Each of the benches throughout the garden had a plant name and an artsy sentence about it along with pictures. They were very pretty benches but some of the sentences kind of freaked me out. I didn't really get it.

On Sunday night the boys sat down to make some Valentines! Its funny how the boys aren't really interested in making a pretty card. They are more interested in making sure it says who its to and who its from. After that, its just fun to color, stamp and paste stuff. Oh well. I gave it shot and they had fun! Hi Kim, I know you're thinking about how you would "help" them more than I did. hehe :-)

Port Discovery

Monday the kids went to school and us girls did a little shopping. (As much as you can do in Southern Maryland) After Max got out of school, we packed a picnic and had lunch at a park. After Nolen got out of school we went to Jazzercise where Britt tore it up and Mom and the boys blew bubbles and read books outside. I told Mom she could come in but she wouldn't. She's too chicken to try Jazzercise!

The fam had to fly back to Flo-rida on Tuesday. I had trouble deciding what to do with the kids if I drove them to Baltimore and sent the kids to school. Someone would have had to pick up Nolen and maybe Max too. I dodged the whole quandry and made myself a fun day in Baltimore instead! We woke up early in the morning and got on the road at 8. We were at the Children's Museum by 10am and I was really happy with my decision. (I hope Brittany didn't mind too much, especially the lunch part. Sorry Britt, I love you.) The kids had a BLAST too. Nolen couldn't stop talking about it on the way home.

Welcome to the Diner. Today's special is one pancake, a fourth of a waffle and one egg. Nolen and Max will be your servers today.


Here ya go Mom!

Of course the water play exhibit was a big hit too!

Nolen and Max standing by the spooky Sarcophagus. Max was so scared to walk into the Egypt exhibit that he made me carry him in. Nolen got freaked out in the Mummy room. It was pretty awesome! The idea of the Egypt exhibit is that you have to follow clues and use hyroglyphics to solve the mystery of the Pharoah or something. You walk through different archeology tents, cross the Nile river, and end up in a tomb. Then you have to climb through a jungle gym type thing to get to the secret room in the tomb. It was pretty awesome!

This part of the museum consumes the interior of the building on all 3 floors. It is a giagantic jungle gym. The kids go in and may end up coming out on any of the floors. I followed them through a few times (and lost my cell phone doing it). We left the museum to make the airport drop off and went back afterwards. In the afternoon there were only three other families in the whole museum so we pretty much had the place to ourselves. I also discovered that our arm bracelets matched so that the kids can't leave without an adult. So, in the afternoon, I let the kids run willy-nilly through the KidWorks. I gave them some rules first, 1. stay togehter, 2. if you come out and you're on a different floor, either go back in the jungle gym or come down the first floor and find me. Do not wander into an exhibit without me. They did awesome at following the rules and I think they really liked being able to "explore" on their own and find their way around.

There was also a cowboy exhibit. I like this picture of Max's lasso!

Family Fun Weekend

Mom and Brittany flew up to see us this weekend! Hooray! And for those of you who aren't sure who is who, let me take a moment to make some introductions. Aunt Brittany is my (Melissa's) younger sister. She is tall, brown eyed, beautiful, smart, loving and a bit sarcastic and smart. Nana is my Mom. She is quiet unless she knows everyone in the room, she loves loves loves kids and kids books and kids games. She is the best mom ever and she doesn't usually drink Margarita's. OK, Max and Nolen, do we have these two straight now?

Margarita's and Fajitas Saturday night. Brittany's friend Carrie drove up from NC to hang out with Britt. After dinner, the kids went to bed and the young adults went out to BWB. I admit, I was trying to score some cool points with my sister! After years of being a lame mom, I had to show Britt that I can still P-ar-ty!

3-D Movie Trailer during the Super Bowl! Go Steelers! Woop Woop!

Sunday we had freakishly warm weather and failed to realize it until 1 o'clock. We quickly rallied the troops and set off for some sight-seeing and adventuring in St. Mary's County. First we went to our local park and the kids ran around for awhile.

Next we drove out to Sotterly Plantation to check it out. Many festivals are held there during the non-winter months but we haven't made it to any of them yet. It was a good find for the warm day. I told the boys that we had to finish a scavenger hunt while we were there because they weren't very interested in being there. The quickly got into it and had a blast! Here they are with the plantation house behind them. We never made it to the main house but we saw the corn cribb, the slave cabin, rolling road, a few trails through the woods (complete with deer tracks), and the stable. The boys had fun running ahead on the trail to read the signs!

Unfortunately, I didn't feel good enough to play outside with the boys yesterday. I probably wouldn't have been able to keep up anyway! Nolen couldn't wait to play in the snow after school! He jumped out of the van - didn't even close his door or take his backpack inside and ran to make a snow angel. I missed a lot of the good pictures but trust me, the boys had a blast! When Max came in, he was shivering and his hands were cold (he doesn't have the best gloves) but he couldn't stop talking about the snow. I wish I had video taped it! Nolen stayed out a little longer, his gloves are a little better. They both wanted hot chocolate when they came inside, so I got them undressed and made their hot chocolate, and then lunged onto the couch where I spent the entire day trying not to smell food and wanting to puke (sorry its true). I spent most of the day watching Ellen, sleeping and facebooking from my iPod! Loving the iPod! What a fun day (for the kids).


I asked Nolen to come upstairs and do his homework this evening before dinner. What a cutie! He was so excited to work in his mathathon book for St. Jude's. The problems are really pretty easy for him so he had fun. I gave Max a math book to work on at the same time. They both sat and finished all of their work. I love watching them!

I like this picture. Max is saying, "Ooh - I got it!" He gets so excited about everything!

Snow Day

Finally, Southern Maryland gets a snow day...almost! It started snowing around 8 am today and its still going. The kids are being dismissed three hours early from school so they didn't exactly get a snow day. The forecast is for the snow to change to sleet and ice this afternoon and tonight.

It made me miss Alaska to see all the white stuff...reminded me of driving down College and not knowing if there was a median or not...not knowing exactly where the shoulder of the road is...walking through a slushy Fred Meyer parking lot...running through the snow to the neighbors house with a kid wrapped up in a blanket (coats were too much of a pain when you're only going a few steps) just to get out of my own on a snowy day...the only difference is, hopefully this time the kids can actually go out and PLAY in the snow! They are big enough to keep their gear on and its above zero! Woohoo! Who will throw the first snowball? Let the fun begin.

Nolen loved walking to the bus stop in the snow this morning!


The view from our backyard.

Future MLS Player???

Nolen played his first soccer game today through St. Mary's Parks and Rec. It is indoor soccer, at a rec center about 15 minutes from our house - although we have a rec center about 3 minutes from our house.

Did you like it? Mmm-hmm.
What is your coach like? He is nice. He gave me a high five!
Did you get a snack after the game? Yes, we got apples.
What do you like most about soccer? If I got to be goalie.
What did you like best about soccer today? When my team got a goal.
What did you like least about soccer today? When the other team got a goal.

Nolen did great at soccer today! He chased the ball with the rest of the herd of kids and kicked it some too.

Alaska Gear Comes in Handy!

You know the rule - if you haven't worn it in a year, throw it out? Well, hanging onto my Kamik's, mittens and great big Columbia coat has served me very well today! I wore these mittens for every day three winters in Alaska. By my calculations....Alaskan winter lasts at least 7 months so...7*30*3 = 630 DAYS! I trudged through ice and snow carrying a kid on each hip in these things and managed to stay on my feet every time! Thank Goodness for my Kamik's! Oh, I rambled too long. It is 10 degrees here today! But the boots, mittens and coat are keeping me nice and warm!