White House Easter Egg Roll

We were among the very, very lucky ones. Thanks to the amazing kindness and generosity of our friend Sybil, we were able to attend the annual White House Easter Egg Roll on the lawn of the White House. What a day. Just a few highlights:

• The adorableness of my daughter in her Easter finery:

• We were SO CLOSE to the White House. Unbelievably close. Just wandering around their front yard. In fact, while we were in line for the actual roll, I noticed Barbara Bush (former first lady, not current daughter) walking into the building for a visit. Wow:





• It was quite the festival atmosphere. One might have even called in chaotic if it weren't so much fun. There were tons and tons of costumed bunnies and other characters (we spent the first few minutes acclimating to this and avoiding the biggest, furriest ones until Millie calmed down). The Jonas Brothers were in concert somewhere out there. Someone was displaying and discussing a kimoto dragon (yes, this is true. I have no idea of the Easter significance, but anyway...). There were magicians, dancers, and even the humongous racing Presidents from the Nationals games. Wowzers.

• They fed us breakfast -- always a highlight for a pregnant lady. Yummy egg burrito, fruit, coffee, juice. Pretty great.
  
• Troy Aikman. Other than the Chargers, he's my favorite part of winter Sunday afternoons. He was officially there to read a book to the kiddos. But mostly he was being stalked by moms (and dads too, actually) who have a crush on him. Exhibit A:

Note Millie gazing lovingly at Troy behind us.

• Millie got her face painted for the first time ever. She sat amazingly still as the portrait of Barney the dog was painted on her cheek. So cute:

And of course, the very best highlight of them all was Millie's attempt at the legendary egg roll. Bigger kids used a wooden spoon to push a real egg down a narrow lane as they raced about nine other kids. Millie snatched up her egg (see the previous post on her egg gathering skills) and raced down the lane towards me, Sybil following and cheering her on. Yes, I teared up. I was in the shadow of the White House having a once-in-a-lifetime moment with my DAUGHTER. These are the sweetest moments of life. I will never forget it.

Awesome Easter

We managed to stretch our Easter festivities to three full days this year. On Saturday we all headed over to the neighborhood Easter Eggstravaganza that is hosted by our church. Usually more than 1000 of our neighbors show up for the fun which includes lots of carnival games (a no-go for Mils just yet), live-rabbit petting (she LOVED it), a costumed mascot rabbit (NO WAY was she going near that thing), and a gigantic egg 'hunt'. Since she's an expert at putting and taking things in and out of bags, baskets, and drawers, she had a great time picking up the eggs.

On Sunday we had a small celebration at home (we read the resurrection story and opened the Easter basket and a great gift from G&G Greer) and headed up for a casual brunch with my parents. Another wonderful basket to explore and another mini-egg hunt made Millie so happy. She learned quickly to pick up an egg and shake it. If she could hear something inside she'd start squealing "Opie! Opie! Opie!" which means Open! Open! Open!. Grammy hid some animal crackers in the eggs. Jackpot!

On Monday morning we had a once-in-a-lifetime event for both me and Millie: The White House Easter Egg Roll, courtesy of our neighbor and friend Sybil! I haven't downloaded photos off the camera yet, so I'll post some of those action shots in the next day or two.

See...three days of awesome Easter fun. What a perfect way to celebrate such a meaningful holiday.

So proud

Christopher hit a big career milestone last week. He promoted from Lieutenant to Lieutenant Commander. He has always really loved being a Navy JAG -- he finds a lot of satisfaction in serving his country, helping fellow sailors, and having such a variety of issues to cover. Personally, I am so proud of his integrity and reputation. I am so proud to stand by him at events like these and to support him in this career. Congratulations, Christopher!

Grandparents and Friends Galore!

The happy (and squirmy) family

The fun cake

It's hard to breathe...

The most awesome news we could ask for came yesterday: we have a completely healthy, active, growing baby. We had our big 20 week ultrasound (because of my age, we had the high-tech 4-D version) and were able to see extraordinary details of the little feet, fingers, spine, and yes...we now know the gender.

So just as we did with Millie, we had the doctor write the verdict on a note card that we then opened at a family dinner last night. Here's Millie telling you the big news:

Well, ok, she's just pointing to the picture on the front of the notecard. But if she could read it to you, you'd know that we are having a...

Can you believe it??? It was seriously hard for me to breathe last night when we opened the card. Of course I'm ecstatic, but I am equally panicked. All I can see are visions of broken arms and buckets of tadpoles in my garage. This is going to be fun!

Blueberry Soup

We all had a fun, new adventure Sunday morning. Every year the Swedish Embassy hosts a bike ride in honor of one of their national 'holidays'. I think the story goes something like...Hundreds of years ago one of their kings was being pursued by an angry mob and forced to cross-country ski for his life for approximately 57 miles (I'm sure it was measured in kilometers, but that wasn't any part of this sketchy story that I was told). Finally a group of villagers took him in, gave him refuge and served him warm blueberry soup to warm him up. So in honor of this legend (and since there's not a lot of cross-country skiing to be done in the DC metro area), the embassy hosts an annual bike ride, opens their stunningly beautiful House of Sweden to the public, and serves the cyclists warm blueberry soup at the end of the ride.

Christopher and a couple of neighbors got up early and did the bike ride (Christopher rode about 40 miles) and Stacey and Millie took the bus over the Embassy to check things out. It's situated right on the bank of the Potmac River just below Georgetown. Our neighbor described it as an upscale Ikea, but oh...it's so much more. Millie had a great time running around the open space and even enjoyed her few tastes of the soup from Dad's finger (imagine drinking warm blueberry syrup...an acquired taste, I imagine). As we were leaving I thought it was all such a quintessential Washington, DC thing to do. What a fun city.

Millie and Dad investingating both sides of a cool 'water wall' inside the Embassy

A Visit to Auntie Jules...

...who happens to live in warm, sunny San Diego! It was a glorious warm-up for mom and Mils. Well, it was glorious AFTER the sweaty debacle of the flight out there, which ended with both of us spread out and crying on the floor of the bulk-head...can you imagine??? Julie lives in La Jolla now, just a block over from the little apartment where Christopher and I spent the first five years of our marriage and just a block from my favorite beach in the world. I visited my coffee-guy on the corner (twice) and my bagel shop down the street. I saw old friends and did some preliminary house/neighborhood hunting for our upcoming move. Mils soaked up all the love and attention from her Aunt and thrived in the CA sunshine. But beyond the weather, this trip really gave me a lot of peace about our move. I know I'll be devastated to leave my parents and wonderful friends here, but I now know that I'm going to a place that feels very much like home. We are so blessed to have two 'home towns'.

OK...I have about a hundred photos from the trip, so I've tried to post a few highlights: