Home Sweet Home

We're home! We've been home since Sunday evening, but it has been a little crazy around here and I haven't had a chance to do a post. The drive home was good overall. Lucy and Ella were troopers, but had a few breakdown moments. At one point, Lucy said, "I JUST DON'T WANT TO DRIVE ANYMORE!!!" Greg and I completely understood...

We took a break at a rest stop for lunch and ordered some kids' meals from Burger King...I came to the table with the famous Burger King crowns, which was AWESOME. The girls are big fans of Fancy Nancy books, and Nancy often eats at The King's Crown, where she always gets a crown for herself. Lucy and Ella were convinced that we, too, were eating at The King's Crown, and were thrilled. The best part was when Ella announced that she was Robert, Nancy's only male friend. For those of you who aren't aware of Ella's fascination with alter-egos, you should know that she is almost never herself, but rather a favorite character. Some popular choices are Huck (from Strawberry Shortcake), Diego (of Go Diego Go), Max (of Max and Ruby), and Tyrone (from Backyardigans). Yes, all boys! It's hilarious because she can be SO girly, too...she's obsessed with shoes and loves to dress up with beads and to style my hair. Anyway, it was just perfect when Ella decided she was Robert...absolutely priceless.

Sandusky, Ohio was our stop on Saturday night. By the time we got settled into our hotel room, it was almost 8:00, so we went right to dinner. Cracker Barrel was our pick, and it ended up working out perfectly. The girls loved their dinner and had a blast in the store afterwards. Greg did too, as he found one of his favorite toys from childhood, a gyroscope. He had way too much fun showing the girls how it worked back at the hotel!

We hit some traffic in Chicago on Sunday, but that was expected...it IS Chicago, after all. The girls surprised us and never napped, so the last leg of the trip was pretty long. We were all very excited to get home and out of the car!

Our original plan was to arrive home on Monday, so Greg had off of work. I woke up with a migraine early Monday morning which meant the day was not as productive as I had hoped. The girls got to play outside, Greg worked on the garden, and I got meal planning done and the grocery list made. Mom and dad has the four of us and Bill over for dinner--a yummy homecooked meal and good company really hit the spot.

Yesterday afternoon I started feeling better and felt great by the evening. Today some massive unpacking and laundry needs to be done, but the sunshine is beckoning us outside...

I started this blog with the intention of having a great record of our adventures in DC, but am finding that it's a wonderful way to keep track of little everyday stories about Lucy and Ella that I would otherwise forget all too quickly. So, I've decided to keep blogging. My friend Kristi Jo gave me an amazing Mother's Day gift yesterday--she printed out the entire blog and put it in a binder! I have always wanted to scrapbook the thousands of pictures I take, but have never had the time to even get started. Hopefully I can find a few minutes here and there to continue the blog...if I don't get around to scrapbooking until the kids are in college, so be it.

Sick Day

Wednesday was a sick day at our house.  Lucy woke up with a fever and was very sad and lethargic.  Ella had a fever before bed, but woke up without it...anyway, they both needed to rest and get better.  We stayed in jammies, watched movies, colored, and read books most of the day.  I'm happy to report that everyone woke up healthy and happy today, and we are packing and getting ready for our trip home!  We will be leaving on Saturday morning and will make it home by Sunday night!

National Zoo

Greg skipped his morning classes on Tuesday so that we could take advantage of the great weather and go to the National Zoo for a few hours.  We were really impressed by everything we saw and wished we would have had more time to see more!
We started off on the Asia Trail and saw a sloth bear (like Baloo in the Jungle Book), a clouded leopard, a fishing cat, and...

...the giant pandas!

This one was content to sit and eat his bamboo, and we had a clear view of him so we stayed until Lucy said, "I'm done with the pandas..can we go see something else?"
Greg and I were amazed by this...it's called the O-Line, and it consists of a series of 8 towers connected by cables.  The first and last towers are in contained areas where orangutans have access to them.  They are free to climb and travel throughout the O-Line!  We were bummed we didn't get to see any of the orangutans taking advantage of it, but were impressed nonetheless.
The day wouldn't have been complete without a stop at the gift shop.  We let the girls spend the last of their souvenir money on some cute little pandas.  I can't lie, though.  These innocent-looking stuffed animals caused some big-time drama.  Greg and I tried to encourage Ella to get the same thing as Lucy, as her souvenir had THREE pieces--a purse and two pandas--pandas with BOWS.  Ella insisted that she wanted the plain panda, but as soon as we got home, she changed her mind.  After a few hours of listening to Ella's requests to use her pandas, Lucy finally gave in and shared with her...sweet relief.

Color Me Mine

I couldn't post these pictures earlier, because they are of Lucy and Ella making Grandma's Mother's Day gifts!  I took them to Color Me Mine, a paint-your-own pottery studio.  The girls made perfect choices...Lucy chose a candy dish to "thank Grandma for always having candy out at her house," and Ella chose a coffee mug because "Grandma LOVES coffee."  I have to say I was proud. 

They each got to choose their own colors, which was really exciting.

Both girls were so careful about keeping the paint on their piece, and each stroke was very deliberate.  

We had so much fun--it was a great afternoon project!  After painting, we left the pieces there to be glazed and fired and were able to pick them up a week later.  They turned out beautifully!  We forgot to get a picture of Grandma and the girls with the finished product, but we will do that when we get home.

Piggy Pile

I absolutely adore this picture of all my loves.

Sleeping Beauty

Because we did not bring Lucy's bed rails with us, we have just been setting her up with a fort of pillows surrounding her in the queen sized bed.  This is how I found her when I went in to wake her up from nap on Monday!

Mail Thank Yous

I had saved up some mail that we received while my mom and dad were here for Sunday evening to soften the blow of Grandma and Grandpa leaving.  The girls want to thank Auntie Julie for the 6 different kinds of lip gloss, Auntie Gail for the My Little Pony and Dora stickers, and Opa for the sticky hands and tattoos!

I feel like I should have had my picture taken with the Mother's Day mail that I received...thanks so much to all of you--it was very sweet of you to think of me!