Mount Vernon

Josh has been studying George Washington and Abraham Lincoln in school, so once he found out that George Washington's house was in VA, he insisted that we go there! How could I resist?? So we drove up to northern VA to Mount Vernon, the home of the General... which is where he lived during his married life up until he died. The line to get into the mansion was extremely long and very discouraging, but we couldn't come all this way and not see the house. So we stood in line for about an hour before actually getting inside.

We couldn't take pictures inside the house, because about 40% of the furniture and 50% of the artwork was original to the house. And the paint on the walls was original as well! George LOVED color.... because the walls were bright greens and blues... nothing neutral in there! But it was the most expensive paint and the most fashionable, so George had to have the best! Everything, (including the landscaping and grounds) was very European inspired, even though Washington never stepped foot in Europe. I think the boys' favorite part was seeing the toilets, which they called a necessary. It was about 100 feet from the house, and there was one at each end of the house (maybe women's and men's?) But there was three toilets in each... right next to each other... I guess they liked to go in groups???

But it's very pretty there... with a great view of the Potomoc River, with only one other house and dock in view.... Lady Washington wanted to preserve the view so they bought all the land in sight of the house! Okay, is that enough history for you all??

Oh, one more thing I learned. I didn't know how Washington died... maybe I'm just "unlearned"... But he died at home from a disease affecting his esophagus. He spent 36 hours struggling to breath before he finally died in his own bed. (the actual bed was still in the house) After he died, Martha (his wife) shut off that room, and never slept there again... she moved her room upstairs for 3 years until she later died. I thought that was interesting.

Okay, NOW I'm done with my report.... here's some more pictures!!!


Necessaries...

Caleb posing with Mrs. Washington (George's mom)...she was very cute and stayed in character the whole time... after we left, Caleb was so smitten with her, he wanted to go back and give her a kiss!


Josh loved the diaramas of the battlefields... reminded him of "Night at the Museum"...

George Washington's sword!!!

Zoo Pals

For spring break, we didn't go on any luxurious vacations.... or do anything amazing... but we did take a few day trips and did things that Josh has wanted to do for awhile now. He realized recently that we have never been to the Richmond Zoo... although we've been to the Alaska Zoo a couple times!

So, we ventured out and enjoyed a crisp day observing wildlife... if you call it wild... we saw monkeys (my personal favorite), rhinos, zebras, lions, tigers, and bears (oh my!), tortoises, penguins, bats, kangaroos, emus (including one with 15 large green eggs underneath), ostriches, deer, alligators and MORE! Here's a few of the highlights!

How fast can you type?

I tried this typing test, and actually surprised myself a bit... try it out!

70 words

Speedtest

HAPPY EASTER!!!

Easter festivities started a few days ago... when we got a fun package from Grandma and Grandpa Grover, complete with a easter bunny toss game, which the boys have been playing with for days!

Then on Saturday night we colored eggs! We tried our hand at painting Cammoflauge eggs... which actually resulted in nasty brown/green colored eggs! But we managed to get a few cool ones too. Josh and Caleb's favorite part was when we blew out some eggs.... gross! And we couldn't keep Caleb's hands off the eggs.... surprisingly, we only had 2 egg casualties!

Then on Sunday morning, they woke up early to see what the Easter Bunny brought... we did a little Easter egg hunt right before church. The pictures look lovely (don't mind all the yellow mulch bags in the background), but I was stressing the whole time that their Sunday outfits would end up a disaster! Once again, I was surprised that we made it to church almost flawless!

Then we headed over to Grandma and Grandpa Trentadue's house for Easter dinner!

What a fun day!

Scootin' Around

These boys come with glasses!

Although Josh was recently diagnosed with 30/40 vision, and is supposed to wear his glasses when he reads/does schoolwork, Caleb still has 20/20! But he wants to be like Josh, so we got our hands on some frames (lenses popped out), and he often wears them everywhere! He even insisted on wearing them to bed one night... later that night, I had to pry them out of his sleepy kung-fu grip!

We're finding that even Josh's eyesight isn't that bad... and he can do just fine without them... but he carries them to and from school, and uses them if he needs them. But he does look very studious, don't ya think?

Visit to the Trentadue Battlefield

Conrad and Natasha came to Richmond on a Civil War Trip with their high school, and their teacher let them leave for a couple hours so we could hang out with them! We came back to the house and Mike showed off his grilling skills.... then they entertained the boys for a few minutes with the best pillow fight ever!!! I guess all the visits to the battlefields, brought out some aggression! After the kids went to bed, they wanted to play a really fun game... so I was thinking Pictionary or Taboo or Charades... you know, something with some action. But they were more in the mood for Scrabble! Go figure! So Conrad showed off his smarts and beat us all!

It was a fun night.. and we're glad that they decided to forego their friends to hang out with their ole cousins!

Cream de la Creme

I know that all you snow-blowin' Non-Virginians snicker when we talk about the winter here in VA. But the drastic change in humidity from summer to winter (from 100% to 20%) really does a number on your skin.... especially little faces! So we have to lather up with heavy duty Eucerine to keep the chappiness to a minimum! So every night, we turn into little clowns!