Passover and Easter

The last time we were in the States for Passover, Elena was only a couple months old, so it was great to have this chance to introduce her to the full range of passover foods.  Vivian also appreciated being reacquainted with it all.

We're still using my beat up coloring book to tell the Passover story.

The girls were impressed with my coloring abilities.

The youngest person at the table is supposed to ask the questions, so Elena helped out.

She was curious to know more about the objects on the plate.  We didn't have a bone, so Judy improvised, but Elena was most interested in the part where you dip herbs in salt water.

She insisted on trying it, so we set her up with some parsley and salt water, and I kept my camera at the ready.

She explained her final verdict: The parsley is good, but she doesn't like the salt water.

Both the girls got into the matzah, and we had already established that they liked the soup, so no one left the table hungry.

The next weekend, we got together at my parents' again to celebrate Easter, because we do all the holidays that involve food.  My sister sent the family a great meme for those of us who celebrate both Passover and Easter.

The star of the Easter show though was the ham and turkey from the Honeybaked Ham Co.

Jeff got more deviled eggs.  Vivian was brave enough to try one, but she decided that the only Easter themed eggs she likes are the ones that contain jelly beans.  Luckily, we had some of those for her and Elena, and they had a fun egg hunt in the morning.  

Jeff and I had the girls stay upstairs in Vivian's room, while we prepped and hid the eggs on the main floor and in the basement.

Then, we called them to the main floor, gave them their baskets and egg number counts, and set them loose.

With a little help, they found all the eggs and had a sugar feast.

We burned it off walking up the hill to my parents' house.  The cherry blossoms on the hill up to their house were in full bloom and beautiful.

The next week, when the girls and I walked up the same hill, the cherry blossoms had turned pink.

I am loving seeing the changing seasons and letting the girls experience all of these things that they haven't gotten to do for the past six years and won't get to do again for who knows how many years.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

This year we seized a hold of the saying "everyone is Irish on St. Patrick's Day" and just went for it, and no one embraced the opportunity to go all out quite like Elena.

The orange socks are also very intentional.  When she asked me about St. Patrick's Day, I found a book for her on RAZ Kids, and it talked about the Irish flag.  Of course, she finished reading the book and demanded to know when the parade was.  I told her there wasn't going to be a parade, BUT we could go on a field trip.  I found a small window of time when neither girl had class, and we went to Shirlington.  Our first stop was at Best Buns for some holiday treats.  We got shamrock cookies and Irish soda bread scones.  Yum!!

Those were save for later treats, and the girls got Robeks smoothies as their right now treat.  We also stopped by our local Irish restaurant, Samuel Beckett's.  They had all kinds of green necklaces hanging along their fence, so I popped in to ask if it was okay if the girls took one each.  The lady at the front was so excited that we wanted some, she offered the girls green sunglasses as well, and that is the story of how Elena completed her St. Patrick's Day look.

Jeff was very impressed with it when he got home.  He'd also gone to work dressed in the spirit of things.

The girls didn't get their cookies until after lunch, and they worked on them throughout their afternoon classes.

There was more green goodness for dinner too.  Vivian put on her full green outfit, and we walked up to my parents' house for an assortment of green foods.

There was pasta with pesto, asparagus, and green beans.  There was also salmon, but it didn't merit a picture, because it wasn't green.

There were even more green sprinkled cookies for dessert.

Everyone got into the spirit of the day, and even though the weather has decided to get cold again, we can still sense that spring is on its way, and warmer, happier days are just ahead.

Finding Things to Celebrate

Even though it's been six years since we've lived in Virginia, I remember the winter fatigue well. As February turns into the beginning of March, everything seems to slow down and become harder.  This is only exacerbated by being a year into a global pandemic.  We've been trying hard to keep things feeling fresh and new by celebrating little things.

Our first impromptu occasion was an apple tasting.  Jeff has been doing a great diet with lots of fruit, and everyone likes apples, so we decided to try and be scientific about finding the "best" apple out there.  We collected contenders from various grocery stores and enlisted my parents as judges.

The teacher in me couldn't resist putting together a scoring/note taking sheet.  The girls took their ratings job VERY seriously.

The Gala and Sugar Bee made both their lists.

Valentines Day was up next, which meant lots of hearts, love, and brunch from IHOP.

The next day we went to my parents' house to make Valentine's themed cupcakes.

My family has been great about keeping the girls busy and letting us celebrate the little things, including making another round of cupcakes, even though Valentine's Day was long past.

They have also introduced Elena to the joy of crossword puzzles.

She was even inspired to make one of her own for them.

Our most recent celebration there was Pi Day on March 14 (3.14).  Normally, you celebrate it with pie, but since Mom loves a good celebration, she made sure we also had quiche and lots of cheese.

And since the only pie Elena likes is pumpkin, Mom the incredible made one for her, so that she could participate fully in pie day.

Of course, she had to share some with Daddy.

It was a delicious and fun celebration.

Adding even more fun to the mix was Judy's new foster dog, Lucy.  Vivian went to pick the dog up with Judy the day before, and both girls are thrilled to have a dog in the family.

Mom and I took Vivi shopping for a new spring wardrobe, and she loves her new look, especially her new hat, which she wears inside as well as outside.

Elena has probably been the hardest to keep busy, so we've introduced her to Harry Potter, via the first two movies and the first book in audiobook form.

Mom and Dad have also been great about letting her sleepover and hang out there where she has a ratio of two adults to one child, and there's a neighbor her age to play with.  Plus, Safta is the best at hair.

Jeff and I are vaccinated now, so we left the girls with my parents and had our first date night at a restaurant in a year.  We went to Guapos where we could get things like cheese dip, frozen drinks, and sizzling fajitas that just aren't the same with takeout or delivery.

It was a little strange to take off our masks, especially since all the employees were wearing masks, but we got used to it and had a really nice evening.

Throughout all this, we've also been redoing our master bathroom.  It really was time for a change.  It was in the original configuration where the sink was open to the bedroom, and then there was a wall and door separating the shower and toilet.  It was a horrible use of space and in terms of decor it was looking outdated.

The part that really drove Jeff nuts was that the drop ceiling meant the mirror was low, and so he couldn't see the top of his head without ducking.  Step one was obviously going to be knocking out the wall that was devouring the space, and step two was putting a pocket door to divide the bedroom from the bathroom.  Of course, if you're going to do that, might as well make some improvements along the way, right?

Not only was the wall wasting space, but it turns out there was a huge space around a vent that we could work around to make the shower bigger and make an alcove for some shelves.

We stayed pretty simple with most of the decor, but we put the ceiling and lights up as high as we could, and we had fun picking out blue tiles for the shower to give the room a bit of color.  We still need to get some pictures for the walls and baskets for the shelves, but it is SUCH an improvement, and we now have a huge master bathroom.

The lights make the tiles on the floor of the shower look greener than they are.  They are beautiful shades of blue, and it's my favorite part of our new bathroom.

Of the course, the DAY after the bathroom was finished, the plastic vent covering fell off the kitchen microwave.

We've had the microwave over ten years, and it's really loud, so we figured we should probably just invest in a new one.  This adulting thing is never done.  Luckily though, I'm working with a good team, and despite all the craziness, pandemic related and otherwise, the girls are growing into wonderful young women, so as long as we can focus on the positive and celebrate where we can, I think we're going to be alright.