Spring Break 2014!

I was nervous about spring break. We had a whole week with nothing major planned and a working Seth. The great thing about spring break in Maryland (vs Michigan or Utah) is that it is actually spring during spring break so at least we had weather on our side!

We started the week with sun and high 60’s. We spent the morning at the park and then stopped off at the Rockville library. My library life has completely changed. I used to HATE the library. It just meant a lot of running after kids who had no interest in reading. I would just put books on hold and run in and out to pick them up. Things have changed. When we arrived, Charlie went off to the series section while I hung out with Matthew and Lucy on a couch in the picture books. Conrad played with a few toys on the floor. We read and read and read and read! It was glorious!

Tuesday was rainy which seemed like the perfect day to go into the city to the Air and Space Museum. I get nervous taking all the kids on the Metro (with a transfer) by myself but I worried for nothing. Everyone else had the same idea we had and the museum was packed. We still had fun with everyone loving the Apollo Moon landing pod.

The boys reading the free newspaper on the metro, metro selfie, happy Conrad, and Charlie trying to figure out where we were going.

Wednesday was a home day. The boys played their own version of “Calvin Ball” outside for hours. There was a lot of tackling and special powers.

On Thursday we went to a new park. It was huge and again the weather was perfect. After the park we went to the new Gaithersburg library- Fancy!! Again, we settled in on some comfy couches for more reading. Charlie made me laugh when he appeared with a stack of 20 books in his arms. I’m guessing that since the library is so new their books aren’t quite picked over yet. We stopped at Sam’s club for ice-cream/lunch- success!

On Friday the boys had a play-date with the Conners. We did a swap so a set of boys was at each home. Happy Times!

We had talked about camping that weekend but I’m glad I was lazy and never planned it out. The weather was cold at night and there was a grand egg hunt planned for Saturday the kids were looking forward to. 

Spring Break was simple but a huge success.

Conrad turns 2! 4/10

Is this sweet boy really a two year old? Yes he is and I couldn’t love him more. He is not only the celebrity of this home but the celebrity of the neighborhood. He is saying more words everyday right along with other words I can’t decipher but have meaning to him. He has coined a few terms that he uses in general. For example: there is a boy who lives across the street named Michael who loves Conrad. Conrad quickly caught on to his name but since uses that name to describe every other boy in the neighborhood. They are all Michaels to him. He also refers to all candy as gum balls. This one is funny because he has never had a gum ball in his life.

Matthew with our neighbor Helen and eating an ice cream cone

He has given up his white kitty as stuffed animal of choice in favor of a sock monkey and a doggie. He still loves his blanket as much as he did as a baby. He is usually happy as a clam to be swaddled up for nap and put down. He squeals in delight when he sees dogs or hears airplanes. His favorite food used to be hot dogs but now he won’t touch them. He does love homemade chicken nuggets and could eat an entire cucumber by himself.

He has two “jobs” that he takes very seriously. He is in charge of passing out the Book of Mormons every night for family reading. We tell him it is time and he will run and grab the bag and begin distributing them. He then picks them up and puts them back in the bag when we are finished. Don’t even think of putting your copy back in the bag yourself! He also helps Charlie or Matthew empty all the trashes on Saturday. Let’s hope this motivated attitude toward chores continues.

His BFF Willa still comes over to play once a week which is by far his favorite day of the week. My neighbors think I have twins. He also loves to go outside and play with all the big kids, again they all love him and give him lots of attention. After a little bit of practice he can forcefully tell anybody interested that he is “twoooooo!”

 

On the morning of his birthday, he (and his siblings) unwrapped his presents first things.

On the evening of his birthday, our neighbor Nancy came over and we celebrated with cupcakes. The Bryners stopped by for a visit the day after his birthday so we decided to have another party with a construction cake. This boy has experience with birthdays because with both the cupcakes and the cake he had the candles blown out half way through the song.  

What a great boy! He is definitely a fourth child. He will wander downstairs to the basement all by himself to play with toys. He loves his siblings and asks about the boys when they are at school. We love you Conrad!

General Conference and the Bryners visit twice! 4/5 4/12

The Bryners stopped by for a couple nights on their trip to Williamsburg for spring break. Sadly our spring breaks didn’t match up but they stopped by for another couple of nights on their way back so we got in a great visit.

Our kids were in heaven! The weather was beautiful and the kids spent a lot of time out in the woods playing. They also became entrepreneurs by opening a rainbow loom bracelet store and flower store (the flower store turned into them selling anything they could find outside including rocks and pine cones along with the spring daffodils). They each made a little bit of money but they seemed more into the process than selling. Why didn’t I take any pictures of this?

We took a trip to the Washington DC zoo to try and get a look at the baby panda. Once again he was sleeping so we had to settle for viewing on the “Panda Cam". It was a beautiful day so there were masses of people who also had the same idea. We had our fill of the crowds and left after a few hours.

Why yes, Kelly is really wearing a chicken hat (It was “State Farm” day which meant free swag and pizza) and yes that is Ben pushing two kids while wearing a third and sporting some cool aviator glasses.

Melty Beads and Rainbow Looming during conference and Kelly cuddling baby Theo.

Zoobs made an appearance during conference as well and Ben displayed some real talent!

They Bryners came back the next weekend for more fun (and more Café Rio). It just so happened that the Saturday they were here was peak day for cherry blossoms at the Tidal Basin and the weather was a perfect 70 degrees. We opted to ride the metro downtown and thankfully we live at the beginning of the line so we were able to get seats. Again…millions of people made the same choice we did. The Cherry blossoms where beautiful and now I can officially cross that off my bucket list.

Happy Metro Kids and Lucy with the Washington Monument.

We actually didn’t stay at the tidal basin for very long (we couldn’t walk easily because there were so many people). We walked back to the Washington monument for snacks and the kids ran around on the grass.

Lucy, Portia, Charlie, Eve, and Matthew with the White house behind them and Mathew and Charlie with the Lincoln Memorial in the background

We were trying to figure out what the best way to get home would be. The metros around the mall were completely jammed with people and we had 8 kids, 4 adults, and two massive strollers. We were able to solve our problem with food!! Shake Shack was a couple of miles away in Dupont Circle but we figured we would be better off walking a few miles, eating, and then getting on the metro there than sticking close to the mall. The walk was wonderful! The kids were gems, the street was shady, and the reward at the end was amazing. The cheese stuffed fried portabella mushroom sandwich was still tasty but the crispy crinkle fries were my favorite. Conrad ate the majority of mine so Seth was kind enough to order another round. We did find out later that week that metro had the highest level of ridership that day since 2010 (there were more people downtown than there were for the 4th of July Fireworks)!

Shake Shack Goodness!

Jude and Conrad playing Cars

Seth snapped these pictures and I thought they sum up a lot of my life right now