Fireworks, Neighbors and a 10k

Last night we enjoyed the big firework display for Herndon Festival. They have them on Thursday and a Saturday night of the festival, and both nights the display is pretty amazing but Saturday is certainly larger and more extravagant. The girls favorite are the fireworks with shapes, especially the hearts. Frankly I'm just impressed that you can make something explode in a certain shape. If my brain were so inclined I'd love to learn.

The girls were jazzed for fireworks since Thursday's display and they stayed up all day and night asking NON STOP when it would be time. Seriously at 2pm they were asking, umm ladies we need a little thing called NIGHT TIME! They were exhausted but they rallied. Let's recap, Thursday they stayed up until 10 for the fireworks, Friday they stayed up until 10:30 for the festival, Saturday they woke up at 6:30am and stayed up until 10pm for the fireworks. Fiona was laying on the blanket for the fireworks and I caught her eyes struggling to stay open, and as soon as the booms stopped she was OUT! Luli was still running around even though she was ridiculously tired. But this reminds me of the fact that Luli has two speeds, GO and SLEEP. There is no in between for her!

The fireworks were just another expression of how much I love our house and our neighborhood. Our front lawn has a bit of a slope to it, and frankly it's perfect for laying out a blanket and enjoying the completely unobstructed view of all Herndon Fireworks displays. Several neighbors were walking by and we invited them to pull up some lawn and join us. It was great, it was what I've been wanting from a neighborhood. Impromptu neighbor get togethers, I love it! I put the girls to bed and returned to our neighbors, we chatted for awhile and it was just great. We did stay up a bit late, which was super because Oscar was running the 10k on Sunday morning.

Which brings me to the present. Oscar ran the Herndon Festival 10k this morning. The girls and I went out to cheer him on. Man, another thing I love about our neighborhood! The race was running right by our intersection with the W&OD trail. I brought the girls out with their chairs and we waited for Oscar to come through. We were going to sit right at the end of our street but I figured Oscar would expect us there, and if we were up a little further at the trail it'd be a nice surprise to get through the finish. He did great and we cheered especially loudly for him!


Today we'll probably hit up the festival again to use up our final tickets and indulge in more unnecessary fair food. mmm fried dough!

Herndon Festival 2010

This weekend is the Herndon Festival. I have to tell you that this is yet another reason I love Herndon. The festival is free to enter, which is rare here in VA. The rides do cost tickets and that can run you a pretty penny. Thankfully, the girls are still small and can't ride and don't want to ride, the big ones. But every year we go to these festivals they are more and more interested in the excitement and rides. Last night I had class but Oscar took them. I called home when I was leaving campus (10:15pm) and they were just getting in bed! Luli told me everything they did, which sounded like a lot of fun but I wasn't able to understand her because she was so tired her words were not exactly clear. This morning Oscar wanted to work on the deck and lacked interest in spending another day at the fair. Me on the other hand, I couldn't wait!

The fair opened at 10 and we got there at 11am. We walked in with one of our neighbors who happened to also be going to the fair. We hit the potties and then bee-lined it for the rides. The girls rode all sorts of rides. But I do think the flying dragons were their favorites. Last year they wouldn't even go near the flying dragons at the Herndon Festival, and then at Great Escape in NY they went on a similar ride but wouldn't move the stick to go up and down, so they stayed down the whole time. THIS TIME! WOW, they were up and down more times than I could count.

After several rides, we took a break for lunch. A banana strawberry smoothie and pizza while we listened and danced to the band playing. Then it was back to the rides. Luli wanted to go on the Tiger slide, which was a big bouncy house slide, Fiona was too small so it was Luli-solo. Then we rode the merry go round and then the dragon roller coaster (which was much more gentle and fun than the roller coaster of hell we went on at Great Escape- I think my father and my backs are still sore from that one!). We called it quits after that and sealed the day with an ice cream cone. You could tell they were with me, because we each got our own...if a certain other family member were with us we would have shared.

Now we are looking forward to our front row, front lawn seats to tonight's fireworks display! You can see more of our pictures in our Summer Photo Album to the left.

Fiona's end of preschool...

Last Wednesday Fiona had her end of year celebration. The kids sang songs, received their certificates and then indulged in an ice cream party. It was a lot of fun and I'm so glad I took the day off to be there. I had taken the last Wednesday and Friday off of school to be at both of the girls final days. However, the three year old class moved their celebration to the week prior because some kids were going to miss the final week. Which I'm totally ok with, I just didn't know about it until I was going through Fiona's bag on Monday night. I struggled all night and through Tuesday thinking about taking the following day off to be there for her. When I thought of not being there and her little face when they started singing without me there, I just started to cry. There ya go, that's my answer. I typed up an email and took the day off. After all I took this job because they told me the hours were flexible and if I needed to be out I could be. Well I needed to be out for this. I went to work Wednesday morning and left at 10 to be to the school on time. Of course there was terrible traffic on the beltway and I was late. But after much speeding, crying in the car and a mad dash across the farm (because it was also farmer's market day so parking was RIDICULOUS!) I made it before they opened the classroom door. Out of breath and emotional, but I was there! I was the first one in when they opened the door and Fiona was beside herself. The hugest smile and screams of "Mommy Mommy!" made the decision even more clear. I was so proud to be there. My little baby.

Ok back to the actual event! The kids sang several songs and Fiona sang really nicely with the class. I've heard her singing most of the songs at home. Then each child had the opportunity to stand and sing their ABCs by themselves. Every child did it, EXCEPT Fiona. Which I knew, because she told me the night before that she wouldn't. Oh well, she's a shy gal with that large of a crowd. After that they over indulged in ice cream. And we had a picnic outside with our friends and lots of playground time just like old times. It was a lovely day that I'm so happy I didn't miss.

Mother's Day

OK so it is almost Father's day, but I have been meaning to chat up my Mother's day for awhile. It was a truly lovely day. I got to do three of my favorite things- sleep in, eat brunch at the farm, and garden. Sleeping in has become even more precious since I started back to work because now I get up at 5:30 every morning! It's funny because this year Mother's day really sneaked up on me. There was a lot happening around that time and I had called to make our reservation at the farm to celebrate me signing a contract. Then I realized it was Mother's day also! And also our anniversary. It's hard to believe this is my fifth Mother's day. Things like that make me feel old, and like time is just whizzing by. I clearly remember the first mother's day and somehow 4 more have come and gone and my baby is getting ready for kindergarten!

The girls both made mother's day presents at school, which were very sweet. And blow me away, Oscar bought me an anniversary card! I mean seriously this is the most amazing gift because I know how anti-card he is. I mean, I'm not as into cards as I used to be but it's nice to get one that expresses how you feel. It meant a lot and brought tears. Fiona had decorated a box and filled it with Hershey kisses. She instructed me to eat one that instant and that it might be a good idea to share, I think her exact words were "Mommy, don't you think it would be nice if you gave Luli and me one?" And I thought she was right. Later in the morning I found her sitting on the playroom floor indulging in my chocolates. I asked her why she thought it was ok to eat them, and she told me, "Mommy, I gave them to you so I manda them, and I say I can eat them." In case the context doesn't give it away, manda means she's in charge of them! I laughed and then explained 1. that she'd given them to me so they're mine, 2. she can't just eat chocolate any old time, and 3. food is not allowed in the playroom.
Luli decorated a pot and planted dahlias, which were sprouting when she gave them to me. We are nurturing them in the garden window and hope they can be transplanted in the garden soon.

As for the other fun things we did, we had brunch at our favorite spot, The Patowmack Farm Restaurant. The food, as usual, did not disappoint. Beverly welcomed us with open arms and played with the girls as if they were all good friends. I love going there not only for the food but also because Beverly is so amazing, she really does feel like a friend. Plus where else can you get such high quality food and bring kids? The girls would eat, then walk around the farm, come back and eat, play on the hill. I mean it was lovely.

After brunch I got on my dirty clothes and hopped in my gardens. It was a beautiful day. And Fiona was my little helper. She had her gardening gloves on, helped me plant some of our herbs, spread mulch, weed some flower gardens. She was a real help.