dc tourist day

Our cousin, Shawn (13), came to visit this week for a few days and taught us a few things about rocking out on the new wii toy- rock band2. We rocked, we conquored, we snacked. it was a truly essential few days of just vegging out. thanks shawn!

So today i decided it was time to do something educational. So we took him on a morning tour of the National Mall. White House, National xmas tree, Washington Monument, Jefferson memorial, Capital Building and spent some time in the National Museum of Natural History. Shawn points out btw... what would the Museum of Unnatural history look like...?



Playing musical instruments in the Discovery Zone at the museum- obviously the best part of the museum for her. All hands-on and lots of cool new things to discover.



As we were getting ready to send Shawn home, Madeline went to say goodbye and asked "Shawn, you stay here ever and ever?..."
Uhm- how can he deny her?! And he is her godfather on top of it all... isnt it his solemn duty to stay? Well, i guess even the best of teenagers wants to spend a few days at home for their Winter break from school.

We loved having you here Shawn, despite the whole Denny's thing- we will never repeat.


Here is what madeline thought of her day- she started saying this at bedtime:

xmas pics

A few pics from Madeline's Christmas- some from home and some from our family visit to NY.

She had a wonderful holiday, the highlight of which was Santa's visit on Christmas Eve wherein he handed her the teacup she had asked him for. Later she told us all about it. Then on Christmas morning she gathered all of her gifts together (we had tagged them with her photo so she'd know which were hers) and then she distributed them to us. We had to help her realize they were all for her!
Her favorite seems to have been her toothbrush and toothpaste from her stocking- we brushed 3x yesterday afternoon.. but also her shopping cart and grocery basket set. She has been "going out to the store mommy" all day with her baby in tow.

Merry Christmas!


Her Christmas dress from Grandma rose and grandaddy bill.- she loved it.

Holiday Party

Don and I had a night out on the town for the Eplus Holiday Party. It was held at the Hyatt in Herndon, VA and was actually really really nice. They had a live band (full brass section and the lead singer was an american idol finalist a few seasons back), food was great and copious and the dancing and conversation with adults was the highlight for sure!

Here we are all gussied up doing the Holiday party pose- complete with the belly accent!

If you give a pig a pancake...

We took madeline to see her first play!
She loved it- Sat upright for every second of the show, clapping at all appropriate times and just engaged at the whole experience.
The college is right next to our development so there are some great tours that come through. This time the show was called "If you give a pig a pancake" by, of course, the author of "If you give a mouse a cookie" and performed by Theatreworks. They included many other stories which are family favorites: How i Became a Pirate, The Paper Bag Princess etc... What a great show!

Here is Madeline with her program and ticket and another with Dad poised in their seats "cheese".

Facial Expressions

Madeline has been learning about facial expressions and feelings recently ...
and here she is practicing:

Thanksgiving in NY

We had a wonderful, tasty, relaxing Thanksgiving at Club fidotta and had a chance to spend some QT with the Ryans and Maury too. We got some great xmas things from Aunt Margaret and of course, grandma Mary gave us more than a couple of penguins for the tree! thank you!!

We sat in a ton of traffic but all in all the drive to Ny for the holiday was worth it...
now we are wondering who is coming to our place for Christmas!!

Here are a few candids of the pre-turkey crew, and uncle Dennis carving the magnificent bird. Yum the tastiest thankgiving ever. thank you!

Its beginning to look alot...

...like Christmas! We have been getting into the Christmas spirit, after our fun trip home to NY for Thanksgiving. We inherited a few adorable Christmas things and I wanted to put them all right up immediately. Madeline helped pick out our Christmas tree last night and here it is!