Tourists In Our Own Town!

Being a tourist in your own town is a lot of fun! And even more so if "your own town" just happens to be our nation's capital! (Okay, technically, for us--it is not. But, since we can drive from our house to D.C. in less than a half hour, we think it still counts!)

So, today, we took off on an adventure to see the cherry blossoms in full bloom!
We began our journey at 9:30 am. Here we are just outside of Dunn-Loring station, about to board the METRO! (As you can see from this pic, Elizabeth is very excited about this, while Ashley is just trying to hunker down for her morning nap in peace!)
First stop: The gardens at the Smithsonian Castle...


Then we walked down the Mall right by the Washington Monument...

And stumbled onto a rugby match in progress (no, seriously! It was a total coincidence!)...
Enjoyed the picturesque beauty of the cherry blossoms...
Stopped to smell the flowers in the Tulip Library...
Took pictures of the Jefferson Memorial... Ate lunch under the cherry blossoms surrounding Washington's Tidal Basin...



Walked back up the Mall toward the Capitol (while both girls took a nap in the stroller!)...


Stopped to enjoy the fountains outside the American Indian Museum...



Rode the carousel in front of Smithsonian Castle (Warning: DO NOT watch this video if you are prone to motion sickness! For some reason, viewing of the video is much worse than being on the actual ride!)




And, finally, we stopped to appreciate one last fountain at the Smithsonian Castle gardens!

All in all...it was an exhausting and very fun-filled day of sightseeing, crowds, and beautiful weather! WOOHOO!!!

ABC...Easy as 123!

Elizabeth was playing with her alphabet train the other day—(each "car" is a letter of the alphabet that magnetizes to its neighbor)—and she arranged it in order from A to Z! Predictable, I guess...but since it takes a pretty long attention span to hunt through the pile to unscramble, rearrange, and attach 26 cars, I gave her lots of props for it!!!!

But then, when she started pointing and naming each letter and pairing it with its phonetic sound, I shouted, "Wait right here!" while I grabbed my camera and made her start all over from the beginning! haha!

So, please consider this the gratuitous sequel to the "my-kid-knows-the-alphabet" video that I posted last year. Same rules apply: If you aren not a grandparent of this child, viewing is completely OPTIONAL! ;-)

Multilingual?...Sure! Why not?

Lest ye think that Elizabeth is just babbling in bathtub gibberish, she is here to set the record straight! At least in her mind, this is a legitimate language!




Funny, I don't remember Mrs. Bell or Mrs. Zerbe teaching me any of these phrases when I studied this language in Jr. High and High School! ;-)

Party Preparations

Daddy shot this video while Mommy was upstairs getting E ready for A's birthday party. Grammy & Pop-Pop were already here, but I think they were downstairs in the Den (the reason Ashley keeps peeking down there!). The video is about a minute long...but watch to the very end b/c we are going to count this as Ashley's REAL first "conversation" with her sister! Elizabeth wishes her a happy birthday...and, if you listen closely, you can hear Ashley respond: THANK YOU!!!

Happy 1st Birthday, Ashley Rose!

Ashley had a very busy First Birthday Celebration!
Here she is waiting for birthday cake!

Want some?....THANK YOU!

What fun!

Special Memories

Just thought I'd post a few of these since I ran across them in iPhoto. So happy for the special memories of Grams with the girls! XO

Uh-OH!!!!

Cutest. Thing. Ever.

This is only a few seconds long...but totally worth it!

Even though Ashley repeats this clever little routine about 100 times a day, I am certain there will come a time when I will have forgotten all about it. So I want to preserve the cuteness here as a little reminder!

Cute & Cozy x Two!

Sometimes you don't need a whole witty paragraph to describe a moment in time!

So...is this what it's like to love your daughters so much it HURTS???...

Inside & Out

While the place is all spic'n'span, I thought I'd better post some pictures of the interior of our new home! I am offering this up as official evidence that I am capable of cleanliness!--at least in short little bursts that last until the pictures are taken and we start *living* in the space again! "Elizabeth...Ashley...Don't. Touch. ANYTHING!" ;-)

Above is the living room (taken from just inside the front door looking slightly to the left).

This one shows the front door standing just in front of the kitchen/dining room.

This one above is the dining room (taken from the living room) and the kitchen is just to the right. The kitchen/dining/living room make an open L-shape.

View of kitchen from the dining room.

This is the den. It's 7 steps down from the living room, so it has sort of a cozy basement feel.

This is a view of the den from the front corner of the built-in, next to the fireplace. Through that white door is the utility room--which houses the washer/dryer and a "guest bathroom".

Here is a view of Elizabeth's room from her doorway.

Let's Start at the Very Beginning...

A very good place to start!
(Go ahead...sing along...)

So...my mom is insisting that it has been SO long since I posted an update that "those of us in blogworld don't even know you've moved!" Really, Mom?!? But you've BEEN to our new house and seen in for yourself! And I'm pretty sure that the other 3 people who read this have probably already been here too! ;-)

But,... just in case she is right and there are, in fact, more than three members of my reading audience in this blogoshpere...I will indulge and make the official announcement:

WE HAVE MOVED FROM MICHIGAN TO NORTHERN VIRGINIA!
(Falls Church, VA...to be exact!)

Peter got a great new job offer at the National Defense University, so at the end of December, instead of celebrating Christmas in the traditional way, we packed up our belongings and headed out on the road--spent Christmas Day in Pittsburgh--then completed the journey to Virginia where we closed on our new house the same week Peter started work at NDU. Though it all happened very suddenly, so far, it has been a seamless transition, and we are enjoying our new home and new town.

And then, all of a sudden...(cue music of doom!)...we are hit by WINTER SNOWSTORM 2010!

I have posted an album of photos on Facebook, but since Grandma & Grandpa are not on FB and since Pop-Pop--who was briefly on FB--is a "Quitter"...(I think that's the official term for former members of the cult of Facebook!), it's only right that we share a few photos here as well! :-)

Peter spent most of the late morning shoveling snow from our driveway! And, were it not for the very friendly neighbor across the street (who happened to have a snowblower that he *just* got back from the repair shop YESTERDAY!)...Peter would probably still be out there shoveling away!

We forgot to bring the snow shovel inside last night...so Peter had to force the front door open and wade through over a foot and a half of snow to the garage the get the shovel.

He then dug a path up the walkway to "rescue"

Elizabeth and me so we could come outside and play! :-)And here we are post-rescue...
making our way down off the porch along the path Daddy made for us!


And finally, here is a view of the backyard and playscape
so you can get a pretty good idea of how insane it is!
A LOT of snow (24 inches and counting!)...but it is SOOOO pretty!

Rub-a-Dub-Dub...

Two girls in a tub!

And Elizabeth could not be happier about having a little company in the bath! She excitedly exclaims, "My sister is getting BIGGER!" It's as if she has been waiting her whole life for the "bigger" to happen and for "sister" to be big enough to play with her! And, at least where bathtime is concerned...the time has finally come!


I will have to post video soon...but I am not sure which of them has a better time! There is so much giggling and splashing that it's a wonder there is any water left in the tub with they are through!