What do you do with no school?

You go to a really fun garden and play!!!

Last week we had a couple of days off school and since we all had cabin fever from being sick, we had to get out of the house. We got a few friends together and met at River Farm Garden Park. It was just "what the doctor ordered." It was a beautiful fall day and we just had a wonderful time. The park is along the George Washington Parkway, so it is a pretty drive. The park is home to the National Horticulture Society and is right on the Potomac. The flowers were so pretty.

We quickly found the children's garden and much fun was had. The first place was the dirt pit to dig for worms. Of course, tons of fun-even with lots of mud:)

Digging for worms.
Spencer found a fun place to hang out on the little bridge.
digging for worms-so exciting when we found one.
Landon in his own world. He loved roaming around and finding things to do.

I introduced Alaina to "Pirate booty" and she loved it!!

While we were eating our lunch, there was a big wind that came through blowing a ton of leaves off the tree. Kaalie tried to catch some.
Jordan contemplating the meaning of life
I loved this shot-all the girls going to find the pond
silly Sarah...love this picture-beautiful girl, beautiful flowers. though
Here's my attempt at some artistic photography.
The colors were absolutely gorgeous
Sarah trying to get the leaves.
Here's what Alaina looks like when she crawls in the mud.

We had a fantastic time at the garden. We children did not want to go home. We could have stayed there all day. After we left, we did a drive down to Mt. Vernon and the leaves were pretty. I love that we live so close to so many beautiful things!

We have a brownie in the house

Here's just a couple goofy pictures of Jordan and I playing "princess"
My friend Carla has been a girl scout leader the last few years, so put me in touch with the new leader this year for Brownies at Jordan's school. I loved girl scouts as a little girl, so thought it would be something Jordan would love. There is one little girl from her class in the troop, as well as Sarah, Carla's daughter who Jordan adores.

So Saturday night was the "investiture" when they officially become a brownie. We had it at a local park with a big pond and lots of trails. We had the ceremony by the lake because the original story has the girl scouts seeing their reflection in the pond. Jordan was excited because Sarah was her helper in the ceremony. It was cute.

Here are some of the girls listening to the story of how brownies came to be.
Jordan right before she got her pin.
getting her pin. It was put on upside down, and she was told she had to do 3 good deeds to get it turned the right way. She has done her good deeds today, so tomorrow she can turn her pin before her meeting:)
Yeah, this is what Jordan and one of the other girls decide to wear to a night hike.....(Jordan is in the denim skirt)
girls listening to the guide teach about nocturnal animals.
Jordan really has fun with her little friends. I am so happy she is such an outgoing friendly little girl. We had lots of fun on the hike-Jordan loved carrying her own flashlight and said her favorite part was the hike in the woods. My favorite part was being with her!

Handsome boys!

Today was our primary program in our ward, so we decided Spencer could wear his little suit. I recently found him a couple new ties since he has outgrown the other ones. So of course, Lanny had to follow "suit":) I told Spencer to stand by the tree, so he had to pose for me. (the above pic)
Can you even stand the cuteness? I just love it! They were so proud to be wearing their suits. Oh, and they had on new church shoes as well. I could just eat them up they are so precious!! We are going to have girls going crazy when they are teenagers!!

Halloween fun...better late than never:)

Even though sickness was abound in our house during Halloween time, we did have some fun. We did our traditional pumpkin carving/decorating night. Mommy carves the pumpkin because she loves it and Daddy hates pumpkin guts, so everyone else either draws on a pumpkin or puts a little face on the pumpkin.

Spencer deep in thought...what the heck do I do with this thing?
Jordan tries to clean it out...realizes she doesn't like to get her hands dirty.
Landon doesn't really like the mushy stuff, either!
Daddy with the finished product on his white pumpkin.
Jordan with Mommy's finished product.
We also managed to squeeze in the ward trunk or treat. The kids had been fever free for about 24 hours, so we decided they could go. We got there late because we made a quick stop at Payless. We had a coupon for 50% off our whole purchase thanks to the Oprah show. I started to feel yucky before we left, and later that night I developed a fever and was down for the next few days.

Daddy with the kiddos at the trunk or treat. They really loved it and had a blast going from car to car. And people in our ward go all out decorating the trunks. Very cool.
Here we are right before trick or treating. I was so sad that I couldn't go. I just didn't have the energy, plus I had a fever. I put a note on the door telling people there was a sick person in the house so no candy. We turned all the lights out when Darin left, even though in past years we have still had people ring the door bell with the lights out!!

Anyhow, Jordan had a little friend from school come because she lives in a neighborhood where trick or treating isn't too feasible. They had a lot of fun. When they came home I wondered why Lanny's bucket was so full. Darin said it was because he would say "trick or treat" and just stand there holding up his bucket. Even after people put some candy in, he would just stand there holding his bucket up and people would load him up with candy. Of course, they couldn't resist the cute little dragon.

Here are our dragon, Spiderman and the Queen of Hearts.



All 3 of the kids have now worn the little dragon costume. I love it when they last through a lot of kids!!

Student of the Month

For some reason, Jordan doesn't realize that her mommy likes to know things. For the second year in a row, she was chosen to be the Student of the Month in her class, and the way I found out was just passing by the board one day when I dropped Spencer off.

Silly girl. Last year she said "I wanted it to be a surprise." Well, it was then and once again this year:) I was so pleased to get such a glowing report at her parent teacher conference last week. She is doing very well. Her teachers both say she is right where she needs to be. Apparently she is becoming quite the little writer, as well, which isn't too surprising because she writes on anything and everything she can get her hands on at home.

This is why I don't buy school pictures. (this isn't her official school picture, but it is how they always turn out.)
Great Job, Jordan. Mommy and daddy are so proud of you! Keep up the good work:)

Washington International Horse Show

A few weeks ago, Darin called me to ask if we wanted to go to the Washington International Horse show. Free tickets through the pentagon. He figured the kids would love anything to do with horses. I wondered how they could have a huge horse show in the middle of the city. Well, when we got off the metro and the smell of manure was strong, I realized that they can just close down the street by the Verizon center and put up horse stalls in the middle of the street:)

Of course, the kids loved taking the Metro and did pretty well. We got our tickets and found our seats, which were really good. When we arrived, they were just finishing up a horse jumping competition. I have seen them on TV and always wondered if they were just always set up that way. Found out they can disassemble it very quickly.
I took this picture of one of the riders up on the jumbotron because he was an olympic gold medalist. Forgot his name, though.

They even have a zamboni for the dirt! Guess the horses can't function in messy dirt:)

Here they are taking down the jumps. The were so fast-quite impressive.
The only bad thing to the evening was that there was a lot of drag time in between the events. This is a lady from somewhere in Europe. We we were wondering what she she was doing at first. Dressage. Making the horse move in certain, intricate ways. Kind of slow and hard for the kids to watch. Jordan was very interested in her dress and flowing things.

Here is another olympian in dressage-Ashley Holzer. It was actually more interesting to watch her do it than the "princess" lady as Jordan called her. I could see the intricate movements the horse would make. The lady next to me was sooo into it. At one point she leaned over and said "you know, this is really special." There was also a couple moms with little girls behind us and they knew all the lingo and what was going on in each competition.
Who let the dogs out?

In between competitions, they brought our Jack Russel Terriers. They had them race into this little house. Of course, the kids absolutely loved it!
The dogs were so funny-they ran so fast. Sorry the pics aren't the best...
Here is the last event: Puissance.
This horse show was serious business-they even had the guy dressed up funny...
This is the "Puissance" which is french for..ummm....ummm.... "horsey jumps over a big wall." Each round they would add more bricks to the wall. It was really something to watch. You would hold your breath each time the horse jumped the wall. Pretty crazy!! The last round had 2 riders. One horse ran up to the wall, then stopped cold. Smart horse. His rider wanted to try again, big mistake. This time he got to the wall and made a quick left causing the rider to be hurled into the wall...quite dramatic!
doing more jumps. I kept playing with my camera to get the right shot...very difficult with the arena lights.

Overall it was really a fun thing to do, especially when we got 5 free $30.00 tickets. Perks of working at the Pentagon. I think it may be on the "without kids" list, but I would go back again.

A carefree fall afternoon

One day a couple of weeks ago, I had a car full of kids-my 3, Jordan's friend Lizzie, Patrick-the little boy I watch- and his big sister Regan, whom Landon is smitten with! I didn't want to go home and have them run all over the house, so I got all the old bread I have been saving out of the the freezer and took them to Kingstowne Pond. It was such a wonderful day-the sun was shining, it was warm, and the kids were great!

There were so many colors around the pond. I had driven in the area earlier in the day and really wanted to go take some pictures. I must have looked like a crazy lady crossing the busy road with 6 kids, but it all went really well. Here are some shots of our fun time.

I loved these bushes that were near the condos. How can you not love fall?

Such wonderful colors.
There is a huge open area by the condos and the kids just ran and ran. It was so fun to watch them run all over the place.
More running. The kids love to sit in this gazebo when we walk the path.
I loved the green up against the orange leaves.
Jordan and Lizzie by the bushes I love.
Patrick and Regan
I just really love fall colors.
trying to be artistic:)


I loved that there was a lone colored branch among the green ones.

the kids feeding the ducks