tidbit eats

Some puppy popcorn for Zoe made from Yak's milk cheese... along with a good cuddle up movie for Keaton and I while we wait to go pick up Aiden from a 10:30pm practice while J was out of town.

Crustless quiche success - I shared one with my neighbor's family while they struggle to deal with a throat cancer diagnosis... Her kids ate it all and I plan to make them more! (To save this simple recipe: 6 eggs, about 4oz cheddar, 2oz of cream cheese and 6 tbsp melted butter per quiche and you whip the eggs in a food processor - Sprinkle with onion salt...325 degrees for 30 min)

Aiden learned how to make pancakes all on his own!  Watch out Dad and PopPop there's a new pancake flipper in town.

Aiden wanted to go to the lego store and sushi conveyor belt as an early birthday treat (since his show opens the weekend of his birthday and he will be very busy!)

The cinnamon spread at Trader Joe's is really tasty inside a banana bread muffin...

rags preview

Aiden auditioned in September for the Mason School of Theater college performance of a new revival of Rags, a musical about immigrants coming into Ellis Island in 1910. At the Arts by George event, I was able to catch a powerful preview of the Intro and Finale to Rags... It's been practice after school six days a week for nearly four hours each time, and a great experience for Aiden. I absolutely can't wait for the show in a few weeks.

tidbits

We have a big spider that took up residence to look over our front door, along with a snake skeleton in place of a wreath ;)

Keaton and I playing a game of Topple with peanut butter spoons to top off the day...

Aiden and I ventured to many orthodontist appts in the last few months... He finally has what is hopefully a good plan which starts with an expander (same thing I did as a kid).

The All-County chorus was packed house and Mantua had the biggest group of red shirts out of any other elementary school there.

The principal's are hosting a thank you hospitality cart for all the teachers once a month... this time is was a popcorn cart for special deliveries around the school.  We made nearly 150 fresh bags, which took a ridiculously long four hours to pop!

fall knits 2

Started a Dude sweater for J that will likely take me until next winter to complete... I keep thinking it's probably too big for him and it turns out to be just the right size.

The same event with the knit along contest also said that if you knit anything in Farmer's Daughter yarn you get "front of the line" access to the event... I happened to win some Oh Dang, Suri alpaca and silk yarn so I knit up these luxuriously soft mitts and hat in the Moondust cable pattern.

fall knits

On a countdown to a big sheep and wool festival... knitting away on a very popular pattern, the Soldotna. I was also creating my own percolating purple poncholet because I wanted to enter the poncho category of the knit along contest to win a Nerdbird Makery Baller bag - and I ended up winning!

helper pup

This sweet girl mostly helps me get work done by taking a snooze, but sometimes she wants to be right on my lap in the keyboard action ;)

rocks

So much heavy stuff, but I'm always brought back to reality by the generosity and uplifting attitude of my neighbors... My friend's throat cancer diagnosis has shown how much people truly want to rally behind hard times. These rocks were painted and placed around her house to help her through her rough treatments. 

puppy buddies

Zoe is everyone's best friend... but she especially loves to wrestle with Archie (left) and is trying to win over Sushi (right)

Am I ever going to get over the cute head tilt as I talk to her?

cuddles

This cuddler is the best lap and foot warmer I can imagine...

mosaic

A favorite easy weekend afternoon at Mosaic... The bottomless small plate brunch may be the best idea yet!

mosaic arch

We have been visiting Mosaic probably close to weekly since we moved close by and this topiary arch was always a favorite spot. The tiny little toddler guys coming from story time would run through over and over and giggle fit the whole way.  But now just as these daddy long leg boys are growing up, this arch is now enormous! It is so grown in right now and just seems to be trying to keep up with these big guys.

sunny puppy

This sweet sunny girl loves to go out with us... She is peeking out the car window waiting to pick up the boys from AFYP Saturday afternoon acting class... they are getting ready to do Shrek in December - Aiden as Pinocchio in his older cast and Keaton as Shrek in his cast!

mt vernon

We visited Mt. Vernon on a very pretty day and completed their spy quest (on a new app). It happened to be the anniversary of George's mother Mary's death... I asked around about it because I was curious what they docents would know about her and it turned out they don't know much...oh well...I'm hoping the two books coming out on her this year will fix that.

pup

Zoe, the glamour fluff...

waterfront

Zoe likes any adventure... Alexandria is so dog friendly. We even stopped by to get her some treats at the Dog Park - her favorite cheese pup popcorn.

sculpture

A nice afternoon visiting the art installation on the waterfront in Alexandria...

puppy

A silly attempt at Zoe puppy as Mary Ball Washington...

Before her post surgery haircut and after - she is still pretty short where they shaved her for the spay so sometimes it looks like she has a back mohawk.

luck dragon

Zoe after a haircut looks like a cuter Luck Dragon from Neverending Story?

first day

These funny guys had a great first day back! Zoe was hoping we'd let her get on the big yellow rumbly thing too, but no dice... she sure is happy to see them in the afternoon!

good list

A new license plate for the Yarn Fan Van was an early birthday treat from J! ;)

Aiden started his "orthodontic journey" with an expander with hopes that his canines will make their way the right direction... fingers crossed.

Keaton's second grade teacher had a bad motorcycle accident at the end of the school year and missed all of the end of the year parties, and these second graders worried about her... So she very nicely threw them a party at the park to reassure them that she was doing better after an eight week recovery (she was still barely walking and couldn't write with her shattered wrist - She'd broken her shoulder and femur too!) 

Sleepy puppies like to rest right on top of the knitting bag...

yarny party

Cupcakes and Bubbly! Yarny BINGO and photo booths! So many favorite things all at the yarniest happy place, fibre space! The perfect way to ring in 40 if you ask me!  I had party pins for the LaFiDkWobu winners and party favors I block printed with 40 knit stitches ;) 

good list

Top: Welcoming back the teachers with a breakfast with a theme ;)

Bottom: Catching another great Cirque de Soleil show under the big top tent up at Tysons...

tidbits

We caught a bunch of visits to Skyzone (lotsa jumping!) and raft night at the pool this summer!

kennedy

It was a really nice day to enjoy lunch of the roof at the Kennedy Center and see Aladdin (with the same Jafar and Iago we saw on Broadway last year).

tidbits

Top left: a shot from the police visit to our National Night Out block party...

Top right: The first band night at the pool with Furst Try back together with a new drummer for some hard rock... J was happy to be back on guitar (since he plays bass for Hello Newman to make that 90s rock interesting...)

Bottom left: a new batch of Skylanders from a very nice wish family... and a baby puppy with her cone on recovering from her surgery
Bottom right: J spent some time in Chile for his book... They lost his luggage so he bought some new clothes after he arrived...but he was still ready for all the interviews and press meetings.

birthday

A surprise at the end of a great birthday!
Genuine thanks for the birthday wishes! Sam and Tre, thanks so much for going out of your way to make my day! Wow, closing out another decade... and I feel so grateful for all the people surrounding me with their love, laughter, and even their tears. It’s been such a joyful and heartbreaking year full of lessons on how resilient people can be. When I ended a great birthday yesterday (at what I thought was going to be my friend’s welcome back party that they turned into a surprise birthday treat for me! Whaaat, I’m so grateful for all those birthday hugs!) and the thunder showed up uninvited at our pool party, we just rolled with it and moved that party inside... and that’s what I’m going to continue to do: roll with the thunder and try to catch some lightning on the way!

birthday fred

It was such a nice treat to visit FredVegas! Campus was getting ready to open up for students and everything looked so nice and spiffed up! Caught some knitting time in the adirondacks outside my favorite dorm, the farmer's market downtown, and a Goolrick's milkshake (which has sadly changed since I don't think they get whole milk ice cream from the local dairy anymore)... Then one of my big goals was to visit the Mary Ball Washington sites, which I'd visited many years ago.  The highlight for the boys was the super creepy huge leeches at the Apothecary that they let J pet...eek!

bday eats

Birthday treats! Kicked off with Sugar Shack donuts right off campus down in Fredericksburg! It was a treat to go down for the day to visit - Sammy T's for lunch with a great crab cake sandwich ;) A stop over snack for this potato kabob thing... Oh man!

smash con

These goofs at Super Smash Con! Check out the not so subtle Cup of Noodles advertising ;) Aiden's buddy Franklin joined in the fun too, and they already have plans for next year!

Testing out my new photo booth app before they left:

petricks

Another fun summer visit from the Petrick's in town all the way from Jackson, WY! It's always fun to hang out...

gtown

So grateful to have time to spend with my dear friend... We test drove and rated all the chairs across campus at Georgetown...I taught her to knit... and we had a chance to meet up for dinner with other old friends ;)

cone puppy

This poor puppy had quite a summer adventuring in Ohio, and then staying with his very sweet aunt and uncle, and cousin buddies while we were on the cruise, and then her spay surgery... She handled it all really well and was so excited to see us even with a cone head on... Just a week later she was healed and happy.

photos

So, so many spiffy photos from our seven night cruise on the Harmony of the Seas...

dining

RC was celebrating a birthday and gave our special treats one night.  We came with our funny disguises from Gran and Pop another night. We really had a great time in the dining room.

cruising

We scored second place in the Family Scavenger Hunt! Our ship had ice skating available (same spot had two fun skating shows too!)

planes

The famous beach on the edge of the airport landing strip was really something... You could feel them take off too.

beach

This very calm beach in St. Marten was the perfect spot to relax!