This is My Forties

Grandparents!! :D  HOORAY!!!  Anytime grandparents come out you know it's going to be a fun time.  A time full of hugs, doting, and spoiling grandkids and their poor battered-down parents ;)  We had such a great time with Gpa and Gma B! Did you know the National Zoo in DC is free?  I didn't.  It's just sitting there smack dab in the middle of town like a mall, but it's a ZOO.  Awesomesauce.  It was actually a nice warm-ish day!  We saw a butt-ton of animals and the kids were so enamored with the zoo that they completely skipped lunch and hardly complained.  We were able to provide a few granola bars and cookies, but I was still pretty impressed with them.  Tristan was an absolute angel .  He's been ultra super amazing lately.  It's like a switch suddenly flipped and he's a grown child now.  I promised them we'd be back again soon with our friends to explore even more, especially considering their stellar behavior....

While looking for a good place to have a picnic me, Tristan & Brennan stumbled upon our most favorite park and museum thus far: Jefferson Patterson Park & Museum .  I have always wanted to be an archaeologist and I don't know how the awesomeness of this nearby park somehow escaped my knowledge for so long.  Mostly, it's the website's fault.  I explore in 3 phases.  Phase One: google & flickr.  Phase Two: go with as few people as possible for a preliminary check.  Phase Three: judgment, which can lead to more visits or NOTHING!  Bewaaaare, parks.  You better impress me. Right when we walked in there was a room packed from floor to ceiling with little projects... touchable ones.  Everything was tucked away in labeled drawers so it was relatively easy for me to wrestle my two non-readers away from the mammoth jawbone and antler on display.   The hallway had a ginormous map to illustrate important dig sites and an...

I've been trying to explore more of our local area.  I really love Southern Maryland... it's spread out like farm lands and parks tend to be, but still has that cozy feel.  I might be new and naive, but thus far I am thoroughly enjoying this community.  Josh and I dropped Noah off for a field trip on Friday and then we were off to explore!  The only downside was the still freezing temperatures.  We started at our local Charles County bakery and cafe in La Plata (pronounced "la play tuh" which drives me nuts) THE Charles Street Bakery  and I noticed a photo in there this time of the owner with Laura Bush and a cake that said "Happy Birthday Laura"... daaaaang!  Of course I can't find a picture of it anywhere on their site.  After our delicious pastries were safely nestled in our bellies full of caffeinated glory, we decided our next stop would be Leonardtown in nearby St. Mary's County. It was still really early so nothing was quite open ye...

Generally speaking, when our children learn a new game it becomes an obsession for a bit of time.  Monopoly is one of those games to which Mommy and Daddy say "yeah I'll play" fairly often so it's gotten even more attention from the wee ones. Our random snow day last Wednesday (apparently an inch of snow followed by tons of rain constitutes a snow day) we dealt Tristan in for his first ever Monopoly game.  He was so stinkin' happy!!  He was paying rapt attention during our other games and required very little direction.  Of course,  he can't add, subtract, or read yet so I don't know how much you can really credit to him as far as "playing" is concerned, but he counted those dots on the dice and moved along the corresponding number of spaces like a ninja warrior. He was filled with pride for every purchase, regardless of not knowing the property names or their worth.  He was ecstatic with any change he received from the bank, not realizin...