Elise's 1st Day of Nursery

This little girl was very excited to go to school after Labor Day weekend. We got to visit her classroom and meet her teacher on Tuesday. 

The next day was Elise's first day of Nursery!

All set with a cute, new backpack. 

How sweet is this photo the school took and sent to us? 

Labor Day in the District

We took a little time off from working over the Labor Day weekend to explore the new 'hood. We made it into the District for a super yummy breakfast at Ted's Bulletin and trip to The Yard park. I'm talking scratch-made beer biscuits with sausage gravy, homemade pop tarts covered in sprinkles, and hash browns that would even convert a non-hash brown person like me! Nate and I were so stuffed that we didn't even need to eat lunch... And that's unheard of for me!

Next we made it to a new park on the water near the Navy Yard and stadium, because I had read it had fountains for the kids to play in. They happened to be turned off for some reason, but the kids had a great time going for a little swim in the "canal". In fact, they refused to walk around and see the park because they were just dying to get in the water RIGHT NOW!! Another hot day, but the weather has overall been gorgeous since we arrived. So many super sunny days with beautiful blue skies. 

Finley's 1st Day of K

Last week marked an exciting time for Finley-- the start of kindergarten!  

This is his teacher when he met her at Open House.

And here's the big day!  So handsome...and tall!

There are definitely some fun parts to being back in the US.  Look what I found at the store!  Haven't had these in at least years! 

This is what happens when you don't have your shipment (after 3 months), and you try to make muffins without a muffin tin.  At least they tasted good.

National Zoo

Before school started I tried to get in one more special outing-- a trip to the National Zoo. We were thoughtfully gifted a membership, which basically means we can park for free all year (versus $22/day!!) because the zoo itself is free. The kids enjoyed it and exhausted themselves spending the whole morning there. We had to work really hard to keep Elise awake on the ride home!

Their favorite area was the farm because the animals were so close. You could even pet some of them!

Meet Carolina and Savannah. 

We saw these giant fish that we recognized from Ocean Park in HK!

And they even have pandas. Made us feel right at home. :)

The Bunny

We have at least one bunny that lives at our house and the kids love to watch it. Finley is begging to bring it in and keep it as a pet. 

This is him trying to hug it from afar. 

I had to make chex mix to celebrate being able to buy the cereal for less than $8/box now!

There is way too much IKEA furniture to be out together in our house right now, and nowhere near enough time to do it. The bed alone took 4 hours! 

Puppets, Denizens, Experiments

We don't have many toys (or anything else for that matter) but the kids like this fort!

We went to a little kid puppet show (only 30 minutes, they don't turn the lights off, kids making noise and standing is okay) and the kids got to hug the panda puppet afterwards. Love Finley's sweet face here!

Elise brought her panda and let it hug the panda puppet!

There are no dates anymore, so we try to go on a weekly family date instead. We had to try this local BBQ restaurant/brewery named Denizens, and it did not disappoint!

Doing science experiments in our pajamas= summer school!

More Playgrounds

Here's a little video of when we turned our playset into a water park. The slide was fast! (Finley filmed the part with Elise.)  Click HERE.

More fun exploring all the parks and playgrounds near by. 

They got in the bus and Elise said, "Finley, do you want me to take you to Trader Joe's?"

Slides for all ages and sizes!