more photos!

Spring Break

We spent part of Spring Break in Virginia & Washington D.C.! My brother and his family live in Virginia so my mom, sister, Anna Claire and Lizzie drove up for a fun visit. The girls had a fabulous time! Cousins - subway - zoo - the national mall - hotel rooms: what could be better? After a day of driving and another day with my brother's family we drove to D.C. and caught the Metro to the National Zoo. Lizzie was so excited to see the panda bears! That night we walked on the mall and saw the capitol at night - beautiful!

The next day we woke up and began seeing it all in 8 hours! 1600 Penn Ave - Vietnam Memorial - Lincoln Memorial - Cherry Blossoms - WW II monument - Smithsonian museums - National Archives - Capitol Hill - Union Station. Whew!!! I sent Russ a text to tell him that our girls did not appreciate the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution. He replied that they are not independent, they have no rights, and he is the king :)

5 days and 1553 miles later - great, memorable trip!

Surgery ...

Lizzie went to a friend's house after school today so I enjoyed a nice afternoon with Anna Claire. We did a little shopping and as we were walking through Costco she was talking all about our Christmas at my grandmother's house. My grandmother has 9 great granddaughters and 1 great grandson - it's a fun time! Anna Claire was talking about how much she loved the 2 new babies this year then she said, "I hope Ms. Amy (my cousin's wife) got that surgery." I said, "What surgery?" She said,"The one you get to stop having all those babies. She has 3 and that is enough, probably too many."

On a sweeter note she was a little sad when we dropped off Lizzie because she wanted to invite a friend over. She said, "Could we invite a friend, like Hunta (my mom) over to play?" I'm glad she has fun with her Hunta!

Human beans

At dinner tonight Anna Claire said, "There are all kinds of beans and we are human beans." After laughing I said, "We are human BEINGS not beans." And Russ added, "But if we were beans we would be human beans."
We have such philosophical discussions around our dinner table!

Mardi Crawford

Lizzie told me she wants to go to the parade for the holiday that's today. When we were talking about it at dinner Anna Claire, "What holiday is today?" Lizzie said," You know, Marty Crawford or whatever it's called." Russ and I could not make eye contact for fear she would have hurt feelings if we laughed at her!
From this day forth Mardi Gras will be known as Mardi Crawford, at least in our family!

Happy Valentine's!

We continued our Valentine's tradition by having a "formal" dinner to celebrate. Our girls LOVED it again this year. Table cloth, china, crystal, candles, cloth napkins ... the works! We enjoyed our meal together! Russ gave us instructions on how you should act during a formal meal. Anna Claire thought it was fun to keep her left hand in her lap! Our menu was Tilapia and pesto pasta with green beans. We had blueberries and raspberries. For dessert I made a Chocolate chip pie.

A wonderful evening with my family - the best kind of Valentine's day!

Marathon Weekend

Our girls participated in the local marathon! I cannot begin to tell you how cold it was on Saturday morning. 35 degrees with a stiff 15 mph wind - in the shade of downtown buildings!!! Bravely, our girls bundled up and ran mile 26 to complete their kids marathon. Russ ran with Lizzie but Anna Claire ran with one of her friends.

I was amazed at the thousands of other crazy parents who came out in the cold to let their children run in the race! Our friends would say that they would expect Russ and I to take our kids out to a road race in inclimate weather. In our defense, we were certainly not the only ones!

In the middle of Lizzie's mile she asked Russ why this race always had to be in winter!!! Great question!