Anna's D.C. Birthday Extravaganza

Anna began planning her March 2013 birthday at the beginning of December 2012.  This was also around the time that her first grade class was studying American symbols: the White House, the bald eagle, the American flag, the Washington Monument, and so on.  I don't remember exactly when she brought it up, but Anna asked that for her birthday, instead of a party, we go to Washington D.C. so she could see some of those things in person.  Her three big desires were the White House, the Washington Monument, and the National Zoo.

I contacted our senator's office in January about a White House tour, and was asked to provide personal information like birthdates and social security numbers (via a method that could have gotten me fired for mishandling of sensitive personal information at a previous job).  But they let us know a couple weeks before our trip that all White House tours were cancelled because of "sequestration." We had warned Anna that we might not get a White House tour, so she really wasn't that upset.  Since she plans on living there as President someday, she'll get to see it all then.

I picked her up from school early on Friday, and we were off!  Several hours later we arrived at Sarah and Paul's wonderful new house, which my kids proceeded to invade and made themselves at home by putting their stuff everywhere.  I also discovered that I have apparently neglected the "when you are a guest" part of their manners training. And that Seth was coming down with a nasty cough.

After a fun 5:15am wakeup call from Xavier Saturday morning, and the girls proceeding to get up at 5:45 and 6:15, we prepared for the day and we were off to the metro stop closest to Sarah and Paul's house to start our adventure!  Then realized it was freezing, and that we had forgotten an engagement ring and left hats, gloves and blankets at the house, so there was a short delay while some of us ran back to get those things.  Then we were off!

First we stopped by the White House.  Paul pointed out several fun features of the White House to the girls, including the sniper on the roof.  Next we hit the White House gift shop, where Lizzie got a t-shirt and Anna got a stuffed version of the President's dog.  We moved along to the Washington Monument.  We were waiting at the crosswalk to get closer to it, but Anna decided she was close enough, she could see the whole thing.  We took a picture, and we're far enough away that you can see the entire monument behind both girls.

Goodmans at the White House

Across the street from the Washington Monument

Next we were going to go to the Air & Space museum, but the girls were getting hungry, so we detoured into American History for lunch.  Anna decided she wanted to stay there, so after eating we met up with more friends and saw exhibits about the First Ladies and American presidents, Dorothy's ruby slippers, Kermit, and a wedding dress made out of a parachute (which was really cool and resourceful).  After marvelling at many exhibits, we headed to the Verizon Center to see the circus, then headed back to Sarah and Paul's for a pasta dinner, pink cake, and presents.

Our plans to go to the zoo on Sunday were foiled by the weather and Seth coming down with the plague.  Our final adventure was our trip home on Sunday, where we braved snow and crazy drivers to make it home.  Even though it didn't go exactly as planned, Anna still really enjoyed her trip, and has decided it might be her best birthday yet!

Snowquester 2013 - A Preview of Summer

Tuesday night, I checked our school system website and the national weather service forecast, preparing myself for what felt like the inevitable school delay or closing.  At 9:00pm, the forecast was still saying only 1-3 inches, and in the afternoon.  I was thinking early closing, at the worst.

So imagine my surprise Wednesday morning when I woke up and there was snow on the ground.  Now, I didn't see it right when I got up.  I fed the baby at 6:00am, brushed my teeth, and made myself presentable enough for the bus stop, all while doing a great impersonation of a zombie.  I woke Anna up, got her dressed, and THEN noticed snow through the window.  But we hadn't gotten a phone call from the county, so I brought her downstairs and we went through our morning routine.  Until I opened the front door with the intention of cleaning off the van to go to the bus stop, took one look at the actual amount of snow, and thought, "There is NO WAY schools in this county are open with this much snow."

And I was right, they were closed.  But for some reason we didn't get a call, and I got the email later than most people did (at least according to people on Facebook).  And as I sat there staring at my computer at 6:50am, finally comprehending that I was going to have all three kids stuck at home (literally stuck at home, almost-bald tires on the van don't exactly scream "Drive me through the snow with all the crazies to get to the Children's Museum!"), it dawned on me that I needed a game plan.  While letting them watch TV and play on the computer all day is tempting, it only leads to crankiness and bad attitudes.  The relative free time for me isn't worth the dramatic aftermath.

Here was my plan:
- Make paper snowflakes
- Eat a snack
- Play a family game
- Let the girls have free play time
- Eat lunch
- Do another craft
- Bake a treat with the girls, like chocolate chip cookies
- Have the girls help wash dishes (they still like doing it)
- Fix dinner
- Pass the kids off to Seth for entertainment
- Put happy kids to bed

Here is how the day actually went:
- Make paper snowflakes
- Eat a snack
- Play The Game of Life (the girls' choice), which takes an hour and a half, and deal with two walk-outs by Lizzie when things don't go her way
- Let the girls have free play time, which somehow turns into computer time
- Eat lunch
- Prepare to go outside in the snow/wind
- Go outside in the snow/wind (which was totally not on my list for today, but the girls really wanted to, so we did)
- Strip and dry kids after being outside in the snow/wind/rain/sleet/yuck
- Try not to kill self on random boots and articles of clothing left on the floor
- Hot chocolate
- Attempt to control kids when Seth comes home from work early
- Kids watch TV with Seth while I attempt to clean kitchen and keep baby from getting into everything
- Have Anna do homework and Lizzie wash dishes
- Let kids start to watch movie Seth just brought back from Blockbuster
- Attempt to fix dinner while also watching a newly mobile 8 month old, and resort to strapping him into the high chair to preserve sanity (but get headache due to the screeching caused by confinement)
- Feed everyone dinner
- Finish watching movie
- Send the girls upstairs to get ready for bed
- Watch Anna throw a huge fit because she wants to stay downstairs late because it's a snow day
- Put kids to bed
- Pig out on girl scout cookies... beecause I can

Cutting out snowflakes

Some of the final product

So, as you can see, not exactly as planned.  But at least the first part of the morning followed the plan.  After lunch it went entirely haywire.

Back to our title - how is a snow day a preview of summer?  Well, it's a preview of having all three kids at home.  All day.  Seven days a week.  Today has shown me that I might not be fully prepared for that.  Although in the summer I can kick them outside to play without having to worry about frostbite and tons of wet clothes when they come back inside.  So maybe I can survive this after all :)