D.C. Trip

Michael had a healthcare conference in D.C. last week and it worked out for me to be able to join him for a night! We haven't had a night to ourselves in over 2 years, so it was really overdue! Michael's mom kept the boys and my parents watched over the dog's and took the boys to their soccer and baseball games.

I headed to the airport Friday morning. There was terrible traffic, rain and a concrete spill so I was a little afraid I would miss my flight. But, luckily my plane was delayed about 30 minutes so it all worked out wonderfully!

I arrived in D.C. and dropped my bags in the room and we headed over to P.O.V.  It is known for it's wonderful views overlooking the White House. We had both skipped lunch, so we just had a couple appetizers and drinks to hold us over for dinner.

It was a GORGEOUS day, so after appetizers we decided to do a little touring. As we were walking from P.O.V. to the Washington monument we see a few policeman start to run out into the middle of the street and a large crowd. In an attempt to avoid the large crowd, we start to go the opposite way down the street. A secret service man starts yelling and screaming at us to turn around and run fast. Michael and I are a little confused but go the way he tells us and then try to get farther away from what is happening. A helicopter lands about 200 feet from us and then begins searching from above. We headed up to the Washington Monument which was a little farther away from all the action. We definitely knew something was going on. Later when we arrived back at the hotel the story was all over the news. We figured out that we were only a couple blocks away when a shooting happened. Here is a little clip of the news story:

"Shortly after 3 p.m., an armed man approached an outer perimeter checkpoint for the White House on E Street near 17th Street in Northwest D.C. Secret Service Uniformed Division Officers gave “numerous verbal commands” to the man, telling him to drop the weapon, but when he failed to comply, he was shot once by a Secret Service agent."

Since we were in D.C. for such a short amount of time, we didn't plan an official touring group. We really wanted to do the Segway tour, but it didn't work out this time. We walked to a lot of the monuments and had fun just strolling around for a couple hours.

Washington Monument

We made a quick stop by the Jefferson, FDR, Korean War Memorial and MLK Jr. Memorials. It was such a gorgeous day and we had a lot of fun walking around.

We made a VERY brief stop by the Lincoln Memorial. We were running out of time and it was SO crowded. We tried to take a picture, but the sun was strong in our eyes, so this was the best we could do.

We headed back for the hotel to make our dinner reservations. However, since there was a shooting an hour earlier, every single road to get back to the hotel was completely shut down. We ended up walking an extra 2 miles all the way around the closed roads just to get back to the hotel. Michael and I were really hurting by the time we got back to the hotel. We hadn't planned to walk that much so we were both in very uncomfortable shoes! I think my feet are still hurting! We also had to push back our dinner reservations.

We changed and headed out for dinner. We went to a steakhouse nearby called BLT Steak. We were both very unimpressed with our steaks and both didn't even eat much of them. We decided to skip dessert at the restaurant and head to a chocolate bar, Co Co Sala. We both had after dinner drinks and an amazing chocolate dessert.

On our way back to the hotel we passed by the White House

We slept in on Saturday morning and then headed to Boqueria for their bottomless brunch. It is a Spanish restaurant and I have to admit that I was a little intimidated by the menu. But, I saw awesome reviews so we decided to try it out. This place was AMAZING! There is a limit of 2.5 hours for the brunch. Michael and I kind of laughed and thought that there was no way that we would stay at a restaurant for 2.5 hours for brunch. Well they practically had to kick us out when our time was up. I highly recommend it!! The brunch is a set price and is all you can eat and drink. You check off whatever options you would like to order and they continuously bring you food. We were stuffed! I liked every single item that we tried. The drinks were also very delicious! 

After brunch, we had a couple more hours before we needed to leave for the airport. It was drizzling, but not very hard so we decided to walk around for a little while and see some more of the sights. 

We walked past the White House

Then headed to the World War II Memorial

We also spent some time in the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. We headed back to the Lincoln Memorial since we didn't get to really enjoy it the day before. By this time it had really started raining, so everyone had taken cover out of the rain inside the Lincoln Memorial, so it was packed to the brim and very loud.

Then we were off to the airport! It was a really fun, but quick trip. I would love to bring the boys back and do a couple of tours and be able to take our time at the memorials because it is always so amazing to see!

Meanwhile the boys seemed to have a blast at Nana's house. It was raining for most of the time, but the rain did let up for them to be able to go outside and ride in the corvettes for a little bit!

Peyton is definitely my little life of the party

Chick-Fil-A

Have you ever tried to take three boys under the age of 5 out to dinner? You will either be sick from stuffing food in your face at lightning speed or you will be starving because you didn't take a single bite of your dinner. It is NOT for the faint of heart.

I grew up in a household of girls, so I was definitely new to the whole "boy" mom thing. I can't tell you the amount of times I asked Michael if he was sure that it was normal for a little boy to tackle/wrestle their sibling until they can't breath multiple times a day, to dive off of furniture onto your head, or to run around the house naked approximately 6 hours of every day! He always replied with some crazy story about him and his two brothers, so I have come to determine that this is in fact normal. Raising boys is one crazy ride that I never imagined I would experience!

I have to admit, that the thing I struggle with most about raising boys is taking them out of the house to anywhere but a park, field or somewhere that they cannot run around and scream! They have no idea how to sit still or be quiet for more than 3 minute intervals (don't even get me started about how we survive church with all three littles without daycare!). It is slightly infuriating. I see girl moms who have their children sitting quietly at nice restaurants with a coloring book or a baby doll (This is not to say that all girls are nicely behaved and all boys are not, I am simply using this as a comparison here). HA! If I even tried to give my children crayons at a restaurant they would use them as swords or throw them at the other one!

That was a long winded introduction to this blog post, but the point of the story is that we only go to 2 restaurants with the boys and that is it. We have tried many many other times and have failed miserably, so we are sticking with what we know....Chick Fil A and El Sombrero! I am pretty sure my children think those are the only 2 restaurants in Nashville :)

I was looking through pictures and realized that I have an unreasonable amount of pictures of my children at Chick-Fil-A and I haven't even taken in my phone inside for 3/4 of the times we have gone there. My children BEG to go to chick-fil-a and its really the only restaurant I take them when I am by myself. I am pretty sure I took them twice a week for dinner while Michael was in busy season, solely so I could wear them out at the playhouse in the winter.  So here are a few pictures of the boys at their favorite restaurant.

Patrick's 2nd Soccer Season

We decided to sign up Patrick for soccer again this season. He did really well last year, so I thought we would give it another try. However, this time I decided to sign him up a little closer to home and signed him up for the HYSA league. It has definitely been way more convenient for us! He is on an all boys team this year instead of co-ed and he seems to really enjoy that much more.

The team name is the Dinosaurs and they are the purple team. Their first practice was pretty cold and since Michael was out of town, the boys and I bundled up and headed to the practice.

Their first game happened to be at 8:30am on one of the coldest days! The wind was absolutely brutal! After a week of 80 degree weather, it was quite the shock for it to be so cold outside. We froze watching Patrick play his first game of the season.

Patrick had the largest smile on his face the whole entire game and he was just so excited to be playing. It was great to watch! He was quite the defensive man this game. He had a very impressive defensive play where he kicked the ball away from the other team right when they were about to kick it into the net. He ran into the side of the goal and was knocked over, but was not phased at all. His team ended up winning 3-2 and he had one of the goals.

Patrick had a great fan base this season! Allie was his number one fan, coming to almost all the games!

Patrick's 5th birthday was on a Saturday and he had a soccer game. He thought it was so exciting to have his birthday on a soccer day. 

Sweet little Peyton fell asleep on the blanket on the sidelines, so he missed out on the family birthday picture.

Mamaw and Susan were able to make it to his birthday game all the way from Knoxville

Team picture!

Cupcakes after his birthday game

The last game of the season was also very cold (in the middle of May!). We bundled up and headed out to the field with a few snacks to keep us warm. This little guy seemed to thoroughly enjoy his treat :)

Patrick had a great season!  His team was very young, so we didn't win many games, but they did have lots of fun! He loved playing soccer, but mostly just because he was able to hang out with some of his friends and run around. He showed very little interest in offense and preferred to stay back from the crowd. But, he did love defense! He is very fast so he would run as fast as he could to block the other team from scoring a goal. Next season we will definitely have to work a little more on his offense :)

So proud of you big boy!

St. Henry Pre-K

Patrick wrapped up his first year at Saint Henry's in early May. He went three days a week and loved it! He told me almost every week that he was so excited to be able to stay home 2 days with me and also go to school for shorter hours than he did at Belle Meade Methodist. It was definitely fun staying home with this little guy for the first time!

His teachers made him the most adorable book at the end of the year! Patrick told me almost nothing about his days at school. I am still getting used to the typical boy response of "it was good" and that's it! I have to say that I was really jealous of all the girl moms the first few weeks because they knew all about everyone and most of us boy moms knew nothing! I guess I better get used to that :)

His teachers and class were just adorable!

First day of school!

We celebrated the first half day with milkshakes and lunch at Dalts

This is from the first week of school. One of his first assignments was to draw a picture of himself

I love reading all of the things that Patrick says about his family at school.

And we celebrated the first week with a trip to the candy store

The other parents really had a laugh at Patrick's response for what his dad does for a living. Clearly we needed to work on the explanation of accountant a little more (i.e. daddy counts OTHER people's money and not his own)

Another precious little book the teachers sent home

Art is Patrick's least favorite activity. Clearly he inherited my fabulous drawing abilities, sorry buddy.

Their teachers sent home a book so we could learn the children's names, which I really appreciated since Patrick still doesn't know all of the girls names in his classroom.

Apparently he was a great sleeper at school, but no naps at home for this guy!

Learning to count

Making applesauce...of course Patrick refused to try any

Patrick loved running around with all his buddies on the playground. It was pretty much the only thing I could get him to talk about from school.

School picture!

The teachers rarely sent homework, but he was excited for the few times they did send something home

Two of the students from his class were chosen to hang their artwork in the front of the school. Sweet Patrick was one of them.

Halloween party at school

His cute little class all dressed up

The pre-k mascot, Stripes, spent a weekend with us

Learning about the American flag

I don't have to try this do I!?!

Turkey day

Arts and crafts at school

Christmas party at school

The teachers asked us to write down a good deed that the children did at home

Valentine's week at school

Seriously?!? LOVE this!

Patrick's birthday at school. He was able to bring in a special snack (donut holes), a baby picture, a special toy (lego minifigure) and a book (book about me).

Dr. Seuss week

Construction day at school

Grandparents day

It was fun to join the boys for a day of Easter egg fun

Donuts with Dad

The pre-k play. Patrick had one line and he said "read good books." 

He was so cute and I was so proud of him!

His precious teachers

I can't believe that my little Patrick is headed to Kindergarten next year!