29 October 2007

The longest holiday of the year?

So, my question is how many times are your kids going trick-or-treating this year? I am finding that this year we have many opportunities for it.

On Saturday we went trick-or-treating around to all of the little shops that are next door to our apartment building. The shops at Pentagon Row hosted a trick-or-treat day for kids. It was actually pretty neat. (The weather was almost perfect, so the kids got to wear the more lightweight costumes they won't be able to wear on chilly Halloween night.) Nearly all of the stores and restaurants (and there are quite a few) handed out candy as the kids came by. They even got to decorate their own pumpkin cookies at Sur la Table. Hailey and Mia had a great time filling up their buckets with pre-Halloween candy. That was T-or-T #1.

T-or-T #2 will be the church trunk-or-treat tomorrow night.

Then, of course, the real T-or-T on Wednesday night will be #3.

So, now my next question: What do you do with ALL of that dreadful Halloween candy? Give it away? Throw it away? Let the kids go crazy with it? All I can say is that whatever I do with it the dentist is going to have a heyday.


Hailey drew this in honor of Halloween.

Happy Halloween to all!

23 October 2007

Mount Vernon

A couple of weekends ago we went down to Mount Vernon, George Washington's home, for the day. We took a sightseeing boat down the Potomac River to get to Mount Vernon and then back again. It was really neat. We all enjoyed it, but the girls thought the boat trip was a little long (an hour and a half each way). We didn't get to see everything there, so we'll be going back sometime.

This is the mansion. Quite impressive.

This is the view of the Potomac (and our boat) from the back of the mansion.

This is our house as seen from the river. YEAH, RIGHT! (There are some pretty awesome, huge homes on the Potomac.)


Hailey and "massive head-wound Harry".

Chris took this picture from the boat. If you look closely the bird has a fish in its mouth.

16 October 2007

Hailey's Artwork

Hailey loves to draw. She has told me that she wants to be an artist. I love when she draws things for me. She has gotten rather good at it, too. I just wanted to share a few of the things she has drawn recently.



Hailey drew this for her teacher yesterday. I thought it was really nice. I especially like the birds.



This was the flip side of the picture for her teacher. It's a night-time camping scene. All she needs in this one is S'mores.


This one she drew today. I've always loved palm trees. I think she did quite well with it.

15 October 2007

Coolest Park in Arlington/McLean

So we've been introduced to the coolest park we've ever been to without having to pay for admission. It's called Clemyjontri Park in McLean, VA. (The lady who funded the park and donated the land named it after her kids: Carolyn (CL), Emily (EMY), Jon (JON), and Patrina (TRI).) When we drove up to it it looked like a mini amusement park. It is huge! The kids had a great time. It's about a 20 minute drive from where we live, but it's well worth the trip.

This is only about a third of the full size of the park.

Here is another third of the park. The panels to the right of Hailey are part of a kid size maze.


We were going to come to the park a day earlier, but Mia got crazy that evening in the mall and tripped into the corner of a trash bin and got a nearly one inch cut on her forehead. No stitches luckily, but she still looked like massive head-wound Harry. (The bandage and tapes are off now--she looks much better.)


Here are the girls with a couple of little friends they made for the day.

Fun times!

09 October 2007

Arlington? Washington DC? What?

We've received a few emails from people wondering what we are doing in Arlington/the DC area. I suppose I should have mentioned it before. (Hmm. I thought I did. Ah, memory loss--the true sign of age.)

Chris has not changed his work. We are still based in Yuma, but he is on temporary assignment at headquarters in Washington DC. He is rubbing shoulders with all of the big wigs here as a consequence and is doing very well. We are tentatively scheduled to return to Yuma in May 2008. Until then we are enjoying the area and the history here.

Hope everything is well in everyone else's neck of the woods.
 

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