Thanksgiving at Hartfield 2009

Happy Thanksgiving! We just got back this evening from our trip down to Hartfield. We spent the past couple days spending time with family, eating tons of good food, and keeping four busy girls entertained. Click HERE to see the pictures from our time in Hartfield. View the Slideshow option to read the captions.

Nina's Date Night

Mark and I decided that we're going to take turns taking Nina out on a date night once a month. It will be a special evening for just her and he or I, and we'll plan something fun to do together that she can look forward to. Tonight was her first date night, and it was with Mark. She was SO excited for date night. At the last minute, Lyla and I got invited to the dinner at Red Robin (thankfully b/c I would have been eating leftovers), then Lyla and I drove home and Mark and Nina went on for the rest of their special evening. They took a trip to the mall, and she got to pick out something special at the Disney store then they went out for ice cream and came back and watched a little of the new Tinkerbell movie together. I think they both had a really fun night!

A Girl Take on a Guy Thing

Yesterday was a nice autumn day, so after lunch we took some stale bread over to the pond to feed the ducks. We quickly exhausted all the bread we had so we kept walking. We came upon a section of the neighborhood where they're getting ready to put in some new construction houses and were using an excavator like this (photo courtesy of the John Deere website) to dig the big holes for the foundations. As we were walking by, I thought to myself that my girlfriends with little boys would love this. They could probaby pull up a couple lawn chairs and just sit and let the little boys watch the digging, lifting, and dumping all afternoon. However, I certainly didn't think Nina and Lyla would be so excited by it. They were watching intently and cheering when the excavator would dump its big load of dirt onto the pile. After awhile of watching the action, Nina says to me, "Mom, let's make up a dumper dance." I told her she was on her own for that one, but she actually made up quite an interesting little dance that simulated the action of the excavator and performed that over and over for another 15 minutes. It was very cute and showed me that little girls just might really like little boy things, just with a little girl twist on it.

Bizarro Girl

As I've mentioned before in another post, Lyla has quite a dichotomy in her personality. When we're out or amongst people she doesn't know well, she's quite shy and reserved. At home, she's a nut. This morning she went through Nina's closet and found these 3D glasses that came with a toy Nina got. She was cracking Nina and I up because she was a little thrown off by the change in perspective that the glasses gave her and was high-stepping, laughing while just running around the table, and giving us lots of funny looks with the glasses on. Here's our crazy Lyla.

Girls Night Out

Trust me, it wasn't the girls night out of the days of old. This time it was a girls night out that had on the agenda McDonalds and a trip to the mall. Mark had been away for a couple days on a scouting trip, and here at home it had been raining for three straight days. It was Friday night (not that it makes a difference anymore, sadly), and I was determined not to spend the evening at home again. When we're "out" and it's dark and raining and you're trying to get two kids in and out of carseats at each stop, and Lyla is climbing all over the McDonalds table knocking our food off and getting into everything, I remember why sometimes it's just more fun to stay home, but those of you who spend a lot of time alone with toddlers know you sometimes just need to get out - whatever the cost. Last night was one of those nights!

RSVP with Me

This video along with a FBI Press Release about 60 children rescued from sex slavery here in the U.S. in late October and this CNN article (about the rescue) were just a few of the newsworthy items on a great blog about human trafficking that I read today. It reminded me that I wanted to use a post on this blog to invite anyone in the DC Metro area to join Mark and I at this year's benefit dinner for the International Justice Mission. Those of you who follow this blog might remember that I did a post last year about our experience at the 2008 dinner. It was a great evening that helped continue to inspire us to seek to do more in the way of bringing an end to some of the horrible attrocities that are taking place in the world. The dinner this year is a month away - December 10th at 7pm in NW Washington, D.C., so if you'd like to know some more information, I can help you figure out any of the details, or even better, email me and say you'd like to come. We can sit at the same table and maybe there will be enough of us to fill a full table of ten!

(Update: ** We're registered under Mark Simpson, so if you want to go and sit at the same table, just put in Mark's name for who you'd like to sit with.)

Dads and Daughters

I am very thankful to have been born into a family with a great father. He has had a really important impact on us kids and our families, and I'm very thankful our girls have such a great grandfather. Happy Birthday, Dad! Since Mark, Nina, and Lyla looked so cute after church yesterday, I subjected them to getting their picture taken, but since the "photo session" only lasted 3 minutes, I didn't get many objections.

Eating grapes can be exhausting!

Happily Ever After

Yesterday, as Nina and Lyla were having a princess tea party on a princess blanket in Nina's room surrounded by princess books and princess figurines, I wondered how many of our recent purchases have the Disney copyright on them. Probably a lot. Don't get me wrong, we don't purchase a lot of princess stuff for the girls, but Nina loves what we do have. We have the books which she loves us to read to her, and using her allowance, she's purchased the prince and princess figurines that she imagine plays with all the time. They're kind of what G.I. Joe's were for boys, but they're princesses for girls.

Anyway, with the influx of fairy tale items, it's brought up some interesting thoughts. First of all, the "nursery rhymes" we were told as a kid are not great bedtime stories. Think about Hansel and Gretyl or Little Red Riding Hood...clearly a bit scary. The same applies with all the princess stories. I remembered the characters from when I was a little girl, but I had forgotten many of the details. There's the queen in Snow White who is so vain that she sends a huntsman to bring back Snow White's heart in a box because she the is the fairest one of all, or there is the curse placed on Aurora when she's born that she'll die before she turns 16. These left us filtering out some of the words and phrases when we read them to Nina. However, there is no problem in the princess world that can't be solved by true love's kiss from the prince. The prince doesn't need to get to know the princess or spend time learning about her or her family. All he needs is to see her and how beautiful she is, they kiss then get married and live happily ever after in the castle. Once in the castle, it's a life of fancy dresses, tea parties, dances, parties, etc. Who doesn't want that life? Nina regularly wants to role play getting married. Thankfully right now, Daddy is Prince Charming.

I realize that all kids love to live and play in some sort of fantasy life. I think that's great for their imagination, and sooner or later they learn that all problems in life can't be solved by the kiss from a prince. It does make me think more though about mentioning often that princesses have to be smart, caring, generous, and responsible in order to be a good princess. Maybe not now, but definitely later, we'll have to talk about the reality that happily ever after isn't secured by a beautiful wedding dress and a Prince Charming. That's a good start, but we all know it takes more than that.

So, I guess we'll keep reading the princess stories but just make sure we're reading the Bible stories just as much. After all, Nina asked me the other day at breakfast if grown-ups really get swallowed by fish like Jonah did. I guess when you're three, the twists and turns of life can either end you up living a charmed life in a castle or in the belly of a fish for three days!

Happy Halloween 2009

The girls had a great day yesterday for Halloween. Despite a dreary forecast, the day was only a little bit drizzly and actually quite warm. The fun kicked off at 11:00 yesterday morning down at the town center. All the shops and restaurants were hosting a Trick or Treat for the kids of the community, so of course we walked over for the fun. Nina jumped right into the spirit of things. Lyla refused to come out of the wagon. She did, however, quickly figure out how to get at the wrapped candy in her bucket.

After the fun at the town center, they came back and got out of costumes until it was time to go out trick or treating in the evening. Once 6:00 came, they were both ready to head back out!

Lyla had a lot more fun in the evening. After a few houses of being scared, she realized that it was actually a lot of fun, and she ended up having a great time even though she was called "such a cute little boy" a couple times last night. Nina also had a blast. She loved being Cinderella, and she really loved going from house to house and seeing all the other kids is costume.

Pumpkinville

Mark was home yesterday, so we decided to take the girls to Pumpkinville. We saw some pretty interesting animals that were part of the Loudoun Animal Farm, the girls got to slide down some big slides and climb and jump in the bounce houses, and we enjoyed being outside and enjoying the fall festivities for the day.

Nina loved this rope swing. She held on tightly while swinging very high!

Check out the big tortoise in the backgound.

A Big Birthday

My mom celebrated a big birthday milestone yesterday. In order to not reveal her age, I won't tell you which birthday milestone it was, but it had something to do with the numbers 0 and 6. I'll leave the reader to figure out which order those two numbers go in. We love you, Mom!

Haymarket Halloween Party

This afternoon and evening was the much anticipated Haymarket Halloween party. While my mom and dad have had a Halloween party for the girls every year, this year was a turbo party complete with a hayride, spooky forest, dinner, campfire, and party treats. We had such a great time. Our friends, Jill and Mark and their two kids came also, and the Williams crew was sadly missing Shen who was feeling under the weather. We had such a great time, and we want to say a BIG thank you to Mousey and Poppy for all the work and creativity to make this year's party so much fun. Check out all the photos from the party HERE.

Sister Update

With fall now fully underway, I thought it was time for another sister update. It seems like Nina is changing so much these days. She is still full of energy and very imaginative, but she has developed quite a little attitude to go with it all. She can make us laugh with the funny attitude when things are going well, but there has also been the not so great attitude to accompany it. She puts her hands on her hips, sighs loud sighs, talks under her breath, and makes all sorts of interesting faces when things aren't going her way. We're having to have more talks about attitude and respect, but I have a feeling we'll be having those conversations for years to come.

In other news, she is SO excited for Halloween. She has been carrying around her Halloween bucket filled with all kinds of things from the house while pretending it's Halloween. Her costume this year will be no surprise - Cinderella. I was excited in the months leading up to October when we talked about her being Ladybug Girl - a character from one of her favorite books. She could be Ladybug Girl and Lyla could be Ladybug Girl's trusty Basset Hound, Bingo. It would have been great. However, walking through Costco one afternoon, we came upon the Disney princess costumes that they were selling. All thoughts of being Ladybug Girl went out the window, and Cinderella was front and center. I think I'm the only one disappointed.Nina really wanted her picture taken outside with Lyla and the pumpkin. Sorry for the weird shadows in the picture. I was just trying to snap something before Lyla got up.
Lyla just cracked the 19 month mark. She got a check-up last week and all reports came back great. She is still off the charts in height and low in weight, but I'm sure all that will even out soon. She loves building towers with blocks, stacking cups, etc. and loves to have books read to her. She is copycat #1 of all things Nina. One of the funny things she does right now is telling you when she passes gas. Since it's just family and friends that read this, I'm sure no one will be offended, but you'll hear a little noise and she'll look up and say "toot." I'm sure someday she'll be thrilled that I shared that information. While in the past she has been very eager to please, that trend hasn't exactly manifested itself as of late. The often self-involved mindset of a toddler would probaby fit her personality better right now. However, she is still loving and sweet most of the time.

1999 Reunion Weekend

This weekend we were part of the 10 year reunion of the 1999 championship team of DC United. Mark got to catch up with some of his former teammates, and we enjoyed a really nice evening on Friday and then the 99 team was honored at the rainy, cold game on Saturday night. The hotel was great, however it will be a long time (at least we feel this way at the moment) before someone could convince the four of us to stay in a hotel room together again. On Friday night, Lyla wouldn't go to sleep until 4:30 am, and Nina was up at 6:30 am. Needless to say, that put quite a damper on our energy level for Saturday, so we decided to forego the hotel room stay on Saturday night and sleep at home. Good choice. The guys from the 1999 team and their coaches.
The wives of the players and coaches.

All the kids that would agree to be in the picture. Lyla wouldn't agree to get in the picture, and Nina is clearly excited to be a part of the photo op. Click on the picture to see her expression!

Nina had a really great time at the dinner event on Friday. There were a lot of kids, and she did very well. Lyla, on the other hand, struggled to stay up late and take in all the stimulation, but with the help of her paci and lots of being held by Mark and I, she survived.

Weekend Wrap-Up

This past weekend we had the chance to spend some time with Mark's mom and step-dad from Florida. Mark and I had an engagement to attend on Saturday that was going to take most of the afternoon and evening, so instead of asking a babysitter to stay with the girls, we thought it would be a better idea to fly his parents in for the weekend so we could spend some time together and they could help out with the girls on Saturday. Nina got to show Grandma and Grandpa her bike riding skills, and we enjoyed a beautiful fall day together on Friday. While Mark and I were gone on Saturday, they all got to go to the community Fall Festival. I wish I would have been there to take pictures, but we heard it was a lot of fun! Grandma and Grandpa left on Sunday, and although the visit was short, it was great to have them here for a couple days.
Nina is teaching Lyla all about dress-up. Lyla finally fits in one of Nina's first dress-up dresses, and Nina is actually thrilled about it. Now she has a princess partner to play the part with.

A Trip to the Apple Orchard

So, we decided to take our first trip back to Stribling Orchard in close to seven years. The last time Mark and I were there, it was shortly after we were married, and we got so into the spirit of the fall weather, the apple picking, etc. that we ended up coming home with 37 pounds of apples. Keep in mind, we lived in a smallish one-bedroom condo at the time, our kitchen wasn't very big, and we were faced with the prospect of what to do with all these apples. We felt like Bubba and Forrest in that scene of Forest Gump where Bubba is describing all the things they do with shrimp. We made 9 apple pies, apple cake, apple turnovers, apple butter, cinnamon apples, ate the apples...you get the idea. We haven't gone apple picking since, but we decided to take the girls and enjoy the beautiful fall day. So, what's the one thing you can do to prevent yourself from picking too many apples??? Bring two toddlers with you! This time, we only came home with about 10 pounds.

Before we picked apples, Nina and Lyla had to check out the sheep, goats, and horse at the orchard.

Isn't it true that the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence!
Nina was so intent on trying to climb the trees. She made it up this one (with a little help) and picked some apples for us.

Mark, of course, got all the best apples from the very tops of the trees!

Both girls liked eating the apples straight from the tree, but we had to keep a close eye on Lyla who would happily pick up any rotten apple off the ground and start eating it.

We had a picnic lunch on top of the highest hill in the orchard and were able to look out over the Shenandoah Valley area. If only the leaves had been in prime season for the fall colors! Regardless, we had a good time together at the orchard.