Cherry Blossoms!

Nothing beats the cherry blossoms in D.C. We go year after year, and it never anything less than magical. This year we went a couple of days past "peak" (when the blossoms are in full bloom), but it was enough for me after missing the blossoms for two years. We enjoyed some of the sites, including the new Martin Luther King Jr. memorial. It is amazing and every American needs to go. 

These are some shots from the FDR memorial. Afton is on a section of disrupted stones that have the words "I HATE WAR" carved in them. It is very powerful.

Until next year cherry blossoms!

Easter in North Carolina

Three of Andrew's brother's live within a 10 mile radius of us. One brother, however, lives 5 hours away in North Carolina, which makes drop in visits impossible. We try to visit once a year, and this year we decided to crash during Easter break. This family is so much fun and in true southern style, extremely hospitable. We took a trip to our favorite Raleigh kids museum, hiked, explored a nearby creek and had a very relaxing Easter Sunday (as evident in the picture of Andrew and his brother Matt sleeping below). We just love this family and can't wait to visit next year!

On the way home we finally managed to stop at a couple of Civil War Battle fields.

Peter's Surprise 30th

If you want to experience one of the most precious sights in the world, throw a surprise party for someone with Down Syndrome. Watching my brother-in-law Peter's face as he walked into our home and saw his friends and family yelling "Surprise" was one of the best moments of my life. Too bad I pressed "stop" instead of "record" on my video camera as soon as he came in!

The theme of the party was obviously "Peter" and he sure got a kick out of it. I took some goofy pictures of him a couple of weeks earlier and I added all sorts of hats to the images. My sweet mother in law provided the food, and a ward member even did a magic show. It was a great night to enjoy each other's company and to celebrate this guy who we are all crazy about. At the end of the evening Peter even came up to me and said, "Thank you sooo much for inviting all my friends". Precious.

Above, Peter conducting as we sang Happy Birthday. Below, Peter cheering as soon as we finished. I think this image will always bring tears to my eyes. Best. Picture. Ever.

Luke's 7th Pirate Party

I love having home birthday parties. Love, love, love them. Unless I am hosting a party of 10+ little boys who have a major problem with losing good o'l fashion games like hot potato...and then not so much. There were definitely some tears, some threats (not by me!) and boys refusing to eat over game eliminations.  At one point in the party Andrew had to go get the pizza, thus leaving me solo. Things got a little crazy, and when my parents walked in 10 minutes later (they came down for Luke's big day) I sent a silent prayer of thanks.

But for Luke...I would do it all again. Sore losers and all.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again- Luke is one of a kind. He is such a good kid who loves making people happy. He is definitely the peacemaker in our family, and boy, can that kid melt in your arms. For years I have been dreading the day when he would outgrow his outward show of affection, but 7 years on, and he is still the most affectionate kid alive.

He is inquisitive, daring and energetic. He is usually always up for a challenge, and has a smile on his face while doing it. At the present moment he loves being a risk taker when it comes to eating. I don't find it so amusing that he considers eating my dinners a "risk", but he'll eat anything you put in front of him. He also has made such a tremendous effort with school, and his hard work is really paying off.

Little Luke is a light in our lives, and one that we are grateful for each day. Love you buddy!

New York, New York

You know when you realize something, and you wonder why you didn't think of it earlier? I'm wondering why it took Andrew and me so long to ditch our kids with our parents and go away. We've done it on the rare occasion of a wedding or something, but only once before for the heck of it. BUT, about a month ago, we did do it just for the heck of it. We dropped the kids off at my parents house and then we headed up to NYC. We crammed in lots of sites, took in a Broadway show, and relaxed as much as two people used to traveling with four kids are able. 

World Trade Center Memorial

The last time I saw this site was about 8 years ago when it was still just a pile of ruble. I honestly was not prepared for how sobering the memorial would be. I thought it was absolutely perfectly done.

We also hit up Wall Street-

The Brooklyn Bridge-

a showing of Wicked (LOVED THIS SHOW!)

And a tour around Times Square and Rockefeller Plaza. I was seriously dead on my feet at this point- just another testament that my children have sucked the youth right out of me!). This place is stimulus overload at night.

We spent the better part of the next day at The Met. Holy Cow. You could spend days- weeks- in that place. It is crammed with so many amazing exhibits, and after several hours of trolling, I still felt that we had barely scratched the surface. I would love to take our kids here one day.

We ended our day with a stroll through Central Park- it was perfect. And since we had such a great experience, we made arrangements to do it again this summer. Only this time it will be for 9 days and we are headed back over the Atlantic. If I can get my anxiety in check with will be awesome. Thanks Mom and Dad!

Random Moments

"Oh really?" Afton yaps. A lot. Nonstop. Pretty much all day long. And when you have a child who talks that much you tend to tune it out at times. Apparently whenever I go into "tune out mode" I say, "Oh really?" over and over again. Afton has recently caught on to this trend and has determined that what I am really saying is, "I'm not listening to you" (she's correct). I am therefore banned from the use of "Oh really". Acceptable responses now include "Wow!", "Neat!","Cool!"

And lest you think Afton yaps nonsense all day long, last week at breakfast she randomly blurted out, "You know what I love about you Mom? How you are a nice mom." Melt my heart child. Melt my heart.

Speaking German While living abroad Afton absolutely refused to speak German. It's not like I expected much from her, but I did expect her to say the basics, you know, "Danke" and such. However whenever a stranger would try to speak to her in German she would yell back things like, "It's not danke! You say thank you!" Charming, I know. Now that we are back in the US the girl constantly asks me how to say things in German. Some things I know, some I don't. She did ask me how to say "I don't know" the other say, which was an easy one for me- "Ich weiss nicht". I said that one a lot.

Getting Physical I recently bought Jillian Micheal's Body Revolution program. I've been trying to knockout the workout in the morning before the kids go to school. A couple of days ago while I was doing one move that makes your backside shake (a lot) Sam sat behind me saying, "Ewwww, Mom! Look at your butt! Ewwww! Grooooosss!" I wanted to kill him.

Birds and Bees As a form of punishment for the above comment I decided to shock Sam with a discussion on the birds and the bees. No, this talk was really overdue. I kept catching the kid kissing the air pretending that it was his "imaginary girlfriend". All things considered he took the talk really well- his eyes only got wide during one part- you can guess what part that was. Why didn't Andrew have this discussion with the boy? Because when I first broached the subject with Sam, Andrew was in the other room and started yelling, "No! No! He's too young! It's too early!"

The Spelling Test  When Luke started kindergarten we discovered that he needed additional resource learning. He has had a hard time learning to read, and often struggles to retain information. We've been really blessed to have extremely supportive schools and teachers who know that Luke is a smart kid. However, now in the 1st grade, Luke is given a spelling test every 2 weeks. It's been a little disheartening to see him get most of the words on the test wrong and know that the next week the words will only get harder. BUT for the last list I tried orally telling Luke how to spell the words. He retain the information much better and received A 100% ON HIS LAST SPELLING TEST! I was so proud of that kid that I cried.  He was so proud of himself that he jumped up into my arms and gave me a huge monkey hug.