Gramma and Paw-paw's visit

Shortly after the Sheas left it was time for my folks to visit.  Woohoo!  Seriously, with all of this grandparent spoiling going on my kids are in for a rude awakening when they just have Mom and Dad around.  And I'm in for a rude awakening when I don't have two helpers around all the time to whisk away the kids when I get sick of dealing with them need a little help. 

One of the first things we did this visit was throw a birthday party for Claire.  Our big girl turned SEVEN years old this year.  I really don't know how that's possible, but she assures me it is.  We had lots of kiddos over to our house for a Thanksgiving-themed party.  Thankfully (no pun intended) the weather cooperated and we could keep all those kiddos in the backyard.  Mom and I occupied them with a bunch of crafts, and I think they had a great time. 

*PLEASE CLICK PHOTOS for more pics!*

Then it was time for Thanksgiving!  We left up the birthday party decorations (intentionally, of course.  It had nothing whatsoever to do with laziness...) and invited another Air Force family over for a nice little Thanksgiving get-together.

Next up: we visited the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in DC.

This place is really something to see.  It is full of beautiful chapels and each of those chapels is filled with beautiful artwork.  Even the kiddos like to visit.  And I swear we didn't put them up to kneeling at the alters.  They thought it was fun to test out each kneeler. 

After that we took a trip to Mount Vernon and saw the sights.

It was all decked out for Christmas AND we got a tour of the 3rd floor (it's not usually open to the public) so that was a neat trip.

After all of that excitement the rest of us were pretty beat, but Mom and the kiddos still must have still had some energy because they headed into the kitchen and made hockey pucks honey cakes, aka leckerli cookies.  This recipe has been in my family for about a billion years (OK, not really a billion years, but it does call for hartshorn - which is made from deer antlers! - for a leavening agent.  We use ammonia carbonate which is only slightly easier to come by).  It was lots of fun to be able to participate in an old holiday tradition with my mom again, and really great to get my kids involved for the first time. 

Thanks for another great visit, Mom and Dad!