First Day of First Grade

Our girl is off to her first full day of school.  Where has the time gone…

A Trip Downtown

This morning, the girls and I decided to take a spontaneous trip downtown.  School starts on Monday, and today was going to be a beautiful day with nothing planned, so we packed some food, got a quick plan together and headed into Washington.  During our picnic lunch on the National Mall, we were visited by quite the curious squirrel.  Nina got a kick out of how tame the squirrels were, and at one point, had a little stand-off with the one that wanted our lunch.

   

After our lunch we went to the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History.  One of the first things we did once we got there was get our tickets to enter the butterfly exhibit.  We got to go inside an enclosed greenhouse with tons of beautiful butterflies and exotic flowers.  The variety of butterflies was amazing!  Nina and Lyla were very excited!

 

Because of her green shirt, a particular species of butterflies really gravitated towards Nina. They landed on her shoulder and even on her head! 

    

  

Nina was loving that the butterflies were attracted to her, but not so for Lyla. In her brown tank top (with butterflies on it though), she was not at all an attraction to the butterflies, but Nina felt bad for her and made sure Lyla got to hold one.

  

We checked out the Hope Diamond, the animal photography exhibit (awesome!), the ocean section, the mammals section, and of course, the dinosaur section.

 

Apparently the dinosaurs weren’t the only monsters in the museum today!

On our walk back to the car, we passed some pretty gardens, and Lyla stopped for a quick picture even though they were both tired.  Nina wasn’t interested in putting forth any more energy for a smile at that point, but we made it back home before rush hour traffic started, and it ended up being a great little spontaneous trip.  Both girls told me several times what a fun day they had!

Redskins Practice

Today we had the opportunity to go to see the Redskins practice.  This was the last of the practices open to the public, and Mark’s co-worker invited us to the section he had reserved at the 50-yard line.  We had a great view of the practice, and I was allowed to take pictures, so here are some of the shots from our afternoon.

Obviously, seeing RGIII play was a big hit.  There is definitely a lot of buzz in Washington about him, and we fans are hoping for good things from him this season!  It was a hot afternoon, and Nina and Lyla weren’t as into the practice as we adults were, but they managed to make it the couple hours with plenty of whining and requests for icy treats.

 

 

The highlight of the afternoon was after practice when RGIII actually came right over to our specific area to sign autographs.  Bo had brought a helmet with him, and he got RGIII’s signature on it.  Bo is a big Redskin fan, so this was quite the score for him!

 

Date Night

Mark and I did our date night with the girls yesterday.  I had something in mind already that I wanted to do with Nina, but Mark was racking his brain with what to do with Lyla.  When he asked her what she wanted to do, she told him “go look for deer signs.”  Just a little background on this one…Lyla loves deer signs.  We have no idea why, but whenever we’re driving in the car, she’s always looking for them and shouting when she sees them.  So, since that was really what she wanted to do, off they went to Algonkian Park to search for deer signs!  Mark said that they parked by the water then walked back toward the golf course to search for the signs.  They found six in all, but on their hunt for deer signs, they saw actual deer!  These are the pictures Mark took with his camera phone of Lyla, her deer signs, and some actual deer.  After that, they went to McDonalds for ice cream.  It was a very fun date for Lyla! (On a side note, Mark and I both had a laugh at the placement of the warning to watch for pedestrians.)

 

I got to take Nina on a date night that I had been thinking about for awhile.  She’s quite a good little biker, so I thought she was ready for a “long” ride on the W&OD trail.  We put the bikes in the car and drove to a parking lot not too far from the house where we could park the car and get right on the trail with our bikes.  Then, we biked from there (Rt. 28) into downtown Herndon.  Once we got to Herndon, we stopped at the Dairy Queen right off the trail for some ice cream, then we hopped back on the bikes and rode back.  It was eight miles round trip.

On our way back to Rt. 28, we were going along pretty fast when Nina’s bike pedal went flying off her bike. I was so proud of her for not freaking out.  She kept her balance and braked with one foot and stopped.  I hopped off my bike to retrieve the pedal and tightened it back on and we were off again.  It happened one more time going up a big hill, but by that time, we were close to the car, so I tightened it enough to get us to the car, then Mark fixed it when we got back home.  I did have her stop just as we got into Herndon at a sign that said “Grace St.” because her middle name is Grace. Once we got back to the car, she was hot and sweaty, so she poured the remainder of her water over her head to cool down.  We had a great time on our biking date.  I was so proud of her for doing such a great job biking, and it was a lot of fun biking and talking while we rode.  I’m looking forward to doing it again soon!

  

 

A Visit to PB

On Tuesday, the girls, my mom, and I went to visit PB at his house in Maryland.  As far back as I can remember, PB has always been a friend of birds and has fed them on his back deck.  So, shortly after we arrived at his house, the girls got to watch PB load up his bird feeders.  Because of is also long-standing battle with squirrels who try to eat the bird seed, he has rigged up a system where he hangs his bird feeders out into the air.  However, he will also tell you that despite all his efforts, the acrobatic squirrels still manage ways to get the bird seed out of the feeders.

 

After filling the bird feeders, the girls helped PB feed the koi. 

 

PB’s basement is a collection of eccentric things from his travels all over the world.  One of the girls’ favorites is the collection of Russian Matroyshka Dolls which they loved opening down to the itty bittiest last doll.

 

We listened to PB play some of his favorite old time hymns on the piano and enjoyed a nice lunch.

Before we left, the girls got their pictures taken on the deer in PB’s front yard.  When Shenley and I were this age (and younger) we would always get our pictures taken on this same deer also.

 

While we were at PB’s house, he showed the girls many of the pictures he had of my family from when Shen, Bo, and I were very young.  One of the pictures Nina and Lyla saw was a picture of Shenley and I in the dresses in the picture below.  My mom’s mom made these dresses for Shen and I when we were little, and when Nina saw the picture of us in them, she was obsessed with wanting to wear one.  After we left PB’s house, my mom found the dresses in their attic, washed them, and let Nina and Lyla wear them.  I wish I had the picture of Shen and I wearing them to put with this one. I know it’s somewhere, but I just have to take the time to find it.  These dresses are easily over 30 years old, and it’s cute to see them from one generation of sisters to the next.