The Changing of the Rooms!

It's been a while since I've been around, but I have a really good excuse this time!  I've been very busy doing a little painting and wallpapering and moving of furniture and I'm so happy with how everything turned out.

When Jocelyn was first born, she was given the smallest kids bedroom which is a room just off the master that was perfect at the time for a baby.  She was close by and easy to get to, and she didn't take up much space!  As she has gotten older, the room has gotten so crowded and she has outgrown the space.

So it was time to rearrange.  Room A became room B.  Room B became room C and room C became room A.  You get the idea.

The first room needed to be repainted.  Here's what I started with.  And with a little help...












It became this.

And then the real fun began.  It was time to work on the room that would become Jocelyn's new room.  Here's what that one looked like to start.

We let Jocelyn decide what she wanted the room to look like.  Everything was her choice - paint colors, border, even the flowers.  First job was stripping the old border and painting the new mint green color.

And then the new flower border.  Very cute!!

And then the real challenge - hand painted flowers.

Someone was starting to get excited!!  Jocelyn's crib became a full sized bed and the mattresses were bigger than she imagined!

And finally it was time to move in!

Jocelyn finally got to sleep in her brand new big bed, in her newly decorated room just in time for Christmas!

Merry Christmas All!!

PS.  If you're wondering what has happened with the third room - nothing!  Two rooms was enough!

A Day at the Zoo

Last Friday Jocelyn had yet another day off from school so Pat took the day off and we headed to the Washington DC Zoo.  It was a beautiful day and lots of fun!

With her friends the Flamingos!!

What could be better than sitting in a Panda's lap?

 There wasn't much between us and these two guys except a pane of glass.  As we were watching them watching us, it begged the question - which of us is really in the zoo?

Can't pass up the carousel!!

September Adventures

With the beginning of the school year and the return of homework, ballet and girl scouts, our adventuring has slowed down quite a bit, but we've managed to worm in a few fun activities in the last few weeks.  It helps that the kids have had a day off of school once a week for the last 5 weeks!!  Finally this week is a full week - and hopefully the start of some routine.

On one of our days off, we headed to the butterfly gardens with our regular adventuring partners, Nicki and Colin.

Pat and I managed to get to the Renaissance Festival this year.  It was a gorgeous day and lots of fun.

Jocelyn and I went to a fall festival at the Days End Farm Horse Rescue.  This is a Horse Rescue farm that takes in abused and neglected horses, cares for them, and if possible finds them new homes.  Jocelyn had a great afternoon.  She got to play lots of games including her favorite the McD's Maze, made completely out of old Happy Meal Toys!  She made her own pony and then got to ride a real one.  And at the end of the afternoon she gave the charity money she had saved, to the farm.  I was so proud of her!

We also made it to the Sunflower fields again this year.  They rotate crops each year and this time the sunflowers were a smaller version that were just about our height!  A friend that came along with us, took some really fun photos of us with her fancy camera!

On one of Jocelyn's days off, we met Daddy for lunch.  Always fun!

One of  the historic places that we visited on our tours this summer was the Patapsco Female Institute.  In the 1800's it was a girls boarding school, and over the years it was also a hotel, hospital, and private home.  It came upon disrepair many years ago, but in 1965, the Friends of the Patapsco Female Institute took it over and eventually restored as much as they could.  It is now a historical place that does weddings and events.  

A couple weeks ago, they had a reception celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Friends of PFI and the 20th anniversary of the reopening of the park.  Since this was one of my favorite places on the tour, we went to the reception for another chance to visit the site.  

At the event was a girl scout troop that was dressed in period clothes that they made themselves!!  Very impressive.  Jocelyn loved the girls.  She had her picture taken with them and played badminton with them.

Now that the cooler weather is coming and school has been in session for almost two months, our adventuring may be forced to slow down, but you never know what else we might get ourselves into before the winter comes!

Tooth #4

And tooth #4 is out!!

These loose teeth are now coming with waaaaaaaaaayyyy too much drama!!

She is terrified of the tooth coming out, it hurts to leave it in, she's afraid to swallow it in her sleep...  hours of fun.

But finally Sunday morning with one last little tug, it came out.

YIPPEE!!!!

And despite not being allowed to take the precious tooth with her once again, the Tooth Fairy still came for a visit.

The First Day of 2nd Grade

As of today, I have a 2nd grader!  How is that possible???  My beautiful girl has headed out into the big world again to learn and grow and become the person she is meant to be.  I'm so incredibly proud of her.

She takes on the first day like a champ.  There's moments of apprehension that only Daddy and I can really pick up on, because when you see her, you would think she's ready to take on the world without hesitation.  But those secret moments are the ones that remind me that she hasn't forgotten me, because, no matter how brave she is, that little girl means the world to me, and she has my heart with her wherever she goes.

My little shadow has gone off to school again.  I miss her so much already.

I love the first day of school traditions.  Jocelyn's school invites all the parents to come in to school to cheer them on, and walk into class with them.  There are major renovations going on in her school right now so there was no chance for open houses last week, so this was the first time she got to meet her teacher and the intern, and see her class room.

Meeting Mrs. Kozi for the first time

She still needs us just a little

Off to class

With Ms. Darvish the intern, and Mrs. Kozikowski her teacher