Anna Grows

It was a fun-filled Halloween weekend for Anna. We say weekend because somehow Halloween has expanded from a one night event in which kids go trick-or-treating from house to house. Now it is an entire week holiday extravaganza complete with decorations & lights, multiple parties, trick-or-treating at malls and other venues, and countless pounds of candy. Anna's costume of choice this year was a fairy and she commissioned Grandma to make her attire. Grandma was up to the challenge and made a beautiful blue fairy costume with lots of sparkle - just what every 5 year old girl wants. The fairy and princess attire were the costume of choice for the 5 year old girl crowd this year (at least judging from Anna's friends). Anna kicked off the party weekend with a Halloween party at Ms. Be's on October 28. Since she was out of school for the day, she got to hang out with her friends and do a little trick-or-treating around the neighborhood. That night was "Trunk or Trea...

Today was the first day of full fledged kitchen demolition and the last day with a working sink/counter space. We spent the weekend clearing out cabinets, packing boxes, and figuring out how to convert the laundry room to a temporary kitchen of sorts. There are several things to consider when you are without a kitchen. Here are the lessons so far. First, it is very challenging to get Anna to wear her shoes when she is at home. Thanks to the construction, barefoot is not an option. Shoes are a must. Second, it is important to make the Halloween cookies while you still have counter space. That mission was accomplished tonight when the frosting/decorating was completed. Third, you should really think about the layout of your satellite kitchen. We spent a large portion of the evening running between the laundry room, the basement, and the kitchen trying to make simple things like a sandwich (the lettuce was upstairs, the bread was in the basement, and the meat was in the laundry room...

At last the rain took a break so that we were able to enjoy a spectacular Columbus Day weekend with sunny skies and temperatures hovering around 80 degrees! It was a perfect weekend to pick pumpkins and Pauletta & Wil organized a pumpkin picking outing at Belvadere Plantation near Fredricksburg, VA (http://www.belvedereplantation.com). Anna and her parents were a bit too ambitious in their efforts to take advantage of the nice weather and decided to pack up the car with the camping gear to take Anna on her first camp out at a local park following the pumpkin picking. First, the family got stuck in traffic in Fairfax City, VA thanks to the local fall festival (EVERYONE in the Washington area was out to enjoy the gorgeous weather). Then there was the traffic on I-95 south. Why - no one ever really knows. Finally we arrived at the pumpkin patch 2 hours late. The pumpkin patch was not just any pumpkin patch. There were go carts, pig races, zip lines, slides, a rope swing in the ba...

It is hard to believe that 10 years have passed since the tragic events of September 11, 2001. Joe, Theresa & Anna took the opportunity on Labor Day to visit the Pentagon Memorial honoring the victims at both the Pentagon and the crash in Pennsylvania. They did a beautiful job at the memorial with a bench for every one of the victims. Benches facing towards the building were for victims killed on the plane. Benches facing away from the building were for victims killed inside. It was a bit of a challenge to explain to Anna why the people died, so it was left as a bad accident at the building. We didn't even discuss what happened in New York. When she gets older, we'll explain the significance of the events to her. In the meantime, we applaud the work of our national security team and hope that Anna never has to experience such an event first hand.

Anna celebrated her 5th birthday on September 3 with a party at Glyndon park in Vienna, Virginia. Several of her friends from school joined in the festivities along with other family friends. Having a party at the park seemed like a good idea at the time and all week the weather forecast looked great for Saturday morning. When Saturday arrived, thunderstorms were forecasted for the afternoon. Aunt Gayle arrived to help get things ready for the event. Just as we pulled up to the shelter house at the park, it started to thunder. The rest of the morning was spent with the threat of rain with an occasional shower. The kids did not mind at all and enjoyed the playground between showers. Theresa spent the time praying to the rain gods to hold off until 1 PM. On the plus side, at least there was no hurricane for the weekend. The second problem was the directions for the guests. Apparently the invite incorrectly listed the address as north instead of south, resulting in a good portion...

Today Anna is officially a kindergartener! She was very excited about her first day. She was spinning around the house this morning in her new uniform. When it was time for Mom and Dad to drop her off, she signed her name at the door and marched off to her table without so much as a goodbye to her parents. Clearly she knows the drill with school. Mom and Dad have some things to learn. First lesson is the carpool line. Catholic schools are noted for their rules and the carpool line is no exception. Joe spent 30 minutes in line attempting to pick Anna up today (major traffic jam in the parking lot). The next lesson will be packing nutrious lunches that Anna will eat. Anna has half day kindergarten this week and will begin full days next week. This week she will be spending the afternoon at Ms. Be's. Today when she arrived, the other kids were sleeping. Anna changed out of her unifor m but insisted on putting it back on when her friends got up so that they could ...

After 4 years and 8 months, Anna will soon be leaving Ms. Be's as she begins kindergarten. Ms. Be's has been a second home to Anna and she has done so much to prepare her for not only kindergarten but life with other kids. In honor of this milestone, Be and Mr. Phancy hosted a graduation ceremony for Anna, complete with cap and gown. There were speeches (by Ms. Be and Mr. Phancy) and Anna was suppose to address the crowd of parents and well wishers in attendance, but opted not to. In fact, Anna almost was too shy to attend her own ceremony until her friend William reluctantly agreed to don a cap and gown to join her for the occasion. The graduate marched down the aisle to the "ABC" song, accompanied by Mr. Phancy on the guitar. She received her diploma and applause from the crowd. Among the money things that Anna learned from Ms. Be and Mr. Phancy: A schedule (Be has all the kids on one) Sharing with other kids Helping with the little kids Spanish Sign...