Snow Day--For Real!

So far, our winter storm succeeded in canceling Evan's basketball game, his best friend Kendrick's birthday party and sleepover, my lunch with a friend, a party for friends of ours, church, and school tomorrow. Not that the boys care about any of that--because it's snow! They can play in it!

This was Andrew's snow get-up. He does have a great coat, but I couldn't find his snow pants anywhere. Thank goodness for a warm Halloween costume!

My two snow-lovers.

He sat out there and played for about half an hour or more.

It's a Snow Lion!

National Air & Space Museum (Chantilly)

Before heading home on Monday, the boys and I went to the National Air & Space Museum in Chantilly. Unlike our excursion to the Mall the day before, this day was bright and sunny and warm. Figures--the day we're inside a museum, it's gorgeous outside! I'm not a big museum person, but this one was perfectly sized--enough to see, but not so large that I was overwhelmed. And it was almost totally empty. We had a great time!

Evan and Andrew pilot a Cessna 180.

Evan's favorite plane was the SR-71 Blackbird. It flew from California to Virginia in 64 minutes! He bought a model of it to build with Daddy (whenever Daddy finishes his dissertation ...)

The Space Shuttle (the Enterprise) was also a huge hit. The space exhibit included a display of food that astronauts eat in space. They had a package of M&Ms, which prompted Andrew to declare that he wanted to be an astronaut so he could eat M&Ms. Not necessarily in space, mind you -- just to eat them.

An AP reporter was there interviewing people about the end of the Space Shuttle program, and he interviewed Evan. When asked what he thought about the end of the Space Shuttle, Evan said, "Well, I'm not too happy about it!"

The two best guys to spend a day with at the Museum!

Trip to Washington, D.C.

I took the boys to visit friends in northern Virginia over the fourth weekend in January. We made a brief, cold, hilarious excursion into Washington, D.C. while we were there. Overall, it was a wonderful time with dear friends, and a memorable visit to our nation's capital.

Andrew and Keris on the Metro. Riding the train was without question the highlight of Andrew's entire trip. Monuments & museums--not so much.

A.J., Jack, and Evan on the Metro. 

Linda and me on the Metro, as photographed by Evan. Little did we know what adventures lay ahead.

Turns out it was COLD (and wet, though not actually raining) on the Washington Mall. The kids were freezing. And quickly miserable. And tired of being outside. Here Andrew demonstrates the end of cheerfulness.

 

Monuments, Schmonuments--The highlight for the kids was the squirrels who eat Cheez-its. 

Evan was very moved by the Korean War Memorial. 

This was Evan's favorite soldier in the Korean War Memorial. After our stop here, we all kind of resembled this guy: 4 out of the 5 kids were crying, and the 2 moms felt very tired and heroic. Andrew was crying because he was out of Sun Chips, Keris was crying because she was cold, Jack was crying because the geese had flown away, and Evan was crying about the horrors and injustice of war. It had taken us 2 hours to get from the Washington Monument to the Lincoln Memorial. We decided to call it a day and head home!

Catching up on January

My work schedule picked up and got busy and I'm behind on the blog. We've had lots of wonderful times with friends the past few weeks that I don't want to forget to record!

Our dear friends the Jantzes visited us over the third weekend in January. We were friends in Germany, and then we moved back to the U.S. at the same time--we moved back to North Carolina, and they moved to South Carolina. They are moving to Japan in a few weeks, so we were thankful to spend some great time with them before they are too far for a road trip visit!

Dave and Steve went to the Duke v. Wake Forest basketball game, and we watched it at home with the kids. There was lots of cheering, "Let's Go, Duke!"

Our gorgeous January weather meant some fun play dates outside. We had so much fun at a park with Andrew's friends John and Michael. They are moving to Ann Arbor next month, so we enjoy all the fun times with them before they head north. 

Conversation with Andrew

My conversation with Andrew after preschool yesterday:

Me: Who did you play with today?
Andrew: Well, officially I played with Jonathan.
Me: Did you eat your lunch at Lunch Bunch?
Andrew: Mommy, I don't remember. That was way too long ago. [It had been about 10 minutes.]
Me: What else did you do today?
Andrew: (With a deep, exasperated sigh) Mommy . . . I'm so boring of this.

Hazy Shade of WInter?

Dave was working all day on his dissertation, so we had to find ways to entertain ourselves without him. The boys went on a pine cone hunt, and then we spray-painted them. Then Evan arranged them in my pitiful-looking planters that I never got spruced up for winter. But now they look quite festive! (And it was over 60 degrees here today!)

First Basketball Game

Evan's first basketball game was very fun--and as Dave noted, it actually resembled a basketball game!

The cheerleaders were adorable.

Prayer at half-court before the game

Evan and the Huskies

Evan getting ready for some defense.

After some good churching and some good relaxing, Dave and the boys made some flatbread pizzas from a recipe that Evan found and copied.

Snow Delay Morning and Family Night

Yesterday they forecasted the slight possibility of a 1/2 inch of snow this morning. When we woke up, there was no snow--but there was a 2-hour delay for Evan's school, and Andrew's preschool was cancelled. So we enjoyed a morning of Lego Star Wars instead. Not a bad way to start a Friday, really.

This evening was supposed to be our family night. Dave and Evan made pizza from scratch--but then our oven broke. Thank God for a microwave with a "bake" function--the pizza was great. During Bible story time, Dave asked Andrew a question that he answered correctly.

Dave: "Good job, Andrew! You were listening!"
Andrew: "I know everything!"
Dave (suppressing laughter): "Well . . . not everything."
Andrew (with a slightly exasperated sigh): "Just everything about the Bible, Daddy."

Homework

Before Christmas break, Andrew's preschool teacher sent home a note saying that in the new year the kids would start having homework. This elicited a deep groan from me, as I do not associate "homework" and "my child" with "happy family times." She assured us parents that the kids usually enjoy homework and it's nothing strenuous. I was still skeptical.

Today Andrew was indeed very excited that he had homework. Not only that, but Evan was also excited that Andrew had homework. And they were both ecstatic that they could work on homework together! Evan sat without argument and did his spelling and math, and Andrew sat cheerfully practicing drawing straight lines.

And here the happy tale starts to go awry--not because of the boys, but because my Saga of the Camera continues. I actually did remember to take pictures of this moment, thinking that some cute pics of the boys earnestly working away would make a nice complement to this blog post. I found my camera. I took some very adorable pics. I tried to upload them to the computer. Nothing happened. After 40 minutes of trying, I'm just posting this entry with an old picture. At some point, I'm hoping that the blog writing and blog pictures will actually match.

We've Come This Far By Faith

First Sunday of the new year . . . last day of our delightful vacation from our regular schedule. I'm really not excited to get back into the routine of school and work and homework and practice and busy-ness; I'm enjoying our days of sleeping in and playing games and relaxing.

But if it must end, church today was a wonderful way to end vacation and begin the year. One of my favorite songs is "We've Come This Far By Faith," which we sang today. Three girls were baptized. Our pastor preached a wonderful sermon on Matthew 1, and I love the book of Matthew. The highlight, though, was when Deacon Charlie (who is 81 or 82 years old) stood to give a testimony. When Deacon Charlie gives a testimony, he can't stand still. He breaks out in smiles. He talks about how God has brought him this far and how much he loves Jesus. He starts to jump up and down. He praises God for the work He's done. He laughs and hops.

Almost nothing in this world makes me feel like praising Jesus than seeing Deacon Charlie praise Him. He has experienced real hardships of poverty and racism, and he is full of joy. He is over 80 years old, but he still jumps up to thank His Savior. I've seen him at Costco before, and he has the same radiant joy and happiness on a Wednesday afternoon doing errands that he does on Sunday morning during church. He is nearing the end of his life, but just the beginning of an eternity of praise.

I found my camera! It was in the play space, folded up into the boys' tunnel. (?!?!) I wish I'd had it with me at church today to take a picture of Deacon Charlie, but instead I'll use this picture of Evan and Andrew with my adorable nephews Micah and Luke ready to dive into the gingerbread house they made with Dave and Aaron.

New Year, New Decade, New Friends . . . some old tendencies

I love New Year's Day. I used to love New Year's Eve and the great parties with our friends; the Eve is still pretty great, although the parties have been replaced by family board games and Evan almost always wins. But New Year's Day represents a new beginning, a fresh start, a clean slate. And I love the idea of a fresh start.

The problem, of course, is that it's really only an idea. I don't wake up on New Year's Day with my procrastination and disorganization magically vanished. I am not suddenly more patient and kind. I still can't find my camera.

I am learning to appreciate New Year's Day as a time for reflection and an encouragement to assess my life, rather than a dramatic reboot. Today, we started what we hope will be a new tradition on New Year's Day: brunch with New Friends. It was lovely to share the first day of the new year with Josh, Keely, and Salem, and we all hope this will be the first of many gatherings with them. I was going to document this new tradition in pictures . . . but as noted above, I still can't find my camera.

Rather than be a completely boring post with all words and no pictures, I'll include this, one of my favorite pics from 2009. It's the perfect encapsulation of Dave and the boys leaving church. (h/t: Naomi & Lydia, the photographers)