Udvar Hazy

We are so fortunate that Jim had the week off.
After a day of school, getting Caroline to dance and 3 conferences on Monday, we had a week full of just being.
It has been lovely.

So lovely, in fact, that we ditched school on Tuesday to take Daddy to the Udvar-Hazy Air & Space Museum.

Petersburg.

When Jim asked me what I wanted for my birthday, I really had to give it some thought. 
I have everything I need and I want what I have...I was stumped.
I got thinking. 
A massage?  A trip to the hair salon?  A night away?  A trip to the theater? 
As luxurious as a night by myself with room service and cable TV sounded, the more I thought about it, the more I wanted to use my birthday as a reason to take an adventure as a family.
I geeked out and narrowed it down to either Petersburg or Appomattox Courthouse. 
Since there will be big happenings at Appomattox later next year, Petersburg it was. 

Frankly, the first part of the trip was rough.  Traffic was terrible, the kids fought in the car, didn't nap and were grumpy.  Caroline was instigating the boys something fierce.  With the boys being boys, it's impossible for them to ignore her.  After dragging the kids around Petersburg National Battlefield for the afternoon practically kicking and screaming (except for Sam, who was being exceptionally good to make his siblings look *even worse*), I was DONE with adventure.  We ended up eating dinner at Denny's where Benjamin dumped a whole container of maple syrup and that was the proverbial icing on the cake. 
It was only Jim's level headedness that prevented us from driving back to Maryland that night. 
Everything would look better after some sleep.
As usual, he was right. 

After a decent night of sleep, we decided to wander about the Battlefield and trenches again after Mass.   The kids did well during Mass (God heard our pleading and the kids realized what needed to happen if they wanted to be let out of the house within the next 4 weeks). 
We got a good chuckle at church. 
Listening to the lector, she had a definite Boston accent.  South Shore, I thought - by the way she pronounced "shepherd", "guard" and "Lord", I pegged her being from Dorchester.  Jim heard Melrose. 
After Mass we tracked her down to ask her.  She looked at us incredulously when we told her where we thought she was from, "I've been here 50 years and I try so hard to hide my accent!  I'm from Quincy." 
Nice to know we still have the ear after being gone for 3 years. 

We headed off to the Battlefield.  It is really an amazing place to be.  Looking at the landscape, the trenches are still everywhere and the Earthworks constructed were mindblowing.  The Crater was one of the places I could not stand to be for long, thinking of what happened there made me sick to my stomach.  The kids enjoyed it, mainly because they got to learn about things blowing up.
We heard there were artillery demonstrations and set out to find them.  There were three reinactors at Battery 9 who were doing the demonstrations.  The park was really quiet because of the upcoming holiday and cool temps, so we sat with the reinactors around their fire and  talked with them as a family for well over an hour.  It was fascinating.  I bit my tongue more than a few times, as one of the gentleman still was fighting the War.  Having not heard "facts" extensively from a Southern perspective, he certainly got us thinking.  His "Proud Infidel", "If the Confederate Flag offends you, it is because of YOUR ignorance," and "Don't blame me, I voted for an American" bumper stickers gave us some insight into his reasoning, but the pride he took in his heritage and knowledge of  artillery were impressive. 
The kids enjoyed the artillery thoroughly.  Again with the blowing up stuff. 
It explains so much. 
Sam left us speechless when we were talking with the Confederate Soldiers.  They brought over their rifles to show us.  Sam said, "That's an Enfield Rifle.  Your rifle is a Springfield Rifle.  I can tell by the ...*stuff that I have no idea about and no hope of understanding*..." 
We asked Sam how he knew that and he replied, "I read books."
Dang. 
The Olders were able to earn their Jr Ranger Badges, which was a learning experience for all of us.  Because the Visitor Center was slow, the Ranger putzed around a Civil War veteran database and with information from us, was able to locate Jim's great-great-great grandfather who fought in 70th NY and enlisted only days after Fort Sumter.  His regiment was engaged heavily at Williamsburg and then again in Fredericksburg.  He deserted the army when in Falmouth, VA in early 1863.  The regiment would go on to be involved in Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Cold Harbor and Petersburg.  Our lives may be very, very different had he stayed. 
Good stuff. 

Day 2 of the Adventure ended up much better than Day 1, thank goodness. 

The things we have to do to get a reasonable picture of the kids.  Sheeeeesh! 

On the way to see "The Dictator". 

Did I mention the kids were grumpy on Saturday?

Except for Benjamin, who was ridiculously cute.  As usual.

Does this thing work?

The Olders getting their Ranger Badges

They were planning some sort of coup d'etat, I'm sure.  Good thing we intervened before they were able to get too far.

November 19

Dang.
November is more than halfway over and only 1 blog post.
I'm sad to say that my ability to blog has failed me recently.
I'm happy to say that my ability to be a wife, be a mother, declutter the basement, paint the bathroom, clean the house, act as a chauffeur, help with homework, mediate, negotiate, plan and execute surprise parties, make freezer crockpot meals, Christmas shop and kiss boo boos is in FULL swing. 

And while I realize that I am a human being rather than a human doing; there has been a lot going on around here recently. 
Ben went down for an early nap and Nate got a ride to school, so I may be able to sit for a little while. 
Now that I"m sitting, I'm thinking of a few other things that I could be doing. 
Drawing the line between *should do* and *need to do* is becoming easier. 
So sitting it is. 

It has been COLD here!  Yesterday and today the temps were in the mid 20s when I have gone out running/walking.  It should get warmer over the weekend and weather like this hasn't lasted long - so I can't complain.  The sight of the stars and the bright moon paired with the crisp air so still you can hear leaves falling does a soul wonders. 
Thank goodness the kids have winter coats that fit.  They need them!

After the Olders went to school, the Youngers played "Rock Shop" today.
This is where I get out some pretty rocks and pretend I'm interested in buying them.  The boys tell me what the rocks are, about what makes them special and set a price. 

It usually goes like this:
"Would you be interested in my Herkimer Diamond, Ma'am?" 
"Why, yes.  Can you tell me about it?"
"They're from New York and they are hard crystals.  They have two sides that poke you like THIS!" (as he jams the end of the stone into his brother's arm).
"That's not nice.  Why is it special?  Are they rare?"
"Yes.  They are awesome.  They pop out of the ground and are crystal clear!  I put them in my light sabre.  I found more than Caroline, you know.  That's because I'm awesome."
"Great.  What are you asking for it?'
"89 one thousand ruples."
"Fantastic.  I'll arrange it with the bank."

It was a fun morning.  I learned things I never knew I didn't know. 

Report cards came home this week.  The kids did well.  I think Caroline's teacher is a lenient grader, but the girl is holding her own.  Sam has grown a lot with reading and is catching up with math.  He needs to work on problem solving and being attentive to task.  Nice to hear that he doesn't act too differently in school.  Nate is doing well.  The most commonly used phrases we saw were "his enthusiasm for life" and "needs to learn to use his inside voice in class".  Huh.  Didn't see that coming.  ;)
 
With the help of our neighbor, I was able to get the upstairs bathroom painted and redecorated.
The horrific orange color was toned down considerably with some bright accessories and a new shower curtain.  

 
The periodic table has captured the imagination of Sam and Caroline, who want to know more than I can coherently explain to them about electrons, protons and neutrons.  Caroline is fascinated with Marie Curie and wants to do something for the Science Fair about her experiments.  I'm all for it as long as we can do it without irradiating the house.   

The kids have been into playing with all things lego recently.  We received some small hand-me-down blocks and took them out as a treat on a rainy afternoon.
We didn't hear from the kids for almost 2 hours.
It was amazing.
They have played with duplo blocks for a long time, but legos are apparently a whole new ballgame.  Much, much higher on the cool quotient scale.

The Youngers and I have been genuinely enjoying our time together this fall.
I can't lie - there are some days that are so great I can't imagine *not* being home with them.
There are other days that I would gratefully dig ditches to get out of the house.
But on the most part, it has been great.  I'm coming into my own with a system to manage the housework and dinners, so I haven't felt like I've been drowning in work to be done.  Not that there isn't always something to be done, but it has been feeling more managable.
Last week we made ourselves some hot cocoa, packed some snacks and ventured off to Harpers Ferry, WV.  The water was low, so we were able to rock hop our way out into the Shenandoah a little and sit in the river to eat our snack.  On the sand bar there were freshwater clam and snail shells that the boys collected and then found a Park Ranger and found out all about them.
It is days like that when I see absolutely no reason to push kids into school to sit at a desk and have testing shoved at them.
Nate and Ben still talk about the different snails they found (snails with lungs vs snails with gills - who knew?) and how they got special clams that don't live in salt water.  
They're not going to be able to do that when they're in school and that's how they learn best. 

And then there are some days that I would promise you that I gave birth to the reincarnation of Chris Farley.  He even does a "fat guy in a little coat" impersonation - and he has never even seen "Tommy Boy".  It's ingrained, I tell you!  Nate was dancing by himself in the hallway when I looked and saw this:   

 Oy vey. 

We made a cake yesterday. 
We going to be a two layer with chocolate frosting. 
Mmmmm....good.
Right?
*SOMEONE* snuck his chair over and tried to eat the cake out of the pan. 
I appreciate the shape of the fingermarks are in the shape of a ScottyDog, but still.
Oh, that's right - I have to sweep those crumbs out of the living room because he-who-shall-remain-nameless ran out of the kitchen with his hands full of cake and went to go pull up his drooping pants and dropped the cake. 
D'oh!!!

Happy Halloween.

It's rainy, windy and cold.
It's almost 9 and people are just starting to rise.
We have nowhere to be until after lunch (and we're hoping that soccer will bet cancelled).  :)

Sounds like the perfect day after Halloween to me.  

We had a good night last night.  Thursday night we sent out a text to our neighbors asking them to come over for chili and drinks after Tricks or Treat.  We thought we might have a family or two over because people would be off to bed early.  Happily enough...5 families and 29 people later...it was a pretty late night in Deerfield.  Much fun was had by all. 
It was pretty crazy getting the kids ready for the night while cooking dinner and readying for guests.  My brain did not go into overload until about 5:30.  Then all you-know-what broke loose with people knocking at our door, the phone ringing, naked children running about, food in the oven and 2 little girls sitting in the kitchen waiting for their hair to be curled. 
We lived.
We got out.  Not a lot of kids this year and very few cars on the street, which was great.
Now for some extra coffee to get through the morning...

Sam was the official photographer last Sunday during pumpkin carving.  We set up on the front lawn to keep the mess outside. 

 Topped off by the boys and their favorite pastime...watching popcorn pop. 

 And Benjamin, hanging out with "Baby Pumkin".  He sits and talks to it.  We were going to put a binky in it like last year, but the Urchin has gotten so good at hiding them that there aren't any to spare. 

And from last night.  Happy Halloween!