Daddy Daughter Day

We're lucky that Orlando's job offers some flexibility for his day off. He's often able to to schedule days off to coincide with days that Anastasia doesn't have school, but the rest of the world is working, like parent teacher conference or teacher professional development days. We've taken to referring to these as Daddy Daughter Days.

Orlando usually tries to plan an activity for the two of them. Something that will get them out of the house and give Orlando a chance to treat his little girl to a fancy lunch. A couple weeks ago, it started, as it usually does, with a ride on the Metro. She was pretty excited.



Anastasia had put in a request for a visit to the "car museum" which is really the Smithsonian Museum of American History. It didn't take her long to find a computer.



Then she posed for pictures with several historical vehicles. Anastasia took over the camera to take a picture of Daddy in front of his favorite mode of transportation.



Then she posed for a picture with a typical commuter.



After the full tour of cars (and trucks, trains and motorcycles), Daddy took his little girl across the Mall to the carousel.



The day's last stop was a visit to 701 Restaurant. Orlando's workplace for many years, this is a favorite destination for special lunches. On this particular day, Anastasia enjoyed a poached 1/2 lobster, and Orlando indulged in tuna tartare and a glass of wine. A happy end to Daddy Daughter Day.

Cooking Lessons

Anastasia has always loved to help in the kitchen. She started by helping with Shake N' Bake, and quickly graduated to helping with cupcakes. Since then, she's moved on to cracking and scrambling her own eggs and helping gather ingredients as we start cooking. Now, she's interested in taking the next step in our lessons in the kitchen, learning how to cut the vegetables of our meals. Recently, when I decided to make beef stew, Anastasia was super excited to get to cut some of the veggies.

I cut the onion and the carrots, then put Annie to work on the celery while I prepared the meat. A few weeks ago, I started her cutting broccoli off the stem and I was sure she was ready to take the next step. She did a great job. Orlando was very excited when he saw the picture.



When she'd finished cutting all the celery, I'd finished browning the beef so it was time to get all the vegetables into the pan. Anastasia was ready to help again.



I know Orlando loves that she's so interested in food. Yesterday, as she was helping him make paella (which she loved when she got to taste it), he questioned what she might be cooking when she's in college. Clearly she's moved well past ramen at this point.

Disney on Ice: Princess Dreams

When I got an email offering 1/2 price tickets to Disney on Ice: Princess Dreams, I knew it was too good to pass up. Myney, Nathalie and Abby were all excited to go, too, so we were all set for a real girls night out. Anastasia wasn't really sure what was in store, but she was certainly excited when we walked into the arena and she saw that they had princess dresses on display.



Then she realized that there was a real live princess. She was pretty overwhelmed.



Abby and Nathalie were pretty surprised that the arena was offering valet stroller parking for the show. I thought it was pretty smart given that the target audience for this show was the toddler set.



When we got to our seats, Annie couldn't contain her excitement anymore.



Then the show started, and the smile disappeared. It was replaced by serious concentration. Abby and Nathalie bought her a light-up spinning magic wand (every bit as crazy as it sounds). Anastasia kept it spinning for the whole show.



My favorite part of the show was the dance of the flatware for "Be Our Guest" from Beauty and the Beast. While they were dancing, Abby, who writes a style blog that features "Thursday's Tabletop", was inspired to create a place setting Halloween costume.



The show lasted just under 2 hours, which meant it was well past Annie's bedtime when we left. Still, it was going to be a while before we could get on a Metro train, so we decided to take Annie's snow-cone and head for a glass of wine while we waited.



Not surprisingly, Annie crashed while we waited. Myney and I decided that it would be better to pay for a cab home rather than carry her on the crowded train. It was a very snuggly end to the night and I found myself thinking back longingly to the days when she wasn't quite so grown up.

Superbowl for the Dogs

While the Packers were working on the field, Anastasia and I were taking a break from healthy eating in favor of buffalo chicken dip and pita chips at Abby and Nathalie's. It wasn't a party really, Annie and I were the only guests, but it was a planned break from the healthy eating plan I've been on since the first of the year.

And, while the grown-ups watched the commercials, the half-time show and the game, Anastasia played with the dogs. When they were finished playing fetch, and chasing Annie around, it was time to show off their tricks in exchange for pita chips.

Roxy rolls over for treats:



Boston gives high-fives:



Roxy and Boston are very active little beagle mixes, and Abby and Nathalie are always thankful for the exhaustion that follows a visit with Anastasia. Sunday was no exception. Anastasia was pretty worn out from the playing, too.



Many thanks to the ladies for a very fun evening.

All photos courtesy of Nathalie Rothert.

Frosted Trees

Last year's snowy winter forced Myney and me to shovel our long sidewalk three times in 2 weeks. The memory of those three storms caused Myney to decide that her Christmas gift to Orlando and me would be a snowblower. We were happy to have it and eager to get to use it when a snow storm arrived the day after Christmas.

Sadly, that storm materialized only for areas north and east of DC and since then, we've had a relatively mild winter. That is until today, when a strong winter storm settled in over the region. It started as snow, then changed to rain, followed by sleet and ultimately heavy wet snow. The trees now look like they were dipped in frosting.



Snow is supposed to continue for another several hours. Anastasia's school and my work have already announce that they will open 2 hours late in the morning. And Orlando, who's home from work tomorrow, is looking forward to the inaugural snow blowing of our sidewalk.



Anastasia is just excited at the prospect of getting to use the sled she got for Christmas.

Texas Here We Come

On our second annual visit to Texas, Annie and I had what we thought was an excellent itinerary, with a flight that was scheduled to get us in at about 8:30. Unfortunately, a storm blanketed the East Coast, and we were pretty seriously delayed leaving Baltimore. This caused us to miss our connection in Charlotte. Luckily, there was a flight to Austin that evening that we could get onto. That flight was also delayed because our flight crew wasn't there. Anastasia was a trooper, but by about 10 pm, she was finished. She crashed on the floor of the terminal as we waited.



Finally, at about 11:15, it was time to get on the plane. The airline employees were wonderful, and helped me carry our bags to the plane while I carried her. She did not wake up, even when I put her down and made her walk the aisle on the plane.



I woke her up when we landed and she did a great job getting her suitcase out of the terminal to where Chris and Rob were waiting for us. I'm very lucky to have a brother and brother-in-law willing to drive more than an hour in the middle of the night to pick us up. We finally got to the house at almost 2:00 am. We crashed.

Next morning, it was time for the kids to open up the presents Annie and I had brought with us. By far the most popular of the presents was the Razor scooter that we'd brought for Andrew. All of the kids took turns on it over the course of the week. We had excellent weather so there was a lot of playing outside. Anastasia was in seventh heaven.



The Windcrest holiday lights competition was a fun diversion for us one evening. Anastasia was pretty excited to see the holiday lights, especially the house with it's lights synchronized to music they broadcast over the radio.



The still photo doesn't do it justice. Here's a video of the same house that gives a better look.



We spent the rest of the week relaxing and enjoying the family time. The week ended with the annual New Year's Eve party at the Osborne's, where once again, I came away with a booby prize in the white elephant gift exchange. Guess I have to go back next year to give it back again.

That was the end of our week in Texas. On New Year's Day, we were up very early and hopped on the early flight home. I won't lie, after a week away, I was ready to sleep in my own bed again.

Christmas Wishes Fulfilled

We altered the Christmas timeline a bit to accommodate Orlando's work schedule, so on what was just December 23rd to the rest of the world, we enjoyed our traditional Christmas Eve dinner of cheese and pate while presents got wrapped. I read Annie "The Night Before Christmas" and tucked her in so Orlando could work on assembling the big Santa presents (that she didn't technically ask for, but who's keeping track.)

Our Christmas morning (December 24) dawned with a very excited girl itching to go downstairs. She had promised to wake Orlando and me up first, but I'm pretty sure she peeked before coming to wake us. Once I was awake, Anastasia and I headed downstairs to see the Santa presents (which were all unwrapped), and start making our breakfast.

When the waffles were ready, Anastasia woke Orlando and we got down to the business of opening presents. Sadly, there were no cameras out for the present opening.

When the work was done, Anastasia dove right into playing with her new Barbie doll house and her new motorcycle. In the weeks that have followed, those remain her favorite toys. She's also taken a real liking to Connect 4, which makes Orlando very happy.

I've been pretty lazy in taking pictures of late, but they will come, I promise.