Mia's First Day of Kindergarten

Today was Mia's first day of Kindergarten. No tears, no hard goodbyes, just a seemingly regular day at school - can you believe it?!?

She's attending the Spanish Immersion Magnet program at Rolling Terrace Elementary School here in Takoma Park, and will be taught in Spanish for the day, except during Art, Music, PE, and Library time.

Her teacher is one of the "good ones", I've been assured by veteran parents we know, and she reported that she had a good time! Aside from that, we didn't get a lot of feedback from her in regards to what she did today, other than that she went to the "Sports Room" (aka Gym) for some games, and learned the word Peacock in Spanish. I'll be looking forward to Folder Wednesdays, where we get info and homework from the teacher.

Congratulations to our little school girl!

It's The End of the Kitchen as We Know It...

and I feel fine. Fine? Well, not entirely. The kitchen was demolished today. We have no sink in which to wash dishes. The fridge is in the dining room. Our house has been essentially compressed into 3 rooms - a kitchen/dining room, a living/play room, and an office. The kids are going to go berserk on rainy/snowy/cold days when they can't go outside.

But on the Upside - - - WE. ARE. GETTING. A. NEW. KITCHEN!!!!! The appliances arrive next week (we had to have them shipped early to take advantage of a rebate that was worth it), the cabinets in early December, and if all goes well, we'll be sitting pretty making dinners in our new kitchen for Christmas. Holy mackinoly it's really happening.

Want to see? Patrick and his friend Jason worked all day to remove the old appliances, cabinets, tile, plaster, and lathe. I'm not sure you can actually see from the photos what it really looks like due to weird angles and such, but here you go nonetheless.

Happy Birthday Patrick!

Patrick's birthday was yesterday, and he took the day off work. (Yippee!!) Mia was delighted that he was available to see her "tricks" on the monkey bars at school during drop off, and Laney was not so delighted to have to go to the Nanny even though her Mommy and Daddy were BOTH home for the day. But both girls were very happy to make cards and to make and eat chocolate cake and pumpkin pie, and they were absolutely GIDDY about getting to go out to a "restaurank" for dinner.

Happy Birthday, Honey. We love you.

A Visit From Cousin Jacque!

My niece, Jacque, visited her Aunt Heather in Virginia this past weekend and the girls played at the Reston Zoo together! What fun! The girls fed the lambs and goats, and we went on a "safari ride" where we were inundated with giant camels! We had a fun time and were sad to only have a short time to spend with Jacque, but we were so glad for the visit!

Whew!

What a Weekend! (Still recovering...) Between Halloween, a Bar Mitzvah, a Birthday Party, an Election Day Bakesale, Election Night festivities, and a Time Change, I'm beat! But what fun!

Halloween night was kicked off with a Pancake Dinner hosted by our good friends and neighbors, then we all headed out to purge the neighborhood of their goodies and admire the carving skills in the area. Turns out political pumpkins took the cake this year, with all but one in some way referring to our new President Elect.

The night after Halloween, Patrick and I attended a Bar Mitzvah for our next door neighbor's son and we had a really nice time. Neither of us had been to one before, so it was really fun and also very interesting to learn about the customs and traditions involved in this coming of age milestone as well as the Jewish religion. David did a great job with his Torah readings, and though he shared his night with another Bar Mitzvah, he definitely shone brighter. (Don't tell the other family that, though.)

The following day we went to a Birthday Party at Pump It Up, an all inflatable jumping place (what a great idea for a party place!) and the girls just wore themselves out. Though I was a little unnerved by the bigger kids pushing by and over the 2 year olds, everyone had a great time. Happy 2nd Birthday, Elliott!!

THEN, Election Day the girls' preschool had a bakesale to try to take advantage of the extra voters and some potential school donations, so Monday was spent baking. I love to bake, but the kids had the day off of school, so I didn't really get to make as much as I wanted. This was a good thing, however, because we didn't sell all the things that we made. (Can I gloat? My banana bread was all gobbled up- yippee!)

Lastly, that night Patrick's company had a huge Election Watching Party in typical Accenture style. It was fun! There was a huge room decorated with one side in Blue Donkeys and one side in Red Elephants showing CNN, and there were satellite rooms - one Red showing Fox News, and one Blue showing MSNBC. Other rooms held human statues, a raffle drawing, food of course, and meandering ex-presidents. Lots of fun for us all.

Carving Pumpkins and Building Walls

This past week we spent a good chunk of time working on our front yard and new kitchen. It's been a long time in the planning stage, but this week, we finally were able to begin on the actual building (and demolishing) process. My dad and mom came up and now we have new wall studs that will become one of the walls for the kitchen, as well as a new retaining wall and sod in the front. Woo-hoo! You would understand my enthusiasm if you could have seen the front yard just prior to the work - old rotting railroad ties, dirt and weeds. It was lovely - not. But now it is! (Going to add pics tomorrow - I can't believe I didn't take any!)






Sunday evening, we spent family time carving pumpkins. Both girls drew their own jack-o-lantern faces and neither one was even remotely interested in getting gooky pumpkin and seeds all over their hands, so Mom and Dad had to do that part. (When I was a kid, that was the best part! Well, that and the toasted pumpkin seeds!) The result was fun all around and some great spooky jack-o-lanterns on our porch.

Sick Weekend

Well, Laney came down with the Coxsackie virus blisters Friday. No wonder she was so cranky last week. Mia was disappointed because that meant we would be missing a Halloween party on Saturday that she had really been looking forward to.

No worries - Mom to the rescue! I happened to have a few things in my bag to make our own party. First Mia made cookies.


Then, we hung decorations we had made earlier in the week and donned Halloween Costumes. (Thank you to Travis for lending his hat.)

Then, we made Halloween cards, ate spooky snacks and the cookies, applied creepy tattoos, and had orange milk.

Then, we got to play in the dark with glow sticks - Mia bit into one and we worried a bit about poison. (So far, she's still normal, aside from HER Coxsackie blisters that showed up yesterday afternoon.)

We had an uninvited visitor or two, asking for treats (almost like real Halloween!)
and then we went to bed.

Phew! Crisis (and disappointed 2 and 4 year old meltdowns) averted.

Puda and Roddy - A Story by Mia

by Mia Volpe

This is a mama and baby pumpkin, Roddy and Puda. They are going on a walk and got their umbrella.

Apple friend said "You're not bigger than ME!"

"Yes I AM!" said Pumpkin, and she was off on a magic carpet ride. The End.

There's more.

Puda said "Apple, I am bigger but You're small."

"Aw! I am NOT down low! I want to be big so I am big! So I am going to invite you to lunch!" (said Apple). So she always wanted to, always wanted to, ALWAYS wanted to. And she did.

They ate peanut butter sandwiches with peanut butter and jelly. And then they went on a walk.

She wanted to have a surprise cake and she did and she had a big bite. She ate it and had a tummy ache. So she had to go to the hospital and then she got all better and turned 4 on her birthday. And the baby said "I wish I was 4 and I'd love to be 6."

And then this is a very long story.

At the end of the day, they went to sleep and in the morning Apple was gone!

"Where did Apple go?"

"Oh Oh! Where's Apple?"

She went jogging. They didn't know where she was. The End.

Not the end.

She was off on a magic carpet ride again and she was tiny and she growed up really really big! Puda and Roddy and Tita (the Apple) got pooped on by a camel cricket. Yick! Blech! And Roddy got bit by a mosquito.

Tita got bit by a bird. Then they ran away and one got stung by a bee (Puda).

The End.