The two year old's teacher told me that Link had to pay a visit to her for not listening in his class. This punishment CRACKS me up because she loves him...and he loves her! When I asked him why he got in trouble today he said, "I don't know. Probably for not listening!"
It is peak Cherry Blossom time in DC. Today is the warmest day of the week (50 degrees). We decided to head down after work. Amanda was a single parent tonight, so we invited them along!
The city is so pretty!!!
It was so nice having Amanda and the kids with us, plus we had a built in photographer!
It was fun taking pictures of her and her cuties!!! 
Link was a little CRAZY tonight, but Ethan was a trooper and did some cute poses for me!
This beauty loved getting her picture taken, too!!!
My BOYS!!!!
The crazy kids love spending time together!! We had a great time tonight!
Link told me that Ms. Christina came to visit and brought her new baby today. I asked, "Ahhh...is he cute?" Link says, "Yeah, but I am cuter." Modest...he is!
My little historians are going to take a break this weekend and just play and relax. Ok....they will play and Momma and Daddy will relax! Memaw and Pappy are due to arrive shortly. The boys are sure to run them ragged this weekend. Hopefully, this means Nate and I can store up some energy for next week!
Link: Mommy, know what the best part of school is?
We have been promising Lincoln Leap that we would take him to visit Ford's Theater for weeks. The last time we were there , Link was not into it at all! In fact, I barely was able to listen because he was so talkative.
Luckily, Mar, Nate, and I had been there before and seen the Petersen House, where they took Lincoln after he was shot. Today, it was under construction.
On this visit, we got the audio tour. They also had the museum open (which wasn't open last time.)
The boys really wanted to hear every word on the audio tour. They loved hearing about John Wilkes Boothe.
Lincoln wanted to see what was in that book.
On the audio tour, there was a youth tour and an adult tour. For the most part they were in sync. I noticed that Ethan was behind us for some reason. I asked why he was so behind and he said, "I wanted to learn more about Mary Todd, so I hit 30." He cracks me up!
This was the bloody pillow from the Petersen house. We were all fascinated that someone had the foresight to keep this.
We ended the tour in the theater.
As we were leaving we saw Mary Todd and I "talked" Lincoln into getting a picture with his wife. He was a little shy!
I read a few weeks ago that Lincoln had a weekend cottage. There was an hour long guided tour. We are not a huge fan of hour long guided tours, so we decided to see if we could just drive by and get a picture. It's on the Armed Forces Retirement Home, so we had to show our ID to get onto the property. Apparently, taking picture in front of the house is frowned upon. As you can see by the sad faces, we were asked to either join the tour or leave the premises.
As we were "leaving the premises," I snapped one quick photo. Nate kindly waved to the security guard, AKA Paul Blart's brother, as we left!
President's Day, the boys (including Aaron and Justin) and I went to Spike's restaurant, Good Stuff. This is one of Mar's favorite restaurants. I was just a little mean and texted her (she was at work) to ask her what kind of milkshake I should get while I was there. She told me we BETTER get there while she was here this visit. So, Saturday morning we headed to Spike's. Nate decided Super Link should fly down the DC streets to the restaurant. He, not so politely, informed Nate that he was NOT Super Link.....he was CATWOMAN!! 
Spike recently opened a pizza place next to Good Stuff called We the Pizza! We went there instead of Good Stuff. Our little Catwoman has been asking for pizza all week so he was super happy to get a huge piece of cheese. I should also mention that he ate all the sausage off of mine and a lot of Mar's white pizza!
This fella is ALL about the cheese!!!
Mar took Link to the playground today. She told us that he threw a rock at her. She told him if he threw another one she was taking him home. He did it anyway as she was saying, "NOOOOO!!!" You don't mess with Mar. She means business, so they started home. As they were coming home, Link says, "Don't say that word to me!" Mar said, "What word....NO??" He didn't respond. I guess silence tells it all!
Ethan's teacher sent me this picture today! He spent some time today writing words with the "at" chunk! 
Exactly seven years ago, Nate, Marilyn, and I attempted to see Gettysburg. My car broke down about 10 miles outside of Gettysburg, and we didn't make it there. Yesterday, we finally made it to Gettysburg! 
This time we added to fellas! Our neighbor loaned us the audio tour. It was so nice! 
We did lots of driving, but stopped at a few key spots to look around and explore.
Our first stop was the Visitor's Center. Ethan picked out this Union hat. 
Everyone took turns wearing it on our trip!
There were so many beautiful stops! I got some cute pictures of my babies!
We drove for about two hours. We saw and heard lots of interesting facts from the Civil War. We ended the trip where Lincoln gave the Gettysburg Address! It only took SEVEN years, but we finally made it!!
We live about 7 miles from the George Washington Masonic Memorial. It's been on our list of places to see before we leave. Since Marilyn was here this weekend, we decided to try it out!
Ethan had his last basketball class yesterday. (He starts it again in two weeks) Don't worry, Mommy watched him play!!!
After class we drove over to the Memorial.
There were lots of statues and pictures of Washington.
I think we got a picture at each one!
Right before this picture was taken, Nate stuck his finger up Washington's nose. And monkey see, monkey do....
You can tell that the demands of Kindergarten are getting harder!!! Big Man was exhausted tonight. Because I work in a different district than Ethan, we have different schedules. I have to be at work at 7:40 and Ethan's school starts at 9:00. He has to be up at 6:30 and dropped off at before school care at 7:15 for me to get to work. He doesn't get out of school until 3:40. This makes for a long day! 
Right after Christmas, we bought Ethan shoes that tied. We took our time and taught him step by step. Yesterday afternoon, I was quietly watching him, and he just did it! He was soooo proud of himself. It was just the push he needed to keep trying. So far, he has tied his shoes independently four times. I think he just may have the hang of it!
After a very stressful day at work today, I decided to take a long walk. I asked Ethan if he wanted to ride his bike thinking it would keep me moving at a faster pace. He asked if he could just walk with me. I told him I was going far and fast. He said he could keep up....and he did! He walked about a mile with a couple big hills today. The best part was he kept up. 
Monday was wear red and white.
Tuesday was wear crazy socks. He wore his Alaska socks and his Texas shirt to show how BIG is he! ha!
Wednesday was wear your favorite hat.
Thursday, wear green, but don't be a Grinch!
Friday, wear your favorite sneakers!!
