Spring Break Recap

Spring Break.  The weather hasn't really felt too much like spring but we are getting there.  The girl's school had break scheduled so that a week overlapped this year and we took advantage of the time by heading to Washington D.C. for a couple of nights, some fun around the house and catching up on some doctor appointments.

Here is a bit of our break captured in photos:

While in D.C. the girls rated the hotel pool and family movie presentation in the lobby as highlights.  Yes, my girls love vacation for the hotel!  We visited a couple of museum's and walked along the National Mall where we visited the White House visitor center (our tour of the White House was cancelled along with many other's tours due to the sequestration!), the Lincoln Memorial, Vietnam Memorial and World War II memorials.

The memorials are always so moving, but the Vietnam Memorial had my eyes watering.  It's so moving, so solemn and we knew at least one name on the wall.  We saw the many flowers visitors left, a Father/Son that were looking at a name and making impressions of it on a piece of paper by rubbing a pencil over it, and a group of Veteran's visiting the Memorial.  Julia asked a lot of questions about the memorial and I answered appropriately for her age.  Emma didn't ask questions but she did seem to be effected by the experience - she wasn't squealing with delight at the obvious sadness some people were demonstrating which is unusual since she usually loves to laugh at other's misery...I can't explain it so don't ask!

Of the museums we toured, Julia said the President's exhibit at the American History museum and the video at the White House visitor center were her favorites.  We've been teaching her a bit about our government and our elected officials and I think she is absorbing enough of the information to ask good questions.  I told her perhaps she could be President some day and she said to me, "Mommy, do they even let girls be President?"  I replied that maybe by the time she grows up there will already have been a woman President and pointed out that President Obama is the first black President so she should believe that everything is possible.

We also celebrated a few birthday's over the break, hosted our annual Easter Egg hunt with good friends, dyed eggs, played house and entered into the busy world of Softball.  Julia joined a team this year and is having a lot of fun with it even though she is "a little scared of the ball."  She is making a lot of progress in her skills and is gaining in confidence.  We think that by next season she won't be so afraid of the ball but are glad that her fear is not stopping her from having a lot of fun!  She seems to really enjoy softball and the team aspect of a sport which is quite different from her dancing where she competes as an individual.  I think dance and softball complement each other nicely.

Julia returned to school last week and Emma returns tomorrow.  It was about 3.5 weeks that I had one of my little girls home with me everyday and I think the girls like returning back to their routine.  I can just imagine the happy dance Emma will do when her bus comes in the morning - I think she missed school a lot!  As for me, I'll keep busy this week by touring a couple of programs suggested for Emma's kindergarten placement, following up on insurance appeals (where the denials were upheld and we have to appeal again!) and various other things.

Spring Break is over and I guess next up will be the countdown to summer but that can wait a while.  I'd like to enjoy a bit of Spring first!