A Presidential Adventure

We won the lottery!!!!




Well, not an actual lottery where you win money or anything. Aunt Ashley and Fammy both entered the lottery to get tickets to the 2010 White House Easter Egg Roll and they BOTH got them which enabled all of us to go!!




The event took place on Monday - the day after Easter. I got the boys dressed up in their new plaids (courtesy of Mimi)...

and Maddy in perfect pink patchwork pants (courtesy of Charlotte)...

and we headed off to Fammy's to meet up with everyone. The kids were so happy to see Fammy and Granddad - they'd been in Australia since Tyler's birthday. We all missed them!!

When the Holmquist clan arrived, we hit the metro. Maddy's first time!!

Fammy fed her a bottle on the ride so I could tend to the boys.

Looking sleepy.....

... and OUT!!

When we got there, it was a pretty long wait. This was the line:

Ok, doesn't look like much, but it was one of those back and forth zig-zag amusement park type lines and there were about 10 back and forths.

30,000 tickets were given out total, and there were five time slots. So each time slot had 6,000 people. Again, doesn't sound that bad. But when you have a field of 6,000 people all trying to merge onto one walkway leading up to the White House lawn, it's a little brutal. Not to mention the temps reached near 90 degrees that day!!

I got a nice sunburn. And when I say nice, I mean OOOOOOOOOOOOOUUUUUUUUCCCCCCCCCHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!

Luckily, I remembered to put sunscreen on my boys and they spent 90% of the time in the stroller under canopies.

FINALLY, after a looooooooooooong time, we made it to the White House lawn.

Nice digs.

More crowd photos....

There were many activities, but the reason we were there of course, was the Egg Roll. Both Maddy and Charlotte were napping peacefully in their stollers, so Richard and I stayed off on the sidelines while Ashley and Fammy stood in the long line with Nathan, Tyler, and Evan.

Here they are nearing the front of the line!!

And here they getting into place!!

And this, THIS, is what made the entire long, brutally hot day worth it:

I had spent most of the day very cranky and miserable. But when I saw these little boys do the Egg Roll on our President's front lawn, well, it was pretty exciting. Who would have thought we'd get the chance to do that?

And I guess we're going to have to try to do it again in a few years when this one is old enough.... hopefully it won't be as hot!

Each child was given a goodie bag upon entering, and upon exiting, a wooden commemorative egg "signed" by the President and First Lady.

Sorry - couldn't get the camera to focus so close up!!

And lastly, here is a picture of the first daughters' playset:

Ok, so it's slightly (!) bigger than the one our boys are getting next week! Yes, NEXT WEEK! It's a good thing they can't read, because it's a surprise. It is being installed next Tuesday and we aren't going to tell them. We're just going to lead them into the back yard when they get home from school. I'll have to have video ready to capture that reaction!!!!

Still more Easter activity to post about - later this week!!

An Overdue Thank You

Waaaay back on Christmas Eve, I made my way over to the local firehouse for some help with our carseats. Since Maddy had just been born and her carseat needed to be in the second row of the van, Tyler's carseat had to be moved to the third row (which he was very excited about, by the way!). Mitch and I couldn't figure out how to secure the seat with the seatbelt, and there didn't seem to be the Latch system in the third row.



First I tried the police station. They looked at me like I had three heads and then referred me to the fire department.



I rang the bell, and two very nice young firemen greeted me. They opened a bay door so I could drive the van in since it was very cold outside. They quickly discovered that the third row was indeed equipped with the Latch system, but just in the middle. For whatever reason, Mitch and I had only tried the sides.... In any case, they properly secured the seat, including the top tether, and then tightened Evan's seat up as well. They had never been so secure! Those seats don't move AT ALL!!!! I was very grateful, and since then have felt very bad that I didn't have anything for these guys, ESPECIALLY since they were working on Christmas Eve! I have always planned to go back....



So finally, I did. What better excuse than a holiday weekend to bake some cookies and teach the boys how to show gratitude to those who serve and protect?



I made the dough on Wednesday....



Rolled out, cut, and baked on Thursday...

And decorated on Friday morning.

I know they don't look so great, but trust me, they were delicious!!

Now the proper packaging....

An Easter basket with grass,

each cookie in it's own individual treat bag,

and put it all together!!

Now for the fun part - the delivery!!!

When we drove up, I was psyched to see they had one of the trucks outside! The boys got very excited too!

Here's Tyler proudly holding the basket when we got out of the van (before he decided to go all shy).

When we approached the firehouse, we were greeted by the same two firemen who had helped me on Christmas Eve!!! I told them why we were there - how I had been wanting to properly thank them for helping me out. They were pretty excited about the cookies - and immediately escorted us into the building so the boys could get up close and personal with some fire trucks!!!

At the end of our visit, the firemen gave the kids each a hat, a cup, and a badge shaped "Junior Firefighter" sticker.

Even Maddy got a hat! :)

Here are my little Junior Firefighters loading up to go back home after their adventure.

What fun!!! I had never been inside a fire truck before either, so it was an adventure for me too! It wasn't easy to pull off, but I'm glad I did. Maybe the boys will even remember it when they're older, but probably not! Thank goodness for pictures!!!