Hellos and Goodbyes

So, now we come to one of the challenges of becoming a foreign service family. Teaching your children how to say goodbye and move on. Nate is far too young to understand but Philip is not. He's old enough to make friends and form attachments, and over time he has found a rare few that he calls his best friends.

This wouldn't be so bittersweet for all of us, except he has been befriended by some very extraordinary kids. Like his buddy Alex. Alex and his family came to DC to see the sights and get the boys together again, and seeing them together filled me with one of those rare moments of regret. When we lived in Plymouth, we happened to fall into the perfect niche, where our kids went to preschool with REALLY. GOOD. kids and their parents were all really good folks. Had we stayed, I could say with 99% surety our boys would have had a wonderful childhood. And 99% sure these boys are going to grow into promising young men. And they still will, but little Philip will be somewhere else and it is sad. 

At times like this, I worry about the future and worry about the decision we have made. And then I take a deep breath and rely on faith. Its harder diving into the deep unknown when you have children to be concerned for. But if you have faith, you can be strong. And when you are strong, your kids feel that strength too. And so the goodbyes are heartbreaking, like this one. But watching little Philip dry his tears and move forward made me proud too.

We had a blast last weekend too-we were grateful the Kelsey's came all the way down to DC to visit. It was beautiful weather for sightseeing, so we hit some of the monuments and took the kids to the National Zoo.

They were hilarious to watch, playing wild tigers on the lawn in front of the White House..

They explored the reptile building at the zoo, and hunted for pandas.

We witnessed what happens when two boys try to kiss and say goodbye.

Six Year Blogiversary

Yup, its been six years since this. The first blog post.

I had to take a moment to take it all in. In case you haven't noticed, we like change. And change...well, there's been a lot of it in the last six years. We've added two boys to the family, lost a dear dog, gained a dear dog, changed jobs, states.

And I suppose as I have changed, my blog has changed too. From a knitblog to a babyblog and now a soon-to-be expat slash foreign service blog. Thank you for hanging in there through it all with me. I promise things are about to get pretty exciting. Like tigers, elephants, what the hell have I done? exciting. Yeah, that kind of exciting.

Because in two weeks my sweetheart tests in Thai. And if he passes, we leave in June. I feel like Rhino, the hampster from the movie "Bolt" jumping up and down crying "LET IT BEGIN!! LET IT BEEGIN!"

Let me leave you with this parting shot, wherein the boys have discovered the finest way to fly. Lucky dog.

The Button

Whenever we go downtown we like to stop by the beautiful White House. (Parking nearby is convenient and free on sundays, after all.) Philip, in particular, likes to weave his way through the visitors to this strange little button.

Nothing ever happens, but we joke that someday the gate might just swing open.

Last weekend we stopped by the Ronald Reagan building for the International Children's Festival. Unfortunately, Thailand was not represented, but there were a lot of fun activities. We tried things out at Fiji, Egypt and Japan to name a few.

Crumbs was right around the corner, so we could not resist.

Maryland Sheep and Wool 2012

I said I was going to behave before we headed over to Maryland Sheep and Wool, but this might have been my last fiber festival for a veddy veddy long time. So, that's my excuse and I think its a pretty good one. The real reason I came back with all this loot was that I could NOT resist the cheerfully bright and scrunchy soft skeins; alpaca/cashmere at Flying Goat Farm and superwash merino from Roclan's. Those turned out to be my kryptonite.

We also spent a lot more time at the festival (Arta, my mother Blogless Sharon, and myself) than we expected. The quality of the vendors, the ideas, the inspiration, and the beautiful sheep were amazing!

We discovered a few new and rare breeds of sheep.

Listened to bluegrass music.

Knitted while waiting in line for lamb lunches.

Drooled over gorgeous bundles of batts.

And drooled some more.

I took these pictures for inspiration, to throw in my project wish-list.

Amanda, starting out Little Bird Fibers, was handing out free mini-batts over in the large barn. What a cute idea! I promised myself I would check her out at littlebirdfibers.etsy just on pure principle.

Melissa Jean's booth was stunning, with all those gorgeous buttons. After elbowing my way through all the admirers I picked up an adorable beaded bracelet kit. After I try it out for myself, I think it might be a useful skill with all those nieces I have!

Good thing my boys weren't here. We did all the things I tell them not to do-touching things, pulling and stretching the items for sale, and at times stamping our feet in frustration. I'm pretty sure more than once I even whined "I waaaaaaaaant.' Bad bad behavior.

Ain't nothing wrong with a little yarnstache.

Happy

If you're happy and you know it, wave your hands.

Grandma is coming to visit!

Supersize Sunday

Toddler Trot Contender

 Wow, what a Sunday! We woke up at crack o' dawn and drove to Maryland for an action-packed morning. My husband (and about 2,999 others) had a 10K challenge, which I must say he ran easily, followed by a fun run with little P and a 'Toddler Trot' for Nate. It was so much fun, and such a gorgeous day that we drove in to DC, still in our running clothes. Not that I could have parted my oldest from his award and running shirt.

The National Mall was lively as usual. Um, those people on the left DID have clothing on. I swear.

I had to take a picture of the boys, I was so proud of them today. There would be racing pictures here, but if you follow me on Facebook, it would be overkill. You can thank me later.

Dramatic Moment!!

I never take anything seriously....

We walked to the Enid Hauptman Garden and took a nice break there. This Magnolia tree smelled amazing, so amazing I started snapping pictures of the flowers on it. You might have thought I was crazy, but EVERYONE stopped at this little tree. It was positively entrancing.

Inside the Freer Gallery of Art, we quickly perused the Asian artifacts. Which was perfect with two active boys. The pieces were few and carefully selected, so it wasn't overwhelming or boring. Some were even whimsical.

Like the 'Shrek' urn.

Dreamworks, we are on to you!

A Food Journal

We currently live in temporary housing. Its not bad at all, to be honest. There are a ton of activities for the kids, a nice fitness facility, and housekeeping once a week is included. On the other hand, space is limited and we were only able to bring 700 lbs of our things in addition to whatever we could fit in the car. So what that boiled down to was our basic clothing needs, child-items that take up a bunch o' space such as strollers, and the dog. We said goodbye to everything else for the next year. Which presented a lot of challenges. Our favorite books and cookbooks got packed away.

Now, I read a lot of my favorite books over and over. And I used to make our favorite meals repeatedly. But what if we got rid of our tried-and-true holiday cookie recipes and the reliable BH&G cookbook and struck out on our own? Would it be fun, frustrating, or an epic failure?

Luckily for us, all four of us are adventurous eaters (which I know will come in handy no matter where we get sent to live). So I came up with an idea, not from Pinterest mind you! We grabbed a large and sturdy sketchbook at the nearby craft store and started a food journal to document our adventures in DC and scribble down the new foods we tried to make in our very limited galley kitchen. I mean seriously-we didn't have a potato smasher or a muffin tin for the last five months!

Its been a lot of fun-even my hun does a lot of pages. We find recipes from the internet or magazines and try them out. Then we paste them into the journal alongside different reminders and maps and tickets from the hundreds of things we do and see here.

Sometimes we scribble on maps to remind us of the family days that meant so much to us. Like our miles of walking around downtown D.C. and the discoveries we made. The best place for cupcakes. Not the place on TV, but so far our fave has been Crumbs. So. Good.

We record our daytrips outside the city, like our hikes out in northwest Virginia and all the battlefields around here.

And now that the weather is milder, we are on a running kick, so there are quite a few race bibs and documentation of our post-race meals. So far, the journal is half-full and we have just a few months left here, so I think this may continue into our life in Thailand. We have our time in Virginia to thank for our new favorites; fresh juicemaking, quinoa, and spicier food. I can't imagine what food adventures we will have in BKK. But thanks to the food journal, I haven't missed my cookbooks at all!

Thankful Thursday

Today I'm thankful for, and greatly missing the family farm.

It wasn't so cool when I was younger, being all smelly and filled with random animals.

Something unexpected was always happening. Tractors interrupting your studies. Animals on the loose. Someone always wanted to give birth in the middle of the night. In a blizzard.

You could whatever you wanted on all that land. But only after your chores.

But then you grow up, bring your own children, and you realize that is the best part.

You also realize your youngest brother might be mildly insane.

Kite Festival on the National Mall

Sooooo beautiful!

A sky full of kites is amazing, but a sky full of kites surrounding national monuments is positively surreal.

Clowning around on the grass.

My handsome man, also known as superdaddy.

Love Comes in Many Forms...

I know its terribly rude to brag about gifts, but will you please pardon me this once? Its about knitting anyways.

I received a special treat in the mail last weekend. A bit o' love from my mom and dad.

Some scrunchy yummy superwash blended with silk, sparkles and recycled sari silk from Enchanted Knoll Farms.

And at last, interchangeable needles!! Why oh why did I not have these before??? Happy dance!

And now we shall celebrate with cupcakes and skinny girl 'ritas.

What 38 Is Like

Friday we celebrated a little event. Another birthday for me. And now that I'm on the slippery slope towards 40, its time to just give in and embrace it. So I threw all reluctance aside, put my hair up in a pretty braided bun with some sparklies, strapped on some new heels, tried to apply fake lashes (epic FAIL), and accompanied my gorgeous boys to dinner. My escorts looked particularly handsome that night.

We went to 1789 for a fantastic dinner-DC is full of wonderful eateries, so it was hard to decide which one-thanks to my sweet husband. The maitre d was pleased to tell us how POTUS had been there for dinner, as well as the Clintons, in the very same dining room. He did not receive the excited response from us that he had expected. Oh, that ship sailed LONG long ago. But it was charming all the same.

I thought quite a bit this weekend about hitting age 38. In the weeks leading up to this weekend I was pretty upset about hitting my "late-30's" but looking back at these pictures of us together I feel pretty fabulous. If the boys keep me smiling as much as they did in these pictures, it is quite possible I have found a way to prolong youth!