Playing Hookie for the Day

On a spur of the moment idea Tuesday afternoon, I mentioned to the girls about Nina taking the day off school on Wednesday and heading downtown for the day.  They were both super excited with that plan, so we asked our neighbor friends if they wanted to play hookie with us (which they did) then set out yesterday morning for some fun in the city. I knew the cherry blossoms were past their peak, but I figured we’d find some still blooming.  Plus, it was a beautiful day to walk around, climb trees, have a picnic, etc., so that’s what we did. 

 

The thing Nina was most looking forward to was finding some good trees to climb.  The girl LOVES to climb.  Since there were plenty of good trees for that, she spent a large amount of her time in the trees.

    

We picnicked across the street from the Jefferson Memorial in a shady spot filled with trees still in bloom.  It was an awesome place to eat, relax, make flower bouquets, and climb.

 

After lunch, we checked out the Jefferson Memorial.  The girls loved sitting high on the memorial platforms that look out over the steps, the paddle boaters, Tidal Basin, etc.  We stayed there for awhile feeding a few ducks that came by, looking for little fish, snacking, and enjoying the sights and sun.

    

 

After leaving the Jefferson Memorial, we continued walking the circle around the Tidal Basin back to our starting point.  Along the way, we checked out the MLK Jr. Memorial, climbed some more trees, and fed some more ducks. 

Just before we got back to the car, we came upon a tulip flower garden.  The flowers were so beautiful and in full bloom, so of course we all loved taking in the beautiful flowers.  Once we finally made it back to the car, it was late afternoon and we were hot, tired, happy, and very very very dirty.  A picture wouldn’t have even done justice to how dirty the girls were, but sometimes that’s just a sign of a good time, and a good time they had.  My neighbor and I enjoyed hearing all the little comments the girls made to each other about how much more fun they were having exploring in DC than all their friends were having sitting in school.  It really was a great day and one that I’ll remember for a long time.

 

She’s In!

In our neighborhood over the past two years, getting enrolled in the local public elementary school that is in our neighborhood is kind of like trying to get into a much anticipated concert.  Kindergarten registration was today, and parents started lining up at 4am to get a number that enabled them to come back and actually register their child for Kindergarten.  There are so many young kids in our neighborhood that getting one of the 150 slots open for Kindergarten certainly isn’t a guarantee.

I made it over to the school at 5:50am (way to early to be waiting in line in my opinion), and I was still #79 in line.  The school staff handed out numbers at 7am, and then we were allowed to go home for a bit and come back at 9am to actually register according to our assigned number.  Sounds complicated for school registration, right? 

Anyway, Lyla is enrolled and will officially be a Legacy Labrador.  She won’t have to go through the drama that Nina had to go through of being in an overflow school until a spot opened up at our assigned school.  Lyla was actually very excited and was happy to tell everyone today that she’ll officially be a Lab in the fall!

Spring Update

Thankfully, spring has arrived!  It has actually seemed a lot like summer this week, but you won’t hear me complaining!  As long as it’s sunny, warm, and good weather for being outside, I’m just happy to say goodbye to winter.  Almost instantly, our trees came to life in the backyard.  They don’t bloom for long, but they’re so pretty this time of year. 

The kids have had so much fun playing outside!! From playing on the deck, to driving a friend’s car, to wearing bathing suits and getting soaking wet, I think all the kids are happy the warm weather is here.

  

The bonus to the beautiful weather for Nina was that she lost her second tooth this week.  Very exciting!!

My Crab Club

When I was a kid, we spent summers, weekends, and lived for a short time on the river in Southern Maryland.  My mom’s dad and her grandmother had houses side by side that sat right on the Patuxent River.  From their back yards, we walked out onto the pier and crabbed, fished, water skiied, swam, and spent hours on the boat. We gardened, made fake soup out of jellyfish (which we called sea nettles), chased down the ice cream truck barefoot, made regular visits to the big farmers market, swung on the hammocks hung between two big shady trees next to the water, and played on the sandy beach of the big river.

At the time, the crab population in Southern Maryland was amazing. My mom grew up with that lifestyle on the river, so she was quite the crabber.  She actually earned herself the nickname of the Crab Queen – a title she bore proudly. When we were little, we were taught how to crab also. In a day, we’d catch bushels of crabs on floating lines, baited with eel or chicken necks, attached to buoys out in the water. We had a few small crab traps, but mostly, I loved when we’d catch them right off the pier.  We’d tie a weight to the end of some heavy string, tie a raw chicken or eel part to the end of the line, and lower it down into the water and tie it off around the pilings.  After letting it sit for a bit, we’d go out with the net.  One person would be the one slowly pulling up the string, and the other would be leaning over the edge of the pier (since we were smaller, sometimes we’d even be on our belly on the pier with our arms and net hanging over the side) with the net to dip and catch the feasting crab as it was raised close to the surface of the water.

I have such vivid memories of sitting in the back yard of my great grandmother’s house where she’d sit in her gingham dress and oversee us as we’d sprinkle the seasoning on the crabs we’d caught, then we’d use our big metal tongs to put them in her pots for steaming. She’d take them inside and steam them right in her kitchen. The crabs would clamor around in the pots as the heat turned up, so she’d put weights on top of the big pots to keep the crabs from climbing their way right out of the pots and spilling over onto the floor.  They’d spread out newspapers all over her big table, pass out the wooden hammers, and we’d pick the crab meat of all the crabs we caught. My great grandmother was famous for her crab cakes, and dinners were a feast with food caught from the river, grown in the garden, or made from scratch.  I wish I could go back now and take part in those dinners again now that I have more of an appreciation for how good the food was that we were eating!!

However, not all crabs were for eating.  We had the luxury of being choosy with the crabs we caught, so we ate big, blue males.  Everything else got thrown back.  I, however, made a collection of some of the little crabs we caught and formed a crab club.  I would line up my crabs at the very end of the pier on a long bench that sat facing the water, and I’d “teach them tricks” (or so I thought) and put on little shows. 

The excerpt below was from a writing assignment I did when I was little that my mom saved and put in an album for me. 

Who would have thought after all these years, I’d get a crab club back!!!!