Another reason my spirits have been raised is that we also just got back from a FABULOUS family weekend. Nothing like family to make you feel better. Miriam had been literally counting down the days until she got to see her cousin Edy again. Everywhere we went she would tell perfect strangers (from whom she would normally hide behind me, with her finger in her mouth) how long until she would see Edy. A couple days before the trip, I asked her if I would see her at all during the weekend, or if she was going to spend the WHOLE time with Edy. She looked thoughtful for a few seconds, then said, "Well, in the morning when I wake up we can have suggle time, and then the rest of the day I'll play with Edy, okay?" When it came to the weekend, I don't think we even got the suggle time.
The trip out was gloriously uneventful. It was interesting seeing how blessed we are in that spring had already sort of started to think about coming by us, while in the mountain passes and further west it was still late winter.
We saw lots of patches of snow like this.
We stopped at our traditional half-way stopping point in Middle-of-Nowhere, MD (route 68, exit 34), because that's where the Burger King with the Play Tower is.
Whee!
The Bear sporting her cute new 'do.
Hey! Help me up here!
I've been meaning to take a picture of this sticker on the door for years. For some reason it really cracks me up.
The girls' socks are always black when we leave, so I try not to think about the years' worth of grime and germs that are encrusted inside. I made sure to change their socks and give them a generous helping of hand sanitizer before they got in the car again. But it was worth it! They get to climb and run around and stretch their legs and generally get all tired out for 30 minutes, and are then more willing to be strapped back into their prison- I mean, carseats. They were very good in the car. I was extremely prepared and packed all kinds of things to entertain them. They read all the books while waiting for Daddy to lock up the house, before we even turned the car on, and then proceeded to sing songs and/or sleep and/or stare out the window for the next 6 hours. As I said, they were very good. The trip back was another story... I had my traditional returning-home headache, Katie was cranky but wouldn't take more than a 30 minute nap, and she kept throwing things on the floor and then tantruming b/c she couldn't reach them (and I sure as heck wasn't going to keep picking them up). At least Miriam slept for a good long chunk of time, but when she woke up her neck hurt and SHE was cranky -- as we crossed the bridge over the Potomac into Virigina, both girls were sobbing. Looking back now, it's funny. Mr. Pickles was very silent the whole way back. Poor man, I can't blame him, being in the car with three cranky and emotional females! But we made it back alive, and in good time. (unlike the year when I was pregnant with Katie and a 5.5 hr trip turned into an 8-hr trip b/c some part of Katie's anatomy was pressed directly on my bladder whenever I sat in a car, so I had to pee about 1/2 tsp. every 30 minutes... ah, the memories!) :)
"My NOT tired."
Anyway, while we were there the weather couldn't have been more gorgeous. It was the first truly warm, sunny weekend we'd seen this year, so we made the most of it and spent almost every waking moment outside. There was a little park right across the street from Edy's house. Miriam's cheeks got very pink. Katie just got browner.
The day we arrived was Aunt Katie's senior prom. We got to go over and see her all dolled up.
Aunt Rachel (looking beautiful and blooming in her pregnancy!) helped touch up her hair. I wish I had got a better picture of it. It was an elegant french twist with diamond (or pearl or something white and sparkly) combs tucked into it.
Ah, to look 18 again! I thought she looked like an empress.
(don't you love her teal walls?)
Aside from hardly seeing Miriam, I hardly saw her in her regular clothes when we were at Aunt Terri's house. She and Edy raided the dress-up box (which contains many of Aunt Katie's old dance costumes) almost as soon as we walked in the door.
After Aunt Katie left with her date, Edy and Miriam played "going to the prom". (As you can see, Edy kept with the red theme, while Miriam stuck to the empress theme.) Since I didn't have a prom -- just a family dance -- I was never exposed to the weeks and months of agonizing and planning and fussing and all that go into it. I went to a couple formals in college, but they didn't mean as much as a senior high school prom does (well, aside from the formal Mr. Pickles and I went to that made him finally fall in love with me). :) My only real exposure to prom was the hype perpetrated by Seventeen magazine and other such intellectual periodicals, so naturally I felt disdain and superiority towards such adolescent ostentations of frippery (not in so many words, of course). It was very eye-opening for me to see my cousin whom I love dearly and admire so much to prepare for what was expected to be a fun evening with her friends, all dressed to the nines. I saw the senior prom as what it's meant to be: a kind of modern equivalent of the coming-out ball. (Of course, it's unfortunate that many senior proms end with the participants doing very immature and irresponsible things. But Aunt Katie has classy friends.) And they did have a good time. I was very proud of her. I saw pictures of some of the other girls, and they all looked gorgeous, but Katie looked STUNNING, in an Audrey Hepburn way. And that's an objective opinion, of course. :)
The main reason we drove out in the first place was to see Nana, my maternal grandmother. We hadn't seen her since last summer, and just couldn't pass up the opportunity to see her again, since she was so close! She was so jazzed that she got to see all 6 of her great-grandchildren in one week!
Katie enjoying some quality time with Nana. They played "hide the car in the Easter egg" about 1,003 times. Only a grandparent could be that patient! :)
The Bobbsey twins. Both their grandmothers keep them well-supplied with matching outfits.
Four generations! Uncle Phil, Edy, Great-Aunt Terri, and Nana.
Attempting to get Maximus the Heir to hold still for a picture.
That's better!
Don't you just want to love him up?
Uncle Jim has the PERFECT climbing tree in the front yard. The kids (and Birthday Bear) spent a lot of time in it.
Sunday afternoon we went to a great park that Aunt Rachel knew about. You could spend about a week there and the kids would never be bored.
I cannot convey how excited Katie was to find a big girl swing that she could swing on ALL BY HERSELF!!!
Miriam and the Poke Machine. There was much debate all weekend over who was the silliest in the family: Uncle Jim (above), or
Uncle Paul.
Aunt Terri on double swing duty with her two grandkids.
Big Sister pushing Little Sister. This was a cool swing -- it was supposed to be the digging bucket of a giant wooden backhoe. The Big Girl Swing above was attached to the shovel, and there was a slide coming out the driver's cabin.
All together now: "Let's go fly a kite, up to the highest height, let's go fly a kite and send it soaring until the wind unexpectedly dies down and you feel slightly foolish repeatedly throwing a kite up in the air only to have it crash down on your head..." (okay, maybe I made that last part up)
six monkeys on a pirate ship :)
Okay, I admit this one is just pure gratuitous cuteness.
What, me? Terrible Two? How can someone with this face EVER be naughty? (Warning: when Irish eyes are smiling...)
While there we acquired a new addiction (after Final Fantasy and Alias): The Office. Since we live in an anti-TV bubble we hadn't seen any episodes, so Phil & Rachel introduced us to the first season. I think Mr. Pickles spent the whole time watching it through his fingers, like it was a horror movie. I'm still laughing thinking about it. It was truly painful. Anyone who works in an office environment needs to see the show, if for no other reason than to make him feel grateful to be at his current job. I added season 2 to our Blockbuster Online queue.
Sigh, we had such a fabulous weekend. It's always hard leaving family and coming back home. I wish we could have stayed longer -- I felt like I hardly had enough time to talk with everyone. But I'm so glad we were able to make the trip. I'm also glad Edy and Miriam are such good friends. As soon as we got back home, Miriam asked when she was going to see Edy again. Thanks to Nana for laying the foundation for such a close family!
(I was charmed by the cute little bird tracks in the snow -- they're hard to see until you zoom in.)
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"painting" the railing
playing "walking the dog"
dutifully writing thank-you notes
One of the party favors I got for Miriam's party was a sticky note pad for each girl with her initial, along with a girly, froofy pen (seen above). Soon after her party Miriam set to and had fun with her pad. Each of the M's has her name written on it. Of course, when Paul came over, a couple swipes of his arm did away with about 2/3 of them, and I did away with the rest soon after, when I had reached the end of my tolerance for picking them up one by one as I found them on the floor every time I passed that wall.
Miriam's winter garden
