Splash - November 2019

 November's splash was taken at Idlewild park in Easton, MD.  The cool part of this park is not the park itself.  Don't get me wrong; it's a great park - especially if you have littles.  Our BallTeam is too old now for little swings and tunnel slides, but those fixtures will wait on Ezzie Lou to use them in a few short years.  Instead, my BallTeam now climbs the trees and still plays on the bigger slides and swings - they are still all park folks, just larger now.  We stayed til dark and played on the tire swing, walked (and Josephine fell off of) the low wall borders and strolled the little lady Ezzie Lou about.

I HAD to include this one - even though I didn't choose it as the splash because I like the grouping of the splash better.  But, look at this one - Samantha is holding Josephine's hand, while she has her arm around JMichael.  And independently, I'm sure, Rachel has her arm around Charlotte, too.

My favorite basketball court.  Cool, huh?

And the star - Ezamay is almost two weeks old and this is her first trip to the park.  She was alert and happy, but, we left her all snuggled up in the blankets where it's plenty toasty.  What a good girl!

Thanksgiving 2019

Thanksgiving is about eating a big, delicious meal of turnkey and cranberry sauce, then digesting while watching football.  Thanksgiving is about spending time with relatives and unpacking Christmas decorations.  Nope.  Not us.  Not this year.

I packed our Thanksgiving dinner - turkey sandwiches, chips, grapes and Capri Suns (I NEVER buy Capri Suns - everyone was SO excited...)

We ate at the Smithsonian Institution cafeteria.

So Eric's family had somewhere to go on Thanksgiving.  No biggie.  We took advantage of the day off for everyone and we went to my happy place - Smithsonian.  Riding the Metro is still just fun.

This is Henry, icon of the Museum of Natural History.  He's a big deal.

 

Josephine and Rachel had not yet been to the Holocaust Museum.  So, we sent our five children and only grandchild off into the Mall to learn about the horrors of tyranny and power, while James and I explored Natural History.  The museum was actually kinda crowded - I was surprised.  We wandered through the Narwhal exhibit and saw the Hope diamond.  We meandered through the oceans exhibits and the rise of Humans exhibits.  There is always something to discover.  We headed back out into the cold to meet the Ball Team at the metro station, and grabbed this wonderful shot of James and me - the Washington Monument in the background was beautiful in the developing sunset.

On Friday - now forever to be known as Fridaysgiving - we went to Moms.

Ezamay had family to meet - here she is charming her great uncle Eric.

Jim and Steph are making snowmen.  Ma always has a craft for us to do.  Some tolerate it - some really like it.  It's part of our holiday.

Some of our finished craftiness - approved by JMichael (11 years old).

No idle hands here - we also had gingerbread houses to build and decorate. 

 JMichael and I did the smaller one - Charlotte and Josephine did the larger model.

Thanksgiving is supposed to be about gratitude.  Our celebration was untraditional at best - but, we are together and grateful for the multitude of blessings in our daily life.  Happy Thanksgiving from the BallTeam!