A Visitor, a Date Night and a Pumpkin Patch

Hello! I was trying to decide which blog to write first; Thirty-One or this one. I decided I wanted to share all of our pumpkin patch photos first so this one won! :)

In the last week, we have had a visitor, had an overnight date night and visited the pumpkin patch. Love it! My mom came into town last Friday, Oct. 12th, for a lengthy visit. Originally she was going to come today, but after a discussion about how ridiculously high babysitting costs are out here, she flew in a week early to babysit the kids. Yay Grammy! Randy and I had decided to go to the Navy Ball for a much needed date night. With Grammy here though, we were able to turn it into an overnighter. Even better! Up until last weekend, we haven't done a date night since June when we were still living in Arizona!

My mom turned our night out into a special night for the kids too. They got pizza, dressed up and did dance party since we were doing the same...kind of. ;)

There were three other couples from Randy's office that also went to the Navy Ball so we all got together in our room for a little pre-party. With $10 drinks downstairs, we needed a pre-party. :) We all took couples pictures before heading down.

Here is one with Randy and I during dinner.

We had a great time! We were guessing about 1,000 people were there. Randy even saw a Commander he had back in his helo days in Virgina Beach. :)

My mom hung around with us all last week. I told Dylan that he had to wait until Randy turned on the shower in the morning before he could run down to Grammy's room. This means she got to sleep until about 7:15-7:30am. Dylan wouldn't even say good morning to us, but instead went straight downstairs. By the end of the week, Ava was doing the same thing. She would yelp at us to help her out of the crib, then took off downstairs. I thought it was funny and my mom loved it!

As many of you know, when mom and I get together there are two main activities; shopping and projects. We did both. Not only do we have crafty projects going, but also visited Old Navy and Carter's for the kids as well as Home Goods, World Market and Target for the house. Our house needs a little decorating. ;) I'll post the finished projects next week.

My mom was worried that we would get sick of her if she stayed too long. :) She says that no matter how much you love having someone around, there is a point where you just want them to go home. Sounds about right huh? LOL! Well, because of this concern, she took the train to NYC to meet a friend for a five day trip. She'll be back on Wednesday. Then...my dad shows up on Thursday. We are a busy group!

With Halloween creeping up on us so fast, we knew we needed to hit the pumpkin patch. At the perfect time, we were invited to join three other families (Randy's co-workers and their fams) to this great little farm for a great Fall pumpkin picking day. It was an hour away,

but so pretty!

This picture doesn't even do it justice!

We saw the goats, chickens and ducks, but this is the closest Dylan would get. He doesn't really like farm animals.

We brought the wagon and hiked up the hill to find our pumpkins.

Dylan spent the LONGEST time looking for his pumpkin! He said he was looking for the perfect "bestest" pumpkin. I swear we looked at every single one.

The stuffed frog that keeps appearing in the pictures is Freddy the Frog from Dylan's school. He got to bring Freddy home for a weekend full of adventures. :) Ava, on the other hand, played with the plants, dirt and baby pumpkins. She just enjoyed running around.

This is one of my favorites...

Once we all had our pumpkins, we loaded them in with the kiddos

and headed down to the vegetable area where we could pick whatever we wanted. Instead of hunting through all of the different crops, we went to dig for peanuts. Dylan found this more interesting because we were using a pitchfork and shovel. Yet again, Ava played in the dirt. :)

We then picked out some apples from the bins...

 and head to a grassy area for a picnic. It was great because two of the other families have kids the same age as us. Dylan did more playing/wrestling with each other. :)

All in all, a great day! So...now its almost Tuesday and a busy week starts all over again.

Brrr...Time to Shop!

It's getting cold here! My wonderful friends and family are still frying on the westcoast and we are entering into jacket weather. Today's high is projected at 51 degrees! Now that is the lowest we've seen out here since July, but I know some of you haven't put away your shorts and tank tops yet. :)

A couple weeks ago, I was going through the kids' clothes to get rid of everything that didn't fit. I then discovered that they had NOTHING to wear! Now, I don't say this lightly...they really had NO cold weather clothes. Here is a picture of part of the stash of giveaways!

Dylan had two pairs of pants that didn't go above his ankles yet because they were bought late in the season last year. Ava had zero that were long enough, but with girls and leggings...you can get away with it. That is when I started actually looking at all the sale emails I was getting from Carter's, OshKosh, Old Navy, etc. I was nervous the temperature would drop suddenly and my kids would freeze. So...I went shopping!

I love shopping online because I can do it while the kids are sleeping, which makes things so much easier!

The last week and a half has been fun because we saw Fed Ex and UPS a lot! :) I got a package from Carter's with some warm coats for Ava, one from my mom with kiddo pants...Thanks!, some Ugg type boots for Dylan...Thanks Oma!, a BIG bag from Old Navy, Randy got his textbooks (I'll share later) and I got a box from Thirty-One! So fun!! To make it even better, ALL of the clothes were on sale...jeans for $8! Here is Ava's Old Navy stash.

She has purple skinny jeans! Dylan did not allow me to take any pictures of his items, although, his favorite is a batman longsleeve tee with a cape! I can now responsible cloth my kiddos as the weather changes, although, I am far from finished. :)

I mentioned a Thirty-One box...

Then I opened it to find this...

The kiddos loved their gift from Nana! Ava is always carrying some type of purse around and Dylan is an "organizer" even if we don't always understand his system. ;)

I loved my hostess goodies too! Thanks to everyone who shopped at the party!

You can kind of see Ava's head at the bottom. She didn't want to sit still for the picture, she wanted to go grab everything and mess it up. :)

I have my first home party since moving on the 20th so I'm excited! The online party really helped me get some new stuff to show off at the party. I met with my hostess yesterday, without kids for both of us, to plan the party. She's excited, I'm excited...this should be a great kick off party in Alexandria!

As far as Randy's textbooks go, he is going back to school! Beginning in November, Randy will be a graduate student at American Military University getting his MBA in Human Resources. The classes are online and the degree will take three years...I think. Yay for Randy! He wanted his focus to be Finance, but since his job is HR and the Navy is paying the majority of his tuition...he is going HR. :)

We are and will continue to be a busy group! My mom comes into town on Friday then Randy and I get our first date night since moving on Saturday. We will be getting gussied up and going to the Navy Ball! So stay tuned because I will post pics!

Have a great long weekend!

Life Around Town

I've discovered a new way to meet other mommies...Meet-Up Alexandria!

I can't take all of the credit for finding this group; a friend of mine told me about it. :) I've found two groups in the area and I've attended a handful of events for each one. It's a good way to meet other moms and kids in the area. We live on the edge of Alexandria so most of these events require me to drive at least 15 minutes, yet it usually takes longer because there is always traffic. :) This has helped me in learning the area though. These meet-ups have been good because it gets the kiddos out and playing with other kids. I'm enjoying meeting other moms, yet this always takes a little longer. ;)

We've have discovered some great parks, libraries and of course museums. We also checked out our first frozen yogurt place, Sweet Frog.

It is a fill-you-own type of place, but it has three different cup sizes. I love this! Why? Well now I don't have to take the HUGE cup and try to only fill enough yogurt for a small and it ends up overflowing. ;) Right after I discover this place, I see a sign in the shopping area right by my house that says, "Menchie's coming soon!" Yay! This was our fro yo place in HI!! So now this shopping center will have Tropical Smoothie, Starbucks, Firehouse Subs, Five Guys, Menchies and a pizza place. It also has a cute ballet studio when Ava gets older. :) Yes...I love food! LOL! The key thing here is that we can take a walk to these places. What a great afternoon outing on a Fall day.

 

Along with getting to know the area, Dylan has also been getting comfy in school. He already loves it! He is making friends and comes home each day singing a new song, rhyme or telling a story. It's nice to see him this way. Like most kids in their first week of school, Dylan was assigned to complete an "All About Me" poster. I've assigned a similar project to my students over the years. :) Here was Dylan's poster...

 

 

Last weekend was the National Book Festival on the Mall. We love free stuff like this! :)

 

This is the poster they gave! I picked one up with intention of getting it framed and hung in the kids' playroom. :)

 

The Mall was full of tents! Even though this event was for all ages, we mainly stayed in the kids area. One of the tents had a lego area that was a big hit!

 

They gave the kids crowns, which Ava seemed more interested in than the legos towards the end of playtime. :)

 

We then went over to the Storytime stage where the "Justin Roberts and The Not Ready For Naptime Players" were performing. They were pretty good. Here is a video of the kids rocking out. I couldn't back up too much because there were a lot of people so it is a little close.

 

 

We then had a picnic on the lawn.

 

 

Dylan wasn't posing for pics during lunch.

 

The plan after lunch was to go to the book tent to buy a couple books for the kids then head to the tent where Choo Choo Soul from Disney Junior was playing. Well, it ended up being more complicated. Argh! Randy went to pay for the books and I thought the I was waiting with the kids outside the tent for him to finish then WE were going to the performance tent. Randy thought we were meeting him at the performace tent. Well, I waited with the kids for about 45 min. outside the book tent without seeing Randy! I ended up letting Ava play in the dirt because they were getting so restless!

 

 

While she was in the dirt, Randy was listening to Choo Choo Soul. Without going into great detail, my group missed the show and found eachother after an hour of waiting. We learned a big lesson on communication that day. Randy and I will be double checking the plan next time. :)

 

A;ong with all of the fun stuff, we have also had other "events" occur. Pest control got rid of the termites in our house...yes, you read that right. Dylan has slipped into his alter ego of the resident dictator. Ava has taken to pooping in the tub during bath and I deal with it all. Yep...just the regular stuff. :)  This weekend is going to be boring stuff around the house...hopefully. ;)

We're Chugging Along

It has been almost three weeks since we pulled into our driveway. A lot has happened in just a few weeks! I did take a few shots of our house for those that are interested. :)

It's a cul-de-sac!

The first five days of moving boxes, our energy was up and we were cranking out the unpacking. We've slowed down a bit. :) The only room that has boxes is the office/guest room and most of those are filled with my teaching stuff.

The plan is to go through it and reorganize so it makes sense and can easily be stored. I've gone through one rolling cart only because I wanted to use it in the playroom. LOL! As I'm writing this I'm thinking this should be a weekend project, but it didn't happen this weekend. :) This is what happens when I'm trying to leave a classroom as fast as possible because the baby girl came early. ;)

For those that are familiar with the moving process, especially with kids, there are a few things that are important once you get to the new home.
* How will I keep the kids occupied?
* Where will the kid(s) be going to school?
* Where are the nearest Target, Costco, grocery store and other necessary shopping places. :)

Occupying the kids is very important otherwise everyone feels the pain! Here are some pics of what we've been doing.

Homemade popsicles!

Tutu Time! She is such a girl!!

We have a safe place to ride bikes or cars. :)

We tried out the local ice rink! This is wear the Washington Capitals practice!

We had to watch from the second floor because Ava loves the ice! She gets upset when she can't join the boys.

We did go down to say hi during a break. Ava threw a fit and we decided we needed to look for double blade skates for her. She is a joiner!

Dylan did such a great job!! He is barely holding Randy's hand while skating now. The boys have decided that they will be going on their own most Saturdays.

Back at the house, Randy put together the swing set this weekend! Yay! Thank you Billie and family! We love it!

Can you tell it's a bit humid? LOL!

 

The kids "helped" Randy put it together. We even formed a search party for the last tool that he needed because Ava stored it in the sandbox. They have so much fun helping, but it doesn't necessarily make the project easier. I thought the whole thing was amusing, but I was the management side of the project not the execution side.

I really like our outdoor space. We can trap the kiddos on the deck and there is a nice shady space.

The grass area is not fenced, but there is enough space that Ava isn't dashing for the street...right now anyway. :) Between tee ball, golf, horseshoes, soccer and the play set, I think I can keep them busy on the grass.

Ava even falls asleep in the swing. Love it!

I have looked into Little Gym, Gymboree and My Gym. We're lucky because we live near many locations. We are doing our free introductory classes this week at Little Gym in Falls Church. I was going to see if I could work out intro classes at My Gym in Alexandria too, but Dylan wants a sports class and My Gym doesn't off that. That means LG it is; as long as we all love it, which I'm sure we will. This way I'll have activities three days a week; one class for each kid and open gym. Maybe I'll even meet some nice mommies.:) Little Gym is where I met my AZ crew!

A huge check mark off the to-do list was finding Dylan a preschool. He will be attending the 3yr old program at Annadale Methodist Chuch preschool.

We were really impressed with their program and Dylan loved the place! He even invited the Asst. Director over to our house to play. LOL! School doesn't start here until after Labor Day so we have a month to keep them occupied.

As for the last important item on the list, we're lucky because I can say that Target, Costco, Joanne's and all other important shopping are less than 10 min. away! We have three Targets within a six mile radius, which is the most important. ;) Even though they all look close on the map, between traffic and all of the crazy roads, not everything is as convenient as it looks.

Look at this crazy thing!

We went to our third Target this evening though and I think we found our home Target. ;)  In AZ in literally took me 5 minutes to get to my home Target; one light where I made a right turn. It was awesome and dangerous at the same time. ;)

The hubs goes back to work tomorrow so I think our "regular" schedule will start to materialize over the next couple of weeks. This is why I was so focused on kiddo activities; I'm on my own during the day. We'll make it...we always do! :)