Visit From Grandma

Last weekend Mark’s mom made the trip up from Florida to visit for the weekend.  She arrived on Friday morning, and since we had a gorgeous day to be outdoors, we headed to Great Falls to hike the park. As always, the falls were beautiful and we all enjoyed hiking on a beautiful afternoon.

  

 

 

On Saturday we took a visit to Stone Tower Winery for the first time.  It was a beautiful winery with gorgeous views and nice places to relax and enjoy some food and wine.  We had to laugh though that it’s divided into an "Adults Only” section which is super nice and then the “Family Friendly” section which is still nice but actually gated off from the adults only section with fencing and signs.  The girls were so miffed about being barred from the other nice section of the winery.  Of course, we didn’t venture of there and leave them in the family friendly section, but it definitely peaked Mark and I’s interest enough to want to come back again at a later date sans kiddos!  :)

Spending the day at the winery wiped everyone out, so we relaxed on Saturday evening, then after church and lunch on Sunday, we took Grandma back to the airport to head home.  We were so glad that she got the chance to visit for a weekend and we all enjoyed the nice weekend together!

Water Party

Last week Mousey hosted her first (of what has been requested to be annual) water party day for the cousins.  It was complete with all sorts of games and activities that kept in the spirit of good old fashioned summer fun!  The girls can always count on a day of creative fun when they head to Mousey’s for a party.  A great time was had by all!

  

  

   

 

Father's Day 2016

For Father’s Day this year, we started off the day with cherry danishes and church.  Not bad.  Afterwards, we changed clothes, packed up the dog, and headed out to the Manassas Battlefield to meeet up with Mousey, Poppy, and Maggie for a hike.

The weather was sunny but hot, so enjoyed a few miles of hiking but had to take a little detour for a shorter route in order to keep the girls from peetering out, but more importantly to get the fathers back to the house in time to see the leaders tee off of the final round of the U.S. Open.  We are smart enough to know that it would not have been a very happy Father’s Day if the golf tournament wasn’t a part of it. So, after making it back to the house, we met up with the Williams family and had a wonderful dinner together.

 

While the guys watched the Open, the girls and the dogs played outside and enjoyed the beautiful day.  It just also happened to be Emme’s 12th birthday on Sunday, so we enjoyed the chance to see her and wish her all the best on her big day.

 

 

I feel very blessed to have two great men to celebrate on Father’s Day.  I have a great father who is also now wonderful grandfather and father-in-law, and I have a great father to my girls to celebrate as well.  I’m grateful to have these guys to celebrate in my life and in the lives of my girls.  Happy Father’s Day!

Summer is Here!

Ok, so it’s not officially summer on the calendar, but it’s summer for every kid in Loudoun County who is now out of school for the year!  We started things off well (actually this happened right before the end of school) with Nina getting a black eye at the hands of her sister.  It wasn’t malicious, but it left a nice bruise that lasted for almost a week.  Lyla was “practicing” a softball pitch while throwing her sticky ball against the door, and didn’t notice that her sister was standing right behind her when she wound her fist back.  Of course, it clocked Nina right in the eye.  It truely was an accident, but it was still all the justification I needed to ban those sticky balls from the house!

 

We also got to take in Emme’s lacrosse team’s championship game.  Her team won, and we were glad to be there for the big game!

 

We also finally got Nina over to the hair salon to cut off a few inches of that beautiful hair.  She loves her long hair, but her long hair loves tangles, so it was time to trim it up for summer.  It helps when I can take her to a hair salon for girls that is cute and fun, where lollypops are involved, and they get to hang out in the pink limo after the haircut.  

We also have one member of the family who seems very happy that school is out.  I don’t know if Cayenne could ever get enough attention, but she certainly takes advantage of any and all opportunities.

 

So, I don’t think things seem to be shaping up too strenuously this first few days of summer break.  Other than the schedule of the classes I teach during the week and the girls having one sport practice a week, we try to not plan a whole lot.  We’ll do fun things as the opportunity arrises, plan a few weekends away, and catch up with some friends we don’t get to see as much during the school year, but mostly we’ll spend a lot of time at the pool and enjoy two months of just hanging out!