Kathy's baby shower

One last post for the month, and then 2014 is over! Seems crazy that could be the case already, doesn't it? Anyway, what better way to end the first half of 2014 than a post about my lovely friend Kathy and her baby shower?

A little over two weeks ago we went to a little shop in Manassas, Va for a tea party baby shower. The setting was adorable, and Kathy's sister in law and mother in law did such a lovely job setting everything up. The tea area was in the back of a shop in downtown Manassas, and we had it exclusively to ourselves. In addition to getting to talk and celebrate Kathy, we also were able to partake of this delicious "high tea" menu, and of course, tea!

Moreover, we had a couple of smaller "ladies who lunch" with us: Natalie and Zabby! It was deemed that the girls were old enough to join the ladies, and they really did behave themselves very well. They even had a little table all to themselves!

The shower was small (5 of us who were friends with Kathy from college, her sister in law, mother in law, and mom, and the two girls), but we all had a lovely time. So glad we got to do this girls' day to celebrate Kathy and her soon-to-be born baby girl!

Vegas, baby!

Well, sort of. Not quite 3 weeks ago I attended the International Behavioral Neuroscience Society 2014 conference at the Red Rock resort, actually about 25 minutes outside of Las Vegas. I had attended this conference previously as both an attendee and a vendor, but not since 2011. I was excited to go back, and assist my colleague for the first two days (he then stayed for the remaining 3; it's a long conference!), as well as see some researchers there who I had not caught up with in a while.

Also, I've never been to that part of the country before, and was excited to go see the craziness that I envision is the Las Vegas Strip. However, on this trip that was not to be - when we realized how far the resort was from the Strip, and the free shuttle stopped running at 10pm, and I was only there for one night...it was just too much to make that adventure in. So hopefully I will get to go back to Las Vegas again at some point and check it all out!

As I said, I was only at the conference for about 30 hours. I expected to roast the entire time, but despite the June heat in the desert, it was truly beautiful! The resort was nestled in the desert mountains, and so we had a lovely breeze sweeping across the pool the entire time. Oh, did I mention the pool? This is where I spent about 80% of my time:

 You had to reserve these platform "beds"...don't they just look so inviting?!

 This is how I worked during my first afternoon there. Yep, that's a pineapple drink. Damn thing cost me $27 (!!), but it was delicious and an experience, right?!

 And there's nothing quite like working at the pool in your suit.

 And, oh, right we did actually work! On the day I arrived we had a couple of hours in the late afternoon to set up our booth. We were the first vendors to arrive in the room, so we chose a spot right in the middle where we'd have good visibility by all attending during the poster sessions. We ended up with almost 20 solid leads at the end, and I got to catch up with a lot of research friends. Not bad!

Cumberland, MD

At the very end of May I spent two days in Cumberland, MD with a few members of my family. Why Cumberland? Good question! My aunt Jacki and her partner Arnie wanted to get married, and since they can't do so in Kentucky, where they live, they chose Cumberland as the location for their wedding. I was very happy that I was able to join my mom and sister there for the event; both to spend the time with my family and to be there to support Jacki and Arnie. Plus, it turns out that Cumberland is surprisingly lovely!

This was taken with my iPhone, zoomed in, and ended up with a painting-like quality upon editing!

The view of these two churches was just lovely; the court house where my aunt was married was just up the hill from the red church in the background.

And lastly it was time for some family shots! Here are Carrie and I.

My aunt and mom.

Jacki and Arnie.

Such a fun couple of days with my family! I've already posted some photos from the wedding day on Facebook, and will be posting my favorite portraits on my photography blog shortly.

A kindergartener no longer

Way back in September 2013, Natalie started kindergarten. I of course documented her first day, both heading to school (and looking back I can see on her face just how nervous she was that first morning!), as well as a photo shoot later that evening. I had seen a few people online document their child's last day of school, wearing the (nearly) same outfit, and I wanted to do something similar. Natalie had outgrown the skirt she wore on the first day of school in September, so we found some similar shorts for her last day, put on the same tank top, and did her hair the same. I think this really shows how she has grown over the year!

September 2013

 
June 2014

 

(What's funny to me is that one of the biggest things I notice is how tan she was back in September, and pale now in June!)

I think I see some maturity in her face that wasn't there back in September, but definitely less than we've seen over other years, such as preschool. I think she's at an age right now where the changes aren't as obvious, but all of a sudden I will look at her and think "my, how did she get so grown up?" Wait, I think that already. Whew, it does go fast!

 

End of school year parties

The first two weeks of June saw both kids ending the school year. For Henry, it was the end of his first year of preschool, and for Natalie the end of Kindergarten - both pretty big milestones, I think! Preschool ended the first week, with a two hour picnic at the park for both 3s classes together. Henry was a little shy at first (no real surprise there!), possibly in part due to my having been gone at the beginning of the week, so he was a bit clingy to me since I was finally home. But he did eventually go play with his friend Hunter - they had a great time together!

 

The picnic ended with everyone having lunch together, and a giant cake purchased by the school. A nice end to his first year - we love his preschool, and can't wait for him to be there 3 days a week next year, and get swim lessons as part of school!

 Then, last week, Natalie had her end of year party. As room mom, it was my responsibility to plan it (along with some input from her teacher). We started with some "organized chaos" as the parents attending helped the kids make drawings of their favorite thing they are looking forward to this summer. The kids then went around the room and had their friends sign the backs of their big drawings, making a sort of yearbook for each child.

 We then went outside to the play area where I had set up 3 stations. The first was an obstacle course, which was the big hit of the party. The kids loved taking turns going around and through!

The other two stations were bubbles (always a hit!), and painting with water. Sadly, this one wasn't quite as much fun as we'd hoped it would be due to the massive storm from the night before (the plan was to let them paint all over the ground, but it was still wet!), but the kids still enjoyed it. You'd think it would be boring, but they really love painting with water!!

 






And we've now ended the school year for the both of them...Natalie was very upset over the weekend that she wasn't going back to school on Monday (that's a parenting win!), but we have a lot lined up for the summer that I think will keep them both busy. Next up: comparison of how our girl has grown over this school year. After that: so much to share from our many adventures this summer!

June 2014 Recital Portraits

I've posted previously to show Natalie's tap performance from her dance rehearsal, and I am soon going to post photos from her rehearsal on my photography blog (I'm so behind there, but that's a whole other story!). As I've written previously, we're not allowed to take photos at the actual performance...but I could take photos of the girls afterwards! Four of Natalie's friends from preschool are also still at the LSoB, so we nabbed a few photos with all of them after they were done.

We popped the little brothers into a photo with their big sisters (so strange that we all have older girls and younger boys, right?). Sadly, Henry did not want to get in the photos, so he's missing here.

After these first few photos, we finally found her friend Lily and got the 5 of them together. As you can see, Natalie and Lily are in the same class and danced together all semester.

I then wanted to grab some family photos; again, Henry was not very willing to participate, so this is the best we could get of a "family" photo (on the right). Thanks to Kathy for doing her best to get him to look at the camera!

Natalie has now moved from the Rising Stars program into Ballet II (she actually started the summer session yesterday). The class has immediately gotten more "professional" (they're working at the barre now, which they never really did before), and she's already loving it. Can't wait to see how much more she grows!

A day in DC/Tacoma Park

It's kind of crazy how much stuff I have to share here now! The amount of travel that I've been doing has been keeping me from being able to do the updates I've wanted...I've got three other posts already lined up for this week, and from photos that I have on my phone and camera (planning to transfer those as soon as I write this!) I think I've got another 4 posts at least! Certainly never a dull moment here at Chez Macbeth :)

This post is from my outing with Henry last weekend. Natalie was deep into watching both Loudoun School of Ballet recitals last weekend (I took her to the Contemporary recital on Saturday, and a friend took her to the Ballet recital on Sunday). I had already made plans to spend Sunday with my friend Beth and her daughter Ellie, so Natalie headed to the recital while I took Henry to DC. Beth and I decided to take the kids to a park roughly 1 mile away - they had a fantastic playground that Henry really loved playing on! First he went to the side for 2-5 year olds.

But then he spotted the other side, with this awesome climbing structure, and we headed over there.

I was so proud of him, when after a few false starts, he climbed all the way up to the third level and came down the big twisty slide! Of course after finally coming down the first time he looked at me and said "Mommy, that was so easy!"

 

The other really cool thing about this playground was the splash park. That's why Henry's wearing a bathing suit in the photos above - I had intended for him to spend more time there than he did. Turned out that Henry is really not a fan of the splashing fountains, coming from above, so he mostly stayed by the edge, when I could get him in at all.

This was pretty much the extent of his involvement in the water park. Ellie, on the other hand, loved it! I think if Natalie had gone with us, Henry would have gone in further - having her there is always helpful to him when he's a little freaked out. Guess that means we'll have to go again!

We then discovered the big "handicapped" swing, which Henry really loved. It was like his own cocoon!

 

After about 75 minutes or so, we headed back to Beth's house to change and have lunch. We then popped the kids in strollers and hiked the mile or so into downtown Tacoma Park for their jazz fest. We weren't there very long (unfortunately I had to head back to Leesburg fairly early to pick Natalie up after the recital), but the kids had a nice time, we heard some good music, and Beth and I got in a good walk. So it was lots of fun, and I definitely want to go back for another street fair there, as apparently they happen a lot.