So Long, Farewell

The house is too quiet. We just dropped off Sarah, Fiona, and Emma at the airport after a fun day. Sarah and I made a roast for lunch in honor of that being Emma's favorite meal, as well as today being Sunday and Easter, although I don't think we really needed an excuse to eat roast beef and potatoes! Emma helped us make the food and quite possibly ate the most, too! I know there were 4 potatoes on her plate and I think she did eat them all... :)

After lunch we drove to Reston Town Center as I realized we hadn't visited my favorite gelato shop, Pitango Gelato, and could not possibly allow family to leave without tasting one of their many delicious flavors! Gelato is different from - and I think superior to - ice cream. They also serve sorbet in lots of fruit flavors - all in-season. Here's what we chose:
Sarah - cardamom
Emma - orange chocolate
Fiona - coconut
Joshua - pomegranate
Daniel - chocolate chip
Alison - hazelnut, tangerine, and pomegranate (couldn't decide...)

Stuart chose not to have his own gelato but "tasted" everyone else's and "helped" those who couldn't finish (Emma) because they had eaten a massive lunch!

After a walk around Reston Town Center with the mandatory fountain visit (I think Sarah took pictures - I was too busy trying to keep Joshua out of the water...) we drove to Reston Nature Center and took a lovely walk along the shady paths. Temps reached the mid-80s today so shade was a must!

Then we drove to the airport and spent a good 10 minutes saying our goodbyes and sharing goodbye hugs until a policeman on a segway started segwaying our way to get us to move on. Really.

We will miss our wonderful guests! We had so much fun visiting places together, watching the kids play and learn new jokes and games from each other. They are going to miss each other tremendously but we're already looking forward to summer 2012 when we will be visiting England for the first time in 4 years!

Here are some miscellaneous pics from the last week. Click the photo to view the whole album.

So Long, Farewell

Dentures, Necessaries, and Horse Poo

We spent our last full day together at Mount Vernon, George Washington's home. Adventure maps in hand, the kids quickly completed clues while we visited George and Martha's tombs, the slave memorial, and the farm. We learned how Washington developed a technique to separate grain from the wheat stalk: the stalks were laid flat over a slatted floor in a circular building and horses walked on top of the stalks, causing the grain to fall through the gaps to be collected below. Emma thoughtfully asked how they prevented the horses from weeing and pooing on the grain, and we learned that horses can't "go" whilst walking! Fascinating stuff.

Moving on...there's so much to see at Mount Vernon that we skipped the house tour in favour of peeking in the "necessary" (points for guessing correctly what this is) as well as the kitchen and slave quarters. We also watched two films on the history of General Washington and the revolution. One film featured special effects including rumble seats, fog, and snow! Following the movie we ventured into the "Hands-on" exhibit where the kids posed as the Washington family members (see adorable pic above) and dressed up in colonial clothing. After that we took a look at George Washington's dentures (made from hippo ivory and human teeth) and reminded the kids to brush their teeth - or else!

We ate dinner at The Cheesecake Factory...worth the 1 hour wait for great food and yummy cheesecake for dessert!

Wet Day Activities

Rain forecast for most of today so indoor activities were on the agenda. First was laser tag, which we all thoroughly enjoyed. We played two 15 minute 'missions', shooting our opponents in the dark with laser guns and scoring points for our team. There were about 40 people in each game, divided into 2 or 3 teams. Next we went to the pool, where the children spent over an hour playing, mostly on the huge enclosed tube slide, but also the vortex area of the pool. The adults took turns doing some lane swimming in the 'normal' pool, and Alison and I finished up with a relax in the hot tub (no children allowed!) So despite the weather, it was probably one of the children's 'top' days!

Roundup

It's a good thing Sarah is diligent about keeping up the blog on a daily basis because - clearly - I'm not! Four kids are keeping us very busy! We have just returned from some rainy day activities. Everyone had a great time shooting (with lasers!) the enemy and defending the base in laser tag this afternoon. After that we went to the pool where the kids enjoyed the slide, lazy river, and vortex while the three adults took turns getting in some laps.

I am now cooking ribs for dinner (aren't crock pots great?!) and Sarah is making potatoes and carrots. Dunno what the kids are doing but we can usually find them playing with the chicks, (Dakota, Alissa, Saz, and Emma) who are eating, pooping, growing, and chirping non-stop, playing on the Wii, or drawing pictures. Most days they have gone over to the playground in the evening but today it's much too wet!

Oh yeah and in case you're wondering, the adults are pooped. We got the new Harry Potter DVD and it took us 3 evenings to watch it because the kids are going to bed late (too scary for the 3 younger ones so we have to wait for them to go to sleep) and we are falling asleep on the couch!

Here are some pics from our last few days. Click on the picture to see the album.

Roundup

Running Pike's Peek and climbing a real peak

I could write about our day running Pike's Peek 1K, climbing Sugarloaf mountain, not being able to cross the Potomac on the ferry because of flooding and debris, and eating gourmet pizza, but Sarah is sitting next to me writing the Quekett blog so, why bother? ;)

I will tell you that the Pike's Peek race is actually a play on the real Pike's PEAK, which is a mountain in Colorado. The real "Pike's Peak" race is a half marathon up the mountain and, if you choose, another half marathon back down the other side. It is notoriously difficult and those who run the full marathon are considered masochistic. Here's a picture of the Real Pike's Peak.

Pike's PEEK, on the other hand, is a 10K race that runs entirely along Maryland's Rockville PIKE from the metro stop in Gaithersburg, through Rockville, and ending at White Flint mall in Kensington. It's a net downhill race, but there are no mountains in sight! The 1K is run after the 10K and involves running around the mall - not very interesting but nice and safe for the kids! So needless to say, after running a race named after a mountain but with no real mountain in it, we just had to go and climb a real mountain - Sugarloaf. Here are some pictures of the kids having fun on Sugarloaf.

Sugarloaf Mountain

Joshua at TaeKwonDo

I just found these pictures of Joshua at his last TaeKwonDo graduation. He looks awesome! Will have to be sure to take some of Daniel at his next graduation!

Joshua at TKD

Daniel Celebrates Another Year!

It's been a week since Daniel turned nine. As I told him, it's the last year he'll ever be a single digit. He likes that and can't wait to turn 10! Oh well, gotta wait another year for that.

To celebrate, he invited 12 friends to play laser tag. He had a Sonic the Hedgehog cake which he told me was the best cake I've ever made! It was also the easiest; much easier than last year's rock climbing wall! He made out like a bandit gift-wise, with some cool legos, books, beyblades, and lots of gift cards!

Of course, Daniel's birthday is never complete without a trip to Silver Diner.

Once I find my camera I'll upload his birthday pics....:)

Daniel's 9th Birthday