We Love Soapy and Tony!!!!

Sophia, Luke, Mike, and Tony...

We found Pandy!!!

The Crew + Anna + Snack...

Again, Pandy!!!!!

The twins love pandas...and of course, Karen's bag o' snacks...

"Seriously, lady...stop taking our pictures!"

Spring Break for us started on Monday.  So, since F was heading out to CO for his annual whatever it was conference (see how read into his job I am???  The model wife, no???), I decided to go see my dearest, most wonderful friend, Karen, up in Northern VA.  Just what she wanted, right? (Her daughter is five months older than L, her son is 2 months younger than the twins...we planned it that way, ha ha!  No really, we bonded over being the two older pregnant college students on campus that year.  And then further bonded during the initial foray into motherhood, dealing with deployments, moves, second pregnancies, etc.)  I should mention that she is expecting her third child this fall...so I definitely added a lot to her life by bringing the total in her house to: two 5 year olds (Mikey calls Sophie, "Soapy") and three 3 year olds.  She is so kind and gracious...even when L threw the $60 Buzz Lightyear on the floor from his perch on the bar stools at her breakfast bar (I think he actually thought Buzz could fly), she didn't lose her cool...or when Mikey pooped his pants in Tony's room and then took off the pull-up and accidentally smeared it on her decorative pillow for the guest room...that's Karen, she reminds me to be more kind and considerate of my children...
The original plan was to spend a day in DC at the Cherry Blossom Festival, but somehow we switched gears to see the National Zoo with all the kids.  Well, like a genius, I didn't bring a double stroller...or any stroller, in fact.  I don't really ever use one anymore, so I didn't think to bring one.  I'm glad we never tried going on the Metro without having something to strap M into...anyway, I digress.  So Karen offered me her old stroller, but we both drastically underestimated how attached her kids are to that stroller...so it started a battle between the Marstons and the other kids for the stroller (I should amend this and say that L wasn't involved at all, he was too busy cuddling with Buzz).  I'll definitely remember a stroller next time...I felt bad for Soapy and Tony...they'd had to share so much with 3 different people!  It gets hard, but they were so good about it...unfortunately, Mikey is still in the stage where if he has ever expressed interest in something, he thinks it belongs to him for life...also, he hadn't napped in 3 days while we were visiting...so it made it so, so hard...he gets very physical...starts hitting and pushing and grabbing things and there is absolutely no reasoning with him...
I got distracted again from my story...I should just end by saying: We had to leave on Tuesday night because Mikey was so tired he wasn't able to deal with any slight amount of frustration at all.  Luke accidentally put M's pants on...I pointed out his mistake and put his own on, then went on to do a puzzle.  However, M thought L still had his pants on and he could not let it go, no matter how I tried to show him L was wearing his own pants or explain it...he kept following L and literally attempting to pull his pants off him (to imagine this properly, you should imagine that L is trying to do a puzzle while his brother is pulling him backward like a chihuahua attempting to drag a bloodhound's legs backward)...the horrid tantrum lasted 20 minutes and ended only when I made L take his pants off and put them on M.  M stopped screaming and said, tears streaming down his flushed cheeks, "Deez are NOT pants, they are LUKEY'S!!!"  That is how the day went, so we decided to call it quits and come home...it was fun while it lasted, though...the kids got along most of the time...and Karen is such good company...it was nice to be with such a loved friend...
So, the Zoo...Anna was totally into it for the snacks.  I'm not sure she realized there were any real animals there because her main concern was constantly eating something.  She did stop long enough to point out Pandy! (so-named for the baby Panda doll that moves and makes baby whiny noises when you press his/her belly...which the twins periodically leave in my bed so that I might roll over it and wake myself at 2 am) to her brother who probably loves Pandy more than she does!  Hooray!  It was a hot day and something was stuck to my contact which gave me a horrendous headache so I was hot and my head hurt and had not enough patience to deal with the crowds that day (3 of the surrounding counties had the day off for Teacher's In-Service and apparently they all decided to come to the Zoo!)....I felt like it was tough to remember if we saw anything really....our kids liked being with each other, though...
Well, I better take the kids to t he bounce-house like I promised...so I will sign off for now...I ended up taking the kids to the Norfolk zoo on Thursday and it totally rocked!  I'll post those pics soon!
(Mikey's colossal tantrum at the end was over a cylindrical cushion that he would not, under any circumstances, share with Sophia.  She would not let him take it, not matter how he pummeled her...and I couldn't calm him down...I've said before that he revvs up as he gets more tired and he was angry and energetic about it that day...so I put him in the car and drove home.  He fell asleep immediately, slept until 5:30 when we stopped for dinner and the first thing he said when he woke up was, "I love Soapy.  She is my BEST FWEND!!!!  SHE LOVES ME SOOOO MUCH!!!"  Umm...can anyone say, "selective memory"???)
(**Anna was so cute with both Sophie and Tony.  When they rode in our van, we put Tony in L's seat next to Anna and she asked him, "Tony!  How is Lukey's seat for you?  Do you like it?  Do you like dogs cause I don't like dogs.." And Tony said, "Yes, I like dogs." Anna: "Oh, yes, I love dogs, too! You are my friend, Tony!"  And then when we left, she hugged Sophia and said, "Sophie you are my friend, I will miss you so much."  She was so caring and concerned for them....I forget how sweet she is with people who are not her brothers...)
(***Luke and everyone got along famously...except for the time that Tony and Michael were walloping him with plastic swords and he cried for help.  And for the unfortunate throwing of Buzz.  Sophie convinced him to make planet books one morning...they spent a considerable amount of time drawing pictures of planets and writing the words...well, Sophie wrote more than Luke..he likes to do math activities...Karen pointed out how funny it is to notice their interests so deeply entrenched at such a young age...Sophie is more interested in words and writing stories and L is more interested in counting and adding or subtracting...)