Therese's cheering section

Summer in Washington, DC, means heat and humidity.  Our kids don’t mind because we spend so much time swimming.  Pregnant mama is especially grateful for the pool this summer.  Therese is about halfway through her second year on the swim team and this has been keeping the entire family busy.  She has been swimming in A and B meets this year- that means two meet a week!   She will be happy to show you her collection of ribbons if you stop by.

Stepping up

Swimming by

Here she comes!

Fight to the finish

Brendan hangs on

Brendan LOVES having Daddy cut his hair.  I have heard stories from friends that most two year old boys run from the clippers.  I guess Daddy has a gift for getting his little man to do what he wants.  I kind of miss his longer hair, but it is so much cooler for him (and no brushing required!) that I think we will be keeping it short for awhile.

Red White and Blue Girls

I know, I know… I am posting this a little late. Getting pictures up here the same week I took them is a major accomplishment these days.  We attended the rooftop party at the Heritage Foundation and the kids ate WAY too much ice cream waiting for the fireworks to start (okay, maybe mommy did too!).

Strawberry Girl with fireworks on the arm

Myriam and Brendan begging for another ice cream

Ana takes a break

Balloon swords make everything more fun

Brendan

The Tiger paw (her swim team mascot)

Therese and Brendan check out the view of the city

Ana and Therese

Face painting

Sunset over DC

Girls in front of the Liberty Bell

We spend a lot of time in Philadelphia.  Well, we really spend a lot of time in a nice little suburb about 20 minutes north of the city, where Tim grew up.  In our first year of marriage I often said we should move there because we were driving back and forth most weekends and we knew 95 better than the streets in our neighborhood!  However, we have not done a lot of things in the city since Therese was little.  Tim and I get an occasional date night downtown, but we decided it was time to see a little more of this historic city with our children.  Having Ana with us was an even greater incentive.   These are just a few highlights…

The top of Constitution Hall

Therese and Ana underneath the LOVE sculpture

Therese and Ana cool their feet in the fountain

Lori and Ana pose with a reenactment soldier

Riding the Philly Phlash bus

Myriam receives her sticker for storytime

Therese, Myriam, Ana and Brendan

Last Friday we welcomed this lovely visitor from Spain. Ana will be living with us for six weeks this summer.  The girls are thrilled to have a surrogate “big sister” and roommate for the summer.  Brendan is thrilled by all the extra attention she gives him (and by the fact that she brought a soccer ball from Spain!).  This is her first visit to the United States and we are excited to do a few more “touristy” things in our own city as well as have a new member of our family for a few weeks.

Therese passed out

Always with a book… however, this is the first time she was too tired to bother putting the book down!

The weekend began on Friday with with a pilgrimage to the Franciscan Monastery.  We always try to do at least one during May and we squeezed this one in just before the end of the month.  Our Lady smiled on us- although the morning was cloudy it did not rain.  The clouds kept the gardens cool and enjoyable for our prayers.  We were even able to make a visit inside the Monastery and the kids were well behaved (cannot always count on that) and awed by the beauty of the church (we can usually count on that!).  Therese wanted a full tour, which the monks will give upon request, but I decided that would be better with Daddy there to help.  I figured 10 minutes in front of the Blessed Sacrament was all Brendan could handle for the morning.  There are way too many staircases and beautiful marble steps to climb for a 2 year old boy to remain focused very long!

The Rosary Walk

Brendan descends the steps to the Grotto

Under the Visitation mosaic (in honor Myriam's Feast Day)

Therese contemplates the Stations

Brendan and Myriam with Our Lady

Brendan on the Rosary Walk

Our little pilgrims

Welcome to Homestead!

We picked the PERFECT day for strawberry picking- overcast, but not rainy with a slight breeze that kept us all comfortable.  We love Homestead Farm- a small, family owned farm where we gather berries in the spring and apples in the fall and pumpkins for Halloween.  It has enough animals to keep everyone happy and a huge hay pile to climb and play on.  It feels like an authentic farm (because it is) and not overly commercial (because it isn’t).

As you can see we went with two other beautiful families (11 kids and 3 moms total) and spent the morning eating and picking our way through the patch.  After dinner I threw together simple shortcake and we all devoured fresh strawberry decadence.  I am already thinking of going back next week…