Time For School!

September 29, 2009: Gavin's First Day of School!

Gavin walked into Chantilly Academy and acted like he owned the place! He dropped his backpack in the "Gavin" labeled cubby and went right to work at the sand table.

Miss Bobbie started to introduce him to the other kids, but Gavin took over. "Hi! I'm Gavin. I'm three!"

Later in the day when they were sorting Legos, he grabbed one like a microphone and said, "Now I'm going to make your real happy!" then sang all the lyrics to Life is a Highway.

Because the preschool shares spaces with a gymnastics studio the students get to do 30 minutes of tumbling everyday. Today he "flipped on the tramp" and "rolled down the mats."

His first friends name is Sophia...such a ladies' man.

Gavin didn't cry, was "marvelous" (said his teacher) and can't wait to go back tomorrow.

I didn't cry either...mostly.

Fall Fest at the Farm

Today the kids and I had our first Virginia "adventure." About three miles from our home is a 90-acre farm that's like Wheeler Farm on steroids! There are animals to milk, pet, and feed, huge slides to careen down, and a corn field to get lost in. I can honestly say we haven't had this much fun anywhere. I'll apologize in advance for all the pictures, but I had a hard time choosing!

We just missed the milking, but the real Farmer Cox let Gav feed and pet "Betsy."

When you go on adventures without Dad, there's no one to help you pose the kids. Oh well. I'm sure will go back soon!

Off to the Hay Ride!

Gavin loved it. There were a lot of hills and mud puddles for us to drive through.

Laynie was terrified by all the jostling and wouldn't leave my lap.

And I thought we'd left the Longhorns in Texas!

Poor scared baby. Didn't even want to look outside the hay cart.

These piggies were born YESTERDAY! (Loo: I got video of them nursing. It's strangely human...)

The kids would have been happy watching the pigs all day.

There are large and small slides all over the farm, some akin to the Alpine Slide. Laynie and I rode together, so we didn't get many pictures of the big ones. Plus, you had to hike up hill to get to the starting point. Lugging Laynie and the bag around was exhausting.

Pit stop.

Okay, we're good. Let's do something else!

I literally had to drag Gavin out of the goat enclosure.

No fear here. Laynie loved to let them eat out of her hands.

Gav said he wanted to live in the goat house...until I pointed out that he'd have to sleep in goat poop.

Here's one example of the slide on which Laynie and I didn't make a second (or third) run.

That is a REAL pumpkin--not painted that color.

She really wanted to take this one home, all by herself.

"I'm not a pumpkin, I'm a squash."
--The Ugly Pumpkin

It's almost one o'clock and they were still happy!

With each admission, you got to pick a pumpkin to take home. Laynie had a hard time deciding.

Gavin loaded up the stroller and drove away...with Laynie's pumpkin. Look at all the attitude in her walk. You can just hear here screaming, "Come back with my pumpkin!"

Time to kiss the pumpkins goodbye.

We'll definitely go for a second visit before the festival ends! Anyone want to come visit?

Happy Birthday Jamie!

There is an old Yiddish adage that claims, "Man plans, God Laughs." I can think of no better subtitle for today.

Gav, Laynie and I got up early so that we could be among the first cars to have a safety and emissions test. But when the 20 minute drive lasted 35 minutes, we were the fourth car in line. We ended up waiting almost two hours. So much for the early bird. (Question: If the early bird gets the worm, what does the early bird-of-prey get?)

Next stop: Grocery store. I had a list...but it didn't do me any good when I 1) forgot to put important items on the list and 2) couldn't find them anyway. It's a little hard to make a Pineapple Coconut Cream Cake without pineapple or coconut. And it's hard to frost the cake with Cool Whip when the store doesn't carry it in tubs. No big deal, right? I could make do with two cans of the spray stuff. Sure.

Jamie asked for Italian Chicken for dinner tonight. I got plain cream cheese, not onion and chives. We had kielbasa instead.

There is a silver lining to this cliche filled post. I nixed the coconut and used strawberries in place of pineapple and....the cake was delicious! Jamie told me it was his new favorite. In fact he said that had I soaked it with a little cream, it would have ranked with his favorite tres leche from a gourmet Houston restaurant. He had three pieces. Gav and I each had two. Laynie crammed it in by the handful.

Those smiling faces made it all worth it! At least mostly...

We're in...sort of completely (Day 3)

Can you see the tears that are still in her eyes? It's because I had to take the playdough away on Day 3. She kept eating it. You won't understand how disgusting that is until later in this post...

Gav found his fireman suit on Day 2 and wouldn't take it off. Did he care that it was 80 degrees? Did he care that he was getting playdough all over it? Did he even take it off to take a nap? Nope. Poor kid woke up in puddles of sweat. Kids are awesome and gross.

This is the chunk of playdough Laynie was eating. Not only is eating playdough disgusting in the first place, but when it looks like that it's especially bad.

Here she is with a chunk about to go in her mouth. MMMM....yummy!

While they were playing, I was hanging up pictures in my scary blue kitchen. This will be the SECOND room I paint. The first will be the orange and purple (I'm totally not kidding) bathroom upstairs. It's visually painful, so I won't subject you to looking at a picture of it.

Don't click on this one and blow it up. I don't want anyway to see the holes and the coffee stains on the walls. I actually managed to hang the pictures to cover three of the largest holes. They used sinker nails everywhere....

Here's the mostly complete living room. The box by the window is the 60 pound mirror I haven't been able to hang by myself...although I've considered trying it like 57 times. I was just afraid I'd climb up on the ladder, get it hefted above my head, and then fall backward and have the mirror land on my face. Which is exactly what would happen, and then I'd have to have a safety discussion with my husband. No thanks.

We're in...almost? (Day 2)

So to keep the kids busy the next morning, I let them paint. This is my least favorite activity, but they love it. Good thing the paint is non-toxic. Laynie ate half a bottle.

Gavin uses a "layering" technique. Basically, he puts paint on the paper till it bleeds through onto the table. Awesome. Did I mention that it's washable?

When they got bored of painting, we....opened up the TOYS!!

I thought this would be the highlight of the day. But they actually wanted to build forts out of the empty boxes. I didn't care what they did as long is it kept them busy.

I'm sad to say that one box of my hard back books was completely ruined. The moving company packed our food storage water bottles (in a clearly marked box, mind you) on top of the box of books. It's okay, I'll report it and they BETTER REPLACE THEM!!! Jamie laughed his butt off when he saw that four of the ruined books were the Twilight series.

I don't think this picture tells the whole story. There are boxes within boxes the length of 2.5 rooms. I had to build a little walkway so Gav's firetruck could get through.

I think this picture might be a better description. All of those rooms were filled with boxes. Now they are filled with, well, nothing. We don't have furniture for the formal living room, dining room, and glorified walkway (aka "solarium"...whatever). Those two little creatures are looking out the front room for the first time without having to climb on boxes.

We're in..mostly! (Day 1)

We moved into our new home on September 8...and boy was it an ADVENTURE!

Jamie couldn't get the day off, which speaks volumes about his new job. But thanks to our new friend Meghan Winward it was NOT a horrible experience. Meghan watched the kids for me while the boxes and furniture was being unloaded. No furniture was dropped on any small children, and only one Workerman was told to "keep working." With Meghan's help the kitchen was completely unpacked THE FIRST NIGHT!!!

The living room looked like this, but...

this many boxes were already unpacked. A huge accomplishment.

Meghan, you are awesome! I don't know what I would have done without you!

Kids Reaction to the New House!

On the way to the new place!

Kids can't wait to take a bath.

Mural in the basement. Gavin was fascinated! "Why is Tinkerbell on the wall?"

The gazebo! They left the furniture, but we HAVE to replace the cushions.

Wild strawberries growing in the flower beds! Yum! Can't wait to plant my garden next spring!

We're moving in tomorrow and everyone is so excited!