Whirling Dervish spotted in Richmond

In mid-January we traveled to Richmond with friends to visit the Children's museum for the day.  There was a doctor's office, school, bank, mechanic shop, broadcasting studio, restaurant, 2 story "treehouse" with slides back to the floor, and so much more.  This with the drama/dance stage.  Of course the girls had a blast with all the costumes and music.  Here, Julia is testing out her twirling abilities.  They made us "buy" tickets for the performance, however, the performance kept getting interrupted by all the costume changes.  I think they could have stayed most of the day in that corner of the museum, but finally they moved on to other things. 

The Grand Finale!

Ah... Julia!

Julia sporting mom's new scarf

Julia, Julia, Julia....  I have lots of Chloe "quotables", but as I mentioned before, Julia is best described with video.  She'll sing the sweetest songs about her family and adorn you with hugs and kisses.  She'll look at you across the table with cross-eyes and walk across the room in what is now called the "Julia walk" (think duck-like power walking).  She can tell you the entire story of 3 little pigs or Goldilocks and sing her baby dolls lullabies.  She can do fancy karate-chop moves in a tu-tu and do ballet in her Spiderman costume.  She's one busy girl!  And so, without further ado, here she in in her first music video, dancing to Arabic music:

Beavers and Birds... Oh, My!

Well, we didn't actually see a beaver this time, but we saw a beaver HOUSE!   Here we are, back at Huntley Meadows.  We've been there so many times now that I was determined to see it in every season.  We saw 100's of giant toads and frogs over the summer, the painted turtles, and much bigger snapping turtles.  We've seen the water high and low and everything in between.  The reeds thick and green and the leaves a brilliant display of reds, oranges and yellows (which I'm especially grateful for, because they hadn't turned much in Arlington before we left at Halloween!).  And this was our first winter trip, exposing a "secret lair" that had been hidden from us for the last 9 months or so.  We've seen beaver tracks and passed by someone who had JUST seen one, but to date, have not crossed paths with this elusive resident.  We still have a few weeks left .... 

Here's a picture of the current Huntley Meadow crowd -- Canadian Geese.  The herons are still out in great numbers, too.  Each bird staking out a patch of marsh that hadn't been frozen over.  We're looking forward to one more trip before departing!

View from the "tower"

Flashback to New Year's

The girls wanted to show Daddy around the town for the holiday.   We get to do a lot of exploring, but Daddy is always in school!  So, the girls were excited to share some of their favorite spots.  First stop was the Botanic Garden next to the Capitol building.  They had an incredible train display.  With the holiday came long lines and we had to wait for 30 minutes or so.  No problem for the girls, who enjoyed frequent breaks for their "tired" legs from Dad.  Sometimes at the same time!!  (They're getting a bit big for this!)

The train display had intricate, scale models of world-wide landmarks, including (Chloe's favorite) the Eiffel Tower.  This time, Chloe was exploring the train tracks a bit too closely.  But, fortunately we didn't have any mishaps.

After lunch we drove to the other Smithsonian Space museum by the Dulles Airport.  This is the BIG one with the space shuttle Discovery and 100's of planes and equipment.  The girls liked it, but I think Damon and I enjoyed it more!

Here's pictures from Chloe:

She liked all the hang-gliders and little planes.  And then she found the exhibit with the stewardess uniforms.  This one I think was her favorite! 

Julia fell asleep in the middle of our visit -- I always joke that the only place she takes a nap is when she's in the stroller or in the Metro. 

We had a great day and only Mom made it to midnight.  Everyone else fell asleep .... I was moments behind...

Urban living...

Chloe's weather report picture (one of our frequent homeschool activities) included a little bit of blue sky (which we can barely see from inside), many really tall building, and a neon sign that said CHEVY'S.  Now, I would NOT have thought of that!  But, it certainly IS part of her current environment.  And, glad it's only temporary...

I DO have Julia stories, but they seem better described through video. :)  THAT post will be next....

Urban Hiking

With the sunny skies, mild temperatures (about 40 degrees), and no wind, decided to go on a little urban hike along the Arlington creeks.  One spot we like to check on is a small protected marshy area that, during the summer, was teaming with turtles and birds and all sorts of wildlife.  It was fun to see how much it had changed during the winter.  Ice covered the whole area and we decided to follow the trail into the middle of the marsh.  "Are you sure this is a trail?" says Chloe.  And then responds herself... "Oh, there's trash... yeah, it's a trail."   This is what she's learned from all our hikes -- that whenever there's a trail, there's always trash?  Yikes!

After exploring the marsh, we spent the rest of the time learning about the physics of water (in other words, why is it frozen over her, not there, and how big a rock do I need, and how fast should I throw it in order to break it).  It was a fun day!

Happy New Year!

So, I love the idea of the blog, but haven't done much with the blog.  And, now with the new year, come new goals and resolutions.  SO...I will endeavor to write at least once a week, chronicling our many adventures and daily musings.  It will be another year with big changes and I hope this will help keep us all in touch!