Spring Break Days 3-5: Disc golf and the zoo

Days 3 and 4 were spent hanging out with Dad which meant at least one round of walking through the woods (disc golf) with him. On day 5 we joined our friends the Napoleons for a trip to the zoo and a chance to be out enjoying the beautiful weather. Maren was so excited to see each of the animals but I think her favorite thing was feeding the goats. Whitney enjoyed being with her friends. After our hike around the zoo we headed to Doumar's Diner for some ice cream. This place has been around since 1904 and the original owner was the inventor of the ice cream cone on Coney Island. We got to watch one of the grandsons make ice cream cones on the original machine while we were there. The sign above the machine reads "This is the WORLD'S FIRST CONE MACHINE still in use today, it was used in 1905 at Coney Island N.Y. by Abe Doumar inventor of the ice cream cone & this machine."

Spring Break- Day 2: Childrens Museum

Things got a little busy right after spring break but I'm going to attempt to get caught up on our activities during spring break. Day 2 of spring break we decided to head over to Portsmouth to check out the children's museum there. They are getting ready to do a large renovation and expansion this fall so some exhibits weren't working properly but the girls had a great time. I think the favorite areas were the bubble room and the slide area. In the bubble room they had a couple tables with various instruments to blow bubbles with and then had two stands that you could make large bubble columns that you could stand inside. The was also a play town where you could visit and play pretend in various businesses. At the end of the day we saw a show in the planetarium. Whitney is now an expert at identifying Orion's belt when the stars are out at night.

Jonas Owen Dahle...

We're excited to announce the arrival of our little guy. Jonas was born on 14 April at 1:24 am. He was supposed to wait another day or two to come until my friend and doctor returned from vacation but decided to come on his own time table. In fact, he came so quickly that the doctor on call didn't make it there in time and the nurse got to deliver him. He weighed in at 7 lb. 14 oz. and is 20.5" long. The girls are ecstatic about baby brother's arrival and love to give him lots of attention. We're grateful to have this sweet little guy in our home!

Spring Break- Day 1: VA Aquarium

Since Whitney was on spring break this last week we tried to get out for an adventure each day to have some fun and help Mom keep her sanity. Monday, we joined our friends the Napoleons down at the Virginia Aquarium. The girls enjoyed seeing the seals, stingrays, sharks, and otters. Whitney said her favorite part was seeing the seals kissing. We had fun seeing the exhibits but the place was crowded that day and it didn't help that a third of it was under construction and the place was poorly designed to manage the traffic flow of people. This made it difficult to maneuver through with the strollers. It was also pouring rain so we were unable to check out the nature walk through the swamp areas. We had a fun time regardless and the kids were especially excited about the lunch stop at McD's with the play place (shh, don't tell Dad as he has boycotted McD's!)

After naps that afternoon we pulled out the hard boiled eggs to decorate for Easter. I think the girls fingers ended up as colorful as the eggs but they had fun coloring and dyeing the eggs.

The neighborhood bike pump...

We've decided that we own the only bike pump in our entire community of 1oo townhomes. You would think that when the parents of the 30 or more kids riding bikes purchased that bike they would think to buy a pump but that doesn't seem to be the case. They ride the bike until the tires are flat and then it is useless to them. That was until the kids figured out that there is this nice family that owns a bike pump and will pump up their tires for them. It's pretty much a given that on a nice day especially after its been cold for awhile and they haven't been riding that at least one kid will stop by to get their tires pumped up. Just this afternoon we pumped up 8 tires. It's pretty funny when a kid knocks on our door the first time as they are scared to death to ask us not knowing what to expect but perk right up when their friend says "See I told you they were nice!" We're just glad to that we can contribute to the kids being involved in a worthwhile activity and being out getting some exercise.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

We've been having a fun time making green treats and dressing in green to celebrate St. Patrick's Day. Yesterday at playgroup everybody got to bring green treats to share and they made a pot of gold for the craft. Today we started off with green eggs, yogurt, grapes, and milk along with bacon instead of ham for breakfast. For lunch they also got green grapes and the green jello jigglers they made yesterday. Whitney wore her leprechaun hat to school today. On the way home she wanted to go looking for the pot of gold but unfortunately there were no rainbows today. Hope you all have wonderful green celebrations today!

Snow to Sun...

We started off the week with school being cancelled and being able to enjoy a real snow day. The girls had fun building a snowman, throwing snowballs at Daddy, and playing in the snow. It wasn't great packing snow and there was only a couple inches so it was a little snowman but they enjoyed it nonetheless. However some not so nice neighborhood kids stomped it later in the day while we were out running errands :( Jump to the end of the week and we're out at the playground running around in t-shirts, shorts, and sandals enjoying the temps in the 70's. It was nice to go for a long walk as a family this evening. Unfortunately, it's supposed to be back in the 30's and 40's by the end of the week but we'll enjoy the great weather while it lasts!