Fun with Grandma & Grandpa

(oops, forgot to hit "post" on this last week so it's been sitting in the draft box - sorry!)

We scored a "bonus visit" from Grandma and Grandpa last week. We played hard and made sure we didn't miss a second of fun.

Grandma, mom, and me started the trip zipping around town taking pictures of all the monuments and memorials with my cousin Mallory's Flat Stanley (see Flat Stanley on FDR's knee) while dad and Grandpa went to work for the day (Grandpa had a business meeting).

Day two we headed to the zoo where I ran for almost 4 straight hours. Where are the animals? you ask, well, this is the Pizza Park at the zoo and it's one of my favorite things. It's a giant pizza that you can play on. You stack mushrooms and pepperonis and slide down giant cheese or climb on a tomato or crawl through an olive - it's awesome.

I exhausted everyone so we all took a nap in the beautiful weekend weather. Ahhh, relaxation. Then once they were up it was lots of good reading time.

Then we headed to Roosevelt Island for a 3 mile hike around the island. A 5 foot snake slithered in front of me and my dad on the trail. Based on his high pitched response, it was luckily I was there to protect him.

We took a bike ride to the park and enjoyed a picnic - well, they just stuck food out for me as I zoomed by heading to the slide. Like I said, this was a total bonus visit!

 

The Hunt

 Me and thirteen of my little buddies had an Easter egg hunt at our house this week. While some might think the competition was fierce with so many hunters, it was more like a leisurely stroll. I, for one, was content to find an egg, sit down, open it up, and enjoy the treat inside. Then, if I felt inspired, I would stand up, look around, pick up another plastic egg and repeat the process. This may be why the hunt took about 30 minutes  - with several eggs remaining in plain site until the end.

We also did an Easter craft using plastic flower pots. The one pictured was a definite prize-winner. Most of ours had an extra eye or two and their ears were more creatively placed on the bunny's head. Another attraction was the water jug. My mom put peeps inside the water container and even though I emptied out the entire jug of water on the lawn, I couldn't get a peep to come up - so weird.

Today we went to church to celebrate the reason we have Easter, took a nap on the hammock, opened up the prizes in our Easter baskets, played outside, and went for a bike ride. On the perfect scale, today rated a "10."

                          

My dad and I got remote controlled helicopters in our baskets. I'm sure this seemed like a good idea when the bunny put them in the basket, but now our home has fast-flying objects whizzing around with almost no pilot control AND my parents have turned it in to a competition to see who can land the helicopters on various ledges around the house (I know, no one is surprised by this). I also got a golf club shaped like a carrot stick. This too, I'm sure seemed like a good idea at the time. I have spent the day whacking everything in my path - of course I'm trying to hit the golf ball, but my aim could use some work. "That's what touch up paint is for," my mom says....

My mom got an awesome new women's basketball. I'm sure she'll love it if she can ever get me and my dad to stop playing with it.

Happy Easter!

Flying Sharks and Other Stuff

Spring has definitely arrived in DC and we are taking full advantage. We've already logged 60 miles on the bikes as a family and we try to spend as much time outside as is possible. This weekend we road down (okay, so I hitched a ride in the bike trailer) to the National Kite Festival at the Washington Monument. We had a 7' shark kite. He looked pretty tough until the 80' American flag kite showed up; oh well.





There wasn't much wind when we first got there so my dad spent a lot of time running and jumping while tossing the kite in the air - don't tell him but my mom and I laughed a lot. Thanks to his persistence the shark soared into the air and then the wind picked up, so it was a successful kite-flying day. I took the kite reins a few times but when the wind started to blow and the kite flew up high I decided it was best to throw the kite handle in the air and run the opposite direction. This caused my dad to resume his running and jumping behavior, but this time it was to try and catch the kite string as the kite flew away...classic.

When I am indoors, I've become a bit obsessed with my Matchbox cars. I insist on lining all of them up in the exact middle of our floor. This means every single person must walk around or step over them to get by - I have made a perfect obstacle. My parents don't find these skills as clever as I do.





Flowers are popping. Hope everyone is enjoying the start of spring!

Spring has Sprung!

Visits to the zoo, cherry blossoms, bike rides, the park - Spring is awesome!

I've had two visits to the zoo in the past two weeks - one with the Hickmans and Strattons and one with my buddy Christine. Christine is the best. She chased me around, made sure I didn't get eaten by lions or sneak under the fence with the llamas, and played all day.

We also took our annual bike ride to the Tidal Basin to see the cherry blossoms in full bloom. We take the scenic route and it's about a 20 mile ride round trip (my dad calls that "junk mileage," my mom calls it a workout). The ride was fun, and the blossoms looked like popcorn had exploded on all of the trees.

On the way back, about 5 miles from home, my dad got a little wobbly and quickly got to the side of the trail...his bike pedal had fallen off! Yes, the WHOLE left peddle. The bolt dropped out - somewhere - and now he had no way to connect it to his bike. Think quick dad, what should we do?

"I'm pretty sure I can still ride home like this" he confidently said. My mom smiled and said, "Sure, you want to pull Bodie in a bike trailer up hill for five miles while using only one pedal. Okay, give it a try Superman." (Who's Superman by the way?) Splat. It did not go well. One rotation and my dad conceded. So he hopped on my mom's bike and took off - zoom! While he was headed home to get the Jeep, my mom and I played at Gravely Point and watched the airplanes land until he came back to pick us - and the one pedal bike - up!

What's Crafty, Wet, and Green...ME!

My cousin Francesca slept over last weekend and we did lots of fun stuff - made pizza for dinner, bunny-shaped rice krispie treats for her basketball team, and cooked homemade play dough. Lots of mess and lots of fun. Lucky me for having such a great cousin.

As the weather continued to play tricks on us - 35 degrees one day, 70 degrees the next - we caught a sunny day and headed two blocks down the street from our house to the creek on Four Mile Run. It's moving pretty fast these days but there are still enough shallow spots that I can stand in the water without floating away. I could throw rocks for hours. This one made a huge splash.

We kicked off the St. Patrick's Day month with the annual Brien Bash in Old Town Alexandria. Our friends the Briens host a party every year at a fun Irish pub on the same day as the Old Town St. Patrick's Day parade. So we got to hang out with fun people AND watch a cool parade.