Ballerina

Madeline has begun ballet classes and LOVES them.

We signed her up for the fall class where she gets to dance after school every Monday with the 3 and 4 year olds at her preschool (there is a ballet studio upstairs- happy coincidence!).

She gets to have lunch at school once a week with her friends and goes straight to dance and I come and get her at 1:30. It is a great way for her to have some independent time and she is learning a little dance too

Grandma Rose and Grandaddy bill sent some adorable ballet gear for her 4th birthday gift. She is tickled pink.

Learning plie’s just before dismissal. (ok so they look sort of like crooked squats, it’s a beginning and she loves it!)ps- thankfully this teacher is not a stickler as some ballet instructors I had growing up were… because this child of mine does not like to wear her hair up and Forget about a bun! Au natural for miss madeline.

Turning Four!

Madeline celebrated her 4th birthday ALL weekend.

It began with a crown that arrived via Maury.

To that we added Madeline’s eager desire to have cake with Tucker

and voila! Madeline is going door-to-door in the neighborhood inviting folks to cupcake hour at 7:15 on Saturday night and offering them party hats.

We have a great neighborhood family. Most of them even came up with an unexpected gift in the 30 min they had to prepare!

Here she is trying on the black tutu skirt and purple top from Tucker’s family- of course it was the chosen birthday uniform!

Then, Sunday morning Madeline and two friends went to Glen Echo to the Adventure Theatre to see an amazing Children’s Theater performance of Spot’s Birthday Party.

We had cupcakes,

did arts and crafts, played with punch balloons, saw a great show and even rode the carousel thanks to Eliana who bought us all a ticket to ride. Pretty thoughtful for a 4 year old, huh?

We also brought a gift for Spot. The theater collected gifts for children in need, living in a group home, and Madeline was excited to out together a box of fun things (cake mix, frosting, candles, the works, gifts, a book, decorations) and drop it off at the theater. 

We got to meet the cast afterward and the girls were taken with Spot himself.

Home for lunch (Pizza- we discovered a local organic place that does vegan cheese), gifts, play and NAP!

Dinner at her favorite sushi restaurant (we were trying to go for pancakes but they were closed). and out with daddy on a pajama storytime date at school (pics to follow).

So many wonderful gifts, cards and calls. Im sorry she was unable to respond to them all but she will be available all week

Happy birthday to our brave, beautiful, kind and silly 4 year old.

holding her own

We dont have swords, knives, guns as toys over here but of course her friends do
and its good to know she can hold her own-
Here she is with Zachary

Brookside gardens

We seem to have spent the week at Brookside gardens.

I took the kids to the Butterfly and caterpillar exhibit on tuesday and then on saturday we returned for the big children's vegetable fun day.

Bennett has been having a little PTSD this month after having been stung by two bees. He walks around saying ‘bu-fly!’ and clutching his neck whenever he sees any insect. He makes me kiss it and sometimes wont let go for a good 15 minutes. I wasn’t sure but I thought taking him to the exhibit might help him see that people enjoy these insects and that they wouldn't hurt him. Well, either that or he’d be thrown into a coma from the panic of it all.

Here we are in the children’s garden!

Fortunately I think for us all, it was the former for Bennett and things have improved a bit.

madeline made a friend on her hat!

then bennett did too!

cheese!

running in the gardens

Hugs to mr toad on the way out.

And they thought the leaves looked like butterflies that they could touch. Yay Autumn!

Then on Saturday, we met up with Sophie, Henry, Emma and Luca at the garden festival and had a great time learning about vegetables and plants.

sponge painting with fruits and vegetables

ah the teen volunteers!

impromptu soccer lesson while the girls got their facepaint.

sweet peas

emma, bennett and don picnicking

 

gourd music groupies

The highlight was the gourd band. It felt like a stern grove day for sure and we all got jammin to the gourd tunes from the Richmond indigenous gourd orchestra.

they had a display where the kids could play the gourds. Sophie, Emma and Luca really got into it while madeline played air guitar on the stage floor

and finally home to have lunch in the yard together

Spa World

not much to say but blissed-out

Don sent me to spa world and I cajoled 9 friends to come along!
Because the locker room is nude and half of the spa (the underwater part) is too, they don’t ‘let’ you take pictures per se but I had to snag a pic or two of us in our silly orange sauna jumpers.

getting ready!

it was a fantastic day. not enough pics to capture everyone of course. Janet and Dani are missing from the group shot… bummer

but it was most excellent.

Fri- dinner with family at cheesecake factory, cheesecake at hime

saturday- brookside gardens with the family, dinner at a beautiful new restaruant with don on a surprise date

and dessert of course

and sunday spa day with the girls (sue made and smuggled in a whole cake!)

and dinner with deedge and the family at a great sushi restaurant (fried bananas and ice cream after!)

amazing all by itself and then don gave me two lovely gifts from my favorite store! Ten thousand villages.

perfect 32nd!

thank you all