Let the Good Times Roll!!!

Yesterday we went to the White House Easter Egg Roll and we had a very memorable time!! We saw lots of families that we know there and the weather was so great! It was a little chilly in the beginning, but it was warmer and sunnier than any other year we have been - consequently it was tons more crowded because the weather was so nice. We saw lots of costumed characters (Nina loved seeing Max from Max and Ruby from a distance - up close was not so cool!). We saw Mickey Mouse and Bello the clown on the stages and we heard the Jonas Brothers, but didn't actually see them. I think the kids favorite performer was a yo-yo guy that was walking around. They were mesmerized by his tricks with the yo-yo and both tried to imitate him with the yo-yo's he gave them almost hitting innocent bystanders - we had to put the yo-yo's away for public safety.

This year the actual egg roll was the most memorable part of the day for good and bad. While we were waiting in line Adrian suddenly said "Get the camera Jenni, it's George H.W. Bush right there." So I look up at the White House balconies and said, "I don't see him..." And then I look literally right in front of me and he was like 5 feet away from me talking to the people just behind us in line. It was such a shock. Adrian tried to get Sophie and Ben to go shake his hand but they were not having that (they're so shy) and by the time I got out the camera and gave it to Adrian, President Bush Sr. was already surrounded by tons of people and I lost my chance to shake his hand. It was so neat though!

After that we had to move along in line and have the kids do the egg roll so they all lined up and I was helping Nina. I was so pleasantly surprised that Nina was so excited about the egg roll!! As soon as they blew the whistle for the kids to start rolling their eggs I looked over and realized Ben was working himself up to a huge tantrum, so I tried to help him and Nina, but half way down the very short little egg roll course Ben had a complete melt down. Apparently he was mad that he wasn't doing as well in the race as he wanted to and was extremely ticked that Sophie was so much faster than him. I had to grab him and get him off the course, because in his screaming fit he has completely stopped in the middle and everyone was looking at him. Horrible... For all I know President Bush Sr. might have looked over to see what child was making such a commotion!! So I took him to a less crowded corner of the lawn and "talked him down" you could say. He did calm down but was completely worn out from his incredibly embarrassing tantrum that he spent the rest of the time in the stroller. I'm so glad we brought our double stroller!!

Soon after the Egg Roll meltdown we headed out. We decided to go have lunch and take a break at the Air and Space Museum. I thought for a minute I might persuade everyone to go to the National Museum of Art, but the airplanes won out! We had an incredibly expensive McDonald's lunch (wow they jack the prices up at the Smithsonians), but every one's mood got so much better after eating and sitting down for a long while. We finally saw the upper floor of the Air and Space Museum!! I think we've been there like 4 or 5 times and this was the only time we've seen the 2nd level! Adrian loved the spy planes and I really enjoyed the Red Barron and WWII exhibits. Nina fell asleep in the stroller shortly after lunch, but I think Sophie and Ben most enjoyed the little tour through a passenger plane and picking out a magnet for our fridge in the Museum Shop.

It was such a full and memorable day! When we got home everyone pretty much crashed and their was no bed time whining! Yay!

Oh and here's a few pictures of our other Easter festivities from Saturday and Sunday:

Books and Fevers

I have finished all of Sophie Kinsella's books now, that's 8 books in about 2 weeks. It's been a bit obsessive and crazy I admit, but it has been fun. I really enjoy their fast pace and wittiness and can say hands down that the Shopaholics are my favorite. I liked Undomestic Goddess and Can You Keep a Secret equally, with Remember Me coming in as my least favorite. I love her main characters, the way they think is hilarious and the situations that they get into remind me of I Love Lucy episodes. Mostly though I love that the books take me away to a silly world of almost Austen-esque happiness were the girl always gets the dashing guy in the end. (Although as a fair warning Jane Austen never used the language that Sophie Kinsella tends to let slip every now and then and especially in Remember Me!!)

So today I'm feeling a kind of let-down with no next book to read... Kind of like the way I felt after reading Harry Potter 7, but I'm sure I'll find something new to focus on as my obsessive brain always does. I'm purposefully staying away from the Twilight series right now in my weakness, being that I'm in that book-rebound kind of phase and it's far to easy for me to fall into old habits. I'm waiting till July to read the Meyers books again because I tend to waste a little too much time on them - I know that's blasphemy as a Twi-hard, but I must speak the truth! I will only listen to the teensey tinsiest odd Eclipse audio-book chapter on my i-Pod when it comes up in my favorites shuffle.... and maybe when I'm sewing taggie blankets... and it's surely okay to read a couple Twilight chapters if I really need to recheck how closely the movie is following the book when I see news blips on the internet, which I check for almost everyday.... but that's were it stops!! Promise. (And no my fingers were not just crossed behind my back I was merely giving that hand a break from typing... Honestly. :))

Also as an update to our sickie situation, Nina is still running a really high fever, but we've been able to control it with Motrin, Tylenol and various stages of undress which Nina absolutely hates - she is a socks-on kid just like Ben! It is like she is being tortured to take her little socks off. I am really hoping for the fever to break today and for the rash to show up so we'll know it's roseola. If that doesn't happen we'll be back at the pediatrician tomorrow for more tests... On a good note though Sophie's fever broke this morning so we hope that Nina will follow suit.

Another Sickie Saint Patty's

Well, if the rest of Spring break is like this I think I just might need a post spring break break... This morning Nina and Sophie woke up with low fevers, but then through out the morning Nina's temp kept going up and up. I ended up putting her in a luke warm bath when it got to 104, but then as soon as I took her out it was up to 105.3 (this with doses of Motrin and Tylenol). Adrian came home for a few hours so that I could take her to the pediatrician and she had the influenza test but that came back negative. Her doctor thinks she probably has roseola and hopefully her fever will break within 2 days... Honestly I'm really hoping it's sooner than that. It's just such a hard thing to see her be so uncomfortable and not be able to do much to help her. Sophie has been pretty sick all day too, but thankfully sick for Sophie is mostly laying around watching TV, not the rotation between lethargy and tantrums like it's been with Nina. Sick days are no fun.

It's crazy cause last St. Patrick's day and the one before that have been major sick days for different members of our family (2 years ago was kidney stones for me 1 year ago was crazy flu for Adrian with a seriously high temp that we had to take him to the ER for). We thought it was all thanks too the "curse of the St. Patrick's day pajama bottoms", but this year is proving that St. Patrick's day just pretty much stinks. What's up with that?? I thought it's suppose to be all luck-of-the-Irishy! We had even planned on having dinner and FHE over at a friend's this evening and I was so bummed to have to cancel. I guess I should just come to terms with the fact that our traditional St. Patty's dinner is going to have to be chicken noodle soup and Jello from now on! I'll make it green Jello so it works.:)

6 Word Memoir

I was tagged by Mendy to do a 6 word memoir (thanks for the tag!) and I've been mulling it over for a couple days now - man it was hard to come up with just 6 words! As I was thinking it seemed like all these opposing word pairs kept coming to mind and I decided that must be me, so here goes:

Merrily Melancholy and Chock-full of Dualities


Melancholy and Mystery of the Street, Giorgio de Chirico, c. 1914

Instead of going in to lots more detail on why that's my memoir I thought I'd share a favorite pre-surrealist painting that I felt kind of gives a visual to what I meant... (Hope that makes some kind of sense!:)) And while I'm at it I'm just gonna make it my art history pic for this month!

My new addic... I mean hobby

Right now I am reading my 4th Sophie Kinsella book... and I think I'm a bit addicted. I started out with Undomestic Goddess (last Thursday) and now I am on the 3rd book in the Shopaholic series. I've had the first Shopaholic (Confessions of a Shopaholic on my "to read" shelf for about a year, but never picked it up - which I think is crazy now!) Oh, they are wonderful fluff. Every book is like watching a clever and funny romantic comedy in your mind. I love Bex, the main character in the Shopaholic series and even though I cringe through most of the shopping scenes because I just can't imagine shelling out that kind of money I find myself relating to her because we all have our vices and right now mine is my obsessive reading!! Sophie Kinsella's writing reminds me a lot of a cross between Bridgette Jones Diary and the movie Four Weddings and a Funeral, which is a huge favorite of mine, so no wonder I find myself constantly picking up these books to cram in just a few more minutes of reading. I read in the car while waiting to pick up Sophie from school and for a few minutes after I park the car before going in the house or where ever I'm going and of course nap times are now spent with Bex. I even found myself reading while Adrian went to get us treats at the movie theater last Friday night and he chuckled when he came back and I had my nose in a book, which led to him teasing me that I brought a book on our hot date - sorry Babe!:) (We went to see Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day, which we thought was quirky and great!). So anywho, I just thought I'd say... "Erm..uh...my name is Jenni... and I'm a Shopaholic... readaholic."

Yay for Nina's Words

Nina is now 19 months old and has been making wonderful progress with the speech and signs!! It has been great to see it click for her that if she just says the word or makes a sign that she'll get what she wants (in most cases:)). Here's the words and signs she has right now and keep in mind that in mid January she had ONE word so we think this is awesome!!

Words:
-Daddy
-Mommy
-Ben (she never says the "n" part, but it totally still counts)
-baby
-doggie
-ruff ruff
-uh oh
-poo poo :)
-open (which sounds like "opie")
-ball
-more
-apple ("appa")
-bubble
-no (but it sounds like is "doe!" and usually involves pushing one of her siblings)
-puppy (which is her word for all animals, real puppies are actually "doggie ruff ruff":))

Signs:
-open
-baby
-more
-apple
(I think she is also getting really close to making the signs for "milk" and "drink".)

The Cullens (yet another Twilight post)

Okay so I just had to post this because I am a Twilight lunatic or "Twi-hard" as I hear we are supposed to call ourselves.:) Anyways on the Stephenie Meyers site they have posted some new pics of the cast and here are the Cullens!They have also cast Victoria if you'd like to see her too. And there is a little controversy going on about some scenes in the movie - apparently they have a "tree-top" scene with Edward and Bella. I'm fine with it all. Some of the character aren't quite how I pictured them, but I'm super excited to see the movie. I still picture a couple of Harry Potter characters how I first pictured them before the movies (Trent Reznor will always be Snape even though I love Alan Rickman) so I'll be okay no matter who they cast.