Memorial Weekend: only 3 more visits to the farm until my parents move

I am not talking about my parents moving from their farm, where I grew up, hell, where my dad grew up.  I am not talking about how I will never see it again or how my kids won't grow up playing in the woods, splashing in the stream, running barefoot in the soft grass.  Not yet.

Just enjoy the pics.

Imma gonna have to find a new favorite
background for family pictures!

Girl after my own heart LOVED playing in the water, flipping
over rocks looking for creatures and getting muddy

bench in the woods by the stream

Easter and Spring Break

For Easter, the Grandparents came.  Then, as a special treat, they watched the kids for 3 days while Lar and I took our first child-free trip (longer than 3 hours) since Abigail was 2.5.  They missed us and cried when we called, so we stopped calling and enjoyed our vacation!

Cherry blossoms came VERY EARLY this year.
Then they were killed in a frost and it has been freezing cold very since.

Little man is SO excited to find plastic eggs

Egg-dyeing fun, which actually happened about
2 weeks after Easter.  Better late than never, right?

Very excited about Easter baskets

Mama and Baba enjoying some time on vacay.

Spring Break, Part 2

Our dear friend Seung Lan is visiting this week.  We are very excited to have her here.  She played a big role in our wedding over 10 years ago and was a reliable and close friend through our years living in Charleston. But 3 years ago we moved to Virginia and Seung Lan and her husband moved to Japan where they had a spunky, whip-smart, adorable little girl.  The past two days we have been doing DC tourist things: cherry blossoms, tidal basin walk, monuments, the mall, and 3 Smithsonian museums (American History, Natural History, and Air and Space). The weather has been overcast and drizzly, and we have been walking our butts off, but the girls are such good sports and seem to be having a blast!

Read the captions with the pics below for the full story of the past few days.
(And yes, we took Joseph to daycare.  Larry figured it would be easier to explain to him in years to come why he is not in any of the pictures than it would be do deal with him on the long, wet DC outings.)

Hanging out at TJ's memorial
(my absolute favorite)

Travelling many miles each day
by foot is much easier when you
can hitch rides on Mama's back.

Ditto that when you can ride together
on Baba

Getting psyched to climb all those
steps to see Ol' Abraham.

The crowds, which were the worst we have ever seen in DC, kept me
a safe distance from Lincoln.  Abigail took my camera and
disappeared into the crowd and came back with this awesome shot!

Ready to check out the WWII memorial

Over 2 hours of walking, my "starving" child manages a smile
at the Korean War Memorial.

They found reserves of energy buried deep within themselves
and just kept going and going and going

(Except when the 3 year old passed out
for a quick nap on beautiful
Seung Lan's back)

3 Museums in 1 Day
Favorites: Early Transportation (and Abigail
realized the wagon that Laura Ingalls
wrote about- not the red Radio Flyer that
Abigail uses and  had pictured making
its way across the prairie),
First Lady Dresses, Mammals,
Hope Diamond, and Aircraft Carrier

Much to our amusement, the girls also spent
a lot of battery life taking pictures of
each other taking pictures!!

Cheese!

Spring Break, Part 1

We spent Easter weekend at The Farm (my parents' place in PA).
The kids had a blast.  Joseph enjoyed his first Easter.  We allowed the kids to eat the snacks from their Easter baskets for breakfast that morning and they were pretty crazy, but also very happy.

Abigail did farm chores like fixing a bird house.

They colored eggs

Jos doesn't have an Easter basket yet
but he loved his Easter Wagon

After the eggs had been found, they posed for a picture
before eating more snacks

And then it dried up enough that we spent all of Sunday
afternoon outside

Playing in the stream with her Yinski...

and then she fell in....

our old soul

Sunday Snapshot: Spring Spring Wonderful Spring

Sunday Snapshots: Hanami Weekend

Someone wasn't thrilled at first
to be in DC and not be looking
at dinosaur bones or animals or gems.

Then she got really excited because her feet fell asleep while
riding Larry's shoulders and they began to feel "tickley"

Happy to be with her Yinski and Grandma Judy

It was a long morning for her, but she was a trooper and
had no major breakdowns of any kind.  (Not that she ever does.)

An Easter Egg Monday

We decided to dye a few eggs tonight.

She instantly grabbed this and said
"I get the octagon, Mama!"

Patiently checking on the progress
of the pink one.

"Abigail, if you have 2 eggs in the carton
and 3 eggs in the cups, how many eggs
do you have?"

"Ummmmm, 5 I think.  Let me check." 

Contemplating the eggs or the
fact that she had to use a Sam Adams tumbler.

Sunday Snapshot: Hanami Day

Abigail and her Aunt Steph

Lar and I tried to get just 1 usable pic
to use in our dossier.  No luck there!!