A Photo Essay on How To Play With Lincoln Logs

Truman got his first box of Lincoln Logs for Christmas. The great thing about having a two year-old around for Christmas is that the packaging is at least as much fun as the gift. Here's a little photo essay from Carroll, featuring Izzy and Truman.

Decorating for Christmas

This year, we decided to decorate for Christmas on what would have been my mom's 70th birthday, December 13th. Considering her love for Christmas and for decorating, I think it was a fitting remembrance. Kate and I also made a Grammy-inspired meal of Chicken Florentine, rice, broccoli--and of course, Christmas cookies.

Here's what Izzy and Truman did while taking a break from decorating:

Snow!

Well, it's been a hundred years. All I can say is...it's been an eventful 6 months. I changed jobs (making a tour of the government contractors that start with U, I'm now at USIS instead of Unisys), Carroll took a new job and then laid himself off and then went to Copenhagen for the climate talks as a consultant. Truman started preschool, Izzy is in Pre-K (and LOVING it), Kate continues to excel at Washington Latin (great at writing, Latin, drama, science, math...crazy!).

Anyway, as you may have heard, we had a bit of snow this past weekend. The kids loved it. Here are a few pictures so you can see for yourselves.

Work-cation in Minneapolis

Thanks to a business trip in Minneapolis, Izzy, Truman and I got to spend a lovely week in Minneapolis, staying with old friends and their daughter (who is almost exactly Izzy's age) and seeing several other much-beloved friends from Minnesota, who definitely top my "What I Miss About the Twin Cities" list. Truman and I also spent several lovely mornings running around Lake Nokomis and Lake Hiawatha in the beautiful, cool Minnesota weather (my husband would disagree, but I always loved the Minnesota summer weather--just don't get me started on the winters!).

Despite one of the worst travel days ever (actually, two of them eventually), the high (or low) point of which was me ending up in the Charlotte airport with no money, no ID, no luggage, two tired little kids, and no flights back to DC (US Airways did give me a place to stay and--woo hoo!--$10 in food money...grrr), it was still a great trip. Truman was in the midst of girl heaven, but he took it in stride. Here are a couple of videos to give you a flavor of the entertainment available during the trip.

There has been some talk since our return of running away to Uncle Chris's house (clearly, Uncle Chris was a hit!), if only his house were not in the sky (air travel seems to still be a bit of a mystery to Izzy).

Off to Camp!

Last Sunday, we delivered Kate to Washington College on the eastern shore of Maryland, where she will spend the first three weeks of her seven weeks away from home at sleep away camp this summer. Just as we were getting ready to leave, I caught her on the floor with Izzy and Truman--the first evidence that maybe her insistence that she "...would NOT miss THOSE TWO!" might be all show. Sure enough, on her second day on campus at the Johns Hopkins' Center for Talented Youth math camp, she called home wanting to talk to her little brother and sister because she was missing them fiercely.

This year, with the CTY camp, Kate has the new experience of living in a college dorm with a roommate and being responsible for things like doing her own laundry. I wonder why we sometimes forget that she is just about to turn 11?! She is so often amazingly mature, but then the next moment, she is the little girl that she has so recently been. It's been tough for her to learn to be the big sister, since she was an only child just four short years ago, but she's grown into the role pretty well (despite the fact that the fact that they were all constantly telling us that everyone was touching them and leaning on them precipitated the recent purchase of our Mazda5 microvan!).

Anyway, we all miss her--especially Izzy who was sad that Kate could not come back last Thursday to come to her performance at the end of "Twinkle Toes" dance camp.

Here's a picture of Miss Iz running around on campus as we dropped Kate off for camp:

The Sleepover Birthday Party

Twilight-themed T-shirts and favors for 8 11 year-old girls: $130
Balloons in red, black, gold and silver: $21
Pizza for 8 girls, 3 grown-ups and 2 little siblings: $40
Movie admission, popcorn and drinks for 2 adults, 8 girls and a little sister: $180
Having to storm upstairs 6 times between 12:30 and 2 am and eventually threaten that there would never be another sleepover party: Priceless

This past week, Kate joined with other kids to deliver signed petitions to the Department of the Interior. I gotta say, it's pretty cool to be Kate--but it's even cooler to get to be her mom. ;>

Here's the YouTube video of the kids talking to a representative from Salazar's office: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gkCVa6XtJx0

Enjoy!