It's Good to be King...for a Day at Least

So we are not Kings, but we felt like we got to be for a morning:)

King Family Vineyard in Crozet (about 20 minutes West of Charlottesville) is one of the area's most beautiful spots.  Carrington and Corie King live there with their three daughters.  Their second girl, Stuart, is in Andrew's class at school (and their third, Virginia---"Gincy"---happens to be within 2 days of Miss Margaret).  Stuart and Andrew share their March 12 birthdays but, ironically, have also shared a love-hate relationship this year in school.  Oh, the playground stories we hear!  That aside, Corie was kind enough to host the whole class for their end-of-the-year picnic. 

Drew's Mom, Meghan Silverstein, was kind enough to shoot for us all morning.  Here's a link to what she captured!  The remaining are shots from my phone.

https://picasaweb.google.com/silversteinfamily/FirstPresPicnic?authkey=Gv1sRgCJ25nrOT2Jb3zQE&feat=email#

View from the back of the Tasting Room and Event Room at King Family Vineyard.

Looking at Corie and Carrington's House from the barn.

What a house for the girls to grow up in !

Lining up for the class picture outside of the barn, where we saw the chickens (the remaining ones that haven't fallen prey to the coyotes) that provide the Kings with fresh eggs.   Yuummmmm.

Class Picture after feeding the foul - lots of "cheese"!

"Look at my new pants!"

There is just one single quote from this week, but it had me pathetically rolling on the floor.  Grandma was kind enough to send a new, real outfit (of which Andrew has ZERO since I do 95% of his shopping at consignment sales).  The child hardly new how to contain his excitement.  He opened up the matching shirt and shorts and while jumping (as he does), exclaimed, "Look!  New pants and they don't even have holes in them!!!!".  I kid you not!  Straight from his mouth. Now, in my defense they were new shorts, rather than pants, so of course they didn't have holes in them.  But he's right.  Every single pair of pants that he had this winter wore a hole just below the left knee.  It's no wonder the way he jumps/slides/falls, always on his left knee.  Most of them were Children's Place on sale for $6 the week before Christmas.  I refuse to give up on a deal like that!  So I had them all professionally patched, week by week, for another $6.  Well, you can guess how long that lasted. This was the only reason I was excited for our unusually warm March.  Then April had to come...unusually cold, of course. At least he never got a note sent home from school about needing new pants...or for wearing shorts when it was only in the 40's! 

When Daddy was out of town Saturday, we decided to do some birthday shopping at Barrack's Road (i.e. new work shirts from Jos. A Bank.) Since everyone was cooperating, we decided to stroll ALL the way down to Harris Teeter for their daily deals.  Of course a trip to HT means a cookie (making it the best grocery store EVER!).  Walking back, Andrew talks Margaret into giving him hers. The sweet girl obliges. Andrew took two big bites and said, "Look, Mom.  A boat!"  And by golly, look at that!  I should say he was right!

Chilling on the bench next door in Angel and Heather's yard...
perfectly pint sized for Margaret and Annabell (5 months older).

Margaret LOVES wearing her sunglasses, despite the hand grip here.

After a stunning 4 inhabited nests up under our deck last spring, I had not checked this year...though I suspected activity due to the flurry of birds on the deck this year snatching the last bit of coco liner from my empty window boxes, last year's attack on me and subsequent downfall of several babies that could not yet fly led me to leave well enough alone so far. But I finally got the nerve to grab the ladder and check. Would you believe I came down that very day to see TWO nests on the ground? 

I have no way of knowing what happened, but it can't be good when you see bits of light blue egg scattered around.

So sad.

I am always fascinated by the perfect insides of a nest.

One morning this week, a teary Andrew emerged from his room first thing because Daddy wasn't home to see how clean his room was.  We'd spent a good 20 minutes the night before carefully putting everything away. I should have thought to have Daddy come look then.

The best mail I've received all year - my 10" locks were successfully received and accepted for use in a real-hair wig for a cancer patient. I love how they phrase it....“Thank you for giving so selflessly to women who are faced with hair loss from cancer treatment. Your healthy ponytail will help give self confidence back to a special woman who is battling cancer so that she can fight the disease with a little more dignity….your donation will be joined with five others and transformed into a high quality, real-hair wig…”

Daddy's Birthday!

For the first time in the 2.5 years since we moved, Michael was able to work from home on a Thursday, which just happened to be his birthday!  It was mere coincidence, but how fortunate - Andrew was mighty excited to see Daddy more on his big day! 

As requested, nothing but chocolate. Andrew helped me make the decadent chocolate cake with chocolate drip icing.  I restrained myself from sprinkling some espresso or yummy liquor in - as promised, I kept it plain jane, chocolate cake.

Yep, there are 38 candles!  In light of recent events, we vow to be nothing but grateful for each birthday we are fortunate enough to celebrate here with our kids.

38 candles means you need help blowing them all out!

38 also means there is LOTS of smoke:)

Got 'em all!

Margaret's take on dozens of candles and smoke...and yes, she is sick:(  Poor girl is recovering from hand, foot & mouth disease that struck her cheeks worse than anywhere else.

Begging for more medicine, these cheeks actually look GREAT compared to the day before.  She was SO red and bumpy previously.

 On Daddy's birthday, little girl was looking immensely better, yet again!  The pig tails lasted about 30 minutes, so I had to snap some quick ones:)

What a look!

MY FAVORITE!

Andrew turned up with a fever exactly 48 hours after Margaret, but as I type, has dodged the rash....so far.  Fingers crossed!

 

Other March & April Moments

We are finally getting some “yes” out of Margaret, or “yeah” at least.  For probably 6 months now, "yes" had entailed her jaw ferociously opening and closing, but not a sound would ever squeak out.  Her "no" is just as violent.  A head shake back and forth so hard and fast you think she's going to make herself dizzy!  No progress yet on a verbal "no".  I think I'm okay with that one:) 

First trip to DOWNTOWN DC - The Discovery was just delivered to the Dulles Museum earlier that week and we really wanted to see that, but Thursday was some commemoration ceremony, so we headed downtown instead...always an adventure that is!  At least Andrew got to see some astronauts and the solar system.

Riding the metro with Em!

Holding hands after devouring her first street vendor hot dog.

Pleased as punch - cheese!

Settling into Alex's room before the sitter came on Friday (so I could head to the airport for Mike Vogel's wedding).  Do you think they were comfortable at Anne & Eric's house???

Mike Vogel's wedding in Naples - hopefully some pictures from the beautiful Miromar Lakes Beach and Golf Club will come soon.  But for now, this reception discussion (probably solving world peace!) will suffice:)

The happy, though blurry, couple.  Julie's reception dress was really fun!

Just as exciting as the wedding weekend (3am group hotel hottub adventures included), was that I managed NOT to kill Andrew's first science project while I was gone.  Instructions are to keep the jar half-filled with the water so that the pantyhose head can grow grass.  Note: the instructions did not say anything about losing an eye!  Natually, I forgot to ask the dog sitter to water the grass head, but look!  We had grass upon our return!!!  This, after telling Erin Bronson at the wedding that science projects are my biggest fear of the school years to come!

Being sweet

I won't type what my precious girl looks like, but it was funny that morning the way she was waltzing around the house with her VT ski cap barely on. 

What's your message to Margaret: "You're the best Margaret I've ever seen!"

"Apple"

Listen carefully….the jaw-dropping “yes”…. “cheese!”

Alphabet dancing…really, just a cute dress.

Special Memories this Week

Though Daddy has been away almost all week, we've actually done pretty well.  I'm not sure which of these three memories of Andrew this week would rank as my favorite:

1 - Gotta say, it melted my heart when he fully blessed Molly's dinner before giving it to her.  He went through the entire "God our Father" blessing while she sat on edge, shaking in anticipation.  We've been working on not teasing Molly with her food (or anything else) but how does one discourage blessing the meal?!?

2 - I'm overdue weeding the MASSIVE garden that we inherited.  I do not exaggerate.  It is 20' by 11'.  While the 3-4' weeds are actually quite beautiful right now, it's time for them to go. I learned the hard way last year that they will die overnight.  Shortly thereafter, I will get a nice note from the HOA with the box checked, "Mow left side yard to remain compliant with bylaws".  So while it's gorgeous now, the April showers hit this week, so I must strike while the iron is hot and weed while the ground is soft. 

Beautiful Flowers...hard to explain to Andrew why we have to pull them up.  We have had some good conversations about how things grow, though.  Trying to explain what "absorb" means is an interesting task!

The 3+' wall poses problems when littles ones want "to help".  But we found some good lettuce growing on the left!

Last week, I weeded by moonlight. I kid you not.  The moon was full, the sky was clear, and Michael was home to cover bedtime, so out I went.  This week, Michael has been on the road, so I've not been afforded the luxury of weeding alone. Andrew has blossomed into quite a helper, but the problem with our garden is the beautiful 3' wall that surrounds it, which of course my kids AND all of the neighbors' kids LOVE to walk and run on.  The rule is, no one on the wall or in the garden unless you're helping a grown up weed.  So Andrew decided he wanted to weed!  After putting Margaret down, he came out sporting his Toy Story PJs and helped me weed until almost 8:45pm!  A good 45 minutes past bedtime, he was thrilled to be doing grown up work and was tickled when Miss Tracey came out to help, too.  Can you say, "AWESOME NEIGHBOR"?!?  It was a great day for so many reasons:)  Lots of good conversations about nature and helping others.

Almost finished!  The trashcan is overflowing, so I'm just piling them up now. I don't know why I weed so that there is just a little patch left in the middle.

3 - Before naptime and bedtime, I let him choose whatever books he wants to read.  One day, he proudly marched to his bookshelf and declared, "I want a book that has God's Word in it.".  So he searched for the Bible and brought one to me requesting Jonah and the whale.  He's also been saying his own blessing often at meals.  A recent one was great, "Dear God and Jesus, Thank you for the earth and outer space. Thank you for watermellon and green beans and all that stuff.  Thank you for this food that Mommy made me.  AAAAmen."  And thank the good Lord that he still claps after EVERY blessing and exclaims, "Yeah!".  I hope he never, ever stops doing that! 

Vogel Wedding Weekend

Entrance to the stunning Miromar Lakes Beach and Golf Club

Loved the loung area there

Wished we had spent more time here during the reception!

Beautiful reception room

Stunning dress and bride...apparently she practically had the whole thing reworked...can't wait to see the original!

One happy lady:)

Mr. & Mrs. Michael Vogel

"The Way I Am"

I love it when couples really dance!

Love

The toasts - Michael shared the Dallas no-seatbelt cop warning story and begged Julie for any dirt she may be able to share in the coming years. Gavin, 10-yr-old Best Man, gave a lovely tribute to his Dad and step-Mom.  Aaron wrapped up with a tribute and blessed our delicious meal.

Afraid of what might be coming during the toasts

Thankful the roasting appears to be tame

Embarrassed all they could come up with was the warning from the cop in Dallas!

Mike's wedding present - authentic, Cal Ripken signed jersery

Ah, Frank Longwell. He sent a note to our table:  "Our table is talking about sex.  What about you guys?" 
True story.  Truly Frank.

Wish I had a picture of the kids on the dancefloor.  They all tore it up all night long....and they're all AWESOME dancers!

The perfect rainbow for the perfect reception

Ah, talented Cassie....double-fisted, purse, phone!

While the boys were off solving world peace or creating their latest business venture, Erin was my dinner date - how awesome is she at the left-handed photo???

Wedding weekend pack:)

Oh, the randomness of our late night outfits...casual jeans, wedding dress, Boss-wear, hot-tub attire!

First picture ever of the Bronsons, Vogels, and Killians!