Dec 10
Everyone,
Today I packed up all the balls in the house and headed out with Lala and Mimi for playtime at the soccerplex. It was so much fun to let the kids run around like mad and throw balls and get in fights with other kids. (Not really about the fighting, the boys are a lot less, um, opinionated that Butterfly ever was/is.)
So what is the soccer plex? It’s a huge indoor field with sinthetic turf. They have 2 full size fields in the building. They reserve one for the “baby” play area, and one for the “big kid” play area. I have never been in the big kid side, but glancing at it today, there were a lot of kids running around really fast in there.
In the “baby” play area, people bring balls, toys, ride on, push toys, pull toys, and pretty much anything that needs a lot of space to work right. Along with our balls we brought Pirate’s dog on a string. He was the envy of a lot of other 2 year olds there (including his brother).
Someone brought a wagon and Professor took off with it. He stacked it full of balls and then walked the white line on the perimeter the rest of the time. (By the way, Flower, it’s the same wagon you sent him for Christmas since I wrapped it the other night and so I know he’ll love it. Thanks!)
Tons of smiles, tons of lunch after, and tons of sleep too! A successful time at the plex!
For locals, here’s the scoop:
$2 per kid gets you in. Babies under a year old are free.
Every Tuesday and Thursday from 10am-12pm. Closed during Winter Break.
Snack area, but the concessions are closed. Also, $2 for gatorade if you’re like me and forgot a drink.
Parental supervision required. Otherwise fights break out and it’s not pretty when toddlers fight. I know. I see it almost every day.
Bring your own balls.
Safire
SafireLala and Mimi, local stuff locals
Oct 04
Everyone,
Well, obviously I am being a bad blogger. I have no excuses but three small ones that I have to keep safe. And clean. And fed. Especially fed. They do not like having empty stomachs.
So, let’s play catch up! Here is my calender that I write everything down on and here are some quick highlights of the past few weeks.
Saturday Sept 19th we went to Mt. Vernon to their fall festival. It was a lot of fun until they shot off the cannon and scared the boys. Also, they were hungry. They had some awesome people dressed in period costumes selling stuff and the regiment patrolling the ground. This is why we were talking about artillery during A week. Professor spilled hot chocolate all down his shirt here and I still can’t get it out. Any ideas?
We had D week which was loads of fun! We talked about Dalmatians, dragons, dinosaurs, did a lot of dot to dots, had a date with Daddy to go visit the dogs (they went to the local pet shop and pet the puppies), and Lolli, AJ and me and Butterfly (no boys, they stayed home with Daddy) went to get doughnuts and feed the ducks.
We went apple picking. We brought home 6 huge bags full of apples. Much thanks to my friend Lala (not Lolli) who was kid less that day and climbed up in the trees to get the apples. I would say this day was kind of a bust because I had zero fun. Maybe I’ll do it again when the boys are 4 which is in about 3 years. Still, it was an experience and I’m glad I went!
We had another letter week, T this time in honor of the Christmas Train that came through town. It was promoting the new Christmas Carol movie and it was really fun. And free! We had a great time riding the train down there, and back and lunch at the train station. Such fun! We also watched Tarzan, read books on toys and trains and turkeys, and even made our own turkey out of a toilet paper roll. I had a bunch of word find stuff I got at the Christmas Train and asked her to find all the T’s instead of all the words. It’s now her favorite thing and begs me to print off more from the computer.
We’ve been going to the PRC a lot lately, at least once a week. It’s a lot more stressful than when I just had Butterfly going there. She is great and can do whatever she pleases while she is there. But the boys want to dump the gravel on the ground or touch some one’s newly painted picture with their hands or eat play dough… I go because I think it will be good for them one day but man am I tired after. The teachers even take pity on me and shut the gravel play area while we are there. Otherwise I spend the entire time sweeping.
I got together with my friend Lala and we did a marathon bake with all those apples we picked. We made pizza pockets, small apple pies, and more. It was yummy and fun and my feet and calves ached for days after. But now I have some easy stuff in my freezer. I also spent most of the day yesterday while listening to conference making apple sauce. I really need to learn how to can the stuff because right now, it is filling up my fridge!
This up coming week is going to be hectic. Not only do I have something written down for every single day (even Saturday and Sunday!), but I am preparing for my parents visit next week. I am still trying to organize all my pictures so I don’t have any today. I’ve got to come up with a better system but I just can’t seem to keep on top of it.
Life is full and rich. I’m loving it and it makes me sleep well at night. I have so many projects swirling though. I’ve taken to making lists before I go to bed, only to add to them in the morning. I’m trying to focus on the pictures right now, which means I have neglected my email/blog/computer related stuff lately. So sorry if you haven’t heard from me!
Hopefully I’ll make some time for the blog at least.
Safire
SafireLala and Vinny, life, local stuff, Lolli, playing catch up, preschool
Sep 07
Everyone,
So today we were supposed to go hang out at a lake about an hour away from us. But we didn’t get up early enough to make it worth our while (Juice kept me up ALL NIGHT asking me if the power had gone off. Sometimes it’s funny when he talks in his sleep, sometimes it’s not. And for the record, he talks in his sleep about twice a month or so.)
Since we were home, we thought we’d go to the Labor Day parade. We got ourselves over there, sat down near the beginning of the parade (seriously, we were about 2 houses away from the starting line) and passed out flags to the children. The boys love to play them and we had a great time waving at all the parade goers. We cheered for everyone. The boy scouts, the bank employees, the dancers. Everyone.
Because we are so cute (and we are, especially the small people in our family) we had a lot of face time with the local news camera. He kept coming back to us and filming our family. And we ended up on the news tonight! Here are a few screen shots of the story. I won’t post the link on here because it gives away our “secret location” but email me if you want to see it.
I look a little annoyingly happy and Butterfly just looks annoyed but still, kind of fun for us.
The parade was okay. Getting there was a challenge. We went over to Chick-Fil-A for free food before the parade and took it with us to eat while we watched. We bought milk shakes (we got free food for the kids if we bought milk shakes) and Butterfly wanted to drink hers and ride on our stroller while walking to the parade. That’s fine, as long as she shares with her brothers who beg off of her all the time. Well, she shared a little too much and spilled milk shake all down Pirate. Poor boy was shivering he was so covered in it. Honestly I wasn’t too worried about him as much as I was worried about the stroller. That thing is hard to clean! But we got everything wiped up and enjoyed our time at the parade. Annoyingly so. 
The article that went along with all of our pictures was all about unemployment. Note to readers: we are lucky. We are not unemployed. I do know (from this article) that the DC Metro area has about a 6% unemployment rate. Lately I’ve noticed the number of people begging at stoplights has doubled. A lot of these people hold signs that say, “Need money to pay the rent.” or “Out of work mom of 3 kids, please help.” I feel horrible that people resort to begging because they feel that this is the best way to get money.
We are so incredibly lucky to have Juice’s job. We are lucky that I am able to stay home with these cute flag waving kids and we still have enough to live on. I know God takes care of us and our needs because they are met every single month, even when I wonder sometimes how we do it. I hope that those people begging on the streets find something soon.
Safire
Safirein the media, Juice's job, local stuff
