The Farm . . . and the heat

One of my oldest friends was in town the weekend of the derecho . . . Jennifer Sillman! We met when we were four while living in Connecticut. Then during our elementary years, our families were both stationed in Virginia Beach. We reconnected through facebook, and when she planned to be in the DC area, we knew we wanted to see each other.  We made plans to meet at a local farm for blueberry picking. It was a hot, hot, hot day, and she had already been in the heat without power for 2 full days when we met on the 100 degree day. What a trooper. It was great to see her, her brother, and their kids.
The blueberries were delicious, too!

Ribbons

Here is Maddie posing with her ribbons in her new room. You get ribbons for participating, beating your own time, and for placing. Her favorite ribbon is the one she got for second place for swimming butterfly.

More about the house . . .

After two weeks in the house, we are  more settled in and organized. We've met most of our neighbors, and one baked us some cookies.

We had our first big storm, a derecho! (If you're keeping track, we have experienced an earthquake, a hurricane, a flood, and now a derecho in the last twelve months since we moved to Va.) You probably saw pictures on the news of how the storm affected our area. We were extremely lucky and never lost power, but many places still don't have their power back on almost  week later. There were many trees down, and even our county 911 system was down.  But, our new brick home weathered the storm without any damage.

Here are a few more pictures of the house: the dining room, the master bath, and the hallway bath.

Ian's Birthday

In mid June, we celebrated Ian's fourth birthday. It was a fun day filled with family, cake, and outdoor fun. Happy Birthday, Ian!

More Swim Team

Isn't she cute?!? As mentioned before, swim team takes up a lot of our time. Crazy thing is, we are loving it! Monday night, Madeline attended her first meet. It was a "B" meet which means anyone can swim. "A" meets are more competitive, take place on Saturday mornings, and you have to be asked by the coach to participate.

Here is a little run down of our time spent on swim team just this week. The Monday night meet was from 5 to 8:30, yes, three and a half hours, and Madeline swam a total of about 80 seconds. Remember, this is in addition to 5 practices a week in the morning. She also attended an extra stroke and turn clinic Wed. evening and had team pictures taken Thursday morning. Today is Friday, and we'll be at a swim team potluck dinner tonight. And, guess where we'll be tomorrow at 7 am . . . at the "A" meet!!! Madeline's coach wants her to swim butterfly this weekend. She is so proud and excited! She still wants to swim freestyle in Monday's meet too, and the cycle continues. Yes, we basically have swim team every day!

We're Home!

Our closing last Thursday went very smoothly, and . . . . . . we have been living in our new home for almost a week!!!

We are exhausted but loving everything about our new place.  There are too many "pluses" to mention!

It was 100 degrees last Friday when we moved.  Of course it was because it was 100 when we moved last summer, too. Apparently, we only want to move heavy boxes and furniture when there are heat advisories, lol. We did pay movers, but it was  a ton of work on our part, too.

Since then, we've slowly been unpacking and making Home Depot runs, and we are starting to feel settled in. :)

It is a beautiful home in a beautiful neighborhood, and after so many months of looking, it still feels surreal to be living in our home. We are so thankful our other contracts did not work out since this home is truly the best fit for our family (in too many ways to mention!!). We keep feeling the need to pinch ourselves. We love our new home so much!!

Leah loves it, too. She literally just rolled around in the grass the first day we were here. It's perfect.

Closing

We are scheduled to close on our new home this Thursday, and we are crossing our fingers that everything goes through smoothly. After two months of anticipation, it's hard believe we are only three days away. This is our future living room with the seller's furniture still in place. We love how big this room is and the gorgeous hardwood floors.  Although we are not looking forward to the work of moving, we cannot wait to be settled in our new home.

Swim Team

Madeline really wanted to join a swim team this year, and it has been quite a commitment!  She has practice five days and week, plus meets. Whew! It has been a challenge to get her there after school each day (Leah has made the biggest sacrifice with many 12 hour stretches alone at home), and now that she has morning practices, I will rely on family and friends to get her there while I attend teacher work days and a week long training. The good news is  . . .  she loves it!!! We went to her time trials yesterday, and it was pretty exciting listening to the announcers and watching her swim. I am still trying to figure how it all works with the heats, events, numbers, and how to get her her team swim cap. We're figuring this one out as we go, but she is having a blast which makes it worth it.

Free style is her best stroke. Her coach said she had the best time in her age group for this event.  We find out tomorrow is her times qualify her the "A" or the "B" meets. So much to learn and figure out!

Cardboard Boat Regatta

A couple of weekends ago, we went to watch some cardboard boat races at a nearby lake. The event brought back many memories!  Aunt Jessie participated in this event several times during her teenage years. Kent helped out rowing when he was 19, and they had their picture in the local paper.

It's fun to look at all the creative boat designs and to predict which ones will sink and which ones will float. It was really funny watching all the kids attempt to row in an efficient manner. We shared a lot of laughs at this event.

Madeline wants to participate next year.  She'll need some volunteers if anyone is interested in building or racing her boat. Start drawing up your plans!

Memorial Day Weekend

 We spent our Memorial Day weekend camping local at Burke Lake Park. We were trying to arrange a trip with our New Jersey cousins, but all the campgrounds booked up while Kent and I patiently waited to hear any news about our short sale. So, the weekend came with no news about closing dates (bummer), and as it turned out, our VA cousins were free and a nearby campground gave sites first come, first serve. As a result, we ended up camping close to home Saturday and Sunday nights.

The girls loved camping with Kyla, Ian, and Kellen. They went for a few adventures around the campground and found a dry creek bed filled with golf balls (over 100!) for entertainment.

On Saturday, we took a couple mile hike around the lake, rode the train and carousel, and had some ice-cream before returning to camp. It was hot, hot, hot with temps in the 90's and with high humidy.

Ralph and Shirley joined us for dinner Saturday night which was a special treat! Unfortunately, Sunday was filled with rain, rain, and rain. We all retired to our tents around nine o'clock. Luckily, it didn't thunder or lightning, but the plentiful rain did make packing up the Monday morning more challenging.

All in all, we had a really fun weekend!  We hope to meet up with our Jersey cousins multiple times this summer, too!

Mother's Day

For Mother's Day, I chose to go camping. We went to the same campground we were at last fall and even stayed at the same site. This time, it was warm enough to go tubing.  Kent and Maddie floated down the Shenandoah River for 90 minutes, while Sophie, Leah and I listened to the rapids and set up camp. We had a really lovely time enjoying the scenery and each other's company.

Princess

The closest Madeline has ever come to wanting to dress up as a princess. . . The third grade celebrated an end to their study of ancient cultures last week. Students dressed up in ancient wears, sampled different foods, and made various arts and crafts.  Madeline went with an Egyptian princess costume because, well, that's all this creative mama could find at Party City.  It is an adult medium, so I did have to get a bit creative to make it fit. I thought she looked beautiful.

Summer . . .

We heard that familiar sound last Tuesday evening that told us summer is not too far away! It was a very exciting evening to say the least.

School Stuff

 We have been busy at work and school. Madeline had an art show with a few pieces on display, and  . . . drum roll . . . Sophie went to her kindergarten orientation! She loved it! She even went on a bus ride around the school parking lot. She seemed to think it was better than Disney Land. Needless to say, she is amped up and excited for the fall. I am too, for so many reasons. Number one is no more full time daycare costs. Number two is no more dropping off or picking which equals less time in the car. Number three, I'll get to see my little one and even have lunch with her once a week.

Under Contract!

After many months of weekends filled with house hunting, offers, and counteroffers, we are finally under contract!  We found a home that is perfect for us, and we are crossing our fingers that the escrow process continues to go smoothly. The main downside about the house is that it is a short sale, so we won't let our selves truly celebrate its awesomeness until we close the deal and move in. Until then, we will just keep crossing our fingers!

Easter Sunday

Easter Sunday started out with Easter baskets and an egg hunt. I guess the Easter Bunny knows that our family tries to limit excessive amounts of sugar, so our baskets were filled mostly with small toys and the like. Can you tell whose is whose?

After the morning festivities, the girls got dressed up and requested braided hair. I will have to limit their time spent on Pinterest.

Then we finished up the afternoon at Blake's house where we enjoyed a great dinner and spent time with cousins and family. The kids had a blast digging for worms, hula-hooping, and enjoying some great pre-summer weather.

The Circus!

Heading out for an evening surprise . . .

Mom and I decided to take the kids to the circus during spring break. I told the kids I had a surprise for them about 24 hours before the show. They had no idea where we were going until we got there.

The show was great, and the girls loved it! I was a bit disappointed that there weren't any trapeze artists flying through the air, but there were plenty of other exciting stunts and tricks to watch.