Brrr. Winter in DC

Various shots of adventurous during the winter months.  It's been a long, cold winter!

Friends stayed at our house over Christmas and they left some lovely gifts for the kids.  The BIG hit was this unicorn blanket.  Come on over and chances are, you'll see Anna all wrapped up in it.  She loves it.

Snow!  Sledding!  Glad Santa brought us a couple of sleds.

Happy kids

Before

After.  Just getting braces on top four middle teeth to bring them in a bit.

A new chore we didn't have in Abu Dhabi - shoveling our long sidewalk! Jane's on duty.

Our neighbors have an ice asking rink in their yard!  Fun stuff. 

Our desert-raised girls aren't great on the ice but they got better after a bit of time.

Jane (3rd from right) waiting for her heats at the swim meet.  Go Eagles!

Good job, Jane!

Anna gets to be an acolyte at her school's chapel 

And had a reading role.  Yay, Anna - brave girl to speak in front of all those people

Friends!!  So warms my heart to have dear Sara and her family come for a visit.  She so generously came early to help take care of me after my 2nd surgery.  I am a lucky woman to have a friend like Sara.

Meredith's piano recital.  She was super nervous but did so very well.  Yay, Meredith - brave girl for overcoming your fear and practicing a lot so that you would be prepared.

Mrs. Gowan's piano pupils

So very happy to have Jane's good friend Ameera visiting

Finally made it to the National Museum of African American History - what a fabulous museum.  I went on my own while the kids were in school and spent close to 7 hours there.  I want to take the kids back next.

We lost power for about 15 hours or so in January after the transformer (or something electrical) exploded and caught on fire - sparks, flames, fire truck and all).  We had fun and fortunately the house didn't get too cold

Leftovers by candlelight

Lots of card games by candlelight, too - we had a lot of fun with no power

Jake's birthday.  And Anna's lovely art she made him (all on her own without anyone's help - she even dug out the frame from the basement).

Meredith was a bit afraid of the candles!  Love that expression on her face.

Ice cream pie - a favorite of Jake's

Alvin Ailey Dance show at the Kennedy Center with Regan and a friend of hers (amazing dancers and performance!  And wonderful venue). 

Jane got an old-fashioned record player from her friend Ameera as a belated birthday gift.  What excitement!  We have Ed Sheeran and now we'll need to invest in a few more records.

Gammy got to visit Anna's school and learn a bit about Jamestown

Girl scout cookie sale time! (Anna's troop had one, too - but I managed to not get a photo...).

Light-up blow up chair for Anna for her birthday from Uncle Dan and Aunt Susan

Making sandwiches for homeless people at Anna's school

Look at what the big wind storm did to a pole down the street??  Still not exactly sure how this happened... There were *so* many trees knocked down. Am still thankful we had the dead tree in our backyard removed.

Trip to the Newseum and we saw that day's Arkansas paper!  We also found a paper from Lebanon in Arabic but the kids had a hard time reading it

Deep questions at the Newseum.  This was probably my kids favorite museum so far of the many we have visited since we moved here.

Giving the weather report

Meredith's choir festival in the Cathedral  Terrible venue for actually seeing anything but the setting is still quite lovely.

Regan on sister nail duty

Ameera is back visiting again from Houston (yay!).  The girls are making care packages for homeless people that we'll keep in our car.  A sermon at a church we visited inspired us.  It has a Subway gift card, granola bar, socks, toothbrush and toothpaste in it.  Kids were surprised to see beggars on the streets sometimes here so hopefully these can be of a small help and enable us to not ignore them.

NCS Data Day (kind of like a science fair).  All the girls do projects where they need people to come participate in experiments.  Meredith's involved trying to throw that ball into a small cup.  I only got one in...  Once they crunch the data, I'll be interested to hear about their insights.

Jane's choir festival (at Anna's school interestingly enough)

Bad photo - but Regan is up there performing at a dance festival

New outdoor lights at our house!  Now you won't kill yourself trying to find the road if you leave our house at night.

Homemade birthday pavlova for Regan's low-key birthday celebration.  I need to practice my meringue...  it was okay but a bit dense in the middle...

Although her birthday celebration was low key, it was more than made up for with her birthday gift - Hamilton tickets (in July).  It was a big effort to get those tickets (long waits, technical difficulties), but I am so happy I managed to get them.  She is obsessed with the songs and thrilled to be able to see the show when they come to DC this summer.

More snow!

Meredith's turn to shovel the sidewalk

Dear Charlotte friends came to visit for their spring break.  Yay!