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!

We're still alive and well!

I've tried several times to post pictures... but for some reason it hasn't been working... so I thought I would just write a little update of the more recent things... and hopefully get some new pictures on here soon.

Josh is doing great with school... he recently had fun making Valentine's for his class and cousins and friends! He is learning to read and is doing great! Our favorite thing is to see which books he picks out from the library! He is very diverse in his book selection.... last week was about Pompeii, complete with drawings of people being smothered by ash and lava! and this week he brought home Kat Kong, the cat and mouse version of King Kong! too funny!

Caleb is our little wild man! He is talking more and more! In fact his first official complete sentence was when he said, "Don't tickle my feet!" He also likes to cheer everyone on when they do something good/cool/etc... "Good job, Dad, Gimme high five!" And he is quite the class clown in nursery, as he has been known to fall off his chair just for the laugh! He really is quite the character!

Mike is busy working through a "slow time" in real estate.... but have complete faith that he'll pull through it! he always does! He is teaching Sunday School again... and playing Mr. Mom on Sundays, since I usually have meetings and can't do a lot.

I'm staying busy at home.... trying to keep up with these boys... they wear me out! I was recently forced to contemplate my role in life, when my neighbor said that she wished she could stay home all day... she said she deals with problems all day long at work, and would love to just sit at home. Hmmmmm.... is that all I do??? ... sit at home?? I don't think so... but it was in interesting statement!

Well, thanks for listening to my "ramblings".... bet you're wishing that I would have just posted pictures like normal! :)

Have a great day!

Deep end of the bathtub

This is what happens when I leave for a second and put Caleb in charge of filling up the tub. It's hard to tell from this picture, but we were only inches away from a major flood! Unlike some adventurous moms, I'm glad I didn't have to see how long it takes before a bathtub of water starts pouring out of the light fixtures below! (I've heard first-hand from someone who knows... you know who you are, Heather Payne!)

Science Experiment

This was something that Josh did at school, and he explained how he did it... and then we tried to re-create it. According to Josh, not quite the same effect as at school... but that's what happens when you get the instructions from a 6-year old. Thank goodness for the internet, I finally was able to glean some key information, despite his incomplete instructions.

The idea is that the more baking powder and more vinegar, the bigger the balloon! After some serious reflection and further analyzing of this project... I have come to the conclusion that there was one major flaw to our experiment.... too small of balloon, that was difficult to blow up without turning blue. Thus, even though there was some serious chemical reactions taking place inside the bottle, it just wasn't enough to blow up these mega-strong balloons. (I must have picked them up from NASA or something) But despite my incompitent materials, we still ended up with a slightly larger orange balloon, which had more juice inside!

And at the end of the day... we all had a good time!

Josh turns 6!

TRANSFORMERS... ROBOTS IN DISGUISE!!!

This year, for Josh's b-day we didn't do the typical party. We did a late-night party that resembled a sleep-over, but left out the "sleeping over" part! Turned out to be a huge hit... and it was the easiest kids' party ever!

They ate pizza (Dijourno, not Delivery)... and then watched a cartoon version of Transformers... then ate cake, opened presents.. and did a fair share of playing "Transformers"! Obviously, frosting mustaches have become a tradition in our family!

Christmas 2007

This year we thought we would give you a "minute by minute" account of 2007 in one minute or less.
Hope your year was as eventful as ours!

2,190 diapers changed
71 days of Kindergarten
7 days at Hilton Head beach
365 bedtime stories
1,420 minutes riding the School Bus
185 hours playing at the pool
74 hours playing in the sprinkler
32 hours at T-Ball Games
32 hours coaching T-Ball
17 hours packing lunches
40 days in Alaska
10 hours at Soccer Games
175 hours at play group
590 hours at the gym
439 hours of playing cars
379 hours playing "guys" (army guys, superhero guys, pirate guys)
997 hours playing ball (throwing balls, dodging balls, getting hit by balls!)
189 trips to the grocery store
2,537 hours selling houses
1 hour writing this Christmas letter
5 attempts to take Christmas photo (funny how we ended up using the one in the chuch parking lot after the Ward Christmas Party)

8,760 hours thinking of each of you... You're always in our thoughts!

We hope you have a wonderful Holiday Season and a very Merry Christmas!
We love you all!
Love, Mike, KaLisi, Josh and Caleb
TRENTADUE

Making cookies with cousins!

What started out as a little cookie decorating, turned in a night of yelling and clapping as the oldest 5 (out of 6) Grover Grandkids sprinkled til their hearts content. Can't have too many sprinkles, can you??

From left to right: Canyen, Caleb, Cole, Josh and Taylor. Baby JayLene was either sleeping or being loved on by Grandma!

Trentadue Family

Celebrating with the Trentadue's!

Christmas Is Here Again

We started off this Christmas season by going to the ward Christmas Party.... good times. This was the only time we got a decent picture for our Christmas letter this year....

Josh is with one of his buddies.