Girl Scout Fire Station Visit

The Lorton Station Fire Department came to Girl Scouts this week.  The Girl Scouts had 12 boxes of cookies to present to the fire fighters.  They did a great job of teaching the children about fire safety and what a fire fighter does.

Take Our Sons & Daughters to Work

The Postal Service hosted the Take Our Sons & Daughters to Work Day last week.  It is an annual event, but it is the first time I have been at Headquarters.  Kaylea was so excited to come to work with me and I was super excited to have her.  The Post Office did an awesome job of planning interactive activities and allowing the kids to learn.  Kaylea attended a meeting, did some work shredding papers, and made her own conference call.

Kings Dominion

On Saturday, after finishing up the garden and Kaylea's theater class, we hopped in the car for a trip to King's Dominion.  It is an amusement park about 60 miles south of where we live.  It is basically just like King's Island.  It actually has many of the same rides.  I figured the weather was nice, it wouldn't be too crowded this time of year, and the ticket prices were right.  We didn't arrive until about 1:30 but we stayed until 7:00.  Lines were short so we got to ride a lot of things.  I was excited to take Kaylea because I knew she would enjoy the roller coasters she was able to ride there.

Planting the Garden

This past Friday night we got to work on our garden.  We had slowly been prepping to put in a garden, but it has been so warm it was definitely time.  We ordered a raised garden box.  Kaylea was actually able to help put it together.  She put together one end by herself.  We didn't purchase the dirt, so after this project was completed, she played in the box for the evening.

Later that night I was looking for someone to sing karaoke with me.  Kaylea volunteered.  We had a great time in the basement singing our favorite songs.  As you can see, Kaylea tried to get our cat to sing, too!

Anniversary and Camping

This past weekend we had a lot of activities going on.  Our anniversary was Friday and my mom’s birthday was Saturday, but we switched up our celebrations because Kaylea had camping with her Girl Scout troop on Saturday.  We celebrated my mom’s birthday with dinner at Red Robin.  This isn’t my mom’s favorite place to eat, but she wanted to pick somewhere she knew Kaylea would enjoy (isn’t that sweet).  After dinner we came back to the house and celebrated with cupcakes and ice cream. 

Saturday after theater class, Kaylea went to Pohick Bay Park to camp with her Girl Scout troop.  Jordy and I hung out around camp for about half of the day before heading home.  I had a couple of hours to run and relax before we went out for our anniversary. 

We had dinner at Medium Rare, a steakhouse in Dc.  It is really good.  They have one menu, but it is amazing and they serve you seconds on steak and fries.  Can it get any better?  After dinner we went to Dave & Buster’s to play some games.  On the way home, we had McDonald’s caramel sundaes for dessert.  We were both a little worried that Kaylea would  not camp out all night so we were on edge that she was going to call for a ride home.  Kaylea didn’t and she made it through the night.

Weekend

We overextended ourselves this weekend.  Friday we went out on a date - dinner and a movie!  We had a sitter.  Kaylea has to wake up early on Saturdays for her theater class.  It was non-stop from that point on.  After her class, we came home and she had her friend Jordyn over.  they played for a couple of hours.  After she went home, Kaylea had just a little downtime.  Then we picked up Alannah and headed to dinner and to the circus.  We had a good time, but the circus ended late.  I think the girls stayed up pretty late into the night.  They slept until 11:00 AM when I finally had to wake them up.

We had planned on having friends over this afternoon, but we just thought Kaylea needed some "alone" time.  I think it was a good choice.

On another note, our seeds are starting to sprout.  I hope they don't take off too soon!  We had snow here this weekend.

Cherry Blossom Photos

Each year, the National Cherry Blossom Festival commemorates the 1912 gift of 3,000 cherry trees from Mayor Yukio Ozaki of Tokyo to the city of Washington, DC. The gift and annual celebration honor the lasting friendship between the United States and Japan and the continued close relationship between the two countries.

Over the years, gifts have been exchanged between the two countries. In 1915, the United States Government reciprocated with a gift of flowering dogwood trees to the people of Japan. In 1981, the cycle of giving came full circle. Japanese horticulturists were given cuttings from the trees to replace some cherry trees in Japan which had been destroyed in a flood.

What better way to document living in DC than having our annual anniversary and birthday photos taken with the cherry blossoms?  It was quite the adventure.  We were meeting our new photographer at 8:00 AM.  We left in what we thought was plenty of time, but guess what?  The traffic was overwhelming and we started almost an hour late.  In addition to running late, it was so cold.  The week before had been in the upper 70s.  Despite the issues, we were pleased with our photographer and the photos she captured.  

Sneak Peek

It's no secret, prices in DC are extreme and that includes photography.  I really wanted cherry blossom photos and you only have a few days to strike, so we planned to do our anniversary photos and Kaylea's birthday photos all at once.  We got a few family pictures in there, too!  Our photographer was awesome and sent me a few sneaks peeks later that night!

The Weekend

After a week apart, I was happy to be reunited with the family.  I was able to have most of the day Friday home and I'm taking the day off on Monday.  We played, shopped, had friends over, celebrated Easter, and went to the park.  There is probably a lot more, but a lot of fun was had this weekend.