Longwood Gardens...AGAIN!

While B was in San Fran last week, I took Michael to the Longwood Gardens on Tuesday, June 8th. We dropped the car off to get it's 60K service, got our terrible suzuki rental, and headed to the Longwood Gardens to take advantage of the weather.

Michael was hilarious. He wanted me to take a picture of him. Then he wanted to take a picture of me. So we did this with the iphone. And here are the results:

Lovely gorgeous flowering arches with Michael:
Ok, so it didn't start with Michael and the iphone until after this. I liked these flowers. Need to bump up the exposure in photoshop a bit but don't care to because it was taken from my phone anyways:

Then, we found this gorgeous flowering garden we hadn't seen yet:

Don't ask me why I decided to pose like a retard for Michael:

Michael really liked this fountain and asked for a picture with it:

Then, my turn. I really liked the composition of the one Michael took. The pathway stones were an interesting pattern that I didn't notice before:

Then, we did our normal walkthrough of the children's garden where Michael got super wet! Good thing I had a change of clothes! I ran into a field trip of 2nd graders from the school I want to send Michael to from K-? grades. Chatted up with some of the chaperoning parents and got some great feedback of the principal, Kindergarten teacher, and involvement of the parents/parish/etc. So I'm feeling really great about it! And the kids were very well behaved on the field trip so that made me feel good too.

After this, we stuck around to see the 5 minute fountain display at noon:

As you can see, we were pretty far away and it still looked huge!

More strolling after this and we found this nice gazebo:

Had a great time as always! Michael asked for pizza afterwards so we went and did that. Can you see we just did whatever while Brian was gone?!?! :) Afterwards, Target/Trader Joe's and then home.

I think this is a bargain for this seat if it includes Michael with it:

Met my neighbor 2 doors down...they are another mixed couple (Chinese guy, American mom)! So it was great to hear about the chinatown in Philly. Turns out she teaches 7th or 8th grade at the school I want to send Michael to eventually!! She loves it there, her kids go there and they are super sweet! So yea God for sending me some confirmation, direction, and hope for Michael's schooling.

Michael met a girl. We'll call her A. She is about 3 years older than him and lives 2 doors down (the family I just was talking about right up there). They have taken a liking to one another and ask about each other.

So I asked Michael,

"hey, Michael, do you like hanging out with A?"
"Yes! She is really fast. And she is nice to me."

"That's great! Do you think she likes you?"
"Yes, she likes me because I am funny."

LOL. SO true. Made me think of all the times Michael does his silly Michael stuff like throwing himself on the ground and running around in circles...and inevitably...there is some girl around that thinks he is funny. Well, I married his dad because he is funny...so I guess it's a great way to win a girl right?

We piddled around a lot of the week. We always hang out at the mall if I have to get Brian from the airport because it's only 30 minutes from there instead of nearly an hour from our place. Less car time.

So we were at Anthropologie just piddling around. I turn around and say, "Michael, where are you?" And I see this:

HILRAIOUS. Of course, I had to get my pic taken too. With a book about Paris bistros:

Michael's always great when I'm shopping. He went around trying out all the couches/chairs. Then, he found this display of towel hooks that were letters. So he brought them to me one by one and told me, "Hey Mom! A letter R!" "Hey Mom, A Letter T!" It was adorable.

Next up...farm pics and a giant strawberry slide. But I need to go get my camera to get the pics and that's 2 floors above the computer. SIGH.

Memorial Day Con't

Memorial Day, The Whole Story. Brace yourselves. There are a LOT of pictures. All of them taken by Brian's mom who did a fantastic job! Yea for vacationing with other photographers!

We arrived Thursday evening without event. A little over an hour and a half door to door. Pretty sweet. This excludes our delicious stopover to Red,Hot, Blue. Mmmm....barbeque...

Friday morning, we took a walk to the Eastern Market, which had gorgeous fruit. I was in awe of Brian's bearded prowess:

Michael started the walk off a bit lazily:

We had an awesome breakfast there! Delicious french toast, pancakes, bacon, and the arugula in my omelette was SO tasty!! I say this because it is unusual for produce to actually taste like what it's supposed to taste like here in the American supermarkets. But that's a soap box that I'm sure you're tired of me getting on.

Afterwards, a walk to the Library of Congress. Here are happy grandparents on the lawn:

There was a gorgeous view of the capital from the Library of Congress:

I liked these steps:

And The Mom got a great picture of the grandeur of the place! I couldn't get this all in my 50mm lens...

We took a tour and it was very informative! We got to see the main room where they filmed National Treasure 2. And saw one of the bibles first printed from the Gutenberg press. Amazing!

They had a cute reading room for kids open that day. This is one of my favorite pictures with Michael. I love the lighting and the colors. Gonna frame this one for me!

Afterwards, back outside for our family picture in the heat:

Then a walk for gouter at a cute cafe. Family picture outside of it:

We loved walking everywhere!! We miss it so much after moving to America!

Enough of that though! We jumped in the car and went to the Smithsonian. There was a garden there that was serious camera candy. I can't wait to go back with the tripod and get some family pictures.

Michael fell in love with this fountain. I took TONS of pics of him with it:

I carried around wet clothes for the rest of that trip in a Smithsonian gift shop bag that I begged for and the lady was all-not-too-happy to give me.

After getting soaked in the fountain, he got 2 very fast rides on the carousel outside the Smithsonian. Probably the fastest carousel I've ever seen, and we've seen A MILLION. But I LOVE this picture: the lighting, the happy subjects, and the patriotic flags in the background:

Great family picture outside the Smithsonian:

Word of advice: When you need someone to take a picture of your family....find an Asian person...make sure they have a fat camera...THAT is who you ask. Not some clueless person with a point and shoot. No offense if you have a point and shoot.

I think we then went to REI after this. But I can't remember if that was Saturday or Sunday.

We then had 10:00pm all you can eat Korean barbeque and Michael was the most overtired I have seen in 1.5 years. He cried through the whole meal and all the way home. That is what we call a "low point" on the trip.

YES. It is true. ALL of that was done in one day.

Next day! Sunday! We all went to our churches and then lazily headed out to Mount Vernon!

We strolled through the gardens: This is the picture you get from us when the photographer yells, "BE ROMANTIC!"

NICE. CLASSY. NOT.

We had fun walking down to the Potomac and exploring the farm grounds. It was great fun!

Then, everyone but Team Besancon PA biked from Mt. Vernon to Olde Town Alexandria where we had a great dinner and strolled along the sidewalks! Michael saw some lights hung up in the tree after dark and made us all stop and said, "Look! Those lights are so pretty!"

Another moment to stow away in my "Parenting Heart."

Went home and spent an even lazier Memorial Day Monday. Had a late breakfast. Here is a family full of labeled aprons for pancake breakfasts:

Then tried to make it to Great Falls...only to make it just to the mall to get Michael some shoes for Great Falls. That we didn't end up going to! :) Couldn't go to Great Falls because there was a HUGE line to go. Had a delicious lunch at The Four Sisters Vietnamese lunch by Bill/AK's place.

So the weekend ended with everyone doing what they wanted. Michael played Wii. Besancon family played pinochle. And AK was so nice and came with me to the Asian supermarket down their street.

It was great fun. And a great dose of "city life" for me. I really needed that! I forget how nice it is to have everything so conveniently close by!! And it was a great break from our spiders.

Been slow about blogging because I've been weeding this flower bed I'm trying to get ready for dirt/compost. Next up should be an entry about strawberry/cherry/raspberry picking we did. And then a visit to the Longwood Gardens (I know...again) while Brian was gone in San Francisco.

AND! More plans coming up. I am lovin' living on the East Coast. I think if we had gone straight back to Texas...it would have been a bit slow for me. At least here, we can satisfy our need to travel and see new things! We just jump in the car and GOOO!!!