Memorial Day & Hot, Hot, Hot & Pictures!

I like to set goals for myself.  When the weather starting getting hot in April, I absolutely refused to turn on the air conditioner.  I decided that we would wait until June.  This is the time of year when windows should be open to welcome the soft spring breezes (and, a time when we can even out our electric bill).  Unfortunately, on Friday the temperatures outside reached into the upper 80s and the ones inside weren't far behind.  I hated to do it, but I admitted defeat and turned on the air conditioning.  I set it at 76 and we waited for the house to cool.  And waited.  And waited.  It never happened.  The house got up to 84 degrees and just stayed there.  Optimistically, we let it run Friday night. On Saturday morning, Thomas noticed that there was a lot of moisture on the unit and since the house wasn't cooling, we turned the system off and called a repairman.   Unfortunately, the earliest he could come to check it was Monday (which was better than Tuesday, which is what I was bracing myself for).  Our new weekend goal became to spend as little time at home as possible.

On Saturday morning we went to a Sesame Street show on the base.  They gave the kids these light-up Elmo toys, and they were enthralled.  Jack hardly watched the show, he was so interested in his toy.     We then went to WalMart to buy some water guns. We also decided to buy a pool, something I thought about all last summer.  As we were putting the pool into the car, I noticed some small print indicating that homeowners should check local ordinances before installing.  So, when we got home we did a quick internet search, mainly to confirm that nothing was required for our little 3-foot pool.  Surprisingly, we learned that our county requires any pool with a water depth over 24 inches to have a permit.  It is a "walk-up permit," but still!  We briefly considered just putting the pool up and forgoing the legalities.  Chances are no one would ever know, but we are law-abiding folks and decided to just return it, rather than deal with the permit process.  In the end, it's probably for the best, it would have had to go in our front yard and that means a few drawbacks (away from the deck, playset and toys, less privacy, etc.).  To help the kids cope with the disappointment, we set up our slip and slide, baby pool, and sprinkler and had a water party in the backyard.  Then, we went to Domino's for pizza and had a pizza party complete with movie (Tangled) in the basement.  The basement always seems to be about 10 wonderful degrees cooler than the rest of the house--which hovered around 85 all day.

Sunday we went out to lunch because it was just too hot to cook.  We spent a lot of time in the basement, including a rousing time doing Dance Party Kids.  We were fortunate enough to have a previously scheduled dinner date with some good friends, which meant a fun night of fantastic food and games (although, I lost, so maybe the game wasn't so fantastic--obviously rigged in fact).

The air conditioner repairman came on Monday morning.  Our system was out of coolant.  $442 later we have a cool house!  Since he was done by 9, our whole day opened up.  We decided to cross the bridge and visit Washington's birth place.  It was really nice.  The kids were well-behaved and there was lots to see (especially considering it's free).  Thomas is really interested in history.  He doesn't read fiction, but he will choose a topic or person and immerse himself with books, including cds on tape; documentaries; historical site visits (when possible), etc.  Lately, his topic of choice has been the Revolutionary War, so visiting Washington's birthplace fit right in (other recent topics include the Alamo, President Lincoln and World War I--topics can take anywhere from a few months to years).  We also visited Yorktown a few weeks ago.

After the visit to Pope's Creek, we went to lunch at Horne's Restaurant--a place we have passed by many times on our trips to Norfolk and finally decided to try.  It is an old-school diner/gas station; we enjoyed it.  When we got home Thomas took on the kids in a water gun fight, while I tried to do some sewing.  For some idiotic reason, I got it in my head that I know enough about sewing that I could follow a simple pattern.  Unfortunately, I can't.  I promised Kara a Drizella costume (one of Cinderella's wicked stepsisters) for our trip to Disney and there is no way I can deliver.  I got to the point where it was time to put in sleeves (in other words, not very far) and had to give up.  I watched a bunch of YouTube videos and did some internet research, but I just can't figure it out.  It doesn't help that I didn't properly transfer markings when I cut the fabric.  I am not sure what we are going to do--I really wanted to make it for her and she was really looking forward to it, but it is also really beyond my capability.

It's been a while since I posted pictures (apologies to the grandparents!)--so here are plenty to make up for it.

Waiting for Sesame Street Live to start.

Kara all worn out.  This may be my favorite picture of all time.

Dancing away, there is a lot of space behind them, but they all crowd right in front of the tv.

Walking around the birthplace site.

Resting at the birthplace site.

The girls entertaining themselves during the 14-minute movie

Their favorite part of the birthplace--these phones.  They kept telling us, "hold on, I'm on the phone," even when we weren't talking to them.

Kara and Jack sharing a shake at Horne's.  We thought they'd take turns, but who has time for that?

At that concludes our weekend update.  In other news, Kara is completely potty trained!  She is even in underwear at night.  Thomas's grandmother continues to do well, for which we are very thankful.