, we had a superb family vacation lined up.  In early September we traveled to London to see the sights, drink good beer and visit with old friends.  As an added bonus, Mimi Pauline joined us for the week!  Below are pictures and a detailed account of our journey.

Day One: After several hours’ delay at Dulles Airport (note: never travel on the anniversary of September 11th), we finally boarded our Virgin Atlantic flight for London.  Henry and Vivian did great in the airport, and the one upside of the delay was that, by the time we finally departed, it was so late both kids fell asleep right away.  Henry had his own seat, but Vivian was still sitting in our lap for the journey, which meant Bryant and Elise didn’t get much rest.  We awoke (or at least opened our eyes) in London and made our way to Bayswater, where we had rented a flat for the week. 

Day Two: At the flat we met up with Mimi Pauline and spent the first day settling into our new surroundings.  The flat was ideal: just a few blocks from Hyde Park and Notting Hill, with lots of space (by London standards) and even a small courtyard in the back.  The owners had made the place as kid-friendly as possible: we had toys and children’s books at our disposal as well as a high chair, pack-n-play and stroller.  However, as we unpacked, we made a terrible discovery.  Apparently we had left our entire collection of children’s DVDs (about 75 in total) on the plane from Washington.  Bryant made a round of frantic calls to the airline and Heathrow lost property, but no one had any helpful information. We resigned ourselves to the grim possibility that our DVDs were lost forever.

Later that day, we took the kids to the nearby Princess Diana Memorial Playground, which is designed around a Peter Pan theme.  A few weeks before our vacation, we rented the Disney animated film version from Netflix so the kids could get familiar with the story – and London.  Both Henry and Vivian fell in love with the film and watched it repeatedly before our trip.  At the playground, Henry couldn’t wait to take off his shoes, splash in the water with the crocodile, and climb the wooden pirate ship. He and Bryant spent most of the afternoon pretending to be Peter Pan (Henry) and Captain Hook (Bryant), chasing each other around the ship and occasionally rescuing Wendy (Vivian).

 

In the evening, after the kids were washed and fed, Bryant met up with his friends Matt Rees and Sean Flanagan for a pint (or two) at the local pub.  It was great to catch up, reminisce about old (A&O) times, and reflect on how much has changed.

Day Three: We spent our first day out in Westminster.  While Elise and Pauline toured the Abbey, Bryant and the kids visited the London Aquarium, which was surprisingly good.  Both kids were mesmerized by the floor-to-ceiling tanks of sharks, rays, crocodiles and even penguins.  We were fortunate to have near perfect weather all week—high 60s and lots of sunshine—and this day was particularly nice.  In the afternoon, we met up for lunch at Giraffe restaurant, strolled back along the river and ate ice cream.  We hadn’t planned to ride the London Eye but got inspired by the fine weather and took a quick turn on the giant Ferris wheel for some amazing views of the city.

 

 

Day Four: We headed into the City on day four to visit the Tower of London.  Elise and Pauline joined the Yoeman Warders for a guided tour of the tower grounds, while Bryant kept the kids occupied watching the royal guards and chasing the famous tower ravens.  Pauline particularly enjoyed seeing the crown jewels, while Henry’s favorite was the castle armory.  After lunch at the castle, the weather turned blustery, and we had a cold and wet ride back to Westminster Pier on the Thames water taxi (it turns out the “covered” boat wasn’t exactly weatherproof).  Fortunately, the sun quickly returned and we spent the rest of the afternoon at the “Peter Pan playground” (as the kids now called it). 

 

 Day Five:  We left the flat early and made our way to Buckingham Palace for a tour of the State Rooms.  Before the tour, we had a morning picnic at the Queen Victoria fountain.  Then it was off to the palace (by the side door, of course) to see the Grand Staircase, the Throne Room, the Ballroom and an endless series of drawing rooms (Blue, White, etc.).  It was a lovely fall day, and the palace staff had opened up the windows to let in the fresh air.  About halfway through the tour, as we were admiring Kate’s wedding dress, Henry announced that he had to poop.  Apparently the Queen doesn’t share her bathroom with visitors, so Bryant and Henry made their way to the temporary toilets in the rear the palace.  After the tour, we all enjoyed tea and ice cream on the palace veranda and took a stroll through the gardens.  We caught the changing of the guard (which Vivian really enjoyed; see below) on our way back to St. James’s Park (where we found yet another great playground).  In the evening, we visited our friends Sean and Joy Flanagan and their daughter Iyla at their flat in Pimlico and swapped parenting war stories over curry takeaway.

 

 

Day Six: We headed to Waterloo Station and caught a commuter train to Hampton Court to visit the renaissance palace of King Henry VIII.  While Elise and Pauline toured King Henry’s apartments, Bryant and the kids explored (and soon got lost in) the palace hedge maze.  After lunch, the children napped in their strollers while the adults enjoyed some quiet time walking in the palace gardens.  As you can see, the weather was absolutely gorgeous that day.  We lingered until almost sunset and then prepared to head back, only to discover that Henry had dropped his silky (blanket) somewhere in the palace.  The helpful staff put out an APB over their two-way radios, and we soon recovered the missing blanket, narrowly averting disaster. Later that evening, after the kids had gone to bed, Pauline kindly manned the fort while Elise and Bryant slipped out for a drink.  It wasn’t exactly like old times in London, but it was close.

 

 

Day Seven: For our last day, we decided to stick around Kensington.  In the morning, we all walked to the Peter Pan statue near the Serpentine.  Afterward, Bryant, Elise and the kids visited the Natural History Museum while Pauline did some souvenir shopping.  On the way back from the museum, the kids napped in their strollers and Bryant and Elise enjoyed some adult time in the park.  We met up with Pauline at the Peter Pan playground and spent the remaining moments of our vacation watching the kids play.

 

 

Day Eight: Our stay in London was over too soon.  We packed our bags and headed to the airport, where we said good bye to Mimi Pauline and prepared to board our flight to Washington.  On a whim, Bryant asked the check-in attendant about our missing DVDs.  After a few telephone calls, the airline staff determined that our case was in the Heathrow lost property office!  Bryant made a mad dash to the basement of the terminal and, after some tense back and forth, finally recovered the DVDs.  Thanks to the abundant entertainment options, the kids were (mostly) content on the flight back, and we arrived home safely and soundly…and promptly fell asleep at 7pm.

Click below for more photos from the trip:

Transitions

After four happy years at the SEC child care center, we decided to move the children to a new school closer to home.   After Labor Day, Henry started in classroom 4A (preschool) and Vivian started in classroom 2A (toddlers) at St. Anthony’s Day School in Old Town Alexandria.  Both kids have been at the SEC since they were infants, so it was not an easy decision to switch schools.  But we were looking for a five-year-old Pre-K program for Henry (given his late birthday, we will likely hold him back a year), and St. Anthony’s came highly recommended.  Although privately owned and operated, it is modeled on the parochial school system (the children wear uniforms, say morning prayers, etc.).  Initially, we were only planning to switch Henry.  However, once Henry got a spot, Vivian went to the top of the waitlist with sibling priority.

We always knew it might be a tough transition, and in the end, it turned out to be just as hard, if not harder, than we expected.  Henry had a particularly rough time adjusting to the new environment.  He had been with many of the same children since he was a baby.  Vivian had an easier time, but even she had a tearful first week.  And it wasn’t just the kids: Bryant had to adjust to commuting to work by himself and no longer socializing with fellow parents during morning drop off. 

By the end of the first week, Henry was really unhappy and saying he didn’t want to go back.  We feared we might be facing a long adjustment.  St. Anthony’s has “nanny cams” in the classroom which allow you to watch the children from your computer.  Worried about our little guy, we spent many anxious moments monitoring Henry’s progress.  At one point, Elise called Bryant to say that Henry was sitting alone, looking sad.  We watched online for several minutes and fretted over what to do.  Then the child stood up, and we realized that it wasn’t Henry. At that point, we decided to take a step back and be patient with the process.

In the end, it wasn’t so bad.  Over the second week, things got much easier.  By Wednesday, Henry and Vivian had stopped crying during the day.  By the following week, the teachers began remarking on how loud Henry’s voice could be—the kind of feedback we were used to hearing!

A month into their new school, both children are doing great.  Henry is making progress with his letters and numbers and even surprised us by reciting the blessing one night at dinner.  Vivian also is doing well and has been adding new words to her vocabulary every day.  Thanks to her brother, she can say “spider-man” and “pirate ship.”  We’re pleased with the new school and enjoying the convenience of having the kids closer to home.  Fortunately, many of the children at St. Anthony’s go on to Kindergarten at St. Mary’s (our parish school), so hopefully the next transition won’t be so dramatic.

Below is a picture of Henry receiving a group hug from his teacher and friends on his last day at the SEC. We will miss our Harbor buddies!

Earthquakes, Birthdays and Other Natural Disasters

At approximately 2pm on August 23^rd—Henry’s birthday—a rare 5.8 magnitude earthquake shook Washington, DC.  The quake lasted several seconds and resulted in only minor damage to the area (the exceptions being the National Cathedral and the Washington Monument, both of which sustained some structural damage; also, part of the ceiling in our church collapsed, severing an arm on the main crucifix).  The most immediate collateral damage to us was that the kids had to be evacuated from their daycare center in the middle of afternoon nap.  By the time we got home (after spending most of the afternoon camped outside SEC headquarters), they were both tired and cranky.  Henry cheered up after opening his birthday presents.   He’s been infatuated with Spider-Man for several months, and he got plenty of Spidey-wear for his birthday, including a full body costume, light-up shoes, and snow boots (thank you, Mimi Mimi Pauline!).  

Henry’s birthday party was scheduled for the following Saturday.  He requested a Spider-Man party (naturally) and, as entertainment, we booked a live reptile demonstration.  However, Mother Nature decided to wreak havoc with our plans.  Hurricane Irene began churning up the East Coast on Friday and was scheduled to arrive in the Washington, DC area by Saturday evening.  With the storm bearing down, we frantically rescheduled the party for Saturday morning.  Unfortunately, the rain began just as the party started, so we had to move everyone indoors.  It was a tight squeeze, but the kids seemed to have a good time nonetheless.  The reptile demonstration was awesome: the instructor brought lizards, turtles, frogs, a tarantula and a Burmese python for the kids to see and touch.  As the birthday boy, Henry got to help the instructor hold the animals.  Afterward, we all had BBQ, hotdogs and, of course, Spider-man cake.  We were fortunate that our friend, Christine Lee, kindly offered to assist with the party logistics.  Without her help, we would have never survived a house full of preschoolers and live reptiles in the middle of a hurricane!  As an added bonus, Mimi Joanne and Paw Paw Bill drove straight through from Mobile to attend the party and helped us weather the storm (which, in the end, was only “a little rain storm”—as Paw Paw predicted).

 

  

Below are some additional photos from the party:

New Castle Redux

We returned to New Castle, Pennsylvania at the beginning of August for the wedding of Elise’s cousin, Jimmy Janacone.  We went back and forth about whether to break up the drive (about 7 hrs).  In the end, we decided to drive straight through to New Castle.  Overall, the kids did really well in the car and were mostly content to read and play with their toys (although we had the DVD player standing by just in case).  Still, it was a long haul to western Pennsylvania.  Between rest stops on the turnpike, Henry decided he needed to use the potty.  We asked him to wait and he replied: “I’m worried.  The poop is talking to me.  It says it’s time to come out.”  So, we immediately pulled over and dug out the travel potty from the trunk (note to self: never, ever leave home without it).  We arrived at the hotel sometime after 1am and transferred the kids to the room.  Somehow Vivian bit herself while sleeping, and we turned on the lights to find her lip swollen and bleeding.  She didn’t seem too bothered (just a little confused), so after icing down her lip and making sure there was no more blood, we all crawled into bed.

In New Castle, after some much needed rest, we had lunch with Tweety and Denny Richards and their granddaughter Kathy.  Later, we saw the extended New Castle family at Jimmy’s wedding. During the reception, Henry enjoyed making multiple trips to the “cookie table,” and both Henry and Vivian spent a good amount of time on the dance floor.  Vivian, in particular, did not want to stop dancing. (You can see some additional photos of the dancefloor action here.)

Before heading home on Sunday, we stopped at the Living Treasures petting zoo in New Castle.  We thought this would be a quick detour.  It turned out to be the best zoo we’ve ever visited!  The kids were able to pet and feed most of the animals (deer, kangaroos, camels, monkeys and birds), and there was a horse-drawn safari ride with zebra, ostriches, and water buffalo.  At the lion enclosure, the male lion was sleeping on its back right next to the glass.  As you can see from the picture below, you don’t get much closer to a lion without becoming lunch!  We got a late start driving back, but the kids had so much fun at the zoo, they slept for over three hours in the car. Sometimes the best days out are the unplanned ones.

 

  

 

 

Dog Days of Summer

July was busy and very, very hot.  In fact, it was the hottest July on record in the Washington DC area, with temperatures regularly in the high 90s and sometimes exceeding 100 with the humidity.  Despite the heat and increasingly ferocious mosquitoes, the kids enjoyed playing in their new backyard.  The swings have gotten much use, as has the plastic kiddy pool that we bought at Walmart for $12.  Vivian is particularly fond of stripping to her diaper and taking a dip.

Over the month, we welcomed several visitors to our new home.  In early July, Mimi Pauline drove down from Michigan and brought several pieces of antique furniture for our living room.  Thank you, Mimi Pauline!  She also gave us a new handheld vacuum, which Bryant quickly fell in love with it, much to Elise’s scorn.

At the end of the month, the Baker-Brown family (Dawn, Emily and Alexander – we missed you Stokes!) paid a visit.  To keep cool, we hung out at the pool and went for a boat ride on the Potomac.  At noon, the local river boat company does a pirated-themed cruise around Alexandria Harbor, which involved donning eye patches, brandishing plastic swords and accosting the local yachtsmen with “Ahoy, there!  We be Potomac pirates. Prepare to be boarded. Aaaaargh.”  Not sure if it was the heat or the ridiculous pirate costumes, but Henry didn’t seem too impressed.  He did, however, enjoy spending time with his cousins, and was particularly excited to show Alexander his action figures, cars and dinosaurs.

 

Between visits, we also celebrated July 4^th with friends from our daycare center, hosted a BBQ with the Powell family, and celebrated our fifth wedding anniversary.  To mark our anniversary, we had dinner (sans kids) at the Columbia Firehouse restaurant in Old Town.  There was a slight break in the heat, and we were able to eat on the restaurant terrace.  It was a nice, low-key meal, during which we enjoyed trading smug comments about the childless couples seated next to us.  They seemed blissfully unaware of what lay ahead!  Afterward, we strolled down to the river where Alexandria city was having its founder’s day fireworks celebration.  We lingered on the waterfront to watch the fireworks, which seemed like a perfect way to end the evening.