Saturday, October 31, 2009

Boo!

Today is Halloween and boy are we excited! To stave off the craziness of waiting until trick or treating time, we took the boys to Claude Moore Rec Center, where Daniel climbed the "spooky" rock wall (you had to be at least 6, so Joshua couldn't do it). The rock wall was decked out for Halloween, with cobwebs, spiders, and skeletons. Bags of candy hung from some of the holds. Daniel had a bag attached to his climbing harness, and as he reached a bag of candy, he could take out candy and put it in his bag. He found it hard to reach around and get the candy in the bag, so he decided to just drop it on the floor! He climbed up to the top easily, and had two more climbs on progressively harder sections. He declared the wall "easy" so is ready for a new challenge. I think we'll have to take him to Sportrock, an indoor climbing facility, for a real challenge!

Friday, October 30, 2009

Fine Wine, Delicious Food

We just got back from a wine tasting at Chrysalis Vineyards in Middleburg followed by dinner at Hunter's Head Tavern in Upperville, and I should be going to bed to get enough sleep before an early run tomorrow, but we had such a great time and, because I'm new to this blogging thing and excited about sharing everything, I have to blog about it RIGHT NOW! We went out with our friends and neighbors Kim and Mike, who had a free (even better!) tasting at Chrysalis Vineyards. Actually, it wasn't just a tasting, it was a "tour." So we got the whole history of the vineyard, the grapes, our wine-pourer/hospitality manager Humberto from Cuba...a bit much for me, especially early on, when I was thinking, "just pour the wine! I'm paying the babysitter while you're talking!" By the 5th taste, I didn't mind so much. ;) By the 7th, I couldn't tell the difference between the wines. After the tasting he showed us the grapes growing on the vine (which looked beautiful, although probably more so because I'd had a lot of wine...for me!) and then, the piece de resistance, the wine-making facility, which smelled fantastic!


We sat down after our tasting and shared a bottle of wine and some cheese and crackers, since it was only 4:30 and our dinner reservation wasn't until 6:00. Dinner was at Hunter's Head Tavern, a pub that I've known about for years but had never - for one reason or another - visited until now. It's a traditional English pub where the menu is on a chalkboard and you order at the bar. The menu was quite extensive, although not as large as the better English pubs. The tavern uses local, organic food from Ayrshire Farm I ordered Bangers and Mash, Stuart got Beef and Guinness Stew, and Kim and Mike both had Pork Chops. The food was amazing! Unfortunately I had no room for dessert, but Kim and Mike split a Sticky Toffee pudding...yum. If you haven't tried Hunters Head, you must go! Not only is the food fabulous, it's very reasonably priced! I will definitely be back.

This little piggy...

Poor Stuart. He was banished to the basement all week and has just come up for air today! He came down with H1N1 (Swine Flu) on Sunday and had to keep away from the rest of us! The boys have been really good about washing the hands a lot and using hand sanitizer. I've sprayed lysol on every handle, switch, knob, etc. Thankfully Stuart is now feeling better, and the the boys and I seem to have escaped...but we'll keep handwashing and sanitizing just in case!

Thursday, October 29, 2009

Swimming

Daniel is our swimming star. He swims on two teams - the Stingrays in the summer and the Marlins in the winter. He practices twice a week and is already developing the habits of a serious athlete - he insists on eating a Powerbar before practice! He is very good at breaststroke and freestyle, and can do flip turns! He is definitely an independent athlete, preferring the solitude of swimming to the team sports like soccer and baseball. Hmmm, wonder who he gets that from?!

Taekwondo

Joshua LOVES Taekwondo. He practices twice a week and is always keen to go and learn something new. I think the visible goal of the next level belt really motivates him, unlike other sports he's tried like swimming and soccer, which he enjoyed, but was never really serious about. His goal, of course, is to become a black belt like his instructors. Right now he's a Tiger green belt, and has 2 more tiger levels to go before he can start earning regular Taekwondo belts. So he has a long way to go! But he demonstrates excellent skills so I think he will do well. His favorite skill is board-breaking - he's already breaking 2 boards at once!








Halloween!

The boys are very excited that Halloween is on Saturday! They picked out their costumes back in September - Daniel is Jenga Fett and Joshua is Boba Fett (or is it the other way around?!) - the bounty hunter father and son from Star Wars. At the time they chose the costumes they were heavily into Star Wars, but now I think they're more into Webkinz. Ah, well. I will have to start being better about taking pictures so I can post them here.

Finally!

I've finally got around to setting up our family blog! So many of my friends have a blog and I've been meaning to start one for a while...so here it is!