Henry's 5th Birthday

Although hard to believe, our Henry turned five this year.  Having endured a live reptile show during a hurricane (see Earthquakes, Birthdays and Other Natural Disasters) at last year’s birthday party, we opted for something simpler (and offsite) this year: Pump-It-Up, an indoor moon bounce arena.  To keep things interesting, we opted for the Pirate Adventure package, although we’re not sure anyone noticed the theme amidst all the bouncing, climbing and sliding.  The party could not have been easier: all we had to do was show up.  PIU took care of the rest, right down to ordering the pizza and serving the cake.  Henry had a blast bouncing around with his friends.  In addition to standard moon bounces, they also had giant inflatable slides and obstacle courses.  Even some of the parents joined in the fun (OK, Bryant started it) by taking turns on the giant slide.  Afterward, we all went to the party room for pizza and cake.  Henry savored the chance to sit in the special “birthday throne” and direct the festivities (we’ve noticed that he’s something of the class comedian).  When they turned down the lights to blow out the candles, he had the whole room squealing with excitement.  Below are some pictures from the party.  Later in the week, on Henry’s actual birthday, we celebrated at the house with a chocolate doughnut and some ice cream.  Among other gifts, Henry received a Captain America costume and a Spider-Man sleeping bag.  If the weather cooperates, Henry and Bryant may try camping in the fall. 

 

 

 

 

 

Swim, Run, Cook and Watch TV

July and August were relatively slow months in the Morris household.  We spent most weekends at our community pool, trying to stay cool.  The kids have been doing great in the water.  At the start of summer we bought Puddle Jumper floaties (highly recommended) for both kids, and they were soon splashing around the pool on their own.  This was a big change from last season, when they clung to us constantly in the pool.  In mid-August, Henry took a few private swim lessons.  The instructor had the patience of Job and needed every ounce of it--Henry was a feisty pupil! By the end of the week, she had him swimming without floaties for a few seconds, but he still won’t put (much of) his face in the water.  Hopefully we'll make more progress next summer...

Elise continued to train for her marathon in the fall.  She’s been getting up at daybreak on the weekends to go for 12, 15, and even 20-mile runs.  The big race is only a few months way, so this is really crunch time for her training.

Bryant has continued his culinary adventures, making rack of lamb, boeuf en croute, coq au vin, potatoes anna, cauliflower au gratin and blueberry and apple tart.  Except for a miserable failure with the coq au vin, most dishes have turned out better than expected. 

In between running, cooking and taking the kids to the pool, we also found time to discover a new favorite TV show: Doc Martin.  A British comedy about a doctor living in Cornwall—perfect for us!

 

 

Things Vivian Likes: Band-Aids

It’s been a while since we posted an installment of “Things We Like,” so we thought an update was in order.  By now, you’ve probably figured out that Vivian likes, and we mean REALLY likes, Disney princesses.  Her favorite princess varies from week to week, but Ariel, Belle, Aurora and Tiana are always in the running.  However, Vivian has another obsession we haven’t mentioned: she loves Band-Aids.  Hardly a day passes without a trip to the medicine closet.  The slightest bump, poke or graze is an excuse for another Band-Aid.  Often there’s no actual injury, just a firm insistence that something hurts and needs bandaging.  These “invisi-booboos” can appear in the strangest places: forehead, neck, belly, even the bottom of her feet.  If there’s an open patch of skin, it’s ripe for bandaging.  Not surprisingly, we have princess-themed Band-Aids (although recently we’ve branched out to Dora).  And heaven help us if we apply a Rapunzel Band-Aid for a booboo that requires Snow White.  We’ve tried weaning Viv of this addiction, but in the grand scheme of things, it seems like a harmless habit.  We’ve just had to get accustomed to seeing our daughter covered in adhesive bandages for most of the year.

How to Train Your Dragon - LIVE!

Bryant and Henry went to see How to Train Your Dragon Live at the Verizon Center in downtown Washington, and what a show it was!  Based on the popular children’s book and animated movie, the show featured huge animatronic dragons that flew through the air, breathed fire and, because this is a show for boys, occasionally farted on stage.  Henry’s best friend from school, Jack, joined us at the arena, and the boys had a great time taking in the spectacle from their front row seats.  Afterward, we all went for frozen yogurt at Crave.  Below are some pictures from the show, though they don’t really do justice to this impressive performance.

  

  

6 Years and Counting...

This year we celebrated our sixth wedding anniversary. (Six years!  It seems like just yesterday that we were preparing for the big day in Ann Arbor.)  To mark the occasion, we hired a babysitter and went to an early dinner at BRABO restaurant in Old Town.  We had a delicious meal of steamed mussels, watermelon and goat cheese salad (a surprisingly good combination), and steak and frites (with three different varieties of mayonnaise). The folks at BRABO were kind enough to offer us a complimentary glass of champagne when we arrived, and when our desserts were served, they wrote “happy anniversary”--in chocolate--on the plates.  We don’t often get to enjoy a date night, so it was nice to have a grown up meal and some grown up conversation for a few hours.  Afterward, we window shopped along King Street and wondered how it was possible for a store that specializes in vintage barware to stay in business.

Derecho

We learned a new weather term this summer: “derecho.”  That’s what the meteorologists called the severe thunderstorm system that swept through the Washington DC area on the night of June 29^th.  According to Wikipedia: “Derecho comes from the Spanish word for ‘straight’ . . . in contrast with a tornado, which is a ‘twisted’ wind.”  Derechos are fast moving, straight line thunderstorms; they also can be very destructive.  The derecho that swept through Washington overturned trees, knocked out power lines and led to several deaths.  Many folks in the region were without power for several days, and in some cases, for over a week.  To make matters worse, the region was experiencing an extreme heat wave, with temperatures approaching 100 degrees over multiple days.  We were fortunate: we suffered no real property damage and lost power for only 24 hours (although even that was fairly miserable).  To stay cool, we camped out in the basement (which was about 10 degrees cooler than the rest of the house) and filled up a wading pool in the backyard.  By some minor miracle, the local Starbucks retained power, so we were well caffeinated during the blackout.  You don’t realize how much you depend on modern conveniences—air conditioning, light, refrigeration, the internet(!)— until you have to live without them for a few hours.

Below is a composite radar image of the summer derecho. The system covered 600 miles in 10 hours, moving at an average speed of 60 mph:

Green Thumbs

The composter mentioned in a previous post was for Elise’s vegetable garden.  Last year we planted a small garden in the backyard, but a lack of direct sunlight and not-so-benign neglect led to disappointing results.  This year, Elise was determined to do some serious gardening.  We prepared a bed along the south side of the house, which gets much better light, and planted cucumbers, tomatoes, eggplants and strawberries, along with some herbs.  So far, everything has been doing incredibly well: the tomatoes and cucumbers, in particular, have been growing like crazy.  The only challenge has been keeping the squirrels from eating the produce before it ripens.  Bryant constructed a makeshift net for the garden, but only time will tell if it can keep the determined little rodents out.  Below are some photos of our summer crop: