steph's stuff

Washington, D.C. Album, Part 1

I've been enjoying having my kids home so much this week! We've had a quiet week - just hanging around the house and spending time watching movies and reading books together.

And I've been scrapbooking - I'm working on putting together a DC album for the kids. I've gotten 5 two-page spreads done (which is really just 10 individual pages put together). I can't wait to get this album printed and I love some of the photos I got.

All of the photos were taken by me and all of the scrapbooking supplies are from DesignerDigitals. If you want to see the pages bigger or read the journaling, head on over to my scrapbooking gallery.

 

Letters from my girls!

I came home yesterday afternoon and found that we had 7 letters from the girls! It made me feel so much better to "hear" their voices. :)

Here's the general gist of the letters: Emily is trying to mother Libby and Libby wants nothing to do with that. Emily wrote that she walked down to Libby's room the first night and "tucked her into bed" and that Libby then "practically shoved" her out of the room. LOL! It sounds like Libby is having a great time being away from home for the first time and that Emily is a little too worried about her. Totally cracks me up!

I can't wait to hear how the rest of the week turned out for them - all of the seven letters were written in their first 24 hours. They are both in "majors" that they didn't want but I think that's probably a great way for them to experience new things and I'll bet it works out just fine.

Pick-up is this afternoon! I can't wait!!!

My girls

 
My girls are at a Fine Arts camp at a local college this week. They are only 15 minutes away and are staying in the dorms with friends and counselors and I'm sure they are having a great time. They are taking classes in theater, dance, music, creative writing, and art - all subjects that I'm thrilled they are studying and all subjects that they have really missed since we switched schools.

I imagine them giggling in their dorm rooms with their roommates after dark, sneaking some ice cream for breakfast at the dining hall, and sharing inside jokes with their new friends. I imagine them happy and excited and smiling all day long. And I'm so excited that they have this kind of opportunity and am sure that we will continue to send them to summer camps.

But knowing all of the above (and even seeing online photos of them having fun) doesn't stop the pain of missing them. The "no-contact allowed with family" rule is a great rule for them and I appreciate and support the reasons behind it. I think it's a great rule for the kids' benefit.

Let me just say, though, that this rule SUCKS for the mothers. Absolutely sucks. I miss them so much more than I can put into words. It's not a "worrying about them" kind of missing them (that was gone after the 1st night when I knew Libby made it through the homesickness). It's not a "oh, I hope they're not miserable" kind of missing them. It's a neeeeeeeed to hear them, see them, feel them, talk to them because I'm not good at separation kind of missing them.

I cannot wait to pick them up tomorrow night. Cannot wait.

DC Vacation - the last day

The last day of our vacation was supposed to have been just the roadtrip home. But we had promised Emily a trip to the Holocaust Museum (Anne Frank is her hero) and we couldn't disappoint her.

So, the younger kids and I hung around the hotel room and the local Panera while Tom and Emily took the metro downtown again to go to the museum.

They came back four hours later in awe of the museum and how well done the tour was. I can't wait to go back and go to it myself (Anne Frank was my hero before she was Em's).

And then we were westward bound towards home. :)

DC Vacation - Day Three

Day 3 brought with it a tough decision. We loved Mt. Vernon so much and the kids enjoyed running around so much there that we were torn about making them go through another day downtown DC walking and touring. We were going to tour the Capitol, the Supreme Court, the Holocaust Museum and the Smithsonian.

But I casually mentioned to Tom that driving down to Monticello sounded wonderful and that I thought the kids might prefer it. Tom loved the idea, so that's what we decided to do. I feel badly about missing out on the DC activities but Monticello was stunning!!! The kids loved it, we loved it and I think it was our favorite day so it turned out to be a good decision.

DC Vacation - Day Two

Day 2 started off with a total change in plans. We were going to take a tour of the Capitol and the Supreme Court, followed by Emily and I going to the Holocaust Museum while Tom took Andrew and Libby to the Smithsonian. But then we saw the forecast and realized that we simply couldn't make the kids walk through the city again when the heat index was predicted to be between 105-115.

Tom suggested that we wait a day to go back downtown and go to Mount Vernon a day early.

And it was fantastic! The only thing that made me sad was that they were renovating the house so no great exterior photos. :(

After a long (hot) day, we came back to the hotel, swam, ate dinner, and then drove downtown. This time, we went to the Lincoln Memorial to see it at night. Gorgeous!!!! We sat on the steps for a long time just soaking up the history.

Here's a couple of iPhone photos - the girls asked me to wear pigtails. Ha! Not happening again. :p I really didn't take too many photos with my phone because I took so many with the other camera.

DC Vacation - Day One

Wow, we packed a LOT of things into Day 1. I'll do a full post with better pictures next week but I want to get each day briefly chronicled now. This is mostly just a list of the places we visited because I'm getting old and operate on fewer brain cells when I'm tired. :p

We stayed in Alexandria and took the Metro into the city early in the morning. We got off at the Smithsonian stop and walked straight to the Washington monument. Love the flags there!!! From there, we went to the White House (loved seeing the kids' reactions there!) and then walked to the Vietnam War memorial (whoa - so many names:( )and the Lincoln memorial (awesome!!!)

Did I mention that the heat index was over 100? It was HOT. And it was a lot of walking so we took a cab to the Air and Space museum next, had lunch, and hung out in the air conditioning for a while.

After that, we walked to the Capitol and that was when the heat and walking got the best of us. I was getting light-headed and Libby almost passed out, so we took a cab back to the Metro station and came back to the hotel.

After swimming and dinner, we hopped in the car and headed back downtown to see the Jefferson memorial after dark (gorgeous!!!).

It was a very, very full day. Here are just a couple of photos I took with my iPhone.

DC vacation - The Roadtrip

We're on a vacation that we've been talking about doing for years. We're taking the kids to Washington, DC for the first time and we are all so excited!!!

We left at about 7:30 this morning full of smiles, saw an airplane on a truck, beautiful countryside in Pennsylvania, amazingly cool windmills, and then lots and lots of traffic.

We arrived in Alexandria at 6 pm and quickly found the pool for the kids and some beer for the adults. :)

Can't wait to catch the Metro downtown in the morning!

The Cabin

We have been looking for a lake cabin to rent for a couple of months. We talked to some friends, tried a couple of online rental websites (and got some funny feelings when the cabin owners wouldn't sign a lease with us but wanted the money via paypal that day), and then gave up on the idea when we realized we could fit in another kind of trip this summer. More on that later.

And then last week, a friend mentioned that they were going up to "the cabin" for the weekend. My hubby lamented that I had been bugging him to death about renting a cabin and the friend said, "Well, just use this one." Unbeknownst to us, these good friends of ours had a lake cabin in the family and eagerly offered to rent it to us later in the summer.

And not only that, but on the spur of the moment, they asked us to spend the 4th of July weekend at the cabin with them so that we would be familiar with it before we went up there alone.

And, oh my goodness, I have no words to describe how wonderful "the cabin" is. Except for missing the smell of the salt water, I could almost imagine I was in Maine.

Of course I took a kajillion photos. Unfortunately, I forgot to ask their permission to post the photos of their family, so here's a few that show just my family or a blurred-out face.

I saw this flag on the road up there - how perfect for the 4th of July weekend!

Here's the cabin from the water side. Ahhhhh........

  

And this is the view from the backyard of the cabin. Sigh. I miss it already.

The cabin sits in a little cove at one end of the lake and is surrounded by lily pads, frogs, turtles sunning themselves and dragonflies zipping around - it was just the most serene setting you could imagine.

 
 
There was a paddle boat that the kids took out as often as they could. Libby and her friend spent hours hunting turtles while they quietly paddled around the cove.

And they adopted "Claws." But only for a few minutes - then he was gently placed back on his log to hang out with his family.

 
 My favorite spot was at the bow of the pontoon boat. :)

The kids all loved the pontoon boat, too.

But not as much as they enjoyed tubing behind the pontoon boat! And Tom did, too. We laughed the entire time he and Emily tried to balance on the tube together.

And Andrew quickly perfected the universal sign for "FASTER!"

Even more, they loved having the anchor dropped and Daddy throwing them overboard.

 
 And to think that we get to do it all over again later in the summer! I can't wait!

Fourth of July Gifts

We are packing up, making sangria, folding beach towels, and getting ready for a road trip tomorrow! We are sooooo excited for this mini-vacation - it wasn't planned because our actual vacation starts in a week - but we didn't hesitate when we received the invitation for a long weekend at a friend's lake house. 

I spent today doing errands, making arrangements for the crazy puppy, and making some host & hostess gifts. We're staying with an older couple and their son and his family of six so I wanted to have small gifts for everyone.

I started with a basket I found at Michael's and filled it with our favorite coffee, some assorted teas, biscotti, a jar full of fudge-covered pretzels, and some flags for all of the kids.

 
I found some Ball jars at Michael's and immediately thought of putting the white pretzels in a jar and decorating it with red and blue ribbons. So simple and I love how it turned out!

My next idea came from Pinterest. You can find my boards here and the original idea posted here. Some of the kids that are coming are little so I cut the licorice in half.

 
The mom loves dark chocolate so I grabbed a box of dark chocolate candies from our local candy shop and wrapped ribbons around it.

 
I found a red, white and blue bowl at Target for about a dollar and plan to fill it with M&Ms once we get there.

 
And then, of course, some Sam Adams adorned with the same ribbons. My hubby will roll his eyes at ribbons on beer but the ribbons coordinated with the banner on the beer so it was a no-brainer. :)

 
I can't wait to get there and I hope they enjoy their gifts!

Have a happy and safe 4th of July!!!