Happy Memorial Day!

This Memorial Day Weekend started out freezing with temps in the 60's on Friday, but as I write we are expecting highs of 90 all week so I guess summer did arrive.  We enjoyed a vary low-key and traditional Memorial Day weekend, BBQing and attending the Falls Church Memorial Day parade and festival, which felt very "hometowny".  We are thinking of the troops and their families at home and abroad, as well as our diplomatic colleagues serving in war zones, who had some scary moments last week in Afghanistan.  Thank you for serving our country!

In kid news, Nicholas has 3 weeks of school left and thinks everything is "fantastic." Swim lessons are on the agenda for the summer as well as trips to the library and community center with Claire, and French summer camp, which is basically just 4 extra weeks of school.  Mommy will also have to plan a few special field trips on her off days. Claire can identify doggie, kitty, horse, penquin, and bunny in her board books, although she still likes to call just about everything a doggie!  She also knows about 10 body parts and 3 animal sounds, all learned in the last month or so.  Go Claire!

Nicholas loved the fire trucks!

Claire had fun too, didn't mind the noise at all!  Plus, there were smoothies and funnel cake.

Nicholas is very interested in dragons right now; he tells us he wants a dragon cake for his 4th birthday (which is still a few months away!)

Ready for Sports Day at school!  Go Bucks!

bubbles are the best

first BBQ of the season!

Nicholas and mommy made mini-s'mores

Claire has been taking a Little Gym class and this week was their big "show" to wrap up the spring session.  Daddy took a few hours off of work to join in and see Claire summersault, swing on the bars, and walk on the balance beam.

Summer is also the time for.... short haircuts!  Nicholas visited Daddy's outdoor barber shop.

Chicago trip and other fun

We'll start with the other fun... Christy spot-lighted as a preschool teacher for a few hours in Nicholas's class, giving a presentation on Trinidad for the unit on other countries.  We read about Diego and the Sea Turtles, danced to steel drum music, made Carnival masks, and ate fried plantains.  That was a lot of work!

A few weeks ago Christy hosted a Pampered Chef party.  One of our fun purchases... the microwave egg cooker!  Worked well, as Claire ate both eggs that morning!

One of the (many) fun parts of being back in America is seeing friends and family more frequently.  Our Denison Church family's son Chris came to DC on his 8th grade trip, and we spent a nice evening at the monuments catching up!

brothers

God brothers.  Chris was only 3 when we first met him!  

And Chicago... Christy had a great weekend meeting up with Denison friends for our annual get together.  Despite the weather reports predicting rain for the two weeks prior, we had beautiful weather and walked all over.  Saturday night we enjoyed a Second City comedy show.  The flights were smooth, and Christy tried to build up some good karma for the next time we fly as a family:  volunteered to check her bag, switched seats so a husband and wife could be together, and sat one row up from a fussy infant--flying solo is easy!  David was Superdad and was not only awesome with the kids all weekend, but he and PapPap flattened out the edge of our front yard by the street, and added stones so that we no longer have to park in a mud pit.  

Woo hoo!!!  The kids loved seeing PapPap and Caesar.  Claire's favorite word-- "doggie!"

This week we are sad to say good bye to good friends from Trinidad who were in DC in language training all year but are headed off to their next posts.  So sad, since we know it will likely be a few years before we see them again.  Thank goodness for Facebook!  The Foreign Service is a small world, though, and I know we will see them again.  I mentioned the good part about staying in DC is the opportunity to see family and friends who live in America.  The hard part is the wanderlust I get when saying good bye to friends off to exotic places like South Korea and Nepal.  I definitely miss the travel and adventure!  But, our time will come soon enough.