One year anniversary

It's been a little over a year since Jason graduated from business school--where has the time gone?  One of the best things that happened as a result of going to Wharton was the friends that he made.  Karen, Ramesh, and Tom were in Jason's cohort and stuck together through the good and the bad of a grueling graduate program.  We had a BBQ last night in celebration of their one year anniversary. When we all get together it's just so much fun. Our children play so well together and we just eat, laugh and talk the night away.  I look forward to making many more memories with this group of extraordinary people. 

NYC Day 2

NYC Getaway

Lytle and I took a quick one night trip to NYC two weeks ago and let's just say that it wasn't what we expected. I'll just recap by giving you the highlights and lowlights and you can judge for yourself which list is longer.

Highlights:
Top of The Rock, the weather was absolutely perfect.
Great dinner at a wonderful Mexican restaurant, don't recall the name. 
911 Memorial, it is beautiful but there is still a lot of construction taking place.
Blueberry Pie at Magnolia Bakery
Porgy and Bess---absolutely jaw dropping, amazing!!!


Lowlights:
Being greeted with a $130 traffic ticket as soon as we exited the Lincoln Tunnel for a holding a cell phone while driving.
Staying at a dirty apartment via  Airbnb who failed to mention that the apartment shares a building with a gentleman's club--awesome.
Getting locked out of that dirty apartment that shared a wall with a gentleman's club at midnight because the person who lives there failed to mention that the 2 keys she gave us are only for one of the locks---I know, makes perfect sense, right? 
Chitchatting with a locksmith at 12:30am while he drilled a hole through her doorknob, while overhearing the incredibly loud music and boisterous men yelling.  
Getting crammed into the metro because they closed down two of the lines due to a passenger accident.
Paying to $18 to see 25 paintings at the Guggenheim museum because they were installing the new exhibit.  



A few things I learned.....

Don't use Airbnb
I prefer NYC in small doses
I love my family, my home and my bed
Hanging out with my sister and making memories made a somewhat painful trip worth it 

 

Happy Mother's Day

The only thing I wanted this Mother's Day was a picture with the kids. Since I'm typically the one with the camera, I'm rarely in the photos. Before church, we went to a nearby park and tried to make a somehow impossible task, possible. We captured a few pics, but it was extremely difficult to get all three kids to sit still, much less look at the camera. We managed to get a couple.

Mother's Day in review:
 Isabella spent a couple of days before Mother's Day scheming with daddy about what to do for mommy. They had a lot of plans, but they were "surprises." It was really cute to watch her. She said that the most important thing about Mother's Day is that "mommy doesn't have to do anything." Olivia was also crafting away and drew tons of pictures for me. Enthusiastically, she would say "Happy Mother's Day" and give me a huge hug when she presented me with another drawing, she's a sweetheart.

Jason went way out of his way to make this a wonderful Mother's Day. I slept in and awoke to the smell of bacon, eggs and hash browns. Jason also treated the family to an incredible dinner. It was a nice treat, especially since he will be home after 10 every night this week. I think I did a good job of soaking it all in.

New hair color

For the first time ever, I colored my hair. Well, I didn't do it.....a highly trained professional did, and I love it!!!

a family garden

I love that our attempt at gardening has become a family affair. A few weeks ago, the kids went with me to pick up 30 bags of soil and the plants (took 2 trips in the minivan). Jason and the kids had fun bringing the bags from the front yard to the backyard so that we could start planting. They definitely enjoyed the wheelbarrow rides more than dumping the soil into the garden bed. Now, I'm just trying to keep Clark from digging everything up.

trip to see YaYa and Darwin

We took a quick trip to D.C. this weekend to visit Lytle and Darwin. They moved into a new apartment, so we just had to check it out. Lucky for us, they are now only a block away from a great park and a delicious crepe restaurant. We went to the park and Clark was fixated on the soccer players. He really wanted to join them. (think I might be one of those moms who has her kid playing soccer at age 3) On Sunday, Isabella and Olivia went to the Sunday school class that Darwin and Lytle teach. They had fun getting to know the other kids in the class. We spent the afternoon on the National Mall, fed the pigeons and rode the carousel. The weather was gorgeous and the kids didn't want to leave. As an aside...Clark did pretty well without a crib. He feel asleep on the air mattress but around 1am awoke after a neighbor slammed their incredibly loud and squeaky door. He awoke in a panic and screamed for the next 30 minutes until finally falling asleep again. Poor guy.