Girl Time

Yesterday Gideon and Rob were out of town all day on separate fun adventures (Magic Tournaments and Youth Trips).  Serenity and I went to a yoga class together and then took the boys shopping and out to dinner.  After they went to bed, we gave ourselves facials and watched a silly old movie (Clue, which I remembered watching when I was not much older than her, but had more moments-I-hope-she-didn't-get than I remembered).  It's really fun to share some Girl Time with my one female ally in this house occasionally.  ;)

Music Month

Gideon and Serenity both had their first big Music Festivals this month.  Technically they are called "Assessments" not "Festivals," but they used to be Festivals and I guess it just sounds more fun that way so the term stuck.  At Festival/Assessment students from all over the county gather at a high school where they play for three expert judges who record verbal criticisms as they play and then give them a score on a scale of 1-5 (1 being the best) for their overall performance.  It's sort of the End of Level Testing for Music class.

These Assessments are usually for Middle and High Schoolers, so this was Gideon's first time playing in one.  Serenity also played in one as a member of the "Area Honors Orchestra" which is made up of students from six different schools and was one of only two Elementary School Orchestras playing in the Festival this year. Honors Orchestra was a great experience for her.  She was able to work with many talented (adult) musicians as well as a lot of really great kids.  And she had her first audition experience, earning the first chair place for her instrument!

Both groups played beautifully.  I thought Gideon's band was the best one of the day, but the judges gave them 2s across the board (which is still a good score!).
Serenity's group also played really well, taking on Middle School level pieces and earning the highest possible rank.
Gideon also plays in Jazz Band and was supposed to go to a separate Festival with that group, but their band wasn't able to get a space this year.  We were looking forward to it and disappointed that it was cancelled, but rumor has it they might be getting to play in a concert with the High School Band later in the year, which should be fun as well!

I'm not sure where these musical kids came from, as neither Rob nor I are very musically talented (we both play a great radio!) but I am really enjoying watching them progress and improve their talents!

Snow Day to Sick Day

Yesterday was a rare Snow Day with Actual Snow here in the Greater DC area.  Gavin made the very most of the day, building snow forts and sledding with Serenity and making/knocking over snowmen with Gideon  and generally spending as much time outside as Mom would allow.

And then around dinnertime he deflated.  Started complaining about a stomach ache and went to bed early only to spend the night puking.  Poor kiddo.

Rob was so sweet and took a sick day from work so I wouldn't have to cancel all of my plans for the day.  Those plans primarily involved taking all the kids (minus Gavin now) for Dental Check-ups.  When I showed up at the office bright and early, however, I was informed that I was exactly two months early.  Their appointments are on May 7th, not March 7th.  Genius Move, Chels.
I felt bad making Rob take a day off work when I didn't really have anything essential to do, but it was nice to still go to Yoga Class, the Grocery Store and the Pet Store (the non-dentist parts of my agenda).  Even took Jasper out for lunch between yoga and shopping.

Gavin and Rob have spent most of the day like this:

I hope everyone feels better tomorrow.  I am pretty sure I have a doctor's appointment in the morning.

Monster Jam!

     Last night we drove to Baltimore to see a Monster Truck Rally.  Gavin was so excited he spent the day almost in tears with impatience.  (Okay, not "almost in tears" actually in tears more than once.)  But the rally did finally arrive!  It was a completely "outside of our normal realm of experience" evening.  The older kids liked it a lot more than they anticipated.  The little ones were excited to see the trucks, then really overwhelmed by all the noise and excitement (there were some more tears) and by the second half of the show everyone was enthusiastically clapping and cheering.  I am sure we will be hearing recaps of the action for many days to come!
   

Depression Meal

Gideon is studying the American Great Depression in History class right now.  One of his assignments was to purchase the ingredients and prepare a meal for our entire family with a budget of $6.  This is what he came up with:

Not bad.  With the state of the economy these days, deadlines looming and childish congressmen refusing to compromise...we might need these Depression lessons soon!

International Friends

A package arrived in the mail today from the exchange student who stayed with us last Summer.
It was full of Valentines goodies and covered in brightly colored stamps.  That's a lot of postage!

This package arriving today, of all days, felt like a Good Omen of sorts as I decided today to pursue a job opportunity I was offered several months ago.  The job involves finding families to host exchange students from around the world.  I am excited about it and looking forward to making many new international friends!

Dinosaurs and Butterflies

     Several months ago Gavin discovered the movie "Jurassic Park" and dinosaurs immediately became his favorite thing in life.  Since then he has been begging me to take him downtown to see the dinosaur bones at the Natural History Museum.  Our schedule is generally pretty full and we had to plan a few weeks out to find an available day, but we put it on the calendar and he's been anxiously counting down the days.  Yesterday the big day finally arrived!
     We took the train downtown.  I decided I didn't want to deal with midweek parking and managed to overcome my train insecurities.  I figure maybe if I take the kids on the train more often it won't be as nerve wracking for them as it is for me.  The truth is that the reality is never as bad as my fantasies--the schedules and fares are actually pretty easy to understand and my children have never once wandered off and fallen onto the tracks.  Maybe someday I'll remember to select forward facing seats and discover that my motion sickness isn't so bad either.
     In any event, the boys loved the train experience.

 The train was incredibly convenient and deposited us right on the Mall.  Which necessitated a couple obligatory Mall Photos.  Someday I would love to compile all the pics of my kids in these iconic spaces all in one place.

It turns out that Tuesday mornings in February are the very best of all times to visit the Smithsonian Museums.  The usually madly overcrowded Natural History Museum was practically vacant.  The museum itself has free admission every day, but on Tuesdays they also offer free admission to their butterfly habitat, which is a remarkable experience.

Jasper was quite terrified of the butterflies, but Gavin was in Heaven.  To be fair, some of those butterflies are huge and I found myself ducking and cringing as they dive bombed me.  Of course, they were only interested in landing on Jazz and me, not Gavin.

We also visited the mummies, the mammals, the ocean exhibits, the Hope Diamond and other gems and rocks and, of course, the DINOSAURS.  Gavin was disappointed with the fact that they don't have a Velociraptor  but pleased with the presence of real live Scientists.

All in all it was a fabulously successful trip.  The boys were beautifully behaved, the travel went smoothly and we made it back in plenty of time to get the Big Kids from school.  I have decided to schedule similar outings for the first Tuesday of every month.  Looking forward to many more adventures!