Virginia Beach - Sandbridge

We've always gone to Rehoboth in the summer and so we know very little about the beaches around the area. We were really excited to join some friends who invited us to help break in their new house in Sandbridge. Holy cow did we have a good weekend! It was worth every minute of the five hour drive.

Movie time

Digging for crabs.

Zoe has never met a set of monkey bars that she didn't want to conquer.

En route to ice cream.

First time playing Xbox - Dance Game 3 was a hit.

Zoe and Mia built a theater for us to sit in while they performed an elaborate dance.

Sand castle builders.

Priceless.

Ashlawn Earth Day Commercials

Zoe and Mia were drafted by the environmental club at school to help film some commercials for Earth Day. They aired on the morning announcements at school throughout Earth Day week.

In the first video, they are showing the importance of turning lights off. In the second commercial, they are educating about vampire electricity. 

Zoe an Mia were really troopers. A neighbor and classmate called us to see if we could run over to help. Zoe and Mia hadn't rehearsed at all, and Mia had woken up only moments before.

Quick Spring Break Round Up April 2012

This was a roller coaster Spring Break week. Whenever the kids have days off from school or whenever we can swing it, we take the kids one at a time for a mommy / daddy day in D.C. Since this week was Spring Break and everyone was off from their regular activities, we took it as a good opportunity for extra outings to visit Scott in D.C. and have lunch. This required a good bit of juggling, but it ended up working out really well.

Every one had her own outing. It was fun to see how much they looked forward to these 'mommy/daddy times'. They held count downs until each of the outings, had lists of things to do at Scott's office, ideas of foods to eat at the restaurant, etc. It was really fun and special solo time.

Then Friday, we played hooky and went to Leesburg Animal Park. We hadn't been before, and I was so impressed. There was so much to do, and it wasn't crowded at all. There were horse rides, tractor rides, an open animal petting area, and grown and baby animals to feed. Only glitch was getting out of there without buying one of the baby bunnies they were pushing. We got away without a hare by a hair. (ba-dum-bum)

Friday was the first night of Passover and we came home to finish preparing our Seder. Scott had been having some mouth pain and when he called the dentist to schedule an appointment the following week, the doctor suggested he come in that afternoon. Well, he came home 4+ hours and a root canal later. We were able to have a brief, late Seder and make a fun dessert for the following day: Chocolate toffee matzoh.

He felt so much better the next day. Apparently root canals have come a long way from how they used to be described. And, his new dentist was fantastic. He even called late that night to see how he was doing and offered a check in visit on Saturday. Unheard of.

The next day, I got a call that my Aunt, Uncle and cousins were all on their way in to town. A relative on the other side of the family who lives in the region (that I don't know very well) died suddenly on Friday. I took turns that afternoon taking the kids on a few trips to the airport to pick up cousins and shuttling them to Potomac, MD. We also had some wonderful, loving family time with my Aunt and Uncle who I'm really close with. That was an unexpected highlight of the week.

Today was our last day before back to school. We delivered our chocolate covered matzoh treats to some neighbors and went to Paws to Read where they let Mia read for once which was a treat. Earlier in the day I had a crappy doctor's appointment where I had three things cut at to get some little biopsies. I know everything is fine, I was just really uncomfortable and hated the appointment. I think I actually do better when I can feel what's happening to my body. I could handle child birth unmedicated, but I was miserable with these procedures medicated. Go figure.

Overall, we had some nice outings and play dates, and I was especially happy to have so much unstructured free time to enjoy games, puzzles, bike rides, bird feeder building, and left over science experiment materials.

Tomorrow, back to school...

Fishing

Fishing day in D.C. 

Nobody got hooked, not even a fish. Closest we got to a fish was the snakehead fish in the cooler that they were using for a demonstration. Kids had a great time earning their 'park badges' though. 

First Banana Split

Before

After

Cherry Blossoms 2012

The tradition continues...