Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Virginia Beach

We tested the family vacation waters this weekend and stayed one night on the beach in the Holiday Inn North Shore.

It is an amazingly family friendly hotel with amenities such as free on site child care during the day (4+, but we still enjoyed use of the play room), free movie screenings throughout the day in a casual setting (from Muppets starting off the A.M. through Iron Man in the evening), and 3 great pools, one indoor / 2 kid friendly with fun slides and such.  The rooms and the property in general are very clean and recently updated.

H enjoyed the pool, playing in the sand on the beach, the balcony, the play room, and looking for seashells early in the morning.

The kids managed amazingly well during the long drive down and the unfamiliar environment, even nighty-night time went smoothly!  Everyone had a great time and we'd love to return.  I wish I had known that they do fireworks (very loud fireworks) at 9, just when we were getting the kids down, then I would have let them stay up another half hour to step out on the beach and enjoy them!

View from our balcony, room 417 poolside.
H playing in the sand on Virginia Beach.

A tiny sand crab, can you see it?

The "Splash Kamp" play room, H loved following Tonka,
the resident tortoise, on her morning walk.

Blurry but you can just make out B & H shooting out of the water slide, yep our little girl is fearless, strangers were amazed by this.

 
The beach during our early morning sea shell hunt.
 
We enjoyed spotting several dolphins in the A.M. from our balcony.

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Haley M. Smith Park

Today we went to a park in Herndon that was a lot of fun, it was supposed to be a meet up play date but we didn't recognize anyone there.  However, there were lots of kids around H's age and she had fun, it was a nice play area just off Van Buren with several tunnel slides and some fun ride type toys.  Nice size for her age, we'll probably go back.

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Jugando...

Today we went to a spanish language playdate, we had a lot of fun and hopefully we all were enriched by the experience.  I could use a lot of practice, and I think it is really important that H and C are exposed at a young age especially through immersion which is such a natural way to learn.  The other kids are very close in age to H, which was wonderful to find!  :)

Monday, September 20, 2010

Brookleigh Park

B took the kiddos to the park while I did some housework tonight, here are some evening highlights:

The sign of a satisfying meal...
"Playing with kids"
 

We think they'll stay blue...  :)
And welcome Roman to the world today, we look forward to making your acquaintance!  :)

Sunday, September 19, 2010

Greenbriar West


No locals free today so we went to check out a new park this afternoon in an adjacent hood.  H met a new friend named Ali who showed up after a bit with his mum and grand so she at least had some "play with kids" time...



H is doing some excellent climbing these days...

She had fun for the most part, but the "ladybugs" on the slide seemed to perturb her a bit, they received a talking to a couple of times for being in the way...

Saturday, September 18, 2010

End of summer, start of blog...

We decided to put this up as we don't always manage to stay in touch as much as we'd like, this way you can check in on us now and then as your schedule allows, without having to contend with our schedule!

Today was a lazy late summer day, we did a late afternoon trip to enjoy the warm sun at Brookleigh Park with H's friend R.

Yesterday we checked out Meadow Lane Park for the first time with H's friends J & E.  It is a small park but the locals contribute outdoor toys for all to share which makes it special, the kids really had a great time and played for over 2 hours before begrudgingly allowing themselves to be removed to go eat lunch.  :)


After the park we picked up take-out from Sunflower, the kids seemed so well behaved for a minute so had to take a snap of them sitting and eating so nicely!