Turkey, farms and ears

We returned yesterday from an extended Thanksgiving trip to Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Yes, we celebrated Thanksgiving this year away from home and we had a great trip!

We left Wednesday afternoon -- the car was packed Wednesday morning and DH and Nicholas picked up Natalie at school and then picked me up at work at 2 pm. Thanks to the helpful directions from a colleague at work, we took the "back roads" through Maryland to get up to Pennsylvania. None of us counted on it taking us close to 2 hours to make it to Rockville, Maryland though! So DH traversed "country roads" in the dark, rainy night and we made it to Bird-in-Hand by 8:30 pm. (Yes, one stop for dinner for 45 minutes!)

For Thanksgiving, we had 11:30 am reservations at Good 'n Plenty. Good food and very kid friendly, which is a particular requirement when dining with an almost-3-year-old. After some great turkey and ham, we tried to get everyone to take a nap. Yeah, right. Well, we got one of them to sleep a little on the way to Hershey Park, where we say the lighted holiday display. Very nice and a good way to make the transition from Thanksgiving to the Christmas season.

On Friday we went to Lancaster Central Market on the search for some munchies and a lap quilt. The quilt quality was pretty poor, but the kids got some candy from the candy store. We headed to the nearby children's museum after that. They had a great time with our 90 minute visit there. Then we headed back to pick up lunch at a deli near Franklin & Marshall College so we could go back to our hotel to eat. Yummy! Thanks to the folks at Chowhound that recommended the place! After lunch, the plan was to go to Dutch Wonderland for their nighttime festival. Well, we had some issues with listening ears, so plans were scrapped in favor of a shopping trip. I got two beautiful handmade (hand-quilted) lap quilts and DH made some outlet shopping purchases. Then we headed back to the hotel for a movie in the room -- and yes, we brought plenty of DVDs with us.

Saturday we went to some train stores for shopping and then headed to Strasburg Railroad for our scheduled ride on the dining car. I took the kids around to see the railcars while DH took a rest. When I came with the kids, DH said he ran into our neighbor! Seems that our neighbor's mom lives 30 minutes from Strasburg! *cue It's a Small World music*

The kids LOVED the train ride and Nicholas almost fell asleep on the ride back to the station. So we headed back to the hotel for a nap -- Nicholas slept great but Natalie didn't nap. (No shock there.) After nap we attempted another trip to Dutch Wonderland which did work out this time. The kids had fun there, too and we ended up closing the park at 9 pm.

We came back home yesterday and I did lots of unpacking. Today I am home from work as Nicholas is having is ear tubes done -- matter of fact, he is there with DH right now as I ready to drop Natalie off to Kindergarten -- which I best get right to now. I'll post links for this quasi-trip report later on today!

Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches

This past week at work we had our annual charity drive. Each year there is a group "PB&J making" event to benefit a shelter. Well, this year the shelter had so many pick-ups to do that they literally could not get someone to pick up sandwiches from us, so we had a group caravan (two minivans and an SUV) go and drop sandwiches to them. I was part of the group.

Since it was later in the afternoon, I opted to pick up Nicholas to join me for the ride. He loves to "cross the river" near the airport to see the airplanes and the monuments near the 14th Street bridge. Along the way I told him where we were going and that we were dropping off sandwiches to people that needed food to eat.

So we managed to get to the right place, meet up with everyone, etc., and I got the boxes unloaded out of the back of the minivan. So as I was backing out of the alley, Nicholas said, "But Mommy, I wanted to talk to everyone and tell them about how great the sandwiches are." :-)

And a quick update on Nicholas' ear tubes -- his otolaryngologist is all booked up for November 30th, so we are having one of the other docs at the practice put in his tubes on the 27th. We'll tell Nicholas about it a couple of days before.

Playing catch-up

All I can say is *whew*.

After Election Day was done, the entire week was playing catch-up. Nicholas had an in-service day on Thursday and Friday was a federal holiday so he was home with DH. We did have his second opinion consult on Friday with another otolaryngologist, who said that Nicholas needs tubes. Then Natalie had a doctor's appointment at 4 PM to have her first eye exam, and I was trying my best to NOT leave work early, and instructed DH to bring Natalie to me so we could scoot over to the doctor's office just blocks from my office.

So I find a parking place at the intersection where I instructed DH to meet me. I had a call on my cell phone that went to voice mail but there was no message. So I called DH in case it was him.

DH says, "I have a big problem."

I say, "What's that?"

"I can't find my car keys and I haven't picked up Natalie yet."

I say, "Well, I sure can't drive home and get Natalie back here in time to make the dr's appt."

So I do the speedy thing to try to pick up Natalie at school while on the phone with the eye doctor's office. There's no way I can be 20 minutes late to an appointment, especially on a Friday -- so I reschedule her appointment while I am trying to beeline to Natalie's school.

Sure -- I'm managing this motherhood thing so well, aren't I? ;-)

Saturday was dance class and Natalie's last soccer game and then a "party" at Mcdonalds. Can I just say I am so glad soccer season is over?

Sunday was church, Sunday school, and baking for a charity event at work.

Monday was back to work, lunch with a friend in town, and getting ready for Nicholas' birthday party by dropping off invitations and ordering party supplies and good bag "things". (He's having his birthday party at the Falls Church Volunteer Fire Department -- he is SO EXCITED and his friends are, too. My friend T at work had her son's birthday party there last year and the kids loved it! I know Nicholas and his friends will have so much fun!)

Tuesday was civic association meeting night. Today was Nicholas' doctor's appointment with otolaryngologist #1 and we need to call tomorrow to book his surgery. :-( Looks like it will happen on Thursday November 30.

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving Luncheon at Natalie's school -- we are all going for lunch. DH will drop Nicholas off after lunch while I boogie on back to work. And of course tomorrow is Restaurant Night for Natalie's school -- at the local Chuck E. Cheese.

And Friday is Movie Night at Natalie's school to see the movie Cars.

Saturday is dance class, and a birthday party. I would really like to go to the Smithsonian to see The Polar Express in the IMAX theater, but I'm not sure if we can pull it off. It might have to wait for another time.

So if you wonder what I've been doing -- I'm just running and running and running. :-) Hire Him Now Vibes are most appreciated for DH, too -- Election Day certainly opened up "all sorts of possibilities". DH needs to get back to work for financial reasons and psychological reasons. He thrives on adult contact and he's just not getting enough right now.

Now, speaking of running...it's time to get children to bed...

Post Election Day

I served as an election officer at my home precinct in Fairfax County yesterday. I have to say that despite it being a long day, it was a lot of fun.

We had to be at the polling place at 5 am to help setup for the 6 am poll opening. I picked up my friend C at 4:50 am and off we went to the polling place at our nearby elementary school. Schools in Fairfax County were closed for Teacher Workdays -- actually parent-teacher conferences -- so our polling place was in the cafeteria.

C and I joined six other election officers at our precinct. The Chief officer had us post signs outside, in the school doorways, etc., so that we were "well marked". Then we got to choose our initial "job" -- working the poll books or working the machines. The poll books are paper poll books where one election officer looks up each prospective voter's name and address in the poll book and the other election officer keeps a tally (mark the next number off with an "X") on a poll book log sheet and gives the voter a "voter pass" card to give to the election officer working a machine. We had four Advanced Voting Solutions voting machines in our precinct and one election officer "worked" each machine.

I have to say that the process worked as smooth as silk in our precinct. We had some voters that had trouble with the ballot questions and touched the "next" button a little too quickly, but they got to the summary screen and easily "got back where they were" so they could opt to vote yes or no on a ballot question, or -- as was often the case -- skip the question altogether. Every election officer was great about being "nearby" to answer questions without violating a voter's privacy behind the "booth" -- but many asked where the curtains were when they say the machine setup!

One thing that would be a "great thing to have" at the polling place is the ability to look up where a person is registered to vote in neighboring counties. Due to being in such a large metropolitan area, we had many people who were "really" registered to vote in neighboring locations, such as Alexandria, Arlington, and even Loudoun County. I think we had less than 10 people that were "really" registered in other parts of Fairfax County but easily double that nu,ber from "other areas". It would have been great to have a machine to look up voter registration information from the surrounding communities and not just Fairfax County like we had.

We kept busy throughout the day -- to the point where none of us really got a significant break to eat a "real" lunch vs. quickly have some finger foods. But we kept covering for each other "between spurts" so we could get a quick bite, get some coffee, etc. It really was a great group of people to be with for such a long day. Not sure I'd like to work as an election officer for a primary where things were not quite as busy!

Anyway, our poll book to machine tally was off by one because we had one "walk away" who did not touch the "VOTE" button to actually submit their ballot. There was a change in the law this year where election officers CANNOT touch the "VOTE" button if the voter walks away, so we had lots of reminding to do about "don't forget to touch VOTE when you are done" to literally running after people saying "Sir, you haven't finished!" a couple of times. I was more of the nagger at the beginning of my "speech" when activating the ballot on the machine. :-)

And here's a link to our precincts results! We had 474 voters on "my" poll book (L-Z). I got home by 8:30 pm.

Halloween picture

Here's Sheriff Woody escorting Princess Aurora. It was gorgeous weather here for Halloween, so we ended up going without coats (WOOHOO!) and spent a good 1 1/2 hours trick or treating. They both had a blast and I just loved watching them!

Sleeping with The Polar Express

As you all know, Nicholas has a "thing" for The Polar Express. Yes, the book. Yes, the movie. We even have two copies of the movie as his godmother gave him a copy last year for Christmas. Well, Nicholas has recently took to sleeping with the book.

No, that's not having the book read to him before he goes to sleep.

Yes, that's sleeping with the book.

We are still trying to get him to sleep in his own bed at night. And he does go to HIS bed and sleep in HIS bed. But we still hear footsteps around 11 pm/midnight and it's a little boy making his way out of his room and into Mommy and Daddy's bedroom.

And now there's a little boy in the bed -- with The Polar Express book. So, Chris van Allsburg, please know that your book has turned into a lovie for an almost-3-year-old little boy. (Thankfully we have the hardcover edition!)

I. Need. Break.

Filling in loose ends...

Last week was madness -- we had at least 3 events running simultaneously on Wednesday night so I told DH I Cannot Do Any. Natalie ended up in bed -- asleep -- by 6:45 pm. She really needs her rest and this transition to Kindergarten -- combined with her listening ear "issues" -- I think are complicated by not enough sleep. So going with the sleep begets more sleep philosophy, we are making conscious efforts to get dinner done earlier and the kids in bed earlier.

On Friday, DH was a chaperone on Natalie's first field trip -- to a local pumpkin patch. He had a great time and I tried not to look green with envy as he was going on the field trip and I wasn't. *sigh* I'm glad that one of us got to go.

Saturday was more wackiness as Natalie had a soccer game and a birthday party scheduled simultaneously. We opted out of soccer (after her dance class) and instead went to the birthday party. She couldn't even stay for cake :-( as she had to get to her soccer team photo. Did that and then she was tired so we headed home so she could take a "cat nap". Three hours later, when she woke up, we headed out to dinner.

Sunday we went out to West Virginia to go to Camp Rim Rock's open house. It was a gorgeous day and a pretty drive -- and really, a gorgeous camp. VERY rustic accommodations. The best quote I can recall from Natalie was, as we were heading down Rt 259 -- "Mommy, where's the mall?" (!!!) The city girl may have some "issues" with the camp!

Monday was back to work and school. DH took Nicholas to the pediatric cardiologist. Nicholas ended up having an echocardiogram done. The doctor says that he has an "innocent heart murmur" and that he does not need to be seen again. I'm not sure if that means his VSD has closed up or not -- the price I pay for not going to the doctor's appointment with DH. *sigh* I just cannot keep going to all these doctor's appointments and missing work.

Next "big thing" up is the related fall festival/pre-Halloween festivities this weekend. DH is covering some with the kids and I'm covering the others.

I'll be honest -- I really think I'm on the losing end of this time/family management battle. I'm doing my best not to take any time off from work until 2007. But I honestly do not know if I'll be able to make it. I'm lucky to get 6 hours sleep a night, and my mind is racing when I try to sleep. But if I took a day off, I'd likely clean my house.

Oh, for DH to get back to work again...

Pretty bus

"Pretty bus." Yes, this is Nicholas' latest "thing". He just loves looking for a "pretty bus". The pretty bus is a WMATA compressed natural gas fueled bus -- see the photo taken by DC Metroblogger.

Let's see -- to even start to fill you in. Nicholas had a raging fever in the middle of the night on Thursday of last week, less than 24 hours after his hearing test. Of course his ears are now infected by Thursday morning, so back on another round of Omnicef. His pediatrician seems pretty set on Nicholas getting tubes. DH was quite kind in telling her that the ENT doc and I didn't really hit it off. Let's just say that I like my most despised member of the US Senate more than I liked that doc. So we have an appointment with Nicholas' cardiologist for next week and then an appointment with a second opinion ENT just after Election Day and then the appointment with The Doc I Have Disdain For the week after Election Day.

Oh, did I mention that Natalie got sick?

Yes, she got sick, too. So she missed her first day of elementary school on Friday. This was the day after I got an email from her teacher saying that Natalie has terrible trouble listening in class, etc., and she's the only one that won't pay attention, etc. Shades of familiarity with soccer and dance, anyone? How about pre-school? So we had LOTS of time to talk about that over the weekend.

Thankfully with the holiday there was no soccer. Natalie had several bouts of bloody noses over the weekend, as did Nicholas. On Sunday Natalie was tired and went to sleep at 4:30 pm. She slept straight through until 8:15 am Monday morning! She felt well enough to go to Cox Farms, so we did manage that.

Today she went back to school and apologized to her teacher. Her teacher emailed me back that Natalie had an excellent listening day. Here's hoping it stays that way!

It's October...

Can you tell that we are all running ragged? :-)

Let's see -- Nicholas went to see the "ear specialist" last week and (no shock here) the doctor recommended ear tubes. It was like DH and the doc had this neat little "pact" that involved getting Nicholas signed up for surgery immediately. I was so unbelievably peeved that I just nodded along, la-de-da-de-da, until DH asked me if I was all set. And I said "I'm absolutely opposed to surgery."

So -- Nicholas will have a hearing test this week (Wednesday) and we go back to see the ear specialist in mid-November.

Natalie went through her Worst Soccer Game Ever on Saturday -- she barely was on the right side of the field for about half the game. I gave up at that point and left with Nicholas. DH stayed to try to get her focused.

Of course this is the day after she walked into a fire extinguisher at school.

How can she walk into a fire extinguisher? By not paying attention to where she is walking and turning around -- straight into a fire extinguisher.

Let's see -- Sunday we planted some bulbs in the garden, with the hopes that the squirrels would not dig them out. We also tossed the plants from the window box and put in winter pansies. That process took a good 3 hours, with assistance from my two helpers. (And please don't say "child labor" -- Nicholas spent most of the time watering the grass and Natalie spent most of the time saying she liked placing bulbs in the "holes" that I dug out.

On my agenda? A haircut and a PTA meeting for me tomorrow and more after-hours work trying to help DH locate some job opportunities. I'm afraid that he's going to be out until well-past Election Day. But we'll get through it. We've been through FAR worse. Next month will be 24 years since we met on an election campaign. *shudder* I'm getting old!

Back to School Night

Last night was Back to School Night at Natalie's elementary school. DH and I decided that he would stay home with Natalie and Nicholas while I went to the school. He picked up Natalie to take some of the load off me.

It literally takes me 20-25 minutes to pick Nicholas up now that he is potty training with underwear. That's after making the close to 10 minute drive around 2 blocks to get to the school. Then add in the 25 minute ride to get to Natalie's school, plus another 10 minutes to get her out of there (which is usually spent keeping Nicholas away from the toys at her after care program) and then 5 minutes to get home. From leaving my office door to walking in at home, that's roughly 1 hour and 15 minutes, on a good day.

So if I need to be at Back to School Night at 6:30 pm, and somehow manage to eat something for dinner -- I need a whole lot of help and good fortune.

With DH's help, I was home by 5:55 pm. I quickly changed and eat very fast plus made Natalie's bed. (Her comforter cover was blue from The Marker Incident the previous evening, so DH washed it during the day, but he doesn't know how to make beds, never mind put on a comforter cover, so I had to do that before leaving for Back to School Night.) I left the house at 6:24 pm.

I got to Back to School Night and found a parking place. I ran into the PTA President and she told me that there was a "pile" of completed Family Directory forms in her mailbox. I'm a newbie to this PTA stuff and didn't know where the mailboxes were -- she marched me through the office and showed me the mailboxes. At this point I'm pretty thrilled with the "stack" -- yes, I have taken on the Family Directory for a school that does not have a Family Directory now, so I'm starting "at the ground floor".

I went to the cafeteria for the pre-Back-to-School-Night PTA meeting. I sorted through the Family Directory forms -- roughly 2/3 of them have email addresses! WOOHOO! Based on all the "but not everyone has an email address" talk I had heard from the PTA members, I figured we would be lucky with 10% of the folks having email addresses. And we have roughly 150 completed forms so far which did not include the forms distributed at Back to School night! I'm pretty psyched.

The PTA meeting is fast -- elect the PTA officers and approve the budget. And at 7:10 pm we're off to meet the classroom teacher. Natalie's teacher is a first-year teacher at the school but spent 10 years teaching half-day Kindergarten at another school in Fairfax County. She had a very well-run Parents Night presentation. Lots of great handouts, information, etc. But it is very short -- just 25 minutes. Then it's time to move to Session 2 -- primarily for families that have children in different classes in the school. For Session 2 I went to the front of the school and filled out my membership for PTA and wrote my check out for dues. I also spent some time talking to the principal and one of the members of the civic association board.

All in all, it was a good night. The logistics of this stuff are maddening, though. I honestly do not know how working families do this.

Little Boy Blue

Getting Nicholas to go to bed and go to sleep has become the bane to our (plural) existence over the past several weeks. I am absolutely determined to NOT have him in our bed, and thus, the battle of wills.

Tonight I let DH handle Nicholas and his bedtime. I went downstairs to the playroom to catch a DVR of The Colbert Report and Project Runway. Then I hear...

"Oh My Gawd. WHAT have YOU done?!"

Then silence.

Then a yell -- "Mommy -- you must come up here."

So I went up to see what devastation may have occured.

Nicholas had acquired one of Natalie's blue (washable) markers and had colored both of his arms -- in their entirety -- blue.

Guess who got to take a shower tonight?

H, if you are reading this, we must make plans for Aruba. Or Miami Beach. Or Key West.

Comings and goings and comings

DH had a "so long" party to go to for one of his friends on Capitol Hill, so I had "soccer duty". Or so I thought.

I left work early to go pick up Nicholas (takes 20 minutes with a potty training 2 year-old) and then drove to Natalie's elementary school to pick her up from after-care so we could go home to get her changed for soccer. DH was home (thank goodness) so he could help with getting Natalie into shin guards, cleats, etc. and get Nicholas into the potty (again) before we left the house. Natalie needed a snack before soccer so got that onto the table at 5:15 pm so she could make soccer practice at 5:30 pm.

We get out of the house at 5:20 pm, with the full knowledge that we would be late for soccer practice.

I drive down the road and turn off to what I then realize is the road to go to the school for soccer games, not soccer practice.

Turn around, get back on to the road that is loaded with commute time cars, to get to the right turn off for the road to go to the school for soccer practice.

We arrive at 5:45 pm. There are hardly any cars.

The only soccer players there are boys.

I call DH's cell phone. Voicemail.

I find the coach's cell phone number and call him.

"There is no practice today. It's back to school night so we cancelled practice."

I find this out after my 2 hour journey around northern Virginia.

I took the kids to Silver Diner for dinner.

The PTA

I went to the first PTA meeting of the year. Yes, this is not my first PTA meeting -- I have actually been attending meetings on and off for about a year. But it was the first meeting where I could introduce myself as "Mom to a Kindergartener".

It was heartening to see other Kindergarten parents at the meeting. The PTA President ran a very efficient meeting -- we were in and out in a little over an hour. But I think some of the Kindergarten parents hoped to learn a little more. Thankfully we have Back to School Night next week, and the principal (whom I truly adore -- she really is a GREAT principal!) is having a Parent Coffee the last Wednesday of September, specifically for Kindergarten parents. I already told DH he has to go with me. :-)

Dance day and soccer day

We have made it through the first week of Kindergarten. *whew*

Today is the first day of pre-ballet class for Natalie and the first day of soccer for Nicholas. Both are at the same time so DH is taking Nicholas to soccer and I'm taking Natalie to pre-ballet. Natalie is excited because not only is this pre-ballet, where the big girls gom but she will also get to see her friend M from pre-school. M goes to a different Kindergarten (she does not live in our neighborhood) so I'm guessing the girls will compare notes. :-) After pre-ballet, Natalie has to scoot to soccer because her game time (for this week and the next two weeks) are immediately after dance. So we'll definitely be late to the games, but what are you going to do? I let the coach know already, and it's all I can do. At least she'll be warmed up from dance class!

Tomorrow we have a playdate with friends from her pre-school class. The weather is supposed to be beautiful, so I'm glad the kids will have a chnace to see each other and play outside, too. It should be fun.

Kindergarten Day has arrived!

It's pretty early in the morning right now. The dining room table is set for breakfast. Lunches have been made. Bags are packed -- backpack for Natalie with about half the school supplies (the rest will be brought in tomorrow), and tote bag for Nicholas. Natalie has already picked out her clothes for today -- although she might change her mind on an outfit once she sees how hard it is raining today. I'm glad we picked up rain boots this weekend!

She was in bed at 8:15 pm but I know she did not fall asleep until after 10 pm. She was simply too excited to sleep. Hopefully she'll wake up at 7 am like she "normally" does.

DH is going to pick her up from school age child care about an hour after she arrives, just so she gets to see what it's like there. I think soccer practice will be cancelled due to the weather. That works out for the best, anyway -- it's too much to expect on the first day of Kindergarten.

I'll post more later...

9/10/06: ETA: Here's Natalie with her backpack plus fully packed lunchbox:


And here she is getting a hug from her brother before we head out into the pouring rain to head to school:

Here comes Kindergarten

Yes, the week has finally come -- it's time to start Kindergarten!

We all went to Open House at our elementary school on Thursday. Natalie learned about her teacher (Mrs. D) and assistant (Mrs. W) and then got to meet them. Mrs. D is new to the elementary school and she is teamed up with one of the veteran IAs -- I have heard nothing but absolutely glowing reports about her, so I'm thrilled. Natalie is a little scared and a little excited. She saw all the "big kids" at the Open House and that worried her a little, but once she got into the classroom, she was great. She will also attend school age child care (SACC) at the school, and she got to see the classrooms and the teachers there, too.

We walked to the school today so Natalie and Nicholas could play on the playground. She's pretty excited even today.

9/10/06 ETA: Here are a few pictures from Open House:

First one is Natalie in her classroom. Her teacher asked her to find her name at the table and draw a picture of herself.



And here is Natalie admiring her finished picture -- it's actualy a picture of her and her best friend from pre-school J. (J doesn't live in our school district so Natalie is particularly missing her right now.)



Nicholas just couldn't wait for all the "visiting the classroom stuff" to be done so he could visit the playground:

Back from vacation

Yes, we are back from vacation. One day early.

We left on Wednesday after Natalie's 5 year-old doctor's appointment. She did great at the appointment (43 1/2" tall, 42 pounds) and had three shots :-( which she (understandably) did not like at all. Then we headed north. It took us 2 hours to get to Baltimore. :-( So we pulled in to my parents' house at 3:15 am Thursday morning.

Thursday we went to the Whaling Museum and to Seamen's Bethel. Apparently some sort of "police incident" occured either Wednesday or Thursday as the volunteers were talking about it and lots of police cruisers/officers were right outside the Whaling Museum. Thankfully we saw nothing else about it.

I have to say that I am glad that we no longer live in New Bedford. The city has taken a dramatic downturn.

Later that afternoon we celebrated DH's mom's birthday (age 21 -- because Kenny Curtis says that all moms are 21 years old) at Uncle D's house.

On Friday the weather was quite rainy and we decided to go on the Cape Cod Railroad -- what a great time we had! Really, it was far better than I expected and the two Thomas fans in our household really loved it. HIGHLY recommended!

On Saturday was The Wedding -- so we got the kids all cleaned up and lookng nice for that. Nicholas managed to walk 20 feet down the aisle before running to me. :-) Natalie did great, though -- she was the "leader" and had great listening ears.

Sunday we spent a good part of the day at Uncle D's house and then went out to dinner to celebrate my mother's 21st (ahem!) birthday.

On Monday we left Massachusetts at 6:15 am -- we did a stopover in Philadelphia so we could visit the Please Touch Museum, our favorite museum anywhere. Thanks to traffic and a requisite stop to Campo's Deli for a cheesesteak, we decided to visit the museum on Tuesday morning. This was a great idea as we spent close to 3 hours at the museum instead of their suggested" allow" time of 90 minutes.

So we got back home to Virginia yesterday around 4 p.m., which let us get the car unpacked in time for Natalie's soccer practice at 5:30 pm.

Oh, the one day early part? DH has a 2nd interview for a job this afternoon. "Hire Him" vibes are most appreciated.

Will post pictures soon -- we're off to the dr's for Natalie to get a TB test and then we are off to Train Day at a local toy store.

9/10/2006 ETA: Here's the one picture from H's wedding where Natalie is not frowning and Nicholas is actually in the picture:

Police helicopters

Yes, the fascination of the weekend was police helicopters.

We went to the local police station open house on Saturday and the "coolest" thing, per Natalie and Nicholas, was the police helicopter. They got to see inside and -- while we were waiting in line for a pony ride -- they got to see it take off, with siren blaring. "Very very cool", said Nicholas.

We spent three hours at the open house. Compared to last year's open house (where we spent a short time AND had an injury on the moon bouce) it was amazing. Both kids had a ball. Thank you, Fairfax County Police Department!

Graduation party

Today we had a party for all the soon-to-be-Kindergarteners at Natalie's pre-school. Natalie had a great time. I left early so I could pick up Nicholas and get out of there. This week has been "challenging" and I was just tired and bordering on a migraine.

So it's done. How bad is it that I went to my daughter's graduation party and all I feel is that it's great to have something checked off the To Do list?

I need a vacation. And some sleep. And a day of nothing to do with no watches and clocks to live by.

*sigh*

Getting ready for Kindergarten

We are slowly but surely getting ready for Kindergarten.

We have all the school supplies. The school supply lists for the school say that it is expected to last half the year. So we bought more than double of everything -- just in case. (And how a Kindergartener can go though 18 glue sticks in half a year is beyond me!)

We have two backpacks -- because Mom wasn't happy with the size of the "junior backpack" recommended by the online retailers, especially when other parents said the backpacks have to hold all the "winter gear" inside. So now we have two monogrammed lime green backpacks -- one junior size and one regular size. And a lunch box to match.

We have clothes. Oh, do we have clothes! All have been "approved" by Natalie. And none look "trashy". (Have you SEEN some of the clothes they have for FIVE year olds? Sheesh!)

We have four pairs of shoes -- one pair of dress shoes, one pair of tennis shoes, and two pair of "every day" shoes.

We have been to the dentist. Great teeth, no cavities, and Natalie did a great job at the cleaning appointment. And so did Nicholas, since he went at the same time for his first dentist visit. He even had his teeth flossed!

Next up is the "good-bye to pre-school" party on Friday. I'm helping with that. Natalie's official last day in Tuesday, one week from today.

Then next week is the five-year-old check-up at the doctor (and shots! :-( ) and getting the form filled out for school.

I can't believe she is going to Kindergarten!