Maymont Park

My mom has a picture of me and my brothers in this exact pose when we were little!

Japanese Garden

Checking out a friendly goat

Posing in front of the Maymont waterfall

We went to Maymont Park in Richmond almost 2 weeks ago and I'm finally getting around to posting the pictures. I loved Maymont as a kid and had wanted to take my kids and finally did it. Very little has changed in the 15 or so years since I last visited. There is a new nature center with river otters, fish, and lots of turtles that both kids enjoyed. I love the grounds and we walked around the entire park during our visit. There are a lot of animals there to see, black bears, goats, cows, bison, cows, and even a bald eagle. Liam said his favorite was the "bufflo."

We have yet another busy week planned. We're heading to spend a few days with Mark's parents this week. We are hoping to spend a day at Frying Pan Park and another at the National Zoo. We've visited the zoo every October for the past 2 years and this will be the last year. Next year I won't be able to take Peyton out of school. I can't believe she's 4, have I said that already! We celebrated my niece, Callie's, 5th birthday this weekend. I still remember holding her when she was brand new and now she's 5! I guess it's true that time flies.

This is a short post because I have to get the kids up from rest time soon. Peyton has her intro to dance class today and then we're going to the playground (I promised Liam).

Happy 90th Birthday, Grandma Lily

Grandma Lily with her children and their spouses, grandchildren and their spouses, and great-grandchildren

Peyton had to help blow out the candle

Grandma Lily with her most recent great-grandchild, Danika

We celebrated Mark's grandmother's 90th birthday on September 13th at her home in northern Virginia. What a fantastic life she is living. It was really cool to hear some highlights of things she has done in her 90 years. We also got to meet the newest cousin, Danika, and spend some time with Mark's aunts, uncles, and cousins. They live far away and we only see them every few years. What a blessing to be a part of this family!

What's with the naked Barbies?

Seriously, what is with the naked Barbies in my house....scratch that, not just Barbies, but all the babies are naked. Meet Cinderella and Jasmine Barbie, just two of the many Disney Princesses that Peyton is obsessed with these days. Her Uncle Farmer gave her some money last weekend and she asked if she could buy a Barbie. I am not a big Barbie fan, but it was her money, so she chose Jasmine and then promptly undressed her when we got home. So now we have naked Jasmine and naked Cinderella lying around the house.

We had a fun, but busy time with Nonna in Richmond this past week. We went to Maymont Park, a beautiful estate in downtown Richmond that I haven't visited in at least 13 years. It was really cool to take the kids there, especially since I spent so much time there as a child. I am really excited for the cooler fall-like weather these days. It has been so nice outside, no humidity, nice cool temperatures...fall is coming!

Here are a few things about fall that I love:
cooler weather
jeans and sandals
the leaves changing color
pumpkins and pumpkin picking
mums
apple cider
our big family bonfire
eating chili and soups that have simmered in the crock pot all day
picking apples and making apple pie

Just a quick post

I don't have pictures of Grandma Lily's party to post yet. I still need to do a bit of clean up and editing, but I did want to post these pictures of Peyton. She had her first class in "Discovering Dance I" yesterday at our local parks and recreation. Peyton has been talking about ballet for probably a year so when we got the class schedule for fall we decided to let her take a class. We gave her the choice between ballet or gymnastics and ballet was the overwhelming winner. She absolutely loved the class. I have no idea what they learned because parents are not allowed in the dance studio until the last week of classes. Their teacher doesn't want any power struggles or any separation issues, so I dropped her off and took Liam to the playground. I'm excited to let her experience something new and who knows, maybe this will encourage a new hobby that will teach her how to be more graceful in her own body. She's already asking when the next class is....it's going to be a long week for Peyton!

So much going on

This has been a CRAZY week. I'll write more about my mid-week trip to Northern Virginia later. We are headed back to Fairfax tonight to celebrate Mark's grandmother's 90th birthday with a luncheon on Saturday. What an exciting birthday to celebrate! Grandma Lily is an amazing woman and if I live my life with even a quarter of the zest with which she is living hers, well, I'll have lived a very full and abundant life! I'll hopefully have some great pictures to post when we get back tomorrow night.

If I can make it through this month it will be a miracle. Let's just say that with all the traveling and family events....I'm tired and my patience is wearing a little thin!

Potty Words and a 2 year old boy

We have a rule in our house about potty words. If you have to use the bathroom, you can say that you have to pee or poop, but you can't just say potty words for fun or use them to call someone a name. We do, however, allow the kids to say all of the potty words they want to say if they are in the bathroom. Sometimes when Peyton is in the bathroom, she'll reel of a stream of potty words (i.e. pee pee head, poop, butt, etc.) just to get them out of her system.

A few days ago Liam was in the kitchen with me and he looked at me and said, "pee pee butt." I told him those were potty words and that if he needed to say them he should go into the bathroom. He said okay and the next thing I knew he was standing on the step stool in the bathroom looking at himself in the mirror while chanting, "pee pee butt poo poo" over and over. It was so funny, but I tried not to laugh. He came back into the kitchen and I asked if he felt better and he said yes! So a little while later I hear the step stool scraping across the bathroom floor, and I hear him again saying his potty words. He did this about 3 or 4 times and at one point he even said, "Mama I need to go say potty words" and off he went!

Last night Mark got the chance to see Liam in action. Liam whispered a potty word while we were eating dinner and I told him that wasn't acceptable and that if he needed to say it he had to go stand in the bathroom. He asked to get down out of his highchair and walked off to the bathroom. Then he came back to the table and finished his dinner. I swear we live with a little comedian. Never a dull moment in the Meadows' house!

More Safari Park

Here are a few more pictures from our safari park day.