Free Fountain

Last Friday we went to the Silver Spring fountain. It's just a fountain in the middle of a little shopping area. Very enclosed; you can't see the rather busy streets all around, but very cute. We met our friends, Jessica, Sophia, and Zack. Jessica had told me that in the summer there are always mothers there, letting their kids frolic in the fountain, and there certainly were! There were hardly enough chairs to go around. Sophia went right into the fountain with no hesitation. The other kids, on the other hand...Emma had to be coaxed, but was having fun pretty soon, though still cautious to get her head wet. Siri stayed her distance for quite a while. I finally took her hand and walked her around, through the little sprays, and she still didn't care for it. The kids played on the stairs and walls, and Emma mastered jumping down 2 stairs! (It was a very funny process to watch.) Then finally Siri started small: putting her hands in the little streams, then she gradually was running all over, totally soaked. By the time that we left, about 2 hours after we had arrived, 2 1/2 hours after Jessica and the kids had gotten there, Zack started to get interested! It was certainly a fun, FREE, day!

An Afternoon at Ikea

Today was supposed to be rainy (it did not drip one little bit!) so we took a little trip over to Ikea. It is 1/2 hour away, and Siri has not been doing well in cars lately, but we made it and got to park in a family parking spot, right up close! I wasn't sure if the supervised play area would work, and as it turned out Emma was exactly on the line for height, so we skipped it. There are little mini play areas all throughout the store, though, interwoven in all the room layouts and specific "rooms" of shelves, furniture, etc, so we just took our time walking through the store. There were a few times that we had to rush through the section, like when they wanted to crawl on every single bed, and Emma wanted to get under the covers of every bed! There was a little slide in the section with kids' rooms. We ate an abbreviated lunch and ran to the bathroom, and then made our way throught he marketplace. That's where most of the breakdowns happened. Siri was still hungry, and Emma just wanted to play, but we finally made it through the checkout!

I've been trying, lately, to be extra patient with my three-year old, as her gears always seem to be moving as slow as possible. We did ok at Ikea, but there were a couple of times where Emma took her own sweet time. There's always another day to do things better!

Our New Car!

We have a new car! Now I can drive places when Matt is at work! I know what you're thinking...this is not a new concept. But, this was not a possibility in NYC, and with insurance costs so low in every other part of the planet we are able to enjoy 2 sets of wheels. I desperately did not want a minivan, and so we now own a Mazda 5; a six seater...so there's room for more. :)

Baltimore's Inner Harbor

The hot summer days have made me nostalgic for the things we would do in New York City, such as visiting the Central Park Zoo, eating at the one restaurant that we could afford in the village, and getting cupcakes at Magnolia's. So, I am on a mission to do tons of cool stuff this summer! We'll see how it goes, but we started by driving in to Baltimore. We found free parking next to a farmer's market and walked to the Inner Harbor to have lunch. Then, we went on a mission to find sunscreen that I forgot...and it was a hot day! We had ice cream, took some pictures, walked through the mall, and finally went home. It was hot, and the kids a little cranky 'cause they are getting over a virus, but it was a great summer day!

Messiah Conference

We got home last Sunday from 9 days away at Messiah College in PA for the MJAA Messiah Conference. This is my 8th year attending and Matt was again on the Leadership team for the YMJA, 13-30 (focusing on the teens), portion of the conference. The first couple of years we just attended as reps from our congregation, and then we started bringing the Shuvah Youth group and Matt has been on the leadership team for 3 years now...I think. This year was different, though, because I didn't have a youth group that I was looking after. It was bittersweet as I was only responsible to Emma and Siri, but sad that I was no longer technically associated with the Shuvah teens. I did manage to give a few of the lucky ones a piece of my mind, though! :)