Panda Bears!

Saturday was a very busy day. Paul took Nadia to gymnastics while I took the boys to a HUGE yard sale that a large church in our area was having in their parking lot. I spent a lot more money than I was planning to spend, but I got Nadia many Gymboree outfits in size 7 for her to wear a year from now. Some of them still had the tags on them. I also got other things including a booster seat (for Paul's car) for $5 and a Cinderella castle for 25 cents for Nadia. I went online afterward and saw that the vintage toy sells for $50 on eBay. I let the boys play in the church's play land after I was done shopping. Once we got home I was busy feeding the kids lunch, cleaning the house, putting away the yard sale purchases, cooking a tuna noodle casserole for Paul to eat this week, and packing. I did most of the packing during Oliver's nap. After he woke up, I took the kids to the swimming pool before dinner.


On Sunday the kids and I started our drive to Maryland after church. Our first stop was at my friend Laura's house. I hadn't seen her for more than two years, as she had never met Oliver. We were roommates from 1994-96 when we were both teaching at the same school in Annapolis. Then we drove to my parents' house. My sister, Wendy, and her family had arrived at my parents' house on Saturday night. That night as I was getting the kids ready for bed, I discovered that I hadn't packed any pajamas for Oliver. Since I had packed while he was napping on Saturday, I actually hadn't packed many clothes for him. I did have two outfits for him because I had put one outfit in his diaper bag for his time in the nursery on Sunday morning (that wasn't used), and at the last minute on Sunday morning I had thrown in one Steeler outfit for him to wear (thinking it was an extra outfit, not realizing it was the only one I put in the suitcase for him). I didn't totally forget to pack for him as I had brought diapers, wipes, nebulizer, medicine, and a bib for Oliver, but I had packed 6 outfits plus 2 pairs of pjs for each of the other two kids. I declared that night I was definitely not eligible for a Mother of the Year award. Hopefully I will do a better job when I pack our suitcases for Florida next week. Paul will be coming to Maryland on Thursday so Oliver can sleep in pjs and wear a different outfit after that.

This week Wendy is taking Adam to a cello camp in Virginia each day, and her husband is attending a conference in Baltimore. Today Grace stayed home with my mom, and I took Susie (10), Rachel (5), and my three kids to the zoo in DC. According to Mapquest, it's only supposed to take 30 minutes to get there, but it took at least an hour each way. We spent a little over 4 hours at the zoo. The main attraction of this is the panda bears. I was surprised that they didn't have any giraffes, hippos, rhinos, or zebras. The kids favorite part of the zoo was the tidal pool splash pad. We visited it twice, and they were totally drenched. They also enjoyed a tunnel themed playground near the prairie dogs. The petting zoo wasn't open, but they were able to pet a cow through the fence. Tomorrow my dad and I are taking Susie, Rachel, Nadia, and Ian to Six Flags, as tomorrow is Nadia's actual birthday. My mom will be watching Oliver and Grace. The cousins are having a blast playing together!