all three of us

Archive for the month “January, 2012”

29 Jan 2012

Everyone is Exhausted From the Fun

All of us are exhausted from this weekend! We started off with gymnastics, then out to lunch, some shopping, dinner with friends and then Sunday was a trip to the car show, a preschool open house and time in the wagon.

But, we had a great time.

After gymnastics on Saturday, we headed to lunch so we could scope out a potential birthday party location for Miss H’s upcoming third birthday. Miss H liked the food and we like the idea of a make your own pizza party. She loves to help me cook and we thought it would be fun to have a ‘chef’ themed party. So, one thing checked off the list!

For dinner, we had a nice visit with friends and Miss H and one of her BFFs ran around until they were exhausted. Miss H did not even make it out of the neighborhood awake. We managed to carry her into the house and get her ready for bed without even a stir. She slept in this morning too! We need to go out with them again soon

Kerry wanted to go check out some of the SUV options at the Washington Car Show so we headed to DC this morning. We saw all sorts of cars and Miss H enjoyed climbing in trunks, beds, cabs, backseats, front seats and just all over the place.

Kerry liked the Jeep Grand Cherokee. Miss H made sure all the buttons worked.

After viewing all the American cars, we headed downstairs to see the rest. Miss H loved the Mini Cooper (and so did Kerry and I). I liked the hatchback Volvo and Kerry debated between the Nissan SUVs. It was a fun way to spend a few hours!

On our way back to our rock star no charge Sunday parking space, we headed into Capitol City Brewery for lunch. Miss H liked the mini-corn dogs (without the corn part) and we were all re-energized from all the walking around the Convention Center.

After we returned home, I headed to a preschool open house to check out another school. We have our top pick interview this week and then Miss H visits next week. We will keep you posted on our interviews.

Now, Miss H is sound asleep and we are fading fast. Hope you all had a great weekend!

Posted in DC, Hadley, Home, VA, Washington, DC and tagged 2 year old, cap city brewery, Capitol City Brewery, dc convention center, washington car show 2012, Washington, DC | Leave a Comment

24 Jan 2012

1 Comment

Did You Know….

That yesterday was the most depressing day of the year? Blue Monday falls on the last Monday of the last full week in January and that was yesterday. I guess people were a little grouchier at work yesterday but I was just chalking it up to the dreary, cold, foggy weather and that it was actually going to be a full week of work.

In case you were wondering, the happiest day of the year is in June.

We spent a majority of our weekend inside due to ice, cold and general dreariness. Miss H had fun creating a pile of blankets, pillows and other things at the bottom of the stairs and just jumping into the pile. She was practicing some of her gymnastics moves too.

I had to discourage adding books to the pile.

Also, Mom and a friend of hers came to visit on Sunday and we all headed to the Museum of American Art for the Annie Leibovitz: Pilgrimage show. It was a great collection of 64 photographs that is definitely worth a visit to see. We wandered around the rest of the museum and enjoyed several floors of artwork on both the American Art and Portrait Gallery side. There were some great kid activities going on and now I am curious- does anyone know a good list of kid friendly activities on weekends? We tend to find our own but I am sure there is a great list somewhere, right?

Miss H has been sleeping on the floor for months but recently she has moved her nest into the hallway. Not sure why this carpet is more comfortable than the carpet that is 10 feet away in her bedroom but it seems to be. And, she stayed there all night long. So, we will just let her stay there

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Posted in DC, Family, Hadley, VA and tagged 2 year old, annie leibovitz: pilgrimage, blue monday, DC, museum of american art, Washington

16 Jan 2012

2 Comments

A Birthday Party, Complete With a Bus

Our neighbor invited Miss H to his fifth birthday party this weekend and it was so fun! Miss H was very concerned about the cake at the party. “Will there be cake? Will it be chocolate or vanilla?” she asked over and over again. I knew (with 100% certainty) that there would be cake but I had no idea about flavor. Before we got to the cake part, we had fun on the Bear Bus.

She got to pick out an animal, fill it with stuffing and pick out an outfit. However, this fun process was only delaying seeing the cake.

Like how her animal matches her own color scheme for the day?

Also, her bear had to be named before leaving the bus. Without any prompting, she picked ‘Leigh’ and now refers to the bear as ‘Aunt Leigh.’ Most animals and dolls in our house share her name so this was a first.

Then it was off to the party and all was well with the world when we spied the cake. And, it was vanilla. The rest of the party was fun and someone was so tired.

We spent the rest of the long weekend at gymnastics, recovering from the party, shopping with Mom, running errands, trying to get a haircut, meeting friends for lunch and playing with trains and play dough.

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Posted in Alexandria, Family, Friends, Hadley, Uncategorized and tagged bear bus, bear bus nova, birthday party, two year old

14 Jan 2012

The Preschool Derby

I am lucky that I have close friends that have children older than Miss H because they have prepped me for the things to come. When I was stressing about childcare when I was on maternity leave, they told me it would work out. Also, at this time they warned me that while finding childcare was hard, finding a preschool was worse. Remember, I had a 5 week old baby and I did not really care about their preschool problems. I mean, preschool was YEARS away. Well, we now officially have preschool problems and I totally see how this is worse than finding childcare.

There seem to be three distinct buckets of preschools in this area. Half-day programs all week, half day programs a few days a week and full-day programs all week. After hearing stories of co-workers about working alternative schedules, hiring drivers and/or nannies to deal with pick-up and drop-off and other craziness to accommodate the three-hour window of half-day preschool- we immediately removed those from our list. Half-day programs tend to have lottery systems or if you are a member of a church that has a preschool, you get in. The full-day preschools are limited in number and the most competitive because if you are a two working parent household, this is really the best option. But this option comes with open houses, parent tours, essays, parent interviews and if we make if through all those steps- the classroom visit for Miss H.

Originally, we had three preschools on our list but knocked one off because of the uniform requirement. Why you ask? I have a hard enough time convincing Miss H to wear something that matches so I knew trying to convince her to wear the same thing, day in and day out, that did not include accessories like tutus, necklaces, rain hats or any other thing she deems to be pretty would be a daily battle. Now, the list has two schools and we have submitted one application packet and Kerry and I will be interviewing soon. We have another open house to attend this month and then we will start working on the application packet for that school.

On the plus side, the first school is super cute and nice! All the classrooms open onto outdoor space and they have a great garden. The teachers were really friendly, the kids seemed normal and they have a worm bin as part of their gardening project. I think the worm bin will be a highlight for Miss H, too. So, keep your fingers crossed for us.

So, this is the official preschool derby. I can’t imagine what college is going to be like!

Posted in Uncategorized and tagged full day preschool, northern virginia preschool, preschool applications, preschool derby | Leave a Comment

12 Jan 2012

So spoiled.

Miss H was totally spoiled over the holidays with gifts from us, Mom, Aunt Leigh and Chip and Kerry’s dad. She has new dolls, sleeping bags (one for her and one for the doll), blocks, crayons, paper, coloring books, puzzles, cars, Lincoln Logs and lots of other fun stuff. So, since I knew Dad was coming to visit just after Christmas, we decided to let him have the opportunity to take her to pick out what she wanted. Kerry was lobbying for more Lincoln Logs but the train set won in the end.

Dad and Kathy got her a new Thomas the Train set and both Miss H and Dad had fun playing with it. Plus, she got some new Play Dough and new Play Dough accessories.

Dad got some nice pictures from our visits to the Arboretum and Fort Washington.