Hanging out at Zinga

We met up with Kelly, her mom and dad, and the kids over at Zinga since the fire department was going to be there with the fire truck collecting a donation check. The kids had a ball checking out the fire truck, mommy got a coupon for BOGO, and the kids ran around outside and got out all the excess energy before bedtime. Win-win. :)

Owen almost broke the family jewels trying to ride the "bike" rack.

Another fun night out at Zinga!

Happy Anniversary

Us, by the numbers:

9 years married

14 years together (started dating October, 1998)

3 honeymoons (pre-Paradise Island, Bahamas: engagement, real - St. Lucia, Sandals & post-Maui, Hawaii: 1-yr anniversary)

11 jobs (Ben: 2, Jenn: the rest)

4 degrees (Jenn: 1, Ben: the rest)

2 houses (townhouse in Herndon from 2003-2008, house in Ashburn from 2008 - present)

2 babies

2 C-sections

1 family which I love with all my heart

Happy Anniversary, honey. I love you.

Pool day with Grandma!

Ben and I needed to attend Owen's new preschool's Parent Orientation night tonight, so Grandma offered to babysit and stay over so that we could go out to dinner afterwards to celebrate our anniversary (9 years!). (She even stayed the next morning so I could get some work done too ~ thank you Grandma!!)

I worked during the day, and then in the afternoon when the kids woke up from their naps, we took Grandma to our pool. It was a gorgeous day - not too hot, and the water was perfect - and the kids loved showing off their water skills.

Thank you Grandma for watching Owen and Vivian while we had a fun date night! 

Off to camp

This was such a fun week. I had both kids enrolled in Little Sprouts for their end-of-summer camp. Owen is graduating from Little Sprouts and will be starting at St. David's Preschool in two weeks. Vivian will be attending LS for the Mom's Morning Out on Fridays this year, so I thought it would be a fun way to get her excited about her new school. She LOVED it. Every morning when I dropped them off, she practically ran into the room and immediately started playing with her new friends and toys.

I thought I would be sad about dropping her off and leaving for 3 hours, especially since the house would be so quiet and I'd miss her. But, I must say, there is something about being the second child. I didn't get sad, didn't shed a tear at all. Instead, I found that I was smiling sympathetically towards the moms whose little ones were crying during drop off. I was in their shoes a few years ago.

Tomorrow is the last day of camp. I'm sure the kids will miss it a bunch.

Thank you Miss Karlene and Miss Jessica for a super fun week of camp!

Green juice is yummy

Made some celery, pear, apple juice today and Owen liked it enough to drink one cup but Vivi just LOVED it.

Fun on the playground

Real grape juice

Received two bags of concord grapes in our CSA box this week. I decided to try making grape juice. Wasn't as tough as I thought it would be and the result is a (very small) batch of the freshest grape juice you have ever tasted.

Not sure it was worth all the effort for three little cups of juice. Might try making jelly next week.

Kayla's house of bounce Birthday Bash!

Kayla's birthday party was so much fun!!! The kids bounced until they couldn't bounce any more, and Kayla got to sit in an inflatable birthday princess thrown so that everyone could sing happy birthday!

We were sent home with adorable little goodie bags and a balloon for each kid. 

And this is why I cannot stand balloons.

Happy 5th Birthday, Kayla! We love you!!!

Morning munchins

Saturday at the zoo with Daddy