Monday, November 22, 2010

The Monday before Thanksgiving...

Despite attending both of our children's Thanksgiving celebrations at their respective school/daycare, I have no pictures/videos to illustrate their adorableness due to a camera malfunction at one, and a dearth of photo ops at the other. And so instead, we offer in advance of the Thanksgiving holiday, Owen assisting in the dismantling of the Fawcett tipi for Winter. Surely there's some sort of harvest message there...


Owen taking down the Tipi

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Three (little) Men and a (sick) Baby


We've been hosting playdates for Owen for about a year and during that time have instituted a serial monogamy approach to them, much to Owen's chagrin. It's not that we didn't understand the allure of having multiple friends over at the same time, it's that the idea of having more than 2 three to four year olds under our care induced panic attacks in us.

But a couple of months ago we had a brief visit from our neighbor Will during one of Owen and Leo's playdates which made me think that a more expansive definition of playdates might be feasible. Allen grudgingly agreed and so we invited both Leo and Brady over to our house last weekend for an afternoon of structured play. They seemed excited, their parent's were thrilled and the forecast was ideal to facilitate outdoor play.

And then Nora got a sinus infection.

We didn't want to cancel at the last minute lest we disappoint 3 little boys (and 4 parents) so we forged ahead. Shockingly, Nora wasn't too keen to watch Owen and his friends play baseball in the park with 102 degree fever (my theory that fresh air would bring it down didn't pan out) which meant abandoning Allen and the boys. They managed fairly well, with only one minor dispute before they returned back to our house for a snack and some fort/cave play. In the end, we survived and the boys enjoyed themselves, though Owen may have to wait until spring to play host again.

(click here to see all the pictures)

IMG_0829.JPG

Monday, November 08, 2010

Let the Sunshine In

IMG_0792.JPG

One of the perks of being the President is that you have your own box at the Kennedy Center, perfect for hosting the Kennedy Center Honors or for a night out with the First Family. But of course you're not going to be able to go to every performance, so one of the perks of working for the President is, if you're lucky, you get to use the President's tickets. On Sunday night, Elaine and I left the kids at home with Mom Mom and Grandpa Don, and went out for our own little date night. We took in the revival of Hair at the Kennedy Center from the Presidential Box. The show was great, though it was a bit odd seeing such an irreverent musical while you're representing the President. Truly an amazing experience, but I'm afraid we've spoiled ourselves and all our future trips to the Kennedy Center will be a little bit of a let down.

Hair Tickets - Presidential Box

(click here to see all the pictures)

Thursday, November 04, 2010

Halloween

IMG_0962.JPG

This isn't the blog post we originally planned -- that one involved pictures from DOL's Halloween parade as well as the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear (FYI: Nora was pro-sanity; Owen was all about the fear). But my civic duty (and a very split jury) coupled with Allen's previous commitment to a White House tour with his dad (due to his new position as Deputy Associate Director of Environmental stuff at CEQ) meant that neither of us could attend Owen and Nora's (aka Woody and an elephant) costume march; and we only attended the sanity rally long enough to discern that attempting to attend might be construed as a lapse in ours.

But then came Sunday. Owen was so excited for trick-or-treat night that he insisted on wearing his Ryan Zimmerman costume (no relation, he's the third baseman for the Nationals) the entire day. Nora, having refused to wear the head piece of her elephant costume during the parade on Friday (if only the rest of the country had echoed her sentiment on Tuesday...) was dressed in the less obtrusive alien butterfly costume we inherited from Brad and Marlo.

Owen had practiced the art of begging for candy earlier in the day, but suffered a bit of stage fright when we started out trick-or-treating. Eventually he warmed up to it, but he was much more excited when he retired to Grandpa Fawcett's porch to hand out treats to the thousands of revelers gathered on East Capitol Street. Nora watched in amazement as Owen enforced a strict "one candy" rule and directed traffic along the walkway, at one point informing the crowd, "I don't see a line, I see a group."

By the time Grandpa Fawcett ran out of candy, it was well past the kids' bedtime (as Owen repeatedly informed us), so we headed home so the kids could finally get to sleep... and we could sneak some of Owen's bounty.

(click here to see all the pictures)

IMG_0948.JPG