It was so hot and humid at Owen’s Field Day that we had decided to take the kids to the pool when Owen got home. Tom was home as well, so we all went down…and it started sprinkling almost immediately. It was fine for a bit and then it started raining harder. Tom stayed with the kids as they were already in the pool while I went to sit and wait in the car (it was chilly in the rain). They didn’t last too much longer. These are the pics (and video) I snapped before the rain started.
And shall I add that it was cooked in bacon grease?!
Yum.
We went to Occoquan to do some Pokemoning… It was like this the whole way there. What would normally be a 5-minute drive was 15.
After watching the forecasts and worrying about the weather all week (the forecast varied from thunderstorms to 60% chance of rain to light rain all day)…we decided to go ahead with the party and it ended up absolutely perfect!! It was overcast at the start and gradually got sunnier and warmer throughout the party—enough so that I had Tom grab my suit when he went back to get the cake!
We had 60 guests (kids and adults!!) and the pool was probably the busiest it will be all season (aside from the days they have cookouts with free food or night swims with free ice cream). But it all went smoothly, everyone had a blast, and there was plenty of pizza and cake for multiple helpings (once I started cutting the serves 48 cake and realized my small pieces were still not small enough to get me close to 60 pieces, I started halving those…and then ended up having half the cake left so kids got seconds and thirds).
The gaggle of dads. They didn’t move from this spot the whole time. 😂
Us moms:
;
The kids were fairly patient about opening gifts once we got home…and they LOVED everything. They got Bop It (thank heavens I found the volume control!) and Owen picked up on it right away, Katie dug right into the glitter glue and construction paper, Owen picked out his favorite baseball cards from a new pack, Katie put together her Disney Lego, we’ve been shot multiple times by Owen’s new nerf gun, and both kids were OVER THE MOON about all the gift cards and getting to go shopping once we move! They both said it was a great birthday!
Everyone at the pool is really nice—everyone plays catch with Owen (we have no idea who this is but it wasn’t the first time he’s played with it Owen).
Owen pushing a bunch of girls around the pool. 🙂
Playing with Daddy!
Proof I’m actually there!
And tonight we surprised the kids and ordered pizza for dinner at the pool. We do it once a summer…so we had to get it in quick this year.
It was hot enough that Tom even came down and joined us for a while.
Since Owen was getting to go on a special trip to a baseball game, I had to make Katie’s night spent at home fun, too—of course she was a bit bummed that she didn’t get to go on the trip, but I assured her she wouldn’t love the baseball game.
Part 1: The playground with friends and a treat from the ice cream truck!
Part 2: Night swim with ice cream… And staying up past her bedtime!!
Katie got in the pool, but it is still QUITE cold…but Aunt Lori was the only adult brave enough to go in. Katie loved it!
We went down right after lunch and met some friends and spent over four hours at the pool. I really need to find the waterproof camera…although the water is still WAAAAAY too cold for me to get in with them. (The pool isn’t heated so right now it’s about 74 and last year I learned that the best temp for me is 82.)
Owen’s neighborhood friend Maddie.
Surprise! Daddy stopped by!
The weather was really nice so we went down to the pool and had Tom send Owen down when he got home.
The pool is still quite cold so Katie was playing in the puddle. 🙂
Finally getting in.
The kicker is I don’t even use a round brush anymore. #pcspurge
We are trying to get as much pool time as we can before moving this summer… We will have a close aquatic center, but it won’t be the same as our personal pool.
As a thank you to the grandparents for watching the kids, we bought four lobster—two insanely huge ones (probably 3.5# each) and two regular-sized ones.
We don’t have official lobster implements…but these worked fine.
Katie’s attempts at getting a picture of our huge lobster tails.
The lobsters were so huge that one claw was the size of a regular lobster’s tail! Neither of us could finish the whole thing.
Throwback to 2003:
Since we were away house hunting, it was up to Gramma Jean and Grandpa David to take the kids to opening day of our community pool.
We went to see our house and to take measurements so we can try to plan ahead where we want the movers to put things.
Guest bath—it’s going to be an adjustment only having one sink.
We talked to the landlord and he is willing to buy the materials and have Tom fix the planters.
The back yard was much smaller than we thought it was from the Google maps view—which Tom was happy about since it means less mowing. But it’s still plenty big enough for playing.
And we don’t have a community pool but this place is five minutes from the house.
We met a new friend for lunch—one of my very first internet friends Rachel (from pre-wedding days) Facebook-introduced me to Amy, a friend of hers who lives where we will be living… And she also has a 5yo girl starting kindergarten this fall! I can’t believe I forgot to take a pic of us… But I remembered the sushi!
Yeah. I had high hopes for the candy bar… But it sucked. Too much fake bacon taste, not even enough bacon, and very little chip flavor.
We’re enjoying finding good places to eat!!
Since we planned on drinking, we took a Lyft to the restaurant, and since it was a chocolate restaurant (The Chocolate Sanctuary), I obviously had to start with the German Chocolate Cake martini…Vodka, Amaretto, cream of coconut, chocolate, caramel, and toasted coconut.
Then Jami took over on the pictures.
Elderflower Aperitif: Sparkling Moscato D’Asti, St. Germain, and fresh raspberry
Beignets! Light and airy chocolate filled doughnuts served with mixed berry compote and crème anglaise
We will definitely visit again and bring out of town guests…
I always thought these “belts” were cool but never thought I’d be able to wear one and pull it off…
They have 3200sf to play in on three floors so where do they both play while Tom is fixing the freezer and pieces are laying all around the kitchen?
The kids have been bugging us and bugging us and bugging us about getting ice cream from the ice cream man ever since he started coming around this spring. We promised them we’d do it once before we moved—but the timing would have to be right since he usually comes to the playground after school and that is right before dinner. So today we were at Julie’s and she was going to get something for Kayleigh and offered to get something for Katie… Well I couldn’t very well have Katie telling Owen she got something so I texted Tom and had him send Owen out. They were thrilled.
How on earth did we get so many? I haven’t bought any in years! Plus we donated about two garbage bags the last time we moved. #pcspurge
This was how much we ended up giving away and donating. My friend Caitlin and our vet clinic were both thrilled. 🙂
Super soaker water guns!
I thought I had posted about this but looking back, I apparently didn’t.
About two weeks ago, our agent just sent us an unlisted listing—a client of hers who she happened to be sitting with. It looked really good…not perfect but good. A four bedroom/three bath, 3-car garage, ranch. Pets okay. Finished basement. On a dead end street. With a yard. In the approximate area we want. And he would hold it for us. And they’re military. And did I mention it had a THREE-CAR GARAGE? And it was a RANCH??!?!
But he wanted to start the rent at $2400 (already over budget) and raise it the next two years. We tried to tell ourselves the money would be fine. BECAUSE IT’S A RANCH WITH A 3-CAR GARAGE AND FINISHED BASEMENT.
We got more pictures that night (of course, her text came in at 11pm our time so there was no going to bed then) and our agent said she’d ask about the rent. But the more we looked at it and talked about it, it seemed really good. So of course we thought there has to be a catch because the odds of something good just dropping into our laps like this is not what happens to us. So we rushed to get a friend in to check out the house and take pics for us (our agent couldn’t be the one to do that because of stupid real estate rules so we HAD to have someone else do it). And there were some strange things about it, but overall they were all workable because DID I MENTION IT WAS A 3-CAR GARAGE RANCH?!?!
Well, it turns out the whole thing was a debacle and a big fat fail. I can’t even tell you all the details because I think I’m blocking it from my brain, but basically, they were total turds and apparently the wife didn’t know the husband was planning on renting it? Or they were just casually thinking of renting it when our situation popped up so they tried to make it work but it didn’t (we think they were going to move to something cheaper while trying to make money on us so they didn’t have anywhere planned to go). So when we ended up being serious and asking about a few minor things (an above-stove microwave instead of the countertop one, a garage door opener for the third garage, leaving the carpet they wanted to replace but replacing the kitchen linoleum instead) they freaked out and said they weren’t going to rent. GRRR. I’m sure that saved us from future nightmares (because OMG there was some freaky stuff in that house, but not freaky enough to overlook it being a ranch with a 3-car garage). So needless to say we were really bummed.
We knew we had house hunting time scheduled, but we were still getting paranoid about getting something decent because houses are literally only on the market for HOURS, maybe a few days at most. And rentals that take pets are, of course, rare. So we knew we may have to act quickly if something we really liked came up.
So, fast forward two weeks and we happen upon a listing in Zillow that is nowhere else. Long story short, it was somehow mislabeled as an apartment instead of a house and we still aren’t quite sure how we ran across it. Call our agent, get some details, get more pics, yada yada, looks great, but we have to rush because two other people are set to see it later that week so if we want it we have to MOVE. So we beg our lovely local friend Scott to give us a Facetime walkthrough…which he graciously did…and we really liked it. So rush rush rush to arrange everything, deal with the owner (through our agent) who is not using an agent himself so that’s SO MUCH FUN (not)…and a bunch of real estate drama later we have a house! YIKES! We will still go up later this month to actually see it in person (though it’s ours at this point regardless) and register the kids for school and all that fun stuff but we can breathe a sigh of relief now…
Google earth shots—look at that yard! And how flat it is! HEAVEN!!!!
The neighbor’s fence. We will have two sides of a fence. 😆
This is a living area/dining room. If our table fits nicely in the eat-in kitchen this will all be living space. I’m also thinking this is where my new tall Christmas tree will be going… 😉
Not quite the kitchen I was hoping for, though it is nice and I do like the wraparound counter and we will hopefully have room for at least two barstools and this will be the first time ever we’ve had a backsplash!
Another living space—not quite sure how the TV will work because we won’t be putting it there. 
Look at all the natural light! And it looks out onto the back yard!
The guest room! We thought it was the master but during the walk-through we learned otherwise. 
When we were watching the walk-through, Katie was sitting with us and when they got to the pink bedroom she exclaimed “That’s my room!!” There are four bedrooms (all upstairs). The basement has an office (or room without a closet), a HUGE storage room and separate utility room, and a decent sized finished area with room for a play area…and a pool table (!!) and big pool hall light that are staying. (I am sure we will end up using it, but Tom is already planning on building a cover for it to make me a craft table or something.) There was also a swing hanging from the ceiling, so Katie was VERY excited about that. Tom told her it would be going with them, but I said we could surely put one up now that we know where it can go! I don’t think there will be room for the bounce house, but at this house we can use it IN THE YARD!
So overall we’re happy. It’s a big house (2700sf) on a flat street with sidewalks and we have a long flat driveway. We have a big front yard, side yard, and back yard (Tom is already thinking about what mower he’s going to upgrade to since our little electric one won’t cut it—pun not intended but it was too good to edit out). We are under two miles from both the Primary (PK/K) and Elementary (1-3) schools and just under three miles from the Intermediate school (4-5). The schools will take some getting used to as they are HUGE! The PK/K alone is about 700 students (about the size of Owen’s entire elementary PK-5) and the Elementary is about 1700! YIKES. One small thing I’m bummed about is that Owen and Katie will never attend the same school—she will be in K when he’s in 3rd and then she will move to that building for 1st but he will be in the next building! GRRR! I guess that’s a small thing in the grand scheme of things, but right now I just envision it being an annoyance. Oh well, it will all be a new adventure for sure!
We’ve been watching a YouTube series called Smarter Every Day and Owen really likes it. They were having a special on their tee shirts so I got us both one (it also helps support the channel). Their catchphrase is “Goggle up! Science is about to happen!”
I then tweeted the photo and the Smarter Every Day team liked it and commented back!
