The Beginning of Cherry Blossom Bloom!

I'm still not sleeping well here and with so much walking throughout the day, it's made for a lot of fatigue and infinity exhaustion.  I feel like I have a newborn again, when in reality, I have three active kids and no car (seriously, you take for granted the minimal amount of effort it takes to drive versus walk everywhere).  So on Thursday morning, I told Jordan he could open this package I got from Amazon with a key if he really wanted to.  I didn't think about what was inside the package, a wad of cotton string that we were planning to use for big bubble wands.  I slept in until 8 AM, knowing very well there could be a lot of insanity downstairs where Jordan and Bubba sounded like they were having the time of their lives.  I secretly hoped they were just using their imaginations, something they've become quite accustomed to since being here.  

I came down... and realized they had proceeded to utilize all two rolls of 300 natural cotton twine to make a magnificent web around the dining room and kitchen.  I couldn't really get mad at them, I hadn't said they couldn't.. one of those harsh lessons of parenting you learn too late after the permanent marker has graced the walls or the furniture... and in my case, after 600 feet of string is in and out over an under every single nook and cranny in the room.  I patiently, with very much restraint and composure, advised them that they were not allowed to do this again, told them why (dangerous, choking hazard, tripping casualties, etc.) and then proceeded to feed everyone breakfast while tying the string back onto sticks.  

 An hour later we were ready to get dressed and get ready to celebrate our St. Patrick's Day!

In anticipation of homeschooling (if you can call it that, we mostly just play but do some letters, numbers, and read a bit) on a holiday, I got some marshmallows to stamp shamrocks.  The boys decided it would be more fun to paint.  We also decided to use the last of our fruit loops (yes, we ate a TON, Andy bought sugary cereal and we are finally done with it) to make rainbows!

 And then we watched a bunch of YouTube videos about the origin of St. Patrick's Day, something I'm surprised I only learned now.  Did you know St. Patrick was captured by pirates from Britain and taken to Ireland?  He later went back and proselytized and used a shamrock to teach about the Godhead.

In the afternoon, our friends offered to give us a ride (carless here) to the Congressional Cemetery where there were glimpses of blooms and Spring all around.  The boys were ecstatic to share a seat.

 Jordan couldn't understand why there was a gate we couldn't get into and though we couldn't quite figure out where to go from, he easily opened the gate and suggested we go this way.  We obliged.

 It was absolutely breathtaking.  I am so excited for this upcoming week's cherry blossoms!

 Jordan "made it rain" with whatever he could gather from the floor.

 

After dinner, we decided to take a little trip to see the green fountain in front of the White House, a fun fact we learned had begun since 2009.  

I think we'll continue our tradition of making green slime for St. Patrick's Day, once a year seems sufficient.  We don't have a blender here so we couldn't do a green smoothie but we had a blast with fruit loops and the green food we did have on hand (kiwis, cucumbers and celery) along with a lot of pesto (my kids hate pesto) in our food from our Hello Fresh package.  The kids were stoked for the green fountain and even though the picture doesn't show it well, it was definitely green!