Welcome to our Wingert World: March 2012

Monday, March 26, 2012

Jenna's BIG day

The day Jenna had been dreaming of for so long... We took her to get her ears pierced on Sat (part of her bday gift). She was SO excited. And it looks really cute. She is being super responsible about cleaning her ears and caring for them. That's one reason we've made the girls wait until they were 10ish.

Friends

One of Claire's best friends, Rachel, a real sweetie. Sadly, Rachel's parents are planning to move to Frederick (and thus switch schools) this summer.

Spring Musical

Thursday was the 1st-3rd grade spring musical. Claire's in the front, purple shirt.

I played piano for the whole thing-- fun challenge again, it had been a few years since I've done that. Made for an extremely busy week, tho.

Friday, March 23, 2012

Birthday Time

Jenna's birthday was last Saturday-- TEN years old! Because Gpa and Papa also have bdays so close, she's almost guaranteed to share a party with one or both of them, depending on if my parents are here or not. This time, Gpa got the gift he's always been wishing for/talking about... A NECKTIE! :) JK-- the silly tie was just a joke. We also gave him a quartet CD.

Claire gave Jenna several gifts-- and was so happy to prepare them/give them. Sweet.

I don't have a pic of this present, but you can see what kind of response we got when she opened it! SO thrilled! The gift was we're going to take her to get her ears pierced. Planning to do it tomorrow. She's been badly wanting this for more than a year, I think.

I really should tell you about the wrapping, tho. I had asked Katie to wrap something that told Jenna she would be getting her ears pierced. Katie wrapped one of those everlasting presents (several boxes inside each other)-- all the way down to a teeny card. :) Was great!

Jenna also got several fun gifts from Gpa and Gma-- earrings, robe, nail polish.

And this terrific cake! Who can top this? Anita made it-- adorable cookie penguins, igloo made out of ice cream, edible glitter that made the "snow" sparkly.

Plus, it tasted great!

Do they look like sisters?

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JENNA!

DC Day

Last week on spring break, 4 of us took a day trip to DC. Micah went to Cathy's (thank you, Cathy!!) and Claire went to Gma and Gpa's for her bday. :)

We really had a great day, in spite of the dreary weather that day. Plus, there was lots of construction, so our photos are definitely not calendar-worthy.

We had fun, and it was good for Katie and Jenna to really see those places. It makes us want to go back! We'd like to do the Air and Space Museum and a few other things-- maybe when Micah's a little older.

First time we had seen the World War II memorial-- really well done. However, we've heard that in nice weather, the fountain/pool is too inviting for kids. No one was wanting to play in it the day we were there, but the signs don't stop people on the hot days. They have to have veterans patrolling the area.

One great part of the day was enjoying the spring colors around us! The magnolias were blooming and the cherry trees were starting. Gorgeous!

Fun looking at Abe's pupils. Interesting how they do that on a sculpture. :)

The whole reflecting pool had been drained and was under construction. That definitely put a damper on the beauty. Not that there would have been many reflections that day, tho, anyway.

The new Martin Luther King Jr memorial. Very creatively done.

We walked past the Washington Monument, got a glimpse of the White House, saw the WWII memorial, saw the Vietnam Memorial, saw the Lincoln Memorial, saw the Korean War Memorial, saw the MLK Memorial. Then we did the American History museum and the Archives.

We did a LOT of walking. The girls and I wore pants and sweatshirts, but Chad was banking on the forecast that said it was supposed to be mid to upper 70's. One forecast had even said 80 in the afternoon. Well, it hardly hit 60. Foggy and damp in the morning; rainy and damp in the afternoon. Chad was cold. And Jenna thought she was about walked out.

A very pretty color arrangement that looked better in person.

Jefferson's "Bible"-- he cut and pasted (literally) Scripture verses into his own scrapbook. All verses from the life of Christ, but we couldn't really figure out an order to them. Not exactly sure what was going on in his head. I'd like to ask him!

Girls and I really enjoyed seeing the dresses of the first ladies. Chad wasn't so into that part. :) A little later, he browsed in the transportation section while we rested on a bench-- we weren't so into that part.

The dresses were very interesting. And interesting how they made the manikins to look so much like the person-- Michelle Obama's had the color of her skin; one first lady from many years ago (can't remember which one) was very tiny; and Barbara Bush was obviously bigger than all the others there.

National Archives. Waited in a fairly long line, but it didn't take as long as you'd think. We had recently watched National Treasure, so we figured the girls had better see the Declaration of Independence for real.

We rode the MARC train there from Brunswick. (about an hour from our house?) On the way home, we got a double-decker train. Chad took this pic from the upper level.

The top level was just one seat wide-- we all went up there and sat in some seats that faced into the middle of the train.

2 of our beautiful girls!

Train station

We did ride the Metro for a bit in DC as well. The MARC took us right to Union Station where we could switch to the Metro.

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Goofy kids

Micah's gotten into playing Bop It. He's really good! This morning he made it up to 47.

This is the REAL Claire. :)

Jenna took a pic of herself. Nutty kids!

The Woods

For our spring break, Chad planned a lot of fun activities for the family. He reserved a room at The Woods (Berkeley Springs) for 3 nights (for the price of 2 since it's off-season). So, we rotated people in that room (capacity 4). The first night, Micah and Daddy went. Chad's pretty sure Micah thought they were actually going to sleep IN the woods, by some trees, with their sleeping bags-- still had fun, tho. :) There's a nice play area for Micah to enjoy.

The next night, Chad and I went alone-- nice and peaceful. We may have been the only guests there. We played racquetball and shuffleboard and Phase 10 and Racko. Fortunately, we each won at something.

The next day, the kids and Anita all came for a while, then that night Chad stayed overnight there with Katie and Jenna. Some tennis, racquetball (girls' first experience with that), and swimming.