The Last Few Weeks

Well, it's been a busy a few weeks. In general, we are back to the dull roar that is the school year, but we have done a few fun things. Here are some highlights:

The kids are back in school. Lyn says her teacher (Mr. Lockowandt) isn't strict, but he isn't funny, either. (Mom and Dad think she has finally found the perfect teacher for her learning style and are VERY excited.) John says the same thing--his teacher (Mrs. Smith) isn't strict, but isn't funny, either. Last year he didn't like school because of projects, and this year there don't seem to be so many projects. Lyn loves projects--a good thing, because in GT (gifted and talented) it seems that's all they do--they do two per month!

Lyn started ballet again on September 9. She is happy to be back.

On September 12, the kids attended a fun church field day. Lyn says she didn't know a lot of people, but the games were fun. John says it wasn't really fun. Just to give you an idea, he says, there was a station where big kids pulled little kids on a snowboard thing.

On September 24, the kids grew up and got their own keys to the house! Lyn got a very special flower key, and John got a Superman key!

On September 25, Dan and Margie celebrated their 10th wedding anniversary. They headed off for a romantic weekend for two, while Dan's sister, Debbie, and her husband, Doug, watched the kids for over 48 hours (hence the need for the house keys). They made it with flying colors (all four of them)!

On Friday night, Doug made up some Egg Foo Yung (Margie had left a recipe and chopped all the vegetables), and he and the kids hung out for the evening.

The next day he took them miniature golfing, and John got his first hole in one (on the 16th hole)!

Then they headed to Debbie and Doug's house for a sleepover. They unpacked and hung out for the evening. Lyn got to watch Mary Poppins, while John and Uncle Doug played "verses" Mario (that means they played against each other on two separate DS's).

This morning, they watched a little bit of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang before heading to a baptism for Uncle Doug's grand nephew. Afterwards, they enjoyed the reception before heading back to the house to get ready for...Uncle Doug's company picnic!

There was popcorn, snow cones, face painting, two bounce houses, plus a basketball shooting bouncy! It was a lot of fun. They hardly knew Mom and Dad were missing.

Meanwhile...

Dan got a perfect score for finding and planning the exact places and activities that Margie loves.

We started with a row around the lake at Fountainhead Regional Park. The weather was cloudy, but no rain, and the leaves are just starting to turn. It was lovely.

From there we headed into Fredricksburg for dinner at a wonderful veg-friendly restaurant called Sammy T's. Margie had some delicious pea soup, an apple/walnut/bleu cheese salad, and a homemade spiced pita filled with sauteed spinach and other vegetables. Dan had a burger.

Next we headed to our bed and breakfast, Sleepy Hollow Farm, in Gordonsville, Virginia. We stayed in the "Ghost" room--the proprietor calls it that because it is the only room where she and her husband both saw the resident ghost at the same time. We got to hear the story only after we had slept there! (And, by the way, no one has seen the ghost since the house was blessed by an Episcopalian priest in 1951).

On Saturday, Dan surprised Margie by taking her to the Charlottesville Vegetarian Festival. Despite the rain, it was delightful! For lunch we had a sampler platter from the first West African restaurant in Richmond, Ma Musus. It included fried plaintains, hush puppies, collards and cabbage, jerk spiced succotash, coucous, corn bread, and gingerbread. Yum! (We also got some kettle corn later for a snack.)

After lunch, we headed over to the restaurant Dan had picked for dinner--he wanted to get Margie's approval on the menu, which he got. Next door to the restaurant, was a delightful find--a place called The Quest Bookshop. The title sounded just like Margie's cup of tea, and they had a great time looking around. She even spoke with the owner about the possibility of putting some Polaris products on the shelves. It seems a great fit, since we are all about helping people along in their quest. Very exciting! Fortunately, Margie made it out of there with only two books. Now that's exercising some restraint!

Next we headed back to the B&B for a quick nap, then out to dinner at Maya--the lovely restaurant Dan had picked, which is veg friendly and focused on fresh, locally grown/caught food. Margie had "chicken fried seitan" with summer vegetables and mashed potatoes. Dan had catfish with green beans and golden beets. It was delicious.

It was still early, so we decided to take in a movie--movie times and locations made available by Margie's new iPhone! After much wandering around in the rain, we finally found what we were looking for and thoroughly enjoyed watching (500) Days of Summer--a cute, very well-made, and poignant movie.

Afterwards, we went next door to Hamilton's for some hot chocolate (we were freezing from the rain!) and a shared apple creme brulee.

On Sunday, after checking out of the B&B (and hearing the ghost story! :o), Dan still had tricks up his sleeve, as we headed over to Lake Anna, a BEAUTIFUL, 17 mile lake (the second largest in Virginia), not too far away. Here we enjoyed a picnic lunch, then took a nice walk along the "Railroad Ford Trail," which travels partly along the lake and partly inland through the woods. We enjoyed a short nap in the sun near the beach, and then headed home--but not without a quick stop for a rootbeer float (Margie) and a chocolate shake (Dan).

We arrived home to find Lyn and John hadn't missed us at all nor hardly noticed we were gone. Guess they just had too much fun of their own.

Hope all is well with you. We are looking forward to an exciting, fast-paced October, as Margie starts rehearsals for Plaid Tidings and Dan starts building the set for Art of Murder.

Talk to you soon!