Afternoon in Washington

Look, I'm a unicorn

The girls had a lot of fun with the revolving door at the hotel.

After visiting Mt. Vernon, we drove into Washington, DC.  We visited the Jefferson Memorial, then we walked to the FDR memorial, and the MLK memorial.  We checked into the Willard Hotel, which is an old and somewhat famous hotel.  It had been an exhausting day! We ate dinner at the Shake Shack in downtown Washington.  They had delicious burgers and shakes.  We took the girls by the gift shop of the International Spy Museum afterwards and then walked back to our hotel.

Spring Break visit to Mt. Vernon

Hello President and Mrs. Washington!  It's lovely to meet you!

Sophie, Abbie, Grant and Nelson

our family at Mt. Vernon

Abbie, Nelson and Sophie hanging out on the front porch

This year, for the girls Spring Break, we drove up to Richmond, VA to spend time with Matt's mom, Teresa and his sister, Leia, who was getting married on the 2nd Saturday of the Spring Break.  We drove to Richmond on Saturday.  On Sunday, we spent time with Matt's family and then on Monday, we left and drove to Mt. Vernon about 2 hours away.  We packed bags for about a 2 day stay in the Washington, D.C. area because we knew that Matt's mom and sister would have lots of last minute details to see about before the wedding.

Well, as they say, "some things are just meant to be" and that's the way it was for us on our trip.  Matt had bought our tickets for Mt. Vernon in advance.  It was quite chilly when we arrived there in the mid-morning but it gradually warmed up.  Within 5-10 minutes of our arrival at Mt. Vernon, I ran into a good friend of ours from when we had lived up in Maryland about 10 years ago.  I thought that a little boy looked like her son in the visitor center but I wasn't sure.  Then, my friend, Katherine McClure, walked over next to her son a few minutes later.  Their family lives in a suburb right outside D.C. and the boys happened to be out of school that day.  Our family watched a film with them and then we hung out for most of our time at Mt. Vernon.  Katherine's boys, Nelson and Grant, are the same ages (approximately) as the girls.  The boys enjoyed showing the girls around Mt. Vernon and the girls loved hanging out with other children their ages and hearing about history from someone besides their parents. Right before we had arrived at Mt. Vernon, Abbie had said, "oh, this is so boring!"  I was like, "Our 1st President, George Washington actually lived here.  How cool is that?"  We toured the blacksmith and livery and all the places outside the house and then enjoyed touring Mt. Vernon. The girls liked seeing George Washington's false teeth.   It turned into a very pleasant, sunny day.  We already had a hotel lined up for that night but Katherine invited us to stay at their home while we were in the area.

Book Character Day and New Pets

Abbie was "Cowgirl Kate" for book character day.

Abbie and Sophie for book character day.  Sophie dressed up as a character from the Kingdom Keepers book series.

Abbie was so excited that we let her adopt two little guppies that were originally a little classroom project.

Wow, March has really flown by!  We've had all kind of weather this month, including snow, right after my birthday.  We've done some travelling and overall, it's been very busy.  A few weeks ago, the girls enjoyed dressing up as their favorite book characters for book character day.  It seemed like a lot of things had to be rescheduled at school due to the girls being out for snow for a couple of days.  Abbie was so thrilled that I told her that we could adopt some guppies as our pets.   She kept asking me before we'd even brought the fish home if we might could get another fish if she did well with the first two fish.  She also really wants us to get a puppy now but I don't think her parents are ready yet!  One funny thing about the fish is that as soon as we got them, we were already planning to go out of town.  I called Aunt Patti and asked her if she could babysit the fish while we were out of town.  Thankfully, the fish did fine but I think one reason that Matt and I have always enjoyed not having pets is that you can just leave town and it's not as complicated.

Monroe's 1st Birthday

Monroe and silly Uncle Matt

Monroe liked his giraffe cake!

the birthday boy

We actually celebrated Monroe's birthday one week before we went to Sophie's art show.  It was the Saturday after the huge ice storm in middle Tennessee and the surrounding areas.  It was actually a pretty yucky, rainy day outside.  We attended Sophie's violin recital in the early afternoon and then drove through the rain to Kentucky for Monroe's 1st birthday party.  They still had lots of snow and mud at the Riley's house.  They had some friends and family at the party.  Martha had done a good job with Monroe's cake and lots of cupcakes too that were different animals.  We had snacks at the party and visited a little bit.  Nana and Paw-paw were there as well as Matt R.'s grandma but some of their family couldn't make it because of the bad roads.  We were able to see Stephanie (Joppeck) and Josh Kirby's baby, Walker, for the first time.  He's such a cutie!  Our family was totally exhausted when we got home from our trip to Kentucky.  We stopped in Springfield on the way home and ate dinner.  Driving through the rain and fog is exhausting!!  We were glad that we could make it to celebrate Monroe's 1st birthday though.  My picture of the girls with Morgan and Monroe didn't turn out very well so we'll try again next time.

Williamson County Art Show

our family with Sophie's art at the Frist Museum in Nashville

Sophie and her wonderful art teacher, Mrs. Lee

me and my girls by the Union Station Hotel

Matt and the girls

A couple of weeks ago, our family, including Nana and Paw-paw met at the Frist Museum in downtown Nashville.  Sophie's art work was one of the ones chosen to represent her school at the Williamson County art show.  Their art works are on display at the Frist for about 3 weeks.  It was a really neat event where they offered free admission to families.  We saw a couple of other artists that we knew and it was pretty fun.  The weather was halfway decent too which is incredible since most of February was very cold and snowy here!  Sophie painted a beautiful bamboo piece using Japanese brushes.

Snow and Ice Fun

Look at my snowball!

Abbie gets a turn with Daddy!

Now it's Sophie's turn!

Abbie's sledding on our alley.

a snowy view of our street

On Monday, February 16, we woke up to a winter wonderland.  We had gotten about 4 inches or so (I would guess) of snow and ice.  It continued to snow and sleet off and on Monday.  Matt did not go into work on Monday or Tuesday.  They cancelled classes at Lipscomb University.  We got some snow but there was a lot of ice under the snow so it was very slippery.  The girls were supposed to be out on Monday for President's Day anyway but they ended up being out all week and the following Monday due to snow and ice.  The girls had a great time sledding some almost every day.  Sophie and Abbie had fun sledding some with Mama and Daddy, and our friends, Sophie and Abby Clark sledded with us at their home and ours, as well as our neighbors, Charlie, Whit, Camden and Hugo.  By Wednesday, Matt drove in to work a little bit late.  I was starting to get a little stir crazy by Wednesday.  The main roads around us were clear but our little street was still a sheet of ice.  It snowed some more on Wednesday but we ventured out that afternoon to go see the Paddington movie (about Paddington bear).

The girls enjoyed playing games, watching T.V. and movies, doing some craft projects, making cookies, etc.  Thursday was an adventure because I had planned to drive to Spring Hill to meet my best friend, Andrea, who lives in Lewisburg but my van wouldn't start.  Andrea ended up driving to Franklin to pick us up and we rode with her to have some lunch.  That afternoon, AAA came and jumped off my van.  It turned out that the battery was OK.  My cousin, Craig, and his family were in town but we were not able to make it over to see them because most of the week, the roads were too bad.  They left town on Friday.  It snowed some more on Friday.  Saturday, was very dreary and rainy outside.  The roads were still slick in the morning and all of the snow started melting which made the roads kind of dangerous.

I was hoping that we would get some "REAL" snow this year though and we did!!  The kids enjoyed having snow cream and sledding in the snow (or mostly ice, I should say).

Abbie's 7th Birthday Bash

Abbie's ready to welcome her friends to the party!

Anna with Elsa

Sierra and Elsa (A.K.A Haley)

Sophie and Elsa

Elsa and Abbie

Abbie and Sophie C. with Elsa

Abbie and Elsa with her castle cake!

Elsa, Sophie and Abbie with Nana and Paw-paw

Matt, Paula, Sophie, Abbie and Elsa.

Sierra is enjoying an iced cone from the castle cake.

Elsa with Abbie and all of her friends.  L to R: Katie, Sophie C., Molly, Abbie, Rachel, Hailey, Anna, Tessa and Maggie.

This year, for Abbie's birthday we had a Frozen birthday party at our church.  I had thought we might do a skating party because Abbie loves to roller skate but then I was glad that had not gone that route because the two weekends before Abbie's birthday, her friends had back to back roller skating parties.  My mom had found out that Haley, one of my Aunt Shannon's nieces on the other side of their family, was dressing up as Elsa for parties.

Our area got a little bit of snow that morning but it melted off pretty quickly.  We had the party on Saturday, January 24.  Abbie knew that a special guest was coming but she didn't know who it was.  Well, we totally surprised her and had Elsa come from the movie Frozen. Haley was able to come as Elsa for Abbie's party and did a great job!  Abbie was totally speechless when Elsa (Haley) arrived.  At the party, the girls played a few games like Pin the nose on Olaf, a relay game where they had to get all of the items in order to build a snowman, a dice game where they made a snowman, etc.  We also had time for the girls to get their pictures taken with Elsa and make crafts such as bottle cap necklaces.

Abbie really wanted a princess castle cake.  I checked with someone to see if she could make the cake and when she was booked, I started looking into making one myself.  This was a big deal for me because I've only made like one cake for each of the girls and they have been fairly basic.  Anyway, after several hours, many cake mixes, one practice run, a few tears and some stressful moments, I made a castle cake.  I did not know if I could do it but it turned out fairly well!

We had invited about 17 girls total and about 11 of them were supposed to come but 3 were sick on the day of the party.  Also, we had some family who were able to come such as Nana and Paw-paw, Aunt Shannon, Sierra and Aunt Patti.  Aunt Martha, Uncle Matt, and their boys were not able to come because they were sick.  My cousin, Keri, and her son, Carter, had planned to come too but he was sound asleep.  Abbie had 8 friends who were able to come which was still a good number!  They all had a fun time at the party!

I can't believe that Abbie is 7.  She is sweet but also kind of sassy, spunky, full of energy and silly.  She is learning to read so much better this year.