Taming the bird

The taming of the feral parakeet has begun, and she's doing pretty well.  Isabelle is not a huge fan of any of us, but she likes us to be in her room (aka the playroom).  She's getting better at perching on a finger, so we've let her out in the playroom a few times to get some exercise.  She's only out for very short periods of time, though, since she's not potty-trained! Even Claire and Maddie can get her to perch on a finger, which is lots of fun for them, though Colin gets a bit ticked because he doesn't get to try yet.  I'm so glad she found our backyard feeder -- she's turned out to be a fun little pet!

 *Letting Isabelle have a look out the window*

Fairies in the park

We just got back from Maddie's (oops, Madeline's) Tinker Bell birthday party at Lake Accotink Park.  Yes, I planned another party for her outside.  Never mind the fact that in years past it has ALWAYS rained on the day of this child's birthday party.  Maddie was due some good weather and this year she got it!

We don't know many folks here yet, so we invited her whole preschool class.  Clearly we couldn't have it at our house (have I mentioned that our backyard is made up entirely of mud?  Yep, barely a blade of grass but lots of dirt.  That's fine for 2 or 3 kids, but not so much for an entire preschool class...).  So off to the park we went.

The kids got to ride the carousel.

Twice.

And they got to play mini-golf.   That part was cRaZy (all those excited preschoolers wielding golf clubs!  Ack!) but they all seemed to enjoy it.  Especially Colin.

We ate cake and had a pinata.

The kids were happy.  I didn't have to clean our house.  Fun for all!

"Madeline"

Here's Maddie, all ready to start pre-K!  And since she's a big 5 year-old, she's decided to go by "Madeline" at school.  Sweet Maddie, you're breaking your mommy's heart!

Yes, you read that right, she's a big 5-year old.  Today was her 2nd day of school AND her birthday.  She got to bring cupcakes to celebrate.  How fun is that? 

She's really growing up.  We'll still catch her sucking her thumb from time to time, and I know I'm supposed to stop her, but it's really one of the only things that she still does from her baby days.  I'll admit that sometimes I look the other way.

Happy 5th birthday, Maddie-kins!  We sure do love you!

Claire's first day

 

Here she is, on her first day of 1st grade, her first day of all-day school, AND her first day at a brand-new school.  That's a lot of firsts.  Check out that brave big-girl smile.

 

And here she is when we picked her up at the end of the day!  Looks like she had a great time.

 And I know this is Claire's post, but I couldn't resist putting up this photo of Colin.  He's getting ready to pick up Sissy in his new raincoat.  I think it is just TOO DANGED CUTE on him and may just make him wear it everywhere we go, rain or shine!

Yep, we have a bird

Well, nobody claimed her so we bought her a cage. And toys.  And treats.

Guess we have a birdie named Isabelle!  Now I have to try to tame her.  Wish me luck!

Editing to add: she's much more active now!  She slept for 48 hours straight after we caught her.  I think the dog kennel may have been a bit dark for her.  Now she chirps happily at the kids and even plays with her toys.  I recently found this audio clip online of wild parakeets (aka 'budgies') in Australia singing.  I may have to download it - it makes her so happy!     

Mom and Dad's Exciting Adventure

I'd like to think that ALL of my parents' visits to see us are memorable and exciting.  We're fun, right?  And I think our kids are pretty cute.  We usually try to find interesting things to do when they come to visit.  But I suppose it's going to happen that some trips rank higher on the exciting scale than others.  I think this last trip will be right  up there near the top.  (Click HERE for a slideshow or click any of the photos)

To start things off right, we packed up and went to the National Mall.  Saw the sights.  Took some pics.  Had a celebrity sighting (Bob Dole).  Visited the National Museum of Natural History and saw lots of neat-o things.  Stopped at the Air Force Monument on the way home.  Whew!  That was a big day.




Then we hit the National Zoo.  We accidentally broke a few laws while trying to park, but then had a great time visiting all of the animals.  The zoo is located on a pretty good sized hill.  We got our workout that day, for sure.



Next up (cue the excitement):  a Pentagon tour for Mom and Dad while the kiddos and I went to the pool.  I dropped them off at the Metro rail station and they took the train into the city like a couple of locals.  I'm sure their tour would have been interesting enough, but then they experienced our 5.8 mag earthquake -- in the middle of their tour!  Some folks would have fled the building in terror, remembering that the building was attacked nearly 10 years ago.  My mom, however, is not one to be discouraged from sight-seeing, and they finished up the last hour of their tour (heehee - just kidding, Mom.  Most of the Pentagon folks continued with business-as-usual so they finished up their tour).  None of us Shea/Dermodys had experienced an earthquake before, so I'm sure they won't forget that tour any time soon!  Phil helped them take the Metro bus home because the rail was not operating efficiently after the quake.  After navigating two forms of public transport, they are officially more seasoned DC travelers than I am.

We also made it to the Udvar-Hazy Museum, which is part of the National Air and Space Museum.  And by "part" I mean the really super-cool part.  There we saw the Space Shuttle Enterprise, an SR-71, the B-29 Enola Gay, and lots of other really neat air and spacecraft.

Then we got to come home and start bracing for the other exciting event: Hurricane Irene.  As we know now, it ended up being nothing more than a pretty good storm in our neck of the woods.  But the forecasters weren't sure how it would go so we stocked up on a few things and prepped our house and yard for heavy winds.  Some friends of ours were evacuated from their house in Dover, DE, so they came to join our little pre-hurricane party too.  We considered buying the makings for "hurricane" drinks, but instead made do with some margaritas and beer.  The next night our friends moved on to another friend's house and the Dermody/Shea clan took to the basement to weather the storm.  We have some REALLY big oak trees with questionable root structures in our backyard and I really wanted as much house as possible between us and them if one decided to fall! 

Fortunately we weathered the storm just fine, though a nice generator is back on our to-buy list (I can't believe we never bought one when we lived in Altus!).

And during their visit my mom found time to do a sewing lesson for the girls and Dad helped them ride their bikes.  Mom did a bunch of crafts with the kiddos.  They even had a grown-up craft this time for us -- we made a bench!  (And by "we" I mean Phil and my parents - haha).

After the storm we were blessed with some beautiful weather, so we checked out the ruins of the Belvoir Plantation on Ft. Belvoir and relaxed a bit (which means we planted a bunch of daylilies in the front and back yards!)  before my parents had to make their way back to Illinois.



They had no idea what they were signing up for when they planned this trip!  But they took the earthquake and hurricane in stride, and they even promised to come back for another visit soon.  Love you, Gramma and Pawpaw!

Sitting on the new bench!