Thanksgiving 2016 Trip to Virginia and D.C.

This year, with Marist having the entire week of Thanksgiving off (and CKS only having 1.5 days of school that week), we opted to take advantage and hit the road for the holiday. We headed towards Karen, Brian and Ryan but took a detour to Charlottesville, VA first, as we hadn't been back since we moved when Clare was three months old. And we do love that town!

Tim found us a charming house to rent, affording everyone more space than we'd have had in a hotel. We were able to walk to a restaurant for dinner on our first night, then crash after a long day of driving. The next day we procured pastries from a local bakery and hit the road as tourists. Our first stop: Monticello, which was every bit as gorgeous as I remembered. Fall is probably the most spectacular time to visit, too.

From there we ate lunch and then trekked to UVA. Never too early to introduce the kids to potential schools, right? Not to mention the opportunity to stroll down memory lane. Thomas Jefferson was rightly proud of this campus.

We greatly enjoyed our time as fivesome and happily headed toward D.C. to catch up with the rest of the Seymour clan - with a detour to Georgetown University first. In other words, stop 2 on our "aim high and spare no expense" college tour. Clare and Danny liked it!

Finally we arrived in Silver Spring, where Baby Ryan was the star of the show, and I think he enjoyed Danny, Laura and Clare *almost* as much as they enjoyed him!

The five of us headed back into D.C. on Wednesday to tour some classic Washington sights - mainly centered around the Museum of Natural History and a terrific Imax film on the national park system. It was a gorgeous day, so we walked around the mall, too.

It was a lovely Thanksgiving. Unfortunately, the following day Clare woke up with a case of strep throat, so the outings ended for the two of us - everyone else headed into the city to have lunch with Uncle Dan and Aunt Judy and then visited the National Zoo. But, we enjoyed some cozy movie watching and down time, so it wasn't all bad.

As always, we are thankful for our beautiful family and another blessings-filled holiday season!

All Saint's + Fifites Days

As is tradition for the Fourth Grade at CKS, the morning of Halloween kept us quite busy preparing for All Saint's Day. Danny and his classmates each dressed up as one of the saints and processed into the all-school mass, over which the Archbishop presides. It's always really moving and charming and this year did not disappoint.

Better still, Danny (a.k.a. St. George) was asked to read the first reading. He was nervous going into the day, but you would never have known from the clear, confident way with which he read, earning him many compliments afterwards.

Backing up a bit, the Friday before Halloween was the 50th day of school at CKS. So, the Kindergarteners celebrated it in 1950s style! They had a sock hop and root beer floats. Such a fun year!

Halloween 2016

For the eighth year in a row, we joined forces with the Francos to celebrate Halloween! And for the fourth year, we headed to their neighborhood, Starlight Hills, to do so. And for the third year in a row, Luis masterfully BBQ'd. #winning

This year, we had two witches and Jack Sparrow among the Seymour children. This was a relatively last-minute departure for Laura from her original plan to be Elena of Avalor - she opted for something "more scary" instead. (I can't help but think of Lucy, from "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!" talking about how one's Halloween costume *should* be in direct contrast to one's personality in real life.)

Falling on a Monday, we had to rein it in just a bit, so the evening came to a close sooner than anyone would have preferred. Nevertheless, it was a big success, and we thoroughly enjoyed having the DiBiases join us again, too! It was clear that the older girls tired of trick-or-treating sooner than the rest, so it remains to be seen what happens next year when we have high schoolers on our hands. Given that we moms are quite content to hand out the candy and sip wine while doing so, perhaps we can relieve the dads and send the big kids off as chaperones instead...