The Beach!

Jonette kidnapped me today and we spent a fantastic afternoon at the beach at Sandy Point.

 The weather was nice, overcast but sometimes sunny, not hot. The girls surprised us by insisting on getting their swimsuits on and swimming! Naomi, Greta and Alice were a cute little trio of craziness today.

My kids love the beach, and it was so fun to hang out with Jonette. 

It was the perfect way to spend the day.

This photo was taken by a budding photographer, 5 year old Alice!

Oh, that face!

Buried Alive!!!

It's so hot

We live in an apartment complex where the heat and ac are on one big system that has to be "switched over" at the change of the seasons for use.

It was in the 50's early last week. So our heaters are still on.

It was 90 on Saturday, and yesterday and today and tomorrow.

We live on the ground floor and I don't really feel comfortable about leaving all the windows open all night. Like the kids room. And a busy road makes it really noisy in the early mornings.

We did leave the windows open last night in our room and opened the door to the kids room to help air flow.

We had some fans going too, that helped.

We were pretty comfortable in our room and the kids were warmer but ok.

Then 3:22 this morning a little bird decided it was time to start singing. 

Right outside my window.

I was SO annoyed. I tried to ignore it for about 15 minutes but It was killing me.

I shut that window regretfully.

This morning I opened up all the windows when we were all up- before 7.

By 9 a.m. it was over 70 and rising quickly.

Currently it's 10 a.m. and 81 degrees.

I googled "how to stay cool without air conditioning"

some of the tips are good, like placing ice in front of a fan as an make shift AC. We're doing that one now.

Wear as little as possible, get wet- Naomi is already wet, drink cold water and eat cold food.

We're going to go buy some popsicles later.

Frozen GoGurts for now

***UPDATE***

The AC was turned on last night! Hooray!

We are all nicely chilled.

What have you been up to?

Sheesh, I didn't realize it had been so long since I'd posted anything.

Ok, actually I did realize. I just have been busy having fun. And reading in my spare time instead of blogging. 

For a book club I attend I recently read The Age of Innocence. It was just my style. I also just read another wonderful book called The Guernsey Literary and the Potato Peel Pie Society. I loved that one. Now I'm reading The Toss of  a Lemon. It's been pretty interesting so far.

I put Naomi's hair in two pigtails today with darling, bouncy little ringlets on each side. It isadorable. She's adorable. Today at least. And yesterday. She asked, authoritatively, of me and Zach at dinner last night, "Do you have your own money and your own ticket?!" 

I laughed and answered in the affirmative. I had no idea what she was talking about.

We had a fun and very low-key Easter. Naomi thoroughly enjoyed dying eggs and eating jelly beans. James had Cheerios's in his eggs this year. He didn't know the difference and was thrilled when they spilled out all over him.

I taught Zach how to blow out eggs. I just use a pin and poke holes at each end and then blow! Zach was at first impressed, and then showed me up, of course. It seems that's the trend with us. Skiing, (just kidding, I know you already knew how), water skiing, wake boarding (ok, that one too), any recipe of mine. I suppose I still am the household authority on sewing, glitter, blogging. 

DC is just gorgeous this time of year. The cherry blossoms are gone but there are many other flowering trees still just hitting their peak.

And the tulips are amazing. I love tulips.

We have been outside a lot as it's been warming up. James is more sure on his feet and doesn't eat grass and wood chips from the playground too much anymore, things are looking up!

Today we went to the zoo with Cassie and the kids. We lazily made our way through part of the animals as Naomi and Abby zigzagged all over the place. It's so warm this weekend and the zoo was packed with school kids and tourists. It's a strangely satisfying feeling to be a "local" here. I love knowing my way around and not looking like a visitor. You know, with sneakers, ball caps, back packs and cameras around the neck. Maybe a fanny pack and a map too.

That sounds snobby. I guess I am sometimes!

As soon as James wakes up from his nap today I'm going to take the kids outside to blow some bubbles. For Naomi's birthday, 2+ months ago, she got a big bubble bucket, the no-spill kind. We've been waiting for the perfect weather to use it, and it has finally arrived!

Today's a good day, my kids are being sweet and the dishes and laundry are done. Does that make anyone's day like it does mine? 

Happy Spring!

Cherry Blossoms of Course

Yesterday we took a chance on the weather and went downtown to see the Cherry Blossoms. We were in luck, the rain stayed away and it was kind of warm. The wind was crazy sometimes though. It was too windy to rent paddle boats. Too bad because I really wanted to take a ride, I think Naomi would have loved it too.
Naomi splashed through the puddles as much as we would let her. We tried to keep the innocent bystanders dry....
It was a great day to go down, the crowds were thinner compared to the weekends and the rain earlier yesterday morning had scared people away. We took our "jogging" stroller (one of these days I'm going to use it like it was intended!). It was a champ over the muddy grass. James loved almost every second of it, even missing his afternoon nap.
These trees are just so beautiful! DC is fantastic this time of year, I'm really mourning our upcoming move.
By the time we were heading home we had exhausted our snack supply and mom and dad's energy too. We stopped to get hot dog on the corner. They are always so good when you're really hungry.

It's always interesting and tiring to do these kind of outings with the kids. We survived it and overall had a really fun time. I love being able to see so many great things all the time.

Over at the Jefferson Memorial there is live music during the festival. Naomi and James had a grand time dancing.

Springtime in DC

This is at Arlington National Cemetery. The blossoms were beautiful and so was Naomi.

Naomi entertaining herself during the Changing of the Guards Ceremony:)

I LOVE spring! The weather has been gorgeous the past few days and we are totally loving it. I know it's going to get hotter, much, much hotter... but for now it's lovely.

I am getting all ready- at least mentally- for our busy summer ahead. I am flying out of here in two weeks for Natalie and Paul's wedding. I'm flying by myself with BOTH kids. I am totally crazy. Zach is coming the day before the wedding, he has to stick around here for his finals. Then we are all off to Charlotte, NC! We will be there until the end of June and then we fly to Utah to spend the rest of the summer. So I am leaving DC in two weeks and won't be back for 4 months!!! It's a little weird to me.

And for other things. Naomi is getting so big and smart. She notices things and says things that surprise me every day. And she's funny too! She likes to be silly and then will say to us and herself "silly Nomi!" It's pretty cute. She says the cutest things all the time. I wish I had a notebook with me all the time so I could remember them and write them down! Maybe I should do that.

James is getting chubby and I love it. He is a sweet baby and I just love the way he looks at me with those bright blue eyes. Since I'm his mom, I think he's so adorable:)

I'm looking quite sleep deprived in this picture but look how cute my little baby is! He's got the same nice skin as Naomi....obviously it's NOT from me:)

James in his cute Sunday clothes. That darling shirt is from his Aunt Brooke and Uncle Jesse.

I put him face down on the boppy for some "tummy time" and he just fell asleep. That's pretty much the story if he's ever on his tummy.

We are missing Linda and Heidi who went home Wednesday. I've had to be a mom all by myself the past few days. We've done OK :) It was wonderful to have them here.

Today (a good MONTH after Easter) our apartment complex held their annual Easter Egg Hunt. It had been postponed several times but it was a beautiful day! Naomi made friends with the Easter Bunny and held his hand for quite a while, she also made sure he got his share of candy too:)

National Cherry Blossom Festival!

We spent the day "downtown" yesterday at the kick-off celebration for the National Cherry Blossom Festival.
It was so much fun and I am soooo tired of walking!
We started off by going to the National Building Museum. My mom, Naomi, James and I took the metro there and Zach joined us an hour or so later- he had a basketball game. So here's the funny thing about this, It took me all day to figure out why that museum had such a weird name. I was thinking it was really, really vague- meaning it was the National Building, or National Museum- but of WHAT? And then it dawned on me- it was the National BUILDING Museum, as in ARCHITECTURE. I felt kinda stupid for a minute:)
At the National Building Museum they had a Free Family Day thing going on. There were tons of Japanese crafts, activities, demos and dancers. Naomi made a little cherry blossom tree, a mask (see the slide show:) and a few other fun things. After a healthy McDonald's lunch we hopped back on the metro down to the Mall to the Kite Festival. There were so many people everywhere, it was amazing. And the air was filled with kites. We didn't bring one and that's probably a good thing, Naomi is too little to really like flying a kite, or be able to anyway and she enjoyed watching everyone else. That and picking up rocks. She really, really loves to be outside.
Then we walked over toward the Jefferson Memorial to see all the gorgeous cherry trees in full blossom. It really was beautiful. Zach read online somewhere that there are over 3 thousand cherry trees around the tidal basin!
Naomi ended up finally falling asleep in her stroller, she fights naps on the go, she ended up with about a 30 minute nap- better than nothing! And James was in the sling all day, so he ended up with about an ALL day nap!
The weather was beautiful, but just a little cold, I could have gone for about 10 degrees warmer but it was a great day, and so fun to spend with Zach too! I'm looking forward to this summer when ALL Saturdays will be family days, no homework!

It was great to have my mom here for this, she really loved seeing the cherry blossoms again, she hasn't been here for the festival since she was a teenager, and of course she loves Japan since she spent some of her growing up years there. She's been so helpful and keeps cleaning my apartment! I love it:) She'll be here until Friday. Then we get to have Zach's mom come and visit! I'm a little bit spoiled, I know.

Rain Dance

It's been raining all day and I decided we had better take advantage of these awesome puddles, no wait, I mean LAKES outside our place! My feet were soaked within about 2 minutes and I suspect Naomi's were as well. Her cute boots are hand-me-downs from her cousin Leia. They're about 3 sizes too big:)
She ended up only sitting down in a puddle twice, pretty good stats I'd say. I stripped her down to her diaper before we made it back inside.

Photo-a-holic

Ok, just a FEW more.

I took some really cute pics today and I just had to share!

EGGS

Naomi was so excited about coloring eggs! she was really good at cracking them too...:)
Making things "FIT" is a favorite game of Naomi's

Naomi and Mommy (I've seen better days!)
Trying to put the egg in her pocket.

Happy Easter!

We colored eggs today and went shopping for Easter dinner food, and best of all, Zach was home all morning! Naomi has been a trooper, she's been feeling a little sick all week. She's just seeming to be getting over her cold and now her temperature is shooting up. I suspect (another) ear infection. Sigh... I breastfed that baby forever and less ear infections is supposed to be a benefit!!! ah well.

She's sleeping now (thank goodness). Naomi's been tired all day and unable to get to sleep. She ended up with a 25 min. nap earlier this afternoon. Poor baby.

If she's feeling yucky still tomorrow I'm going to take her to the E-room and get her ears checked out, it's not worth waiting another whole day for antibiotics if that's the case. I'm just praying she'll sleep well tonight.

Anyway, back to Easter. Last night Zach and I watched the Testaments DVD my Mom & Dad sent us for Easter. It's so amazing, I wish Naomi was able to understand but I think she already does in her own way.

I'm posting some cute pictures from today and a few from the park a few days ago. It's still freezing here since that cold front stormed in, literally. I have a sweet little green Easter dress for Naomi to wear tomorrow if she's feeing up to church. The dress and little white sweater were b-day gifts for Naomi from my mom. I have the cutest dresses for her to wear this summer!! I'll probably post pics of them all. ha ha.