May

We are going along great. 

We are staying busy. 

We just enjoyed a great Memorial Day weekend with the Duck in Norfolk, Zaven's birthday and Chris returning from England and stupid movie club and cookout at Kingspoint all part of the mix. 

Hard to believe that Zaven is 11. What a special sweet boy he is. It was fun with the days of the week matching up to the year he was born. I was able to start telling him his birth story of Thursday night, when I had gone in to be induced. I guess I could have started on May 16 with his due date! He was worth the wait!  

We had a great day Saturday. We got up early and went to Norfolk to see the giant rubber duck. It is a 40 foot art piece by Florentijn Hofman of the Netherlands. We had an easy ride down and fun posing with the duck. 

We then came back to the burg and went to the pool with the Oniells. Sadly it was a bit murky but the kids had fun. Then esme and I went home for her nap and I made Zaven's cake, Zaven went to the oniells to watch lacrosse and Nell and Kate went to the CW pool with Patty. That night we had Stupid movie club with the girls at the Masons and the boys at our house. The adults were at the Oniells for a cookout and ended up skipping the movie in favor if enjoying chatting and perfect weather. It was a really fun night. John and Kate spent the night and we woke up on Sunday and celebrated Zaven's birthday with bacon and French toast casserole.

 The kids and I went to church and then the brewer and John O and Meghan and esme and I went to the Richmond Flyibg Squirrels game. Nell stayed with Patty and Kate at the CW pool. The game was great. Zaven and Walker got to do a game between innings and had their names announced and they won some go kart tickets.

 There were lots of snacks and treats. It was a great day. We got back in town in time to pick up Nell and go get Chris from the church having returned from 10 days in England. He as a trooper and we all went to Plaza Azteca for Z's birthday dinner. Zaven wanted the staff to sing and they did. We went home and had a yummy cake. Chocolate cake with cherry icing. It turned out pretty well. 

Monday was Memorial Day and we were sorry to learn that the Kingspoint pool was closed. We spent the morning packing some boxes and then Zav was invited to te pool by Cannon and we were invited by the Oniells so we all went and had a great time. Esme has a new floaty thing and was able to jump in and swim around which delighted her. Then we headed to Kingspoint for a cookout. We all fell into bed exhausted!  A great weekend. 

Easter!

We had a great Easter!

Armen and Ellen were here and that made it so special. Annie came too, which was a treat. 

Grammy!

Egg dying

Hunting for lunch 

Waving to Meghan

Easter shoes

Spring showers

We, like many people, have been having some thunderstorms roll through. The other night as I was putting Esmé to bed it thundered. Sort of a rolling rumbling thunder. She said "that's the drummers, they need to stop, they are going to wake me up". 

I thought it was very sweet and funny and so particular to a little girl who has only ever lived in 

Colonial Williamsburg, with daily Fife and Drum and Cannon firing right outside her window. 

Marching on!

Well the crazy winter weather has continued with some snow days at the beginning of the week last week followed by a nice sunny weekend. My work was cancelled Monday and I got to go sledding with Zaven and Nell. It was quite cold but very fun. I had forgotten how fun sledding was. Makes me want to be sure to get our Busch garden passes. 

Tuesday we had the pancake supper and then a nice Ash Wednesday service. 

Yesterday Zaven headed out to play with Cannon and Nell and Esmé had a birthday party at Carlson Farms. Nell got to ride two horses. Esmé could have but chose not to. It was a fun party. 

Saturday night was Mardis Gras at Cotillion and the kids were allowed to go in costume. I decided Zav should go as Clark Kent- he looked so cute! I liked that he was both pulled together and In costume. The Oneills invited us to go to Mr Peabody and Sherman at 7:30 so we got a sitter for Esmé and did that after Zaven finished cotillion. It was a cute movie and a fun night. 

This morning was nice at church. After I went by the rectory. It is looking great. The kitchen is so pretty!  They are painting now - the colors upstairs seemed really strong today in the mor in flight. Hopefully they won't prove to be too much. 

I almost forgot the most exciting part. We are now under contract on our loft in Atlanta!!! We had it staged like 2 weeks ago. Closing date of March 31. So hopefully all with go well. 

Here's to a great week! 

Snow snow and sun

The winter is wearing on and we have had two days of warm weather and sun, which has been great. 

Nell had her 1st grade play "the Music of Life" she was a monkey. It was fun and I think she enjoyed it. 

This weekend I took the kids to the Lego movie. Esmé had heard we were going and wanted to come. She did ok, but did not love it. The big kids did and I did too. 

Chris and Zaven took a 20 mile bike ride and the girls and I played in the yard. It was so good to be outside and enjoy some sunshine. 

The work on the rectory is going well. We have been making some decisions about counters and paint colors and lighting fixtures. 

School picture day

An excerpt from a day in the life of the mommy and Nell clothes drama!

Well I let spring picture day sneak up on me. So I had to deal with the big "what to wear" question in the morning. 

Nell and Zav were sleeping in a little and I decided I would grab some clothes and get them ironed. Nell woke up as I was getting her things and happily came in while I ironed. I showed he what I had chosen and she said fine!  I was so happy. Zav rarely, if ever, complains about his clothes. So I thought I was on the path the success. 

I am not sure what happened but all the sudden Nell was talking about skirts and sweaters and leggings and not wanting to be too hot and wearing something no had seen before, she had the worst clothes in the class, everyone was going to wear something so perfect and everything she had was dumb...

Oh no! What went wrong. I stayed calm I tried to talk her through the merits of the outfit I had chosen, other options, not worrying about other people etc. 

It did not work. We could settle on a top but not a bottom. The day before her favorite jeans were the ones with the hole on the knee today she could not possibly wear jeans with a rip. I was at a loss. Round and round we went. 

Finally I gave her three outfit choices, told her the merits of each and told her I did not want to talk about it anymore. She made her choice. I did her hair and left for work. 

When I got to school to pic her up her sweater was on backwards. So, that either means she wore it backwards all day and the cute little bow detail at the neckline will not be seen in the photo or she had it right and at some point in the day she took off her sweater and had on only her camisole, having gotten too hot. Only time will tell. 

That Nell! 

Oh,

yes Zaven woke up and out on his shirt and button down- the pink one. Though he tells me they had him do odd poses so he thinks his photos will not turn out well. 

Esmé did not have photos but when her school did photos I asked her how it went and she said "I didn't wycick, everybody wooking and me". She continues to say that about all sorta of things. It cracks me up. 

Winter Weather School Break

What a strange two weeks!

The kids have only been to school two partial days in the last two weeks!

Between planned teacher work days and snow days it has been a lot. It seems that January has been a loss in terms of schooling. But there has been lots of fun. 

Last week we did some great sledding. Steep hill in a little plastic chair Esmé got for Christmas. We had lunch at Cannon's house and endured some very cold weather. 

Saturday we had the Newell's and the O'Neills over for dinner and had a great time. Zaven and Cannon had their 2nd cotillion dance and Zaven got a ribbon for good manners. 

We went ice skating again on the last day of the season. It was fun. Although Zaven started to feel bad and we cut it short. By that evening we were to go to Isabel's to celebrate Lilly's birthday, Zaven said he did not feel well enough to go. We went on without him and had a nice time. Esmé and I sang the song that we song about Splash and Lilly. 

"Splash and Lilly are fluffy pups, they love the play and have bupbups. They love Esmé and the play. Splash and Lilly come back". 

Isabel gave Esmé a stuffed Portuguese Water Dog for Christmas and she calls it "SplashandLilly" 

Anyway, Zaven had a fever. The next day he was super floppy and still had a fever. By Tuesday I decided it was time for the dr. They tested his for strep and flu and he was positive for flu. So we started tamiflu and by Wednesday morning his fever had broken and he was feeling better. We layed low. All staying home because of another round of snow. About 4 inches. 

Thursday we had Katie come and stay with the kids and went on to work and Esmé to her school. 

Today things had warmed up and the trend conitinues for the weekend.