Field Trip #15 Monastery

When I tell you the name of the Magic Tree House book Mikie finished reading right before his birthday, you're going to wonder why we visited a Monastery. In book #15: Viking Ships at Sunrise, the main characters travel back to ancient Ireland and help save a Monastery from an attack by Vikings.

Again, living in this area it wasn't hard to find the perfect field trip. My mom was flying in to help us celebrate Mikie's upcoming birthday; so, on the day that she arrived we took advantage of the nice weather and extra set of hands and rode the metro to the Franciscan Monastery . After walking around the gardens, which would be so pretty in the spring, we took an hour long tour of the Monastery where I witnessed with my own ears a miracle of God: BOTH OF MY BOYS WERE QUIET AND WELL BEHAVED FOR AN ENTIRE HOUR!

Zachary stayed awake in the airport, while eating lunch, on the metro, and on the 15 minute walk to the Monastery, but fell asleep 1 minute before we walked through the gates. He slept for 30 minutes before the tour started and woke up as soon as the guide began speaking. Beautiful picture of the hand of God.

Mikie shows a picture of a monk in his book.

I was really hoping to be able to talk with one of the monks, but all we were able to do was catch a glimpse of one as he walked into another room.

We were able to see an example of their clothing.
Inside the Monastery:

Mikie wanted to know which one of the thieves asked Jesus for forgiveness and would spend eternity in paradise with him. Can you tell which one?

Answer: The one on the right that has light behind him.

Another great field trip that Boagie was able to be a part of!

Mikie's Birthday Day

Mikie's actual birthday was 2 days before his big party. Here's what we did: He woke up and opened presents. Here's a video of one of his favorite gifts:

For breakfast, he had a Cinnabon pecanbon roll that we got at the airport when we picked up Boagie.

Then I went to MOPS for 2 hours and Boagie took the boys to Chuck E Cheese.

After lunch with the mouse, we drove to the airport to pick up our friends who flew all the way from Washington State.

Tate was a little overwhelmed and hid behind Miss Amber and Ayden.

Then we ate at the California Pizza Kitchen while waiting for Michael to arrive.

For dessert, Mikie got strawberry cheesecake.

And the Wymans split a sundae.

Some people might feel a little sad when their child reaches the age that requires an entire handful of fingers be held up when he/she is asked "How old are you?" But I, well... I'm so excited that he is 5 years old!!!!!! He's finally reached my favorite age. True, he no longer asks to be held unless his legs are too tired from walking...and, he doesn't want to sit on your lap unless there aren't any seats left....and, you can no longer use the secret spelling code when talking with another grown up....but, he still lets you kiss him in public and hold his hand just because...he still needs to be comforted when he gets hurt and have me tell him when the sad parts of the movie are over....he still asks permission to eat candy that someone has handed him and more often than not remembers his 'please' and 'thank-yous.' He has an amazing gift from God that allows him to manipulate numbers, read chapter books and pronounce words that I can't even spell (like enthusiastically), remember numerous facts on a wide variety of topics (although Dinosaur trivia interests him the most), and can get a hole in one almost every time we go to a mini-golf course. Yes, I am very glad he's finally five!

90th Birthday Celebration

Michael's grandmother turned 90 years old in January, so her family threw a surprise party for her. Michael's sister, Terry, coordinated most of this party. I made the invitations:

Grandma Seger with the two boys.

My Mother-In-Law & Sisters-In-Law

Nancy, Terry, Tammy

I've always thought it was neat how my name fits right in with my two sister-in-laws. We all start with a "T" end with a "Y" and have 5 letters in our name.

The Jones Family

The Doziers

The Pattisons

Field Trip #14 CHINA

I'm all caught up with my posts! YAY! I felt so far behind when I was posting Halloween picts at Thanksgiving and had the busiest time of year yet to come. But I'm finally current in all my postings and just in time for Mikie's big birthday celebration coming up next weekend.

I have my sister-in-law, Tammy, to thank for this field trip. When she heard that Mikie was reading the Magic Tree House book Day of the Dragon King about ancient China, she suggested we go see the Terra Cotta soldiers at the National Geographic Museum. I didn't even know there was a National Geographic Museum, but it is now one of my bookmarked sites! While this field trip wasn't exactly as exciting as the Medieval Times or as unexpected as finding the Ghost Town, this one was SOOOO relevant to the book!

We met Michael in D.C. after work and rode the metro to the museum. We arrived right at 3:00 and were able to get tickets to enter right away. We weren't allowed to take pictures of the actual exhibits but they did have banners and a replicated soldier that we could take pictures with.


As we were taking this picture of the banner, one of the museum workers (Ronnie Mae) noticed Mikie's book and started talking to him. She was telling us numerous facts about the soldiers and asking Mikie questions as well. She was growing increasingly intrigued with Mikie's knowledge and was equally impressed with his mathematical skills. I know God has gifted my child with a talent for manipulating numbers easily in his head, but even I was dumbfounded when she asked him "There are 7,000 soldiers and it took 700,000 people to make those soldiers. How many worked on each one?" Without missing a beat he responded "100." It took me another 30 seconds to do the mental math and realize that he was in fact correct. Ronnie Mae stood there with her mouth open and said "He's a human calculator." To which I replied, "That is his favorite toy! He plays with a calculator every day."

Mikie & Ronnie Mae

This is the one 'replica' soldier that we were allowed to take a picture of. Within the exhibit we saw many more soldiers, the chariots and horses, a painting of the Dragon King, a model of his palace, a painting of the Great Wall being built, and a diorama of the sculpting process. It didn't take long for Mikie to realize that there were numbers throughout the exhibits that marked the points on the audio tour (which we chose not to participate in) and he was a little distracted with trying to find every number.

The picture in his book shows the soldiers lined up in the tomb.

After the museum, we hopped back on the metro and visited China Town.

In our book, we learned that the rooftops in ancient China were curved, or sloped, because they were protecting themselves from evil spirits that could supposedly only travel in straight lines.

We dined on Chinese food and enjoyed our fortune cookies.

Instead of going straight home, we took a detour and drove through the Bull Run Festival of Lights. Even though there was no Christmas music playing on the radio, it was very nice not to have any lines and we could drive even more slowly than normal stopping at the displays that interested us the most. I think we'll wait until after the new year to go again next time.

Michael's 38th Birthday

Michael took the day off of work on his birthday and we decided to take the kids to "Kids In Motion," a bouncy house playland that they love in Woodbridge.

Then we met his mom & dad, and sister & niece at the Macaroni Grill for lunch. I brought the cake along so we could enjoy it. Mikie kept asking daddy what theme he wanted for his birthday and he never would say what he'd like; so, I chose based on what he loves....and that is: SLEEP!
So, we were suppose to have a "sleeping" party where we all hung out in our p.j.'s all day and maybe even slept on the floor together as a family, but when you have me as a wife, that just isn't going to be possible! I kept us busy and out of the house from 9 am until 10 pm!

Here's the cake. Mikie insisted that daddy have 38 candles this year!

And by the time I lit the last ones, the first ones were almost half way melted! They were smoking so badly I really thought the smoke detectors might go off at the Macaroni Grill.

The ball of fire!

After lunch, the boys slept in the car while we drove south to Richmond to pick up a very large giraffe that was being held at a store for me (well, for Mikie's party, but really I always wanted one!)

We ate a quick/light dinner at Panera and then took the boys to the Festival of Lights at the Botanical Gardens. It was COLD that evening, but we stayed pretty warm dressed in our ski/snow gear. The boys enjoyed the lights but especially loved the model trains in the conservatory.

A peacock was my favorite display.

The dragonfly was neat too. I liked all the lights around the water because they reflected off the surface.
We got back way too late for Michael to open his presents, so the next day we had our "jammie" party and the boys gave daddy their cards.

This is the present (unopened) that fit the theme. I think he likes it!

Here's a little video of the "party":

Christmas

Christmas morning was enjoyable and a little faster paced than last year. They played with each gift for a little while and then asked to open another one, so it didn't take us all day! The boys came down the stairs to discover that Santa had left them their beloved pachyderms: Christmas Morning Video:

Mikie got a huge elephant that will be used for his birthday party.

And Zachary instantly fell in love with his little "Edapant" that makes noises and even gives kisses.

Video of Zachary saying "Edapant":

Video of them opening their stockings:

Mikie reads his letter from Santa in this video:

Then he reads Zach's letter:

One of the most played with gifts on Christmas morning was the shark pool table that the Wymans gave Mikie.

Another video:

After all the presents were opened, we headed north to our family Christmas at Aunt June & Uncle Wardie's house. Here's a picture with Grandma & Paw Paw Seger. Grandma will be 90 on January 17th.