Aunt Jane was visiting NYC on the weekend of 4/28 and came out to visit us to see Larchmont for the day.  We took her on a tour of the town including Blaine’s school playground, the fire department, and the library!

Then we went back home, and Daddy made a delicious quiche lorraine for lunch.

After lunch we took Aunt Jane to see Manor Park.  It was a gorgeous day, and the kids loved climbing on all the rocks.

Thank you for visiting us, Aunt Jane!  We hope you can come again soon!

Signs of spring were creeping in all month… such as this Larchmont Fire Dept boat!

Flowers!

Outdoor dining!

Hiking!  (at the Rye Nature Center)

Chess?  I guess this was on a rainy day.  Blaine has been learning to play chess at school so Andrew brought his chess set back from VA.  Blaine seems to know the rules pretty well, and can maintain focus for about ten minutes or so, at which point the game devolves and Sarah starts swiping pieces when no one is looking.

One day I cracked my morning egg and discovered a double yolk!  This is the first time I have ever had one!  Apparently the odds are 1 in 1000 or so.

Sarah met a chicken at her school’s “nature” series.

And a big tree came down across the street from us.

Possibly my biggest parenting “fail” to date also occurred in April.  I was ordering a pizza online in advance of a date night and I let the kids play in the driveway for a few minutes because they wanted to be outside and the backyard was all muddy from some rain.  I came out a few minutes later and found that the kids had pretended to wash the car… with rocks.  :O

Here’s a pic of a pinch pot Blaine made in his Kindergarten art class.

Blaine’s ant farm was still kicking… well, the few ants that remained, anyway.  The ones that weren’t buried in the ant graveyard.  It’s pretty disgusting.  As of the writing of this post (5/29) we still have four ants left.

And… here is our car detailer, Rick, attempting to remove the scratches from the kids’ recent carwash.  He was unsuccessful, but luckily our local bodyshop was able to mostly get them out with out too much effort (that is, expense).  Phew!

We drove home from VA on 4/8, and decided en route to make a quick stop in PA to check out some furniture and take a last look at the house before construction began.  Mom-Mom and Aunt Molly were very kind and did not mind that we crashed their Sunday plans!

I had to snap a pic of Dad’s fish.  Goodbye, fish!

Goodbye, doorway from the dining room into the new room!

Goodbye, scalloped edging in the kitchen!

Goodbye, new room!

Goodbye, new room bathroom.  We’ll miss you, radio that Dad installed when the ceiling fan broke.  🙂

It’s going to be very exciting to see all the changes that are planned come to fruition over the next few months!  Good luck to all involved.

The last leg of our Spring Break tour of Virginia was a visit with Gram and Grand-dad in Great Falls.  We arrived on 4/6 and enjoyed a beautiful afternoon outside at the playground, followed by a delicious dinner prepared by Gram.

Grand-dad also treated us to a tasty Boulevardier cocktail.

The next morning Blaine assisted Gram in making some delicious pancakes for breakfast.

After that everyone went for an outing to the Air and Space museum companion facility at the Udvar-Hazy center.  I skipped the trip so that everyone would fit into our 5-seat car, and enjoyed my relaxation time at the house.  When the group returned, Gram and Grand-dad gave Andrew his birthday present: a new train set!  Everyone went down to the basement to set it up.

We slowly added train cars, using older cars passed down in the family.

Eventually they had it up to nine cars!  Blaine loved driving the train, and ended up playing with it for a few hours.  Sarah was nervous and did not want a turn operating the engine.

Sarah and Gram spent some time playing the piano, instead.

After another delicious dinner prepared by Gram, we were treated to a beautiful sunset across the open field in front of the house.  It was a stunning blend of colors that stretched across the horizon, sandwiched under a layer of clouds.

Thank you to Gram and Grand-dad for hosting us!  We had a wonderful visit and we so loved seeing you both and spending time with you.

On 4/4, after our morning in Yorktown and a stop for lunch at a Cracker Barrel, we checked into the Omni Charlottesville.  We decided to go for dinner at Citizen Burger on the pedestrian mall, so we briefly visited the children’s museum before the restaurant opened.

The next day (4/5) we went on a children’s tour of Monticello in the morning.  It was a beautiful day and the tour guide did a great job of keeping the kids interested.

After our tour we decided to walk back down the hill to the visitors’ center, and on the way we got to see Jefferson’s gravesite.  Apparently, this monument is larger than the one Jefferson initially designed.

Then we stopped for lunch at a fried chicken place before going to Great Grandmother Dorothy’s 96th birthday party.

We were all so happy to see Great Grandmother, Gram, and Wendy.  There were beautiful flowers and decorations, and yummy fruit and cookies and cupcakes to eat.  The kids so enjoyed helping Great Grandmother open all her birthday gifts!

And then we sang “Happy Birthday” and enjoyed cupcakes and all the other treats.

We had a wonderful time, and we barely had any room for dinner later (at Le Bizou on the mall).

We kicked off our Virginia road trip with three nights in Colonial Williamsburg.  The first day was spent mostly in transit, with one stop for lunch at a rest stop.

We arrived at the Kings Mill resort in time for a nice dinner at the waterfront restaurant, which included ice cream for the kids.  Big hit!

The next morning we headed over to Colonial Williamsburg.  Here is an amusing bathroom sign in the visitors’ center.

We started off at the central market, and visited the Armory.

Then we walked over to the court and observed that for awhile, and then made the obligatory stop at the pillory.  Blaine was not into it, but Sarah stepped right up.  She enjoyed it so much she insisted on having a second turn.

The blacksmith’s shop was a big hit!  Blaine loved it and asked a ton of questions.

We also loved the wig-maker’s shop.  The woman who worked there told us that George Washington was not a wig-wearer.  She said you can tell by the fact that his hairline is naturally receding in all of his portraits.

We had lunch at one of the old taverns… I believe it was the King’s Arms?

I had to try the peanut soup, which I’d heard was a specialty.  It was pretty salty, but enjoyable.

After lunch we walked by the Capitol (though we couldn’t schedule our tour until the following afternoon).  Then we headed over to jail, top on the kids’ list of must-sees.

Blaine had been fairly interested in everything we saw all day, asking questions and interacting with the people.  Sarah, on the other hand, was pretty bored.  She was looking for any excuse to sit on a bench and eat a snack.  But when we got to the jail she had some fun jumping around in the dark jail cell.

She also enjoyed seeing this giant patch of bamboo, right in the middle of Colonial Williamsburg.

We then walked past the carpenter, and the axe-throwing.

Blaine enjoyed seeing this old-fashioned pulley outside the cabinet-maker’s.

Sarah was happier playing with small stones by the time we got to the brick-maker’s,

So, we decided to call it a day and waited on a bench for the shuttle to come and pick us up.

And we went for some ice cream!  Which made everyone happy.

Back at the resort, Daddy cooked some dinner in our kitchen and we made it a relaxed evening.

We spent our second morning in Jamestown.  It was a cool, foggy morning and we were some of the only people there.  It felt very isolated and spooky, evocative of how frightening it must have been to be in that original settlement.

We stopped at this glass-blowing exhibit which showed a brief/failed attempt that the colonists made at establishing a glass making enterprise.

Then we had lunch at the Jamestown Pie Company, which sells all kind of pies.  We ordered a pizza pie, a chicken pot pie, and some pecan pie.

After lunch we went back to Williamsburg for our tour of the Capitol.  We attempted to see the Governor’s Palace first, but it was all booked up.  So we explored the gardens, instead.

Sadly, the famous garden maze was closed for maintenance!  No matter, the rest of the gardens were still pretty.

We went back to the Capitol for our group tour/performance, which was very well done and the kids were both very well behaved (no photos were allowed).  Then that evening we went out to dinner to celebrate Andrew’s birthday!  I forgot to take any photos.  🙁

The next morning was our last before driving to Charlottesville mid-day, so we decided to check out Yorktown to see where Cornwallis surrendered.  Here’s Blaine next to a cut out of General Washington in the visitors’ center.

We drove around to see the house where surrender had been negotiated, and then to see the field where the British surrendered.  I was initially confused and thought this was the field, and took some pics of the kids running wild.

Turns out it was the next field over, and there was a nice display and audio summary of how it went down (Cornwallis didn’t even show up – he was too ill).  Blaine was fascinated, particularly by the fact that Cornwallis and his troops were unable to retreat via boat due to a storm.  Sarah just wanted to keep frolicking in the grass.  Next it was on to Charlottesville!