Botanical Garden Christmas Train Set

Model trains are a holiday favorite at the US Botanic Garden's.  They run on more than 244 meters of track.  This year the trains are in settings representing past world’s fairs, such as the Eiffel Tower from the 1889 Paris Fair and the Space Needle from the World’s Fair in Seattle, Washington in 1962.  All the setting are made from natural materials such as pine cones, wood from the willow tree, acorns, leaves and grapevines.  It is quite impressive... but I think seeing Thomas the Train was what really interested the kids!

We also enjoyed a special scavenger hunt activity. The kids picked up a passport from a kiosk in the conservatory, which listed different plant species from around the world that the kids had to seek out in the various galleries around the Garden. Once they found the plant, they stamped their passport book with that plants stamp.  It was a great activity that the kids loved!  

Magnus holding his plant passport, and studying the plants.



Thanksgiving

For Thanksgiving, Magnus' class at daycare made construction paper feather hats with each feather, 4 feathers in total, listing an item for which the child is thankful.  Magnus wrote... Family, Everyone, God & Animals that are nice (apparently Magnus is totally un-sympathetic to 'mean' animals... though I have been unable to determine which animals he considers 'mean.') At home the night before Thanksgiving the rest of the family made similar hats. :)

Our 'Thankful' Construction Paper Feather Hats

 

We kept it simple for the Thanksgiving meal this year and got just an 8-lb turkey.  But the night before Thanksgiving we decided to go over to a friend's house for Thanksgiving dinner.  Therefore the only Turkey we made on Thanksgiving was the turkey cookie craft that we attempted with the kids!

 Keeping with tradition, for each child's first Thanksgiving we pose them for a picture with the turkey.  Ella was almost the same size as this turkey. Which apparently she was ready to bite into the juicy turkey leg!!  

And let us not forget our Thanksgiving Lunch with the kids at their school (daycare) on 22 Nov.  Though it was served on paper plates with plastic silverware, it was great meal to share with the kids (though they were none too happy when they had to go back to school after Thanksgiving lunch, instead of coming home.)

Gma Newman/Magnus, photobomber Rose

Gma Newman/Maliah, photobomber Ella

Star-Spangled Banner

Maliah at the age of 2, singing the Star-Spangled Banner.

 

Maliah had gotten tired of Mom signing the regular nursery rhyme songs at bedtime (Mary Had a Little Lamb, Ba Ba Black Sheep, Hush Little Baby, etc) and wanted something more.  Mom went thru a lot of songs, even singing 'Return to Pooh Corner' which is a long song by Kenny Loggins, wasn't enough.  By the way Maliah had memorized that song too. One of the songs that Mom knew all the words to is the Star-Spangled Banner... so I sang that to Maliah at night for about 2 weeks.  Now she has it memorized!!  What a patriot!

Toughest Mudder

For the 3^rd year in a row, Dylan ran the ‘World’s Toughest Mudder (WTM),’ a 24-hr obstacle course race in mid-Nov in chilly New Jersey.  Like last year, he competed on a 4-man team  His team was first to finish the first lap, which earned them free entry into next year’s WTM (so Dylan may do the WTM one more time!). But after going 18-hrs, and running 55-miles, two teammates’ cramping became so severe that they had to stop.  Nonetheless, they placed 10^th out of over 100 teams that were competing.

 

WTM 2013 results; http://toughmudder.com/wtm2013-timing/#/results::1386186613120

WTM 2013 recap; http://toughmudder.com/wtm-2013/

1st lap, team at Berlin Wall obstacle

 

Team finishing another lap!



Dylan at COLD water crossing obstacle at night

 

WTM gear!

Setting-Up WTM Tent in Pit-stop Area

 

 

Ella

 

Ella's First Bath

Magnus and Maliah helped Ella take her first bath. 

Maliah - Pink Fairy & Magnus - Paleontologist

It was an unseasonably warm day in November, and Maliah decided it would be fun to play outside in her pink fairy dress.  In the warm sunshine she truly looked like a beautiful magical fairy!

 While Maliah fluttered about, Magnus was busy digging up dinosaur bones with his new paleontology set!



In the end... after much flying and fluttering around, Maliah the perfect pink fairy slept soundly for her afternoon nap! :)









And that afternoon, we enjoyed a trip to outer-space on our space rocket with Grandma Newman!

Granny Jo's Birthday

Granny Jo, who came to visit to help with Ella's arrival (which coincidently occurred the night after she arrived.. so she got here just in time), was here for her own birthday on 7 Nov.  Magnus and Maliah helped to decorate her cake.  I must say it was beautiful! :)

Ella's Birthday

Following in the footsteps of her older sister, Ella decided to arrive 10 days early!

  Ella Marie Newman

  02 Nov 2013 @ 1114

  6lbs 3ozs and 19.5 inches

 

Siblings; Magnus, Maliah, Ella



Sisters, Maliah & Ella



the girls, Mom, Maliah, Ella

Three Generations;
Granny Jo, Deborah, Maliah & Ella

 

 



Halloween

After waiting almost an hour, we got to Trick-or-Treat at the White House with the Obamas.  The candy they gave out was a White House shaped cookie with orange frosting, red/white/blue M&Ms, and dried fruit/raisins.  Both Magnus and Maliah decided that the candy wasn't all that great. In Magnus' words, he wanted to 'go Trick-or-Treating at smaller houses.'  Which I presume meant he thought the 'big' White House gave out bad candy, but the houses around our house (which are smaller than the White House... obviously) have better candy.

While going thru the Trick-Or-Treat line at the White House, at one point I said Maliah's name.  To which President Obama said "Ah, another Malia!" and made a special effort to go to her and reached out his hand... at which point Maliah lifted up her pumpkin bucket to his hand.  Which I think is an expected response from a 2.5 year old on Halloween, to an out-stretched adult's hand.;)

 

 

By the time we got home it was just getting dark and we made it to a few houses before the rain started.  But then it was time for me to branch off to pick up Granny Jo (who was coming into town in prep for Ella's arrival which was supposed to be around 11-12-13).  We got back from the airport in time for both the kids to go around, in the drizzle, with Granny Jo to a few houses. Then Magnus had fun giving out candy to the bigger kids that came to the house at the end of the night.  And Magnus even started to ration out the candy at the end as we started to get low on candy.  It was quite impressive how judicious he got.



White House Halloween candy

White House Halloween Invite

We didn't get around to carving jack-o-lanterns this year, but we did paint some plastic pumpkins that Great-Grandma Denise sent in a care package to Magnus and Maliah. 

The small pumpkins, gourds, that we did have, Granny Jo made into pumpkins soup several days after Halloween when we were going to throw the pumpkins out.  The pumpkins had been sitting out on the front porch and had already been nibbled on a bit by the squirrels.  At dinner Magnus asked, in a very eager and excited voice, if the pumpkin soup came from the pumpkins.  I answered 'yes,' and thought that he was going to be impressed that his pumpkins were now food.  I was WRONG.  Magnus cried and said that we wanted to carve the pumpkins.  Oops, didn't read that conversation that right way.  Nonetheless he got over it, but he didn't eat any of the soup.

Galoshes & Goggles

Some rainy day fun... some people wear galoshes in the rain, others goggles (and no shoes at all!).

Birthday song

Did someone spit on my bday meal?

For my birthday we dared to take the kids out with us to a semi-fancy restaurant.  And what a treat, the food was awesome.  Maliah got the best mac n' cheese I have even tasted!  And my fancy cobia fish meal came with sea foam on top of it (it looked like spit if you ask me).  But the best part of the meal, is there was no major incident or fight amongst the kids (just one glass of spilt water)!  It helped that we decided to eat in the bar section of the restaurant versus the formal dining room. 

When we got home the kids sang Happy Birthday and we enjoyed a yummy cookie cake!! (Maliah danced and sang...while Magnus patiently waited to open my birthday card, which was a singing birthday card!)






 

AF - Navy Football Game

Go AF, sink Navy

We took the kids to their 2nd football game.  The game was in Annapolis, MD, at the Navy Academy.   Last time we took the kids to a football game was Nov 2011... and it was freezing.  This time is was sweltering.   And unfortunately... AF lost again.  Nonetheless the kids had a fun time!

Cox Farm

We took the kids to Cox Farm again this year for the Fall Festival.  They enjoyed petting the goats, playing on the huge slides, the corn maze (which they decided to go thru twice), the hay ride and picking out a pumpkin at the end of the day.  Oh and of course they loved the kettle corn too!