Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Movers

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As frustrating as we found the whole house search, Aunt Katherine had it much, much worse. While we simply needed more room and were looking in the same zip code, Aunt Katherine needed to be in the DC metro area due to a change in work assignment and was looking for houses from Cleveland. Despite expanding her search to the entire state of Maryland and much of Virginia, there seemed to be a dearth of places that met her and Uncle L's (and their 2 dogs' and cat's) needs that didn't already have multiple offers on it for well above the appraised value.

Time was short and Katherine was discouraged, when a house came on the market which had potential. Alas, Katherine was in Miami at a friend's bachelorette party at the time, and since there wasn't an open house scheduled, thought she'd wait a week (and catch up on some sleep) before checking it out. We were insistent, and so despite not having eaten or slept in a while, she capitulated and a few hours later was in love. A contract was in place two days later -- right before three other agents made inquiries. 30 days, two moving vans, and several hours of volunteer labor (with only one accidental fall off said moving van) later, Katherine and Lee were moved in and sitting down to birthday/housewarming celebration.

(editor's note: clearly that last sentence was written by someone who missed out on the long and painful day unloading said two moving vans ;-)
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(click here for all the pictures)



Monday, May 20, 2013

Classics

Untitled Sunday was the 34th Capitol Hill Classic and our second year participating. It was a family affair: I put up posters at local businesses, Allen helped orgazine t-shirts on Friday, Owen raised $100 in pledges (thanks Mom Mom, Grandma & Grandpa Z and Aunty Ellen), I helped set up the race area in the early hours of Sunday morning, and despite the rain and gloom later that morning, Owen and I participated in the 3K while Nora ran the Fun Run.

Note that I said "participated" with regards to Owen and I, for a faulty education in the metric system led me to misrepresent the length of the race to him (I thought it was closer to one mile than two) and so, despite Owen's participation in the "Running Club" at school, we ended up walking the majority of the course. Nora, however, enthusiastically ran the whole race (except when she was distracted by rain puddles) and earned a medal for her efforts (Owen was informed that medals were only for the Fun Run, though we managed to obtain one for him anyway...).

It was a pretty good showing by the Fawcett Family, though we're hoping next year to finish before the 4 year old running backwards...

Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Grandma & Grandpa Z

Untitled Grandpa Fawcett left for Iowa a couple of weeks ago to help with planting season, shortly afterwhich Mom Mom & Grandpa Don headed off to Italy to celebrate Mom Mom's birthday, leaving us a few grandparents short in the metro area. Fortunately, Grandpa & Grandma Z had planned to come out for my 40th birthday and were able to represent.

We started off big. Aunt Kara's parents, John & Ginny Bigelow, were also in town so we had a lovely, "welcome to our new house" dinner on Thursday night. Friday a furloughed Allen took Grandma & Grandpa Z out to the Arboretum for the day and then we all headed out to National's Park to see the Nat's beat the Cubs (sorry Uncle Steve). Saturday Owen's t-ball game was cancelled due to inclement weather, but we still managed to make Nora's dance class, tour the Capitol with Cousin Molly, and Allen & I got in a lovely dinner at Komi while Grandma & Grandpa Z babysat. Mother's Day involved church, brunch, and a scenic walk of our new neighborhood. Monday Grandma and Nora made rhubarb pie in anticipation of my 40th birthday dinner. Tuesday we just kind of hung out.

It was a lovely visit and the kids really enjoyed the extra attention (as well as getting to stay home from daycare/aftercare). Allen and I enjoyed the extra rest time, which apparently becomes more and more important once you turn 40...

(click here for all the pictures)

Tuesday, May 14, 2013

One Year for Every Acre

Happy 40th Mommy
We had big plans for Elaine's big 4-0, but life ended up getting in the way.  Russian River Valley, bicycles, B&B's, wine tours, it was a lovely plan, but when the time rolled around to start booking everything, we were in the midst of house hunting and felt there was too much uncertainty to commit to a big vacation in May.  Nonetheless, we managed to celebrate in style.  With Mom Mom vacationing in Italy and Grandpa Fawcett in Iowa to help out with planting season, we had Grandma and Grandpa Z fly in to babysit so we could have a night out on the town.  We had an amazing dinner at Komi on Saturday night, 16 delicious courses (the duck liver mouse on sourdough amazingly enough was Elaine's favorite).  Elaine's actual birthday fell on Monday, which happened to be the one day we could have Molly over for dinner while Mike & Ginny were in town, and Elaine somehow ended up making what seems more like a birthday dinner for me, crabcakes with a strawberry rhubarb pie from Grandma Z.  It was a lovely evening of course, and with any luck we'll have a blog post about a bicycle tour through the wine country before too long.

Monday, May 06, 2013

Day Late Derby

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Due to some calendar confusion, we sadly missed Nancy & Danny's Kentucky Derby party this year (though we probably saved some money since I doubt we would have bet on Orb).  They very kindly invited us over for dinner on Sunday instead. Nora brought over flowers (lilies that matched the wreath :-), and we all had a wonderful time.  Now for future reference, the Kentucky Derby is always on a Saturday...  

Sunday, May 05, 2013

The Race

Nora
We decided to try and re-introduce Nora to the balance bike (she last tried it in October) via a three-way race at the recreation center a block away from our new house. It didn't take.