Catching Up

It’s spring, and you can catch up with us if you can find us outside!  I love these days.  The weather is beautiful, school is winding down, and our neighborhood emerges from the winter with tons of kids who just want to play outside.  So, that’s what we’ve been up to.  Biking, scootering, hanging with neighbors, cookouts, and walks up to Sweet Frog have been the majority the girls’ activities lately.  There is one month of school left, then it’s no schedules and summer break – we’re all excited!

 

Lyla chose to play soccer again this spring.  She loves it.  She’s a good little player, and she has lots of enthusiasm for the sport.  While her age group isn’t very competitive at this point, it’s fun and she loves to go to her games every Saturday. She still loves cars and anything that has to do with speed.  She rides her bike fast, rides her scooter fast, and wants to drive fast. At five, she’s already anticipating getting her drivers license, and currently her favorite cars are Ford Mustangs and Chevy Camaros. So…Speed, a Mustang/Camaro, a little blondie, and a track record for making questionable decisions – I see no trouble there in our future!!

A quick cute story: Like I said, she loves Ford Mustangs.  Before the soccer season started, her coach sent out an email that asked the kids to come to the first practice with an idea for a team name.  Lyla’s idea: the Mustangs.  So, when the coach asked all the kids what ideas they had, all the typical ones came out…Tigers, Sharks, Bulldogs, etc.  then Lyla (who is waiting patiently with her hand raised) offers out the Mustangs.  The coach loved it, and her team is now the Mustangs!

She loves jelly beans, bunnies, popsicles, Legos, riding her bike and scooter, making us laugh, Fridays (which she has named “The Day of Lyla”), and hanging with Nina. 

Nina is less than a month away from turning seven.  Talk about hard to believe!!!  She’s closing out her year in first grade, and is our outgoing, social, dancing daughter.  As has always been, she talks constantly.  She always has something to say, some question to ask, or just wants to talk for the sake of talking.  She decided to “take a break” (as she says) from her one year of playing soccer, and opted instead to do dance - which I feel like we always knew was coming.  She definitely got the rhythm gene in the family (contrary to her sister, a.k.a. Elaine from Seinfeld) and loves to dance, so it’s been a lot of fun for her.

She is growing up fast but still loves her family time.  She is still our resident pastaterian (as Meg so aptly named her), still loves dogs, loves to play outside, and loves anything chocolate.

In recent exciting news, we haven’t told Nina yet, but we’re on the list to get a puppy – officially!!  She is going to go bananas when we tell her!  She has been asking for a dog for years.  About a year ago, I did a post that mentioned this breed of dog I really liked, the Vizsla, and that’s the type of dog we’re going to get. We had done a lot of research and talking to different people about dogs, and after meeting a puppy that was born at Chenoweth Farm and talking to it’s owners, we decided to pull the trigger and commit to a puppy. I don’t have a picture of the mother dog, but this picture of her brother was on their website, so this gives you an idea of what the pup will look like.  The puppies are due in the middle of June which means we’ll get to bring our puppy home in the middle of August.  Behind the breeder we get the next pick of puppy, so once they’re born, we’ll tell Nina and let this summer be the summer of learning to take care of and train a puppy before her arrival in August.  

This spring has also been one of good news for the Virginia Cavalry/Loudoun Hounds group.  The county supervisors unanimously approved their plans for a stadium/ball park at One Loudoun, so they’re on schedule to be playing games there in 2014.  Last night we had the chance to go to the grand opening of the first tenant at One Loudoun to open it’s doors, the Alamo Cinema Drafthouse, and it was awesome.  They had at least 30 great local microbrews on tap, awesome theater rooms, and a really neat atmosphere.  I had a Hatch Chili burger and a Devil’s Backbone Eight Point IPA while watching “42” – great night!  The ball park will be a short stroll from the Drafthouse, and assuming all goes according to plan, One Loudoun is going to be a great area for family nights out, date nights, sporting events, etc.  Looking forward to 2014!!