Big Trucks!

Last week we spent some time in Herndon, VA. Their Public Works Department puts on Big Truck Days each year. They park a garbage truck, a paving truck, a snow plow, a steam roller and other construction/ public works type vehicles in a barricaded parking lot and allow kids to climb up into the driver's seats and play pretend. The kids can move the steering wheels and play with all of the buttons and levers contained inside. It was awesome! Andrew & Jay did not want to leave. We'll be heading back there next year.


Jay next to a tire for reference of the size of these trucks.


Jay on a steam roller.


Andrew driving the garbage truck.


Andrew's friend Rory in the passenger seat.


You can see Andrew making engine noises with is mouth. Jay in the foreground.


Andrew and Jay on a ... I don't know what it was...

Mommy!

I had a funny thought this morning. And this was it: Most days by the time 8pm rolls around I am tired of hearing the word "Mommy". Since, usually I have been hearing it uttered all day coupled with different demands, requests or complaints from about 6 in the morning. And yet, on this beautiful Sunday morning I laid in bed and thought..."I love being called Mommy. What a blessing to be a mother and to have created two independent people for whom I will always be related to as Mom. "

Me and my two kiddos (who apparently could care less about getting a photo with dear old Mommy.) Photo taken on our walk this morning along the George Washington Memorial Parkway.



Happy Mother's Day!

Fruits and Vegetables!

This spring I signed us up for a half share in a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture). The program will run May through October. I signed up for a share with Bigg Riggs Farm of West Virginia. I'm able to pick up our box of vegetables, etc. each Saturday morning at the Alexandria Farmers Market in Old Town.

I'm hoping this will kick-start us in to some healthier eating habits as well as get us into the habit of eating local seasonal harvest instead of what we can get at the supermarket.

This past Saturday was the first pick-up. We were thrilled with our first box which contained: scallions, ramps, a strawberry plant, a curly leaf parsley plant and a jar of their peach jam.



I thought it was really neat that he included two plants. Andrew has been enjoying watering them each day and checking for strawberries each day. We should have some berries in about 2 weeks. Very cool.



So far we've sampled the jam, mmm....peachy. Mark made a yummy breakfast for the two of us using the ramps. He simply quick sauteed them in some olive oil, then served them with eggs over easy, toast and tomato.

We also picked up some tomatoes, radishes, and really huge scallions at the farmers market. Mark made an onion dip using the greens of the huge scallions, and we had the bulbs of those scallions roasted on the grill, along with some roasted portabella mushrooms. Yum!

This is going to be fun to have such fresh veggies all summer.

My Boys

Somewhere along the line here my babies have turned into boys! B-O-Y-S! I mean dig in the dirt, play with hose water, make mud pies, turn all sticks into guns, make believe spaceship adventures, bad guys vs. good guys kind of boys.

Take a look:











Clearly, this will be my new ally this spring:

L-O-V-E

Our home was filled with L-O-V-E for Valentine's Day once again. Thanks in no small part to a visit from the Michaud Clan of Massachusetts. We played in the bountiful snow banks, read books, made valentine's cupcakes, ate Mark's wonderful gumbo for valentine's dinner, watched the olympics and in general had a lovely time together.

More snow!

Some clean-up efforts on Sunday:




More snow this morning:





Andrew just loves to play in the snow! He has been climbing to the top of the mounds of cleared snow along our driveway and pretending that one of them is his castle. This morning he was atop another mound pretending to be Humpty Dumpty and having a grand time saying "oh, oh, oooohhhh...." as he would fall down the side. He told me I could be one of the king's men. Hilarious. As if you couldn't tell...his other favorite thing about snow is eating it.

Snow!

What a wonderful blizzard! We measured 19", although it sure seems like A LOT more than that!













I'm noticing a pattern here. When Mark and I move to a new area the first winter is filled with huge snowstorms. Moved to Cape Cod (which usually does not see as much snow as say, Boston) and we had over 100" that first winter. Now this is not our first winter here in Virginia (which typically does not see much snowfall) but, it is our second winter here and we've already had two 18"+ snowstorms with some other 2-4" snowstorms in between. Incredible. Ridiculous amount of shoveling aside...we're loving it!

New Year...New Do

Jay's first haircut by Mommy.

Before:




After:

Yes, Virginia, there is a..er....snowstorm?

It's snowing...a lot...in Virginia! Huh??? Either way, we're loving it. Andrew was so excited to wake up to snow covering our yard. He looked out the window to check if it was morning time (This is something Mark and I have taught Andrew to do. If it's light out it is acceptable to be awake...if not, go back to bed until it is light out or what we call morning time.) He turned away from the window and said, "Yep, it's morning time." Then, he froze and quickly went back to the window, poked his head under the shade and said, "There's SNOW! ... It SNOWED! ... Yay, SNOW!"

Mark and I felt excited going to bed last night knowing Andrew would wake up to a winter wonderland and knowing how thrilled he would be. His reaction did not disappoint.

Mark was able to measure 16" accumulated as of 5pm.

Some photos of our beautiful wintry day:


















Roscoe watching Andrew playing outside for the second time. Check out his nice new sweater. A Christmas gift from Andrew. He couldn't wait to give it to Roscoe. It certainly helped keep Roscoe comfy-cozy all day.

S/he's Crafty....

It's been a week full of Christmas projects. What fun!

Andrew & Jay decorated the tree,




Andrew decorated a gingerbread house,











and Andrew painted some wooden cut-outs for ornaments:





(And if I may toot my own horn...I can report that during all of these projects, I was able to keep my mouth shut and push my OCD to the background for the most part and just let Andrew decorate as he saw fit. "Why would you mix red and blue paints together on a snowflake????" is what I asked in my head. I'm pretty proud of myself for not forcing my "artistic vision" over Andrew's. Someday I can teach him the true beauty of things being neat and orderly, color appropriate, and aesthetically pleasing. But right now, I'm going to enjoy the big smile on his face and seeing how proud he is of his art.)