Halloween

Elise as a vampire bat girl, Anja as a ninja.

Our first Halloween in Virginia.  This was the most pleasant Halloween I have ever experienced.  I spent most of my life in Minnesota and by October we usually had snow on the ground.  You know those lists of "You Know You Are From (enter state name here) If..."?  The Minnesota list says "you know you are from Minnesota if, as a kid,  you bought Halloween costumes one size too large so you could fit your snowsuit underneath."  That is the truth!  Many Halloweens as a child, it was so cold and snowy that I wore my snowsuit underneath my costume so I wouldn't freeze my tail off.  Tonight was a totally different experience.  It was 70 degrees out!  At 7:00 p.m.!  Elise wore her costume without any extra tights, leggings, or shirts underneath and she didn't get cold.  That is totally unheard of where I come from. I wore a jacket over my t-shirt and was hot by the time we got back. 

Most memorable experience from this Halloween:  man sitting at the end of his driveway handing out candy, who, when we departed, said "Happy Halloween, y'all."  Sometimes I forget I live in the south, and then things like that remind me that it is different here.   And that has been a pretty fun experience so far!

Anja Turns 6

I know parents, grandparents, people with children in their lives in some way, say something along these lines all the time, but....It does not seem possible that Anja is six years old!  She is my baby and she is getting so big!  But (to use another common cliché) they grow up whether or not we want them to. 

Then:  Anja at her 1st birthday

Now:  Anja at her 6th birthday

I am very proud of the young lady Anja is becoming.  She is sweet, caring, feisty (I have always called he my little firecracker) and very funny.  I did a short interview with her on the day she turned six and this is what she had to say:

Favorite color:  Purple
Favorite animal:  Cat and dragon and dolphin
What she wants to be when she grows up:  Book Maker
Favorite thing to do:  Read Books
Something she wants to learn how to do:  Read
Something she is proud she can do:  Read

For her sixth birthday, she wanted a party at the gymnastics center where she and Elise had done some day camps last summer.  Anja, Elise, and six of Anja's classmates played in the gym for an hour, then went to a party room for pizza, cake and opening gifts.  The kids had a GREAT time and I could thoroughly enjoy the party, knowing I didn't have to clean-up afterward (one of the best parts of having the party somewhere other than home).

 

 

It was a lot of fun to watch Anja with her friends, bouncing, playing, and having a great time!

Bouncing big sister!

Elise giving Anja some help tying a balloon onto her hand.

Oh, wow!

"I love it!"

Happy, happy birthday girl!

Make a wish!

 



An Evening in Richmond with David Sedaris

Last weekend Jason and I brought the girls to mom and dad's and headed south to Richmond for an overnight date.  The girls were happy to spend time at grandma and grandpa's, I think grandma and grandpa were happy to spend time with the girls, and Jason and I were happy to spend time alone.  Everyone was happy; it was a win-win situation!

What initiated this weekend away was when I heard David Sedaris was going to be in Richmond.  He is one of my favorite authors; he is a humorist who writes short stories and essays.  He is one of the funniest writers I know, and very entertaining in a live performance where he reads his work.  I had seen him in Fargo about a year ago, before we left Minnesota, and during that reading I laughed so hard I cried.  He is not for everyone, he can be bawdy, crass, and is definitely not politically correct.  I'm not sure what it says about me that I find him so funny.  I am not alone, though; he is a New York Times bestselling author, so lots of people must feel like I do. 

I got tickets months ago for his performance, and even though Richmond is only 50 miles from Fredericksburg, Jason and I decided to spend the night there rather than drive back home late and tired.  I had not been to Richmond and Jason had only been there a couple of times to visit friends, so this was the first time either of us had explored the city in any way.  We went to Carytown, a neighborhood centered on Cary Street in Richmond, which has lots of boutiques, vintage clothing stores and restaurants.  A fun section of town, but Jason and I agreed it was kind of a weird mix of businesses. 

 It was fun to walk around and explore, though, and we found a restaurant there called Can Can, which had been recommended to us, and we made a reservation for dinner that evening.  

After checking into our hotel, we went back to Can Can for dinner.  The restaurant is French, with a very cool interior that looks like the 1920s or 1930s with a pressed tin ceiling, dark wood trim and brass railings.  The food was excellent, definitely the best meal I've had since our trip to New Orleans in May, possibly even before that.  After our food arrived I realized that Jason and I hadn't exchanged a word since we had started eating -- the sign of a most excellent meal!  Jason had Hangar Steak with au gratin potatoes (I sampled Jason's meal -- all au gratin potatoes will pale in comparison from now on); I had pan fried Rockfish (to DIE for!) and the side of barley and veggies was nearly as good as the fish.

After dinner we headed to the Landmark Theater to see Sedaris. 

You can even see me in this picture, at the lower right
hand corner, in a white jacket.  Thanks for taking the
picture, Jason!

We waited for the doors to open and were one of the first in line to get a book signed (I have all of his books and some of them on audio as well).  On the way into the theater we had been given a flyer detailing some restoration that was going on at the theater.  While waiting to get the book signed I asked an usher standing nearby about the history of the theater.  She told me it was originally a mosque, built in the 1930s.  I was very surprised to hear that Richmond had a large enough Muslim community in the 1930s to build a large mosque.  Next, I asked when it became a theater.  The usher said she wasn't sure, but said it must have been when the Muslim community had gotten smaller that someone else had taken over the building.  Looking around at the tile patterns on the walls, the décor definitely looked like it could have been in a mosque.  After I got my book signed, we walked up to our seats and I was surprised to see murals depicting people with camels in desert scenes.  I knew the depiction of the human form is banned in some Muslim sects and felt it highly surprising that these murals would be in a mosque.  I thought maybe they had been added after the building had ceased to be a mosque.

When we got into the theater, we looked around and admired the architecture and décor.  Beautiful geometric patterns in the tile work, a ceiling that looked like a mosaic but was metallic leaf.  As we looked around, Jason and I talked about how it seemed that the theater was part of the original construction because all the architecture and décor was seamless.  But we wondered about having a theater in a mosque.  That was unusual, wasn't it?  Bring out the smartphone!!  Turns out the building was never a mosque, it was a theater built in the Moorish Revival style in the 1920s.  Aha!  It all made sense then.  The usher had her history wrong.  Very wrong.  You can read more about the history of the Landmark Theater here.

With not having to worry about driving home late at night, we could totally relax and enjoy our evening, and we did.  Two huge thumbs up for Carytown, Can Can, and David Sedaris!

Belvedere Plantation

Fall has come to Fredericksburg.  Before we left Minnesota and while I was talking to people about Virginia, several people told me that fall in Virginia is beautiful.  So far, I have to agree.  The temperatures are slowly dropping, the leaves are slowly turning.  The grass is greening back up again because it is cooler and we have gotten some rain.  Though it is still fairly warm out (in the 70s during the day), I can feel fall in the air, and I have had the urge to find "fallish" activities like pumpkin patches and apple orchards.  After doing an online search, we decided to take a trip to Belvedere Plantation, about 7 miles from our house.

Welcome to Belvedere Plantation!

Belvedere Plantation is set up like an autumn amusement park.  Acres and acres are covered with kid-centered activities like a corn maze, spooky slides, a petting zoo, pumpkin patch, face painting, cart races, zip lines....I can't remember everything that was there!  It was really fun and we all had a great time. 

One of Elise and Anja's favorite things at
Belvedere Plantation was the flower garden.
This was planted like a vegetable garden,
with rows and rows of flowers.  It
was like something out of a fairytale, wandering
through this area that was thick with flowers.

Very cool spider web for climbing...

and relaxing.

This was called the pillow bounce.

The girls LOVED it!

Petting zoos are always a favorite.

Anja petting a goat, with her nose from the pig races
(see below).

Kid-sized zip line!

Elise wanted me with on the first time, then told me
(politely) to get lost, she could do it on her own.

At first I took the girls one at a time, but they didn't
like to wait, so Grandpa helped out by taking Anja
while I stayed with Elise (we are in the background).

My mom took this picture and I don't think she
realized until later that Elise and I are in the background.
Two kids in one shot!

WOO HOO!!

Rope swings.  I have great memories of doing this
as a kid, and Elise and Anja were VERY excited to
give this a try.

Anja was a little too short and couldn't touch when
she got up on the rope, so Grandpa got on the
other side to catch her.

The Pumpkin Mountain slide was a tunnel slide
through a hill.  Very cool!

Heading off somewhere.

Corn maze!  I don't know if this
corn was some kind of special variety
for mazes, but it did not look
like regular corn.  Even Elise
commented that "it looks like
bamboo."  It made for a great
maze, though, as they grew closer
together than "regular" corn.

A slide in the corn maze!

Pig Races
I'd heard of pig races, but never seen one.  I'm kind of glad that this was my first experience, because seeing pig races on an old plantation in Virginia seems more authentic than anywhere else.  Belvedere Plantation has all their staff in red t-shirts and overalls, and they really get into their roles.  Part of the pre-race entertainment was pumpkin carving and smashing (truly), and Elise caught part of a pumpkin.

The guy running the pig races sang songs and told jokes and was quite entertaining.  Before each race he picked a person to represent each section of the crowd and that section's representative pig.  For the first race, Anja was chosen to represent our section (and the green pig).  She went down front and held the green flag while we cheered on our pig.

I don't know what I expected from pig races, but they were fun!  The little pigs ran along the path pretty calmly, coming up to the "jumps" and either going over, under or around them.  Once those pigs got past the last jump, though, they took off toward the barn (where I assume some food was waiting for them).

In that first race, our green pig won!!  Because she was the flag girl and her pig won, Anja got a pig nose, which she wore with pride.

Horse Races
The girls had a very fun time racing on some blow-up horses.

See a video here:  Horse Race

Cart Races
We all enjoyed the cart races, except for Grandma, who took Anja to facepainting to console her because she was not tall enough to go on the "big kid" carts.

Choosing Pumpkins
Belvedere Plantation has huge pumpkin fields and takes people out to them on hay racks pulled by tractors.  We were having so much fun with the other attractions that we ended up with not enough time to take the ride out to the field to pick pumpkins.  Instead, the girls picked from the wagon that was up by the entrance.

Elise takes her pumpkin choosing very seriously.

Those are some good looking pumpkins!