Live from Williamsburg, Va

Wow! With the move behind us and the birth of baby #3 ahead, I thought I would take a minute and blog!

So we are now living in Williamsburg Virginia. We live in the restoration, Colonial Williamsburg. We live in the Nelson-Galt house, built in 1695.
Here is a photo of one part of the house. The part on the right has the den, kitchen and guest room, this piece is joined to the other part of the house by a sunroom, that side has the living/dining room, study and bedrooms and bath upstairs.
Chris is the rector at Bruton Parish Church, also in the restoration and Zaven is finishing up 2nd grade at Matthew Whaley Elementary.

The move from Rhode Island went well. I was sorry to leave my job at RWU. And Nell was sorry to leave her great school. Zaven has missed his friends, but is adjusting really well and making friends here. The send off from St. Columba's was amazingly kind and gracious. We feel very lucky to have had 5 great years there and are looking forward to all that our new home and situation holds for us.

We had the great idea to have the movers unpack us. Let me tell you that is not as great as it sounds. It seems to me that they treat is like a game. They start unpacking and putting stuff in the least helpful way all over every surface until you tell them to stop!


for example this is what the "unpacked" kitchen looked like. Yep that is a sink and counter full of everything and anything that was in a box marked kitchen! I don't have an image but the books that they unpacked on the book shelves were put on the shelves horizontally not vertically. NOT HELPFUL! But the upside was they took all of the empty boxes and packing material away- so i think it was good on some level. As of this weekend we have finished unpacking. We are still sorting through things and finding places for everything, but it is all coming together. The impending birth of the baby keeps us going!

Since we have been here, Zaven celebrated his 8th birthday. We went to Busch Gardens and had a great time. We also went to a Japanese Hibachi restaurant for dinner and the kids loved it.

Here is a photo of Zaven with a crown from school. Chris, Nell and I went to the school at lunch and ate with Zaven and took cupcakes for his class mates.
We have been really happy with Zaven's school. Each morning Nell, Zaven and I walk the .75 miles to school, sometimes Chris is with us depending on schedules. Then Nell and I turn back for the return trip. Often stopping along the way to see some of the many animals around.

Here is Nell with some new lambs. Very cute! Then around 3:15 Nell and I head out again to pick Zaven up. On this leg of the trip we take our Colonial Williamsburg Mug- free refills for the year- Nell gets lemonade and drinks it, then on the way home, Zaven fills it up again with his lemonade. Since it has routinely been in the 90's this is a great treat! Not to mention that we found out recently that you can also get soft serve ice cream and slushies for free in the cup at another stand! Crazy. On the way home we can either walk through the reenactment complete with fife and drum core, cannon shots etc. or go one block and avoid the crowds.

This Saturday Chris has to do a baptism rehearsal at 10 so we all walked to the church together and then the kids and I continued on to the Farmer's Market. Along the way there was a man painting, the kids stopped to see and talk to him, he then let them add some flowers to his in progress water color. The kids were totally inspired and Zaven has decided he would like to do a series of the Colonial Williamsburg buildings. So upon returning from the Farmer's Market (with fresh raspberries and tomatoes) we went to the Capitol building lawn and sat in the shade and got started on some painting. It was really fun and I hope that we can continue.



We are really liking it here and having a good time. Zaven finishes up school this week and the baby is expected in a week or two. We looked at a pool to join today and are getting ready for the summer.

I hope to make a habit of posting as I love to look back at the blog and remember what we have done and I hope you enjoy hearing about what we are up to.

more summer fun

we have been having a great summer,
the kids have been baking some cookies,


making masks


and building forts with Caitlin.



This weekend we played miniature golf,
went to a Gulls game

and went to Baileys Beach with KK. The kids had a great time, we swam in the salt water pool, had yummy lunch, took a walk on the beach, then swam in the ocean, had ice cream and came home.

Today I got to go to karate with Zaven, He did great. His teacher thinks he will be ready for the yellow belt test on Friday Sept. 10

We head up to Maine on Thursday.

The other exciting thing is that our couch in being recovered. We hope to have the new fabric on in a few weeks. We are using the intervening time to practice not eating on the couch.
This is the fabric

Events

On Friday we all met at Nell's ballet performance. Nell sat with her class and waited for some parents etc.
Then just before the actual performance was going to start Nell pulled off her dragonfly headpiece and hurt herself.


This is the only photo we got before it fell apart. I held Nell for the rest of the 10 minute performance. We were sorry to not get to see Nell dance. But since them she has done some dancing for us here at home.

Chris and I went out to dinner in Providence in an area called Federal Hill. An Italian section of town. We had a great meal at Pane Vino and a nice time being out.

Saturday, I played double with some friends. Chris had a funeral, I made black bean salsa to take to the church picnic, then we went to the beach. We had a nice time, but about an hour in, the clouds rolled in, there was thunder and we came home before the rain came. Then we grilled burgers for dinner.

Sunday we just had one church service at 10am outside followed by a picnic, it was a great day.
We did not get home until around 1pm and spent the rest of the day cleaning and doing around the house.

Today, Zaven had karate and he earned a yellow stripe on his white belt. This is the first step toward earning his yellow belt.
He seems to be enjoying karate. And he is very proud of his yellow stripe.

ballet starts

i call this photo "the uncooperative ballerina".


later, for caitlin, nell came around and had her photo taken.

nell really enjoyed her first day of ballet and was keen to show us her twirls when we got home. and she told me they got in a circle and went around and said their names and she said "my name is Nell". when i asked what some of the other kids names were she said they just said "my name is ballet person"

while nell had her class, zaven and caitlin walked around in newport.


they got out of nell's class just in time to be out in a huge thunderstorm, but they got home and then went out later for zaven's karate.

we had dinner and then we went for a walk and bike ride. it was a nice way to end the night and a good use of the late light.

tomorrow night we are going back to the gull's game- weather permitting.

great weekend

we had a really nice weekend. friday night we got dinner at subway and then headed to the gulls baseball game. as luck would have it zaven's friend spencer was there with his grandfather so he was excited to have a friend there. we stayed for the whole game which might have been too long. nell was sobbing for the mascot, gully. she was positively despondent and exhausted.

saturday, i got up and played tennis at 8. it was a great way to start the day. when i got home we headed up to 3rd beach. it was a hot day and a nice day at the beach. we caught a hermit crab, played in the water, did the skim board, made drip castles etc...

today, we had church and then a quiet afternoon, then we motivated and went on a bike ride. it was a good day.

a nice night

tonight we had gazpacho and cheese toast for dinner, then we went for walk at 3rd beach.
the weather was really nice after a couple of days of rain.

chris got some great photos.




a funny little story I forgot to post the other day. nell has really taken a shine to the dogs. she loves to play with them. the other day i looked in and Nell was talking to the dogs and holding a piece of paper. I asked her what she was doing and Nell said "I am talking to the dogs about their schedule". It was very cute.

back on the blog

so, i have decided to come back to the blog.
i realized that i really enjoy doing it and even more than doing it, i like to look back and remember. this blog is probably the closet thing to a scrap book that I have. And the kids are always doing fun things that I certainly have plenty of fodder for it.

so here we are in the middle of July- how did that happen! Zaven had his 7th birthday, a filed day party that was a fun time. Both kids finished up at school June 15 and then they went to FL with Grammy, Papa and Ella and had a great time. Lots of swimming and playing and general fun.

Chris and I went to England for the Lygon family reunion and then on the Scotland with Milla and Poppy. It was a great trip. At the end of that Brice brought the kids home and stayed for a visit.


Now we are all home and getting back into the swing of things.
We have a summer sitter again and that is going great, her name is Caitlin. The kids seem to be enjoying her and they are hitting their stride.

Zaven has started Karate.


He is very excited and I hope it will be a good thing for him. Nell is going to do a ballet camp next week and she is very excited.



Zaven taught Nell how to spell her name- here is a silly video of them demonstrating her new skill.



Well I hope to be a frequent updater. We'll see