Thanks for Nothing, Facebook! A Good Reminder for Me.

Our neighborhood has a ladies only Facebook page. We use this page to give stuff away, alert each other to concerns (i.e. strange cars afoot, solicitors peddling vacuums, etc.), and lately--to complain. Kids are in yards they shouldn't be in, dogs are barking too much, unknown teenagers are playing basketball, etc. Some of it is valid, and should be addressed to the wide audience, but some of it could be addressed in person privately. I myself was guilty of an infraction last week when I asked if anyone else was being bothered by barking dogs.

Then, yesterday, I became a "victim". Our back yard shares a border with 4 different yards. One of these yards has two puppies that keep escaping. The first time this happened (that we are aware of) we were inside eating breakfast when the kids saw them in our yard. We stopped what we were doing and spent about 40 minutes chasing them down, getting in touch with the owners and making sure they were okay. The next time it happened, we were all outside. My kids were playing with some other kids on our playset. Another neighbor had stopped by to chat with her dog on a leash. None of the kids were interacting with the dogs, and we were not anywhere near the fence, but the excitement was just too much and her dogs worked their way out. Again, we gave chase and returned them. The third time, we weren't even home. The fourth time the kids were in the backyard (again, not interacting in anyway with the dogs). Another neighbor chased them down. 

Yesterday, my kids were in the backyard when the dogs came outside. Kara ran over to their fence and started talking to them. My kids are guilty of occasionally doing this, however, it only began after they spent all that time chasing them and it doesn't happen frequently. Thomas saw what she was doing and remarked that we would need to talk with the kids about leaving the dogs alone, since we don't want to entice them to escape.

Fifteen minutes later, my phone starts going off with text messages asking what was going on and telling me to check Facebook. The owner of the dogs posted a message on the page stating that the reason her dogs keep getting out is that the kids in our yard are calling them and pulling on the fence. She asked that parents talk to the children who play in that yard and stated she had "picture evidence." I was livid! I immediately responded that I would talk with my kids, but I pointed out that there are holes in the fence where the kids don't go (we all border a little pond and one area of her fence borders a very tall weed line adjacent to the pond where no kids play); that the dogs have escaped when no kids are present; and that I have personally seen the dogs get out when the kids were not interacting with them in any way. I didn't mention this, but Thomas also pointed out that all the houses we border have dogs and none of them escape. The previous owner of her house had dogs, they never got out. We both felt it was very unfair of her to blame their behavior on our children.

I spent the evening fuming. How dare she publicly shame my family? Why couldn't she just knock on my door and talk to me? Or, why not talk to the kids instead of taking pictures? She could have even sent a text, she had my number from the times I tracked her down to let her know her dogs were out. The kids were also mad, they promised that they have never "pulled on her fence." I believe them, because we are generally with them and Thomas had witnessed the same incident they saw that led to the post (an assumption based on the timing). However, they were guilty of talking to the dogs, which was a valid point to be addressed. 

After I was done fuming, I thought about it from her perspective. They are stressed because their dogs keep getting out. Another neighbor told her that people were threatening to call animal control. She sees my kid standing at the fence talking to the dog. It is a fair assumption. But, we have been friendly with this neighbor, their daughter (who is only 3 or 4) occasionally comes into our yard to play. There was no reason she couldn't have addressed it to me personally. Facebook and other electronic conveniences have made it easy to avoid human interaction, and this has lead to hurt feelings and anger (on both sides, I am guessing).

After an evening of reflection, I recognized the times I have been guilty of something similar, like my passive aggressive post about barking dogs. And, this was a reminder for me to personally do better. At one point in my younger years I was the victim of a vicious rumor. Like most gossip, there was a kernel of truth, but the story that got told eventually far exceeded the actual offense. At that point, I swore that I would never take part in gossip. I would actively avoid hearing it and I would never spread it. My further reflection showed that I am not as vigilant as I once was and that I need to do better. I understand where my neighbor was coming from and I am hoping the matter is resolved. I wish I had taken a higher road by simply knocking on her door and addressing it personally. With time, cooler heads will generally prevail and I should have waited. Hopefully, there will not be a next time, but if there is, perhaps I will be reminded of this and handle things better.

So, this is my public posting of frustration and realization. ;)

The Election of 2016

This post will probably be a little bit unusual for me. I tend to write about our every day lives as a way to memorialize moments for our family. However, I think one day my kids (and maybe an older me) will enjoy reading how I felt about other topics,so occasionally I branch out. Like today.

My mom was a pretty political person. In her college years, she was a staunch Democrat who campaigned for JFK. She grew a bit more conservative as she got older, but always enjoyed a good debate. I remember my first Presidential election in 1996, I was the only kid still at home and my parents and I were a house divided. The three of us cancelled each other out when one of us voted for Clinton, one for Dole and another for Perot. I enjoyed our spirited dinner conversations and the excitement of voting in my first election.

I haven't missed a Presidential election since. Some of my votes have been mailed in, thanks to military service. And, I didn't always vote in the the "lessor" elections, mainly because I felt out of touch being a resident of one state while living and working in another. This most recent election was the only one that (literally) kept me awake at night. I honestly could not fathom supporting either candidate. I wanted to like Donald Trump, I did like that he wasn't a career politician (although, some political experience would have been nice). But, I felt like he was also a misogynistic, despicable person. He lost me sometime in the summer after one too many awful comments. In my opinion, Hillary Clinton was only slightly better. I did not believe she was a good Secretary of State, I found the e-mail scandal horrendous (I knew people taken to NJP for less serious infractions involving classified material) and found many of the dealings of the Clinton Foundation morally questionable. So, what's a person to do? In the end, I voted for neither. However, I was hoping Clinton would win. To me, she was the lessor of two evils. I thought a Clinton Presidency would mean 4 more years of an administration similar to President Obama, which I could live with and then we could try again with two new, better candidates in 2020.

Thomas and I watched the news reports on election night together until about 10pm, when I went to bed. It looked as though Trump was going to win Florida and I just knew that was going to be the beginning of the end. Thomas was 100% certain that Clinton was going to win. He came up to bed at 2am and I awoke to ask the outcome. He told me, in a rather incredulous manner, that Donald Trump was to be our 45th President. I couldn't sleep for the rest of the night. I laid awake and thought about what this meant for our country. Although I am a registered Republican, there are some issues where I definitely lean Democratic--climate change probably being the biggest. I thought about what this meant for the Earth. I thought about what this meant for the United States internationally, and of course I thought about how it would effect the everyday lives of Americans here in our own country. None of my thoughts were pleasant.

In the following days, when I read who Trump was considering for the leaders in his Presidency, it read like a veritable Who's Who of the (Republican) Politicians I least admire--Rudy Guiliani, Chris Christie and Newt Gingrich. I told Thomas the only way it could be worse was if we threw in Sarah Palin, which they did the next day. Of course, nothing is set in stone, as the cabinet is still to be determined.

However, now that we are almost a week removed, I am choosing to be positive. It is beyond my control and I refuse to wallow in misery for the next four years. I obviously do not wish for President Elect Trump to fail. Rather, I hope that somehow he will miraculously unite our country and bring us 4 good years. Although many would say I am being foolish, I can't believe it is any more foolish than if you had told me, or anyone else for that matter, a year ago that he would actually be elected.

On a lighter note, the older kids were really invested in the election. We took them with us to vote and they wanted to hear about all the issues, they were very interested in people's different political stances and we had a hard time getting Jack to understand that it wasn't polite to ask people who they were voting for. We tried to lay out the positions of each side and play devil's advocate with a variety of positions. We also tried not to talk about it too much, although I think we failed in this regard. Luke could actually recognize Donald Trump on t.v and would say, "it's DonalShrump" when he saw an ad. He also said it when seeing the weatherman, newscasters, and others, so thankfully, his recognition isn't 100%.

In conclusion, this is not meant in a derogatory way to those who think differently than I do. I respect the opinions of my friends and families and accept that reasonable minds can differ.

Halloween

We had a lot of fun on Halloween. Luke had his party at school and enjoyed going trick-or-treating at Dean Lumber. He made an incredibly cute lion (I had forgotten he was also a lion for his first Halloween--whoops!).

When the kids got home from school, they put on their costumes and we went to a neighbor's house for another Halloween party. They had some fun games set up and lots and lots of good food. It was nice to do a potluck and not have to worry about dinner, particularly trying to make a creative Halloween dinner. I made deviled eggs with spooky olive spiders on them. They were good, but definitely not the highlight. My Australian neighbor made some delicious pavlova, which I had never had before. There was also pulled pork, corn dogs, chick-fil-a nuggets, chips and guacamole, and so much other food. One neighbor made amazing spooky chocolate covered pretzels. They actually had different colors worked in and I can't imagine the time involved. You can see where my head is at that I feel the need to list out the food and not specifically discuss anything else.

We left there just before 6 to prepare for trick-or-treating. As per tradition, Jennifer, Chris and Jacob joined us. We set out our candy bowl and walked the neighborhood. We brought Luke's umbrella stroller so he could easily climb in and out. However, he was not interested! He walked the entire neighborhood (just over a mile) without ever complaining or appearing the least bit tired. He loved going to each house and holding out his bag. He would proudly say, trick-or-treat, thank you and Happy Halloween to everyone who put something in his bag. He was adorable. After we finished at the last house, which was right next door to ours, he saw our house and said, "I'm ready to go home," which was good, because we had gone to every house! After eating a few pieces of candy, he enjoyed handing out candy to the people who rang our doorbell until we finally turned our light off at 8.  Let me say that trick-or-treaters get a bit more sketchy as the evening goes on. Right before I turned off our light, there were a few adults who didn't even bother with costumes. Not even teenagers. It was a little bizarre.

So Halloween was a massive success. It was the funnest Halloween I can remember. We did a lot of great activities and all our kids were totally into it. Kara was the only one who wanted to make her costume and she and I had a good time coming up with a plan and executing her "gumball machine" vision. We all had an afternoon of fun making haunted houses for our "Halloween Village" and we  carved some awesome pumpkins. Halloween may find itself rising close to the top of my favorite holidays list if we can roll this momentum into next year. Of course, Halloween has a short shelf-life, once the kids outgrow the activities, it will fall right back down the rung.

We actually had 6 carved pumpkins, one for each of us.

Fall, This and That

Fall weather has arrived and it is so wonderful. I love when we can turn off the air conditioning and open our windows. The kids have been anxious to get outside after school and have had fun playing with their neighborhood friends. We have been encouraging as much outside time as possible, knowing that the end of daylight savings is rapidly approaching and it will be dark super early soon.

We have engaged in some Fall festivities. Luke had his first "field trip" to Forest Hall Farms. I use the term loosely, because parents had to attend. But, we had a good time. Luke was his normal chatterbox self and his teacher remarked that she's never heard him speak so much, apparently he is very "quiet and cuddly" at school. Give him time, ladies... Now, he refers to all farms as pumpkin farms, which I love (especially since he has stopped calling all spiders "spider-man" and anything with Mickey Mouse "Mickey Mouse Clubhouse").

One really fun activity we did was trick-or-treating on the Dove at St. Mary's City. We got there about 30 minutes after the event started and the line was loooonng. We waited close to an hour. The kids made good use of the time, going to the craft tables and having fortunes told. Thomas and I were getting a bit frustrated at the long wait (particularly with trying to keep Luke entertained), but it was totally worth it! The good thing about being in line so long was it was dark by the time it was our turn and it definitely added to the fun. The decorations on the Dove were awesome and everyone was so friendly. You can tell they are history people, because they all recognized that Jack was a Union soldier. He had his spiel ready for anyone who asked about his costume and would proudly recite his regiment and offer a salute. They also had some games on the dock and we had a great time. One of the people asked Luke what he should say and Luke looked at him blankly, so the man prompted, "say trick-or-treat, Lion" and Luke responded with (you guessed it, I'm sure): "trick-or-treat Lion." After the experience Luke is sold on trick-or-treating and loves Halloween!

On Sunday, we went to Fall fun days at Mount Vernon. It was really nice, they were demonstrating all kinds of stuff, from weaving to boat building. They also had an amazing living history interpreter at the slave cabin. She never broke character! Someone asked about what happened after George Washington died and she yelled at him, "what do you mean died? He's walking down there by the river, just came and bought some eggs from me." It was very interesting (and sad) to learn more about the day to day lives of the slaves. No one wanted to leave and we enjoyed several hours outside in the farm area.

NPS was out in honor of their 100th Anniversary. The girls completed an activity and received small trophies. They also added their thumbprints to the NPS board.

Luke ran through their maze dozens of time, he'd run through, come out, yell "do it again" and go back. Meanwhile, the girls explored a nearby tent where they heard all about cooking in the 1700s.

After Mount Vernon, we headed to Six Flags. It was a beautiful day and we were really enjoying being outside. They had some fun fall activities, including a small hay bail maze and a spooky trick-or-treat trail. They gave the kids tons of candy, about 5x what they were given when they did the trail at the Six Flags in New Jersey. Everyone had a good time, but we didn't stay too long. It was a busy day!

Bugs wandered over to be in their picture. I loved that the characters were in costume.

Today (Friday) the kids celebrated the last day of Red Ribbon Week with a book character parade. It is quite the charade. Even the teachers drop the pretense and come dressed as things like M&Ms. Of course, there are many who are actually book characters. Among the many princesses and Darth Vaders, we saw some Pete the Cats, Fancy Nancys, Diary of a Wimpy Kid (don't know his name), Alice in Wonderlands, etc. Anna and Jack dressed in their Halloween costumes, but their costumes are actually represented in their favorite books. Anna was a veterinarian, her favorite books are Puppy Place and feature a vet. Jack was a Union Civil War soldier and brought along his favorite book--A Savage Thunder, which is about the Civil War. Kara wore a legit book costume, Anna's book character from last year--Little Miss Chatterbox. Of course, we have lost the Little Miss Chatterbox book, so she brought in a copy of Little Miss Neat. Luke's preschool is doing their Halloween activities on Monday, so stay tuned!

In other news, Kara's cheernastics class ended and she has not signed up for anything else. It has made our schedule more relaxed and we are enjoying the reprieve. She liked doing floor gymnastics at our local dance studio, but they moved about 25 minutes away from our house and Kara did not want to be in the car that long. The gymnastics center just wasn't as fun for her. Anna is doing a children's chorus. They rehearse very close to our house, so it is easy to simply drop her off and pick her up once a week. She has indicated that she wants to try soccer again. I think she has forgotten how unhappy she was playing, but if she is still interested in the Spring, soccer may be in our future again. Jack is doing another round of machine pitch baseball and says he plans on playing baseball forever!

Great Wolf Lodge

On Thursday we told our kids there was a two-hour delay. We had a leisurely breakfast and around 9 we gathered the kids and asked, "how about instead of going to school today, we go to...Great Wolf Lodge?!?!?!" They were thrilled! They jumped up and down and squealed and raced to get their car bags packed. We threw our suitcases in the van and headed off (discussing on the way the difference between a lie and a surprise).

We had lunch at Chick-Fil-A and checked in. Our room was ready, so we quickly dropped off our bags, changed and went to the water park. The other surprise for the kids was that several of our neighbors were joining us. Jack was thrilled when he saw Kolten, who lives across the street from us. He is only in PreK, but he and Jack love to have lightsaber battles and rough-house. Unfortunately, none of their school-aged friends joined us (one family was supposed to, but their son got stitches a few days before departure and was told he couldn't get them wet for 10 days). They enjoyed playing with the other kids. We rode all the slides and even took Luke on the family water raft. Unfortunately, he did not like it. He actually grew more timid as our time there went on. He loves the slides attached to the giant kid structure, but hated the water bucket dropping on him. They also have a water feature that lets people drop a trough of water on you on your way to the slides. I don't know why people thought it was funny to scare a 2-year old, but they did. So, Luke eventually decided it wasn't worth the risk and gave up all slides except the ones in the baby pool.

The birthday kids

All the kids!

Back to Thursday, for dinner we went to Cracker Barrel, which was good. Then, we stopped at Walmart to pick up food for Friday's breakfast and lunch. When we returned to GWL, we met up with our friends and did the trick-or-treat trail (really short, but good candy), and looked for all the hidden peeps. Then, we saw the clock tower show in the lobby, followed by the bedtime story. Luke took one look at the clock tower and decided he wasn't interested, so Thomas put him to bed and I stayed with the older three. Finally, it was time for bed.

With a few of our friends.

Friday, we went back to the water park in the morning. Then, we decided to visit the Virginia Air and Space Museum. It was really cool. It had lots of interactive exhibits that were fun for all of us, including an AirTran DC-9 that you could climb around in and attempt to "fly". The kids loved the children's area, where they could design and build a rocket, see video of the sun, dress-up in astronaut suits and experience lots of other exhibits. We had a great time. In fact, they were working on a new exhibit that had lots of fun looking "games" and the kids all want to go back when it opens.

Flying the DC-9

Kara drew out her plan on paper and then executed this design.

Cutouts!

We drove to the Yankee Candle Flagship store, a must-visit place anytime we go to Williamsburg. Then, it was Olive Garden for dinner and back to GWL for some more pool time. We put the kids to bed around 8:30. Thomas stayed with the kids and I went and relaxed in the hottub with one of my friends until the park closed, then we met up with our other friends and chatted for an hour or so. It was really nice.

Santa was hanging out in the Christmas area at Yankee Candle. The kids had to write down if they were naughty, nice or in-between. J & K put "nice" and A wrote her name in the "in-between" column.

Saturday, we went to the waterpark in the morning and then headed to Jack's favorite place--Yorktown. First, we had lunch at one of our favorite places--The Carrot Tree. Although, it no longer has the historic atmosphere since it switched locations, it now has an outdoor eating area that makes it easy to take the kids. Luckily, they were having a children's festival in the town area, so the kids got to make crafts while we waited for our food. We walked around the festival a bit more after lunch and everyone had a good time.

It was a beautiful day!

Then, it was off to the battlefield. We watched the orientation film (one of the better ones we've seen, so we enjoy watching it when we visit) and then looked around the visitor's center and gift shop. It was getting late, so we decided to forgo walking the battlefield. We were there on October 16th and the famous storming of the redoubts took place on the evening of October 15th, so it was fun to see everything how it would have looked when we won that very important battle (thanks France!).

This picture represents from our car forward. In just this one half of one row, 14 different states were represented! We love it when others love history:)

I will conclude with one last picture of a sweet, sleeping Jack:

Jack and Anna turn 9!

On Monday, October 3, Anna and Jack celebrated their ninth birthday. We work hard to make birthdays special around here, so of course, there was no exception for our resident twins. Naturally, we lead up to the big day with lots of discussions about their birth story and clicking through hundreds of baby pictures on Shutterfly.

The actual day began with a leisurely breakfast of pancakes and sausage. They donned their birthday buttons and I drove them to school. Thomas came home so that we could surprise them together for lunch. They knew I would be there, but they weren't expecting their dad. He's the fun one (who pretends to be a snooty waiter when we have lunch with them, so they and their tablemates were thrilled). They handed out small cupcakes to their classmates and proclaimed that they were having a great day so far.

Aren't they cute? Luke was a bit jealous of the attention (and tried insisting it was his birthday, hence his sort of inclusion in this photo).

After school, we made sure to have their current favorite snack on hand--soft pretzels. We also let them open their birthday gifts. Their main gift is a trip to Great Wolf Lodge (stay tuned, they don't know when we are going...) We let them skip homework and go straight out to play. Finally, it was 5:30 and the Darrows came over. It was our month to host dinner, so we invited them to join us for the kids' birthday dinner. Jack wanted pizza and Anna wanted cheese fondue. Cheese fondue seemed difficult to finagle with so many people, so we had Jack's dinner with Anna's cake. For her cake, she wanted a "fall theme with at least one animal." I made some chocolate trees and bought some candy bears to stick on. It was not my best cake, Anna said she liked it, but it was not her favorite, which was a fair assessment.

I totally forgot to get a picture! Here is a half-eaten tree (just picture longer branches) on the last piece of cake.

We had dinner, the kids played, then we had our cake. It was a very pleasant day. The kids were appreciative of our efforts and both of them (separately and unprovoked) thanked us for making the day so special for them!

On Saturday, we had Anna's meal and Jack's cake. As mentioned, Anna wanted a cheese fondue. Jack tried really hard to talk her out of it, insisting we should only have cheese fondue on New Year's Eve to keep it special. But, she was immovable, and obviously Thomas and I had no objection. So, we had our cheese fondue, followed by Jack's Civil War themed cake. We followed it up with a family movie night and concluded the second birthday celebration. And, because we love to drraaaaaggggg birthdays out, we still have Great Wolf Lodge to come.

No Wilson cheese fondue is complete without at least 4 different kinds of bread.

Jack LOVED his cake, he even proclaimed it his favorite one ever! I felt like it was cheating because it had inedible parts. But, it was really fun to make.

Philadelphia Trip, Day 3

Everyone was awake early again on Sunday morning. We had our hotel breakfast and then headed to our first destination--Monmouth Battlefield. The land was bought by the State of New Jersey and it was our first time visiting a Revolutionary Battlefield that was a state park and not a National Park. However, it was extremely well-preserved and very beautiful. We walked around the visitor's center, saw a short film and then explored outside for a little bit. While exploring we walked down a huge hill, across a bridge, through a bit of a corn field and then back over another bridge. While walking this path, we came across an area with thousands of grasshoppers. It was the strangest thing, they were just bouncing off our legs as we walked. Unfortunately, I did not get a picture, but it was very weird.

Can you find something that doesn't quite belong in this picture???

Another beautiful battle site, almost seems wrong that all these places are so pretty.

Then, it was off to Six Flags Great Adventure. Our season passes are good at all Six Flags, so it seemed like a good way to spend part of our last day. Since it was off-season and a Sunday, we did not expect it to be crowded. However, by our standards it certainly was! We got into the park shortly after they opened at 11 (it was only a few minutes from Monmouth) and headed straight for the Safari. They have one of the largest drive-through Safaris outside of Africa. The tour actually lasted 45-minutes, which was much more than we expected. We saw some amazing animals, including the world's most adorable baby giraffe--only two weeks old!! It was a good time of year to visit, because there were several baby animals, but the giraffe was everyone's favorite.

After the tour, Kara decided she wanted to try out a small roller coaster, unfortunately, she hated it. Jack and Anna (and Thomas and I) love roller coasters, but Kara hates "big hills." This roller coaster (I use the term loosely) didn't have any big drops, but it was fast and loud. We rode a few kid rides, as Luke was about to mutiny, and then had our lunch. Then, we went on a ride that was actually fun for everyone, the Parachute Training Center.  It lifts you 250 feet into the air and then you slowly come back down. 250' is really high! I sat with Jack and Luke and was really nervous for Luke (and kept a tight grip on him!), but he did fine. It was our first family ride that had a bit of a thrill.

Anna is a little nervous about heights, but she decided she wanted to give it a try anyway.

On the trick-or-treat trail. They actually got some good candy.

Luke did not like this ride. He was very scared and we felt terrible! He's extremely daring, but usually he has a big sibling or parent next to him.

The lines were long for the major attractions, so Thomas and I had to skip the big rides. They actually have the fastest and tallest coaster in North America and Thomas really wanted to ride. Next time! He and Jack did ride one stand-up roller coaster, which reinjured Thomas' head. It was his first day headache free and the bumpy coaster ruined that for him. We should have known better when there was no wait for that particular coaster (they have something like 13 roller coasters). In contrast, the one we had heard was really good had an hour wait.

The kids rode several more rides, we had dinner and left around 6. The haunt people were starting to arrive, which meant it was time for us to depart. The drive home was (thankfully) uneventful and everyone was in their own bed by 10. The park is a lot bigger than our usual Six Flags, but it was also much more crowded. Their "light" day was comparable to a fairly busy day at the Maryland park. There were more (and better) rides and better food selections in New Jersey, but our park is just right for our family, although, I do hope to visit the New Jersey park again to ride some of the coasters that we missed on this visit.

Overall, it was a great trip. It wasn't fun that Thomas spent so much of it in pain, but he is a trooper and pushed through with nary a complaint. With a few exceptions, the kids were great and got along well. I can't wait to go back!