Reading and Writing

It is so fun to watch Amelia learning to read and write. She gets so excited when she can read a sign or figure out how to write a letter. She loves to draw and is constantly asking for more paper and markers.

She likes to make lists of words, like this one (some words make sense, some not quite):



Yesterday she wanted to write a recipe for a soup she had created in her kitchen. She wrote all the words and then came to me for help with watermelon:


Translation: watermelon, cheese, bread, peas, peas, peas (there were a lot of peas in the soup), salad.

My favorite are definitely the notes for me:

Christmas at National Harbor

There are lots of Christmas activities at National Harbor this year:

Tree Lighting and Fireworks
November 27 at 5:00 p.m.

Holiday Market
(weekends November 28 to December 20)

Water-skiing Santa!
December 24

Click here to see a complete list of activities.

The weekend.

Ben spent last week in Paris for work. One week was much better than five and the time went by quickly. Unfortunately, he ended up working a lot more than he thought and didn't have any time to enjoy being in Paris, other than some good meals. Being the adventurous type, he did venture out on his last night there and walked around the city for a few hours late at night to catch a glimpse of Notre Dame and some other sights.

He came home Friday night and we had a fun family weekend together. We spent most of Saturday working in the yard and then took the girls to get their H1N1 shots. Amelia got the nasal spray and thought it was pretty cool. We did some Christmas shopping and then went out to dinner. We headed home for a movie night...finally watched "Up" and LOVED it.

Our Sunday afternoon walk was at Oxon Hill Farm. I have taken the girls many times, but Ben had never been there.

A walk in the woods.

We enjoyed the most lovely walk through Huntley Meadows yesterday. The weather was perfect and there were soooo many leaves to crunch through.








(It really wasn't hat weather. Amelia is just into accessorizing.)

Autumn in our yard.

It's raking season. A few weekends ago we raked up the backyard and filled about 25 bags. Sadly, only about half of the leaves had fallen at that point and we didn't have enough daylight to get to the front yard. Looks like we'll have a Thanksgiving weekend filled with raking...good thing we'll have lots of visitors to put to work...



But I do love my Japanese Maple...





It turns bright red right about the time that all the other trees are losing their last leaves. I love it.

When Amelia dresses herself...

Christmas Advent Wreath

I LOVE decorating for Christmas and I LOVE advent calendars of any sort.



I saw a smaller version of this wreath (12 days of Christmas) advertised at Michaels...they were doing a free demonstration on how to make it. I saw the picture of their version, which just used scrapbooking paper to cover the wreath and the little tins, and came up with my own version. I really wanted the inside of the tins to be visible so when the candy was eaten, it was more of a visual reminder of the countdown. I was really happy with the results. I was set on having red and white mint M&Ms, but quickly discovered that there are far more red and green than white. I had to buy 7 bags just to get enough white! The tins are stuck on with velcro so you can remove each tin to get the candy out each day. I found some little wreaths that I liked and cut those up and glued them all around. After starting with the basic wreath and tins, you can customize this wreath any way you like. Click here to see the instructions for the Michaels version.



Materials (I found everything at Michaels):

• 18-inch Wood Wreath Ring
• Spray Paint (color of choice...this is for the wood wreath)
• Favor Tins (these are in the wedding section...a pack of 30 is $20...use a coupon)
• Velcro Squares (2 packages)
• Garland of your choice
• Number Stickers of choice (this was the most expensive thing because you will need 3 packages to have enough of the number 1 and 2...scrapbooking supplies are ridiculously expensive!)
• Wire (to hang the wreath)

Tools:

• Wire Cutters
• Glue Gun & Glue Sticks

Instructions:

1. Spray wreath with paint and let dry.
2. Arrange the tins around the wreath and attach with the velcro squares.
3. Cut garland pieces to fit between each tin and glue with hot glue gun. Embellish how you like.
4. String wire through one of the pre-made holes in the wreath. This will be the top.
5. Apply the numbers to the tops of the tins and fill with candy.

A weekend with friends.

We are so excited to be doing another weekend swap with our wonderful friends the Dyckmans. We watched their two cute boys this weekend while they enjoyed some kid-free time. Amelia had fun hanging out with Ethan and Elsa had fun interacting with Ethan's little brother Jonah. She loved all the extra chaos. It had rained for three days straight so we were excited to finally get out of the house on Saturday and go to the zoo. The kids had such a great time there and people thought we had two sets of twins.




















(The group photo on the bear didn't quite work.)

Sunday evening stroll...Autumn edition.

The weather was so beautiful on Sunday. Ben suggested that we go to the National Arboretum and it was the perfect place for our Sunday evening stroll. We walked through the most beautiful leaf-covered trail in the woods. Elsa demanded to be out of the stroller walking with the rest of us. She loves to run, but is still a little hazardous with her steps.