Natalie and her big sister

One of the great things the Jazz Company does is the big sister-little sister program. Natalie, being in Showkids, is in the youngest group in the company; all of the members of Showkids, and Protege (the next level up in the company) received a big sister from either Jazz Co 1 or Jazz Co 2.

It was done by random draw, and this year, Natalie's big sister is one of her favorite dancers: Arran! We've watched Arran dance for years, and she's really incredible. In fact, just this weekend at West Coast Dance Explosion (the one competition Natalie goes to every year with Showkids and the Company), Arran won best overall solo and Elite dancer! Natalie could not have been happier for her.

I had a few photos of Natalie and Arran together from dance events this past fall. First: from the fall Companies in Concert performance. Here they are together backstage:

A couple of the moms organized a "get to know each other" exchange where they filled out questionnaires and exchanged candy. This was also done backstage.

And here they are together after the show. Happy dancers!

This photo is from a later event - the Sugarplum Luncheon before the Nutcracker in December. For this event, Natalie wore her tea dragon costume, and Arran was one of the hot chocolate dancers.

I'm sure I'll have more photos of them together - this program is so wonderful as a way to bond the older and younger dancers.

A trip to Rhode Island & Connecticut

In November, I took a two-day trip to Rhode Island and Connecticut. I flew up very early in the morning, which let me capture this shot of Dulles at sunrise.

Dulles may not be the best airport, but that's damn pretty!

I met my colleague in Rhode Island (he had flown out of DCA), and he and I went to the appointment. We then had time to grab lunch, and wander through downtown Providence for a bit. It was crazy cold and windy. so we didn't stay out for too long, but it was pretty!

Craig then headed back to DC, and I continued down to Connecticut for meetings the next day. It was about a two hour drive, but I didn't have to rush to New Haven so I kept my eyes peeled for things to do along the way. I saw a sign for Mystic Seaport, CT, which seemed to be a tourist attraction. Since I needed to use the restroom anyway, it was an ideal place to stop.

Turns out it's an adorable little town on the water. The Seaport has shops, restaurants, and some historical sites to see. There's a lighthouse, ships, and more. Unfortunately because of time of year, most of it was closed down (it's after tourist season, and it was cold). But I got to walk around a little bit and take some photos.

 Oh, and the first time I went to Connecticut for work, in October, I also did some driving (from Yale back to Hartford for my flight home). I stopped at this great country store, which had delicious hard cider (I sampled a little, but not too much as I was driving!).

 And wound my way along a reservoir that was beautifully lit by the setting sun. I had to pull over and take a few photos, it was so pretty!

With the way my travel happens now (a bit differently than I did it at Noldus), I typically stay in one location while on each trip. So, it was nice that on both of these trips I not only had the opportunity to drive between locations, but I had the extra time built in to stop and explore a little bit!

Henry gets an award

At the end of each marking period, the kids' school has an awards ceremony. The give out awards for scholarship performance, attendance, etc. This year, we found out that Henry was getting a very special award - a scholarship award for outstanding performance in ALL SUBJECTS! The kids had each received awards for scholarship in various single subjects before, but we didn't know that an award like this was possible. So proud of our big second grader!

Around the same time, they also held a "Dessert with Mom" event, which coincided with the fall Scholastic Book Fair. Natalie couldn't go because she was at ballet, so Henry and I went to eat some delicious cupcakes before Evan and Natalie met us there to peruse the book fair.

And, November also brought us Henry's first big school project! Just like Natalie had to do in second grade (I thought I included that in a post, but apparently not, oh well), Henry had to choose a type of Indian house to build - a long house, teepee, or pueblo. Henry chose pueblo, and so we talked through how to build it. We found some boxes, we discussed how it should look, and with some paint, construction paper, bamboo skewers, tooth picks, and wood glue, we made his pueblo!

Henry helped me paint it, cut out the construction paper with Evan, and helped Evan to make the wooden ladders (after I showed them how). Then Henry and I finished up the last parts (doors and windows), and it was ready to go! I was very proud of how much he contributed - I refuse to do his project for him.

And, well, I had to include this photo in this post because I absolutely love it and I think he looks adorable :) 

Random photos from early November

In late October, I got a new toy - iPhone 8s Plus! I was on the 6s Plus, and wanted to upgrade primarily for the camera (honestly, the phone was pretty good still, although after a couple of years it was beginning to have some battery life issues).

The camera had been redone, and starting with the 7s Plus Apple introduced "Portrait mode". They then added some effects to Portrait mode in the 8s Plus. That meant I had not only a new toy, but new features to try out!

What does Portrait mode do? It focuses on the subject, blurring out the background, similar to what having a wide open aperture would do on my real camera. See Henry on the left? Like that. Then there are different "light modes" you can choose from. I really like Stage Light, which gives me pictures like on the right, and of the two kids below.

 

On the first Saturday in November, we woke to some cruddy rain...but Natalie and I decided to brave it and go on a rain walk!

When we got back around the pond, we saw this beauty just hanging out on the (not-running) fountain. There were actually two (one on each fountain), but I like this photo the best. (And yes, I took this with my new phone - the camera really is good!)

Henry wanted to model his new preppy sweater (from Target) for me too. Oh, and he lost another tooth that weekend - the second front tooth! They're just about grown back in now (two months later), but it was definitely a "all I want for Christmas is my two front teeth" situation in 2017.

 

Finally, I took the kids to do a little indoor swimming at Ida Lee. They got to swim, I got to sit and read for a bit (after swimming a little myself too).

And that's it of my random photo wrap-up from early November!

Pumpkinville 2017

We could not have planned our day at Pumpkinville any better this year - it was absolutely beautiful! Clear, cold...perfect fall day. Of course, we didn't go until almost the end of the season, with just one weekend left This made for a crowded event, but we still had a blast. I didn't bring my camera, just my iPhone, so that I could enjoy the time with my family even more.

 We started off in the petting zoo.

 Where Henry has finally gotten over (most of) his fears of the animals - enough to touch them, at least!

 We then used the pony ride tickets we bought for each of them to take a ride.

 Then, it was hayride time!

 I have a couple of favorite spots at Pumpkinville where we always get a photo. One is at the entrance to the hay maze (I like the knight!).

 And I love this shot near the pond, with the two giant trees. We even managed to get a photo there without anyone else in it!

Then, it was finally time to hit the big slides.

When I realized that I couldn't actually keep filming while trying to sit on my own burlap sack to slide down, I stopped the previous recording. Oh well!

As in previous years (I think last year was the first?), Pumpkinville now has two zip lines for the kids. Here they are on the one for littler kids, where you sit:

And also one for bigger kids where you hang (no video, only photos):

 The very last thing we did was wait in line for FAR too long so Natalie could get her face painted. Henry didn't want to, so Evan took him to do a few last things while we waited. She did look adorable after it was done, although we sure had to wait a long  time for it!

 Finally, on the way out, we stopped by this photo op spot and a girl offered to take our photo. What a nice family day! And posting it this far afterwards is REALLY making me miss fall, my favorite season!

Halloween 2017

Before we moved to Leesburg, I didn't know that decorating for Halloween was a thing. Now, many years later, I love decorating! I've had to replace some of my decorations over the years (they do wear out due to weather), but I love adding new things and figuring out where to put them all.

Let's start with the outside of the house:

 Natalie was very scared by the spider and web! LOL

 I also have some inside decorations, on our mantel (which apparently I failed to photograph this year) and on the table just inside our front door.

So, what were our costumes this year? For the second year in a row, Natalie chose to NOT be a princess (I guess we are finally past that age), but for the first year, she wasn't even a tv/movie character (she went as Rey from Star Wars last year). This year, she asked to be a black cat. I was happy to oblige, as the costume was easy, and the clothes we bought for it could be reworn.

When we found her ears and tail set, there was a mouse set there too...so I went as a mouse! Cat and mouse. Natalie was very excited for us to do a joint costume, and I will definitely take that as long as it lasts (before I'm completely uncool). We had to test out our makeup and costumes before Halloween, of course!

 Natalie also got to try out her costume during dress-up week at dance. She wore the cat costume to both days of ballet (I think), and wasn't the only one who was dressed as a cat - although not a zombie cat like her friend Bridgette :)

 On Friday, for their lyrical class, a group of the girls decided to dress up as Star Wars characters. How cute are they?!

 Then, it was finally Halloween! This year we decided to not go to the Leesburg parade; we didn't have a reason we needed to walk in the parade, and we both really liked the idea of just taking the kids trick-or-treating around our neighborhood with our neighbors. It was pretty cold, but the kids bundled up as best as they could (while still showing their costumes) and we headed out.

 Natalie and I had our cat and mouse costumes, Henry was a Transformer, and Evan wore his usual Halloween "costume".

 

We had a lot of fun hitting all of the houses in our section of the neighborhood (and a few in the townhouses across the street). Saw lots of neighbors, met a few new folks, had some neighbors give out adult treats of rum-spiked cider (to keep us warm, of course!), and came home with two big buckets full of candy. A successful Halloween indeed!

My 37th birthday

So, after my previous posts about the birthday surprise with my girlfriends in NYC, I realized that I never posted about my ACTUAL birthday, and what I did on October 3.

I was scheduled to be in DC all day, actually meeting a bunch of my sales colleagues for the first time. All of the other sales consultants are remote (living in their regions), so I didn't meet them in person until my birthday, which coincided with our quarterly sales meeting. Because myself and our VP of sales were new (he'd only started a week or so before), my director of sales scheduled a fun outing for us all on the first day....which just happened to be my birthday!

So, after everyone arrived at the office and we worked for a bit, we all headed down the street for the Heurich House, a historic museum/beer brewery in DuPont Circle. There we learned about the house and its history, and enjoyed some beer while doing so!

After that, we headed across DC to the H Street Country Club, which is a bar/restaurant/indoor mini golf place. We had some yummy food and drinks, and I was embarrassed with a birthday brownie sundae and singing.

Check out my fun necklace in the pic above - can you tell what it is? It was my birthday present from my mom - a dendrite necklace! 

Then we all headed upstairs for a round of mini golf. This was seriously the weirdest indoor mini golf I'd ever played, but it was fun nonetheless!

I then headed home to celebrate with my family. We couldn't go out to dinner because I didn't get home from DC in time (so we went out the following night), but Evan did get me Cold Stone ice cream cake which was delicious!

 

And then I got to open my presents. My big gift was the shows in NYC - I knew I was going to NYC on those days as I had to clear it with work, but I didn't know what I would be doing. Kudos to Evan for the letter, which I found amusing, and to my friends for pitching in on a big part of the planning :)