Haircuts for three

It was finally time for Maggie and Stella to get their first haircuts so we went all-in for the triple.  Will went first and calmly showed the girls how a brave big brother can get his hair cut without fussing or being scared.

Maggie went next and she sat and watched the TV without any real concern.  She had a pretty sour face at the beginning but she sat perfectly still and let the nice lady do her thing.

Stella watched Will and Maggie very closely and wasn't quite sure what to think.  Patrick asked her if she wanted her hair cut and without letting her eyes leave Maggie, she said "no."  But she sat in the chair by herself and didn't fuss a bit.

So afterward, we treated the kids to dinner out and ice cream.  These shots don't do the girls' haircuts justice because they are so darn cute.  Keeping the little barrettes in their hair will be the real challenge...

We love Laurie Berkner

Hooray - we saw Laurie Berkner today!

The kids love listening to and watching the Laurie Berkner Band so we jumped at the chance to see them perform today at GWU.  She played 90 minutes of holiday covers and Will's favorites.  Will was a little nonplussed by his first concert - he said it was a little scary because it was dark and loud.  But the girls, especially Maggie, LOVED her.  Maggie did everything the band did on stage, she acted out songs as the band did particular things, and once the audience started chanting things or singing, she tried her best to sing along (imagine our little Maggie belting out loud "Ho ho ho's").  Stella rocked in Patrick's lap and was pretty happy too. 

Here's our best shot of the stage from our seats (we were pretty close).  Here's a better video of the show ("Candy Cane Jane").

Independence...with Oreos

Maggie and Stella have been wanting more and more to feed themselves, and we do our best to let them do that (and then vacuum most nights).  After dinner last night, Patti treated the girls to Oreos and milk.  They'd seen Will dunk his in milk before, so they went right to work dunking their's.  

Maggie looked MAD that Will got three Oreos and she only got one.  She and Stella ended up with two each after they both dropped their's into their milk.  They were so happy when Patrick fished their cookies back out (for all they knew, they disappeared completely into the milk).

And then the tag-team cleaning began....

Harper's Ferry





Today was unseasonably warm so we wanted to spend as much time outdoors as possible.  Patrick had been hinting at Harper's Ferry for weeks because of it's close location and easy access to trains for Will.

 

Harper's Ferry is in West Virginia but it's where VA, WV and MD meet on the Potomac River.  It has a rich civil war history as well and it's only an hour or so away.  Patrick's office used to have their retreats there so he knew of the cool tracks and tunnel below.

 

We had very good luck.  After parking and walking across the river on the elevated track, a freight train whistled and howled it's way through the tunnel right in front of us.  Will's smile was priceless and, surprisingly, the girls were excited by it instead of scared.

 

About 10 minutes later, a passenger train serviced the station and made it's way across the tracks. 

 

Maggie and Stella were on their best behavior - they didn't fuss once.  The beautiful day and location probably didn't hurt either.

 

Hooray for us!  Another successful day out of the house and some good memories for the kids.