Happy Palm Sunday! And no, we did not win the lottery. We didn't even have time to buy a ticket.

Instead we spent our last day of March at the Cherry Blossom Kite Festival in DC. Tom was not too excited to go-he hates that is takes so long to get into DC, and having to pay for parking and the train, not to mention he is not crazy about the crowds. But he agreed to go, and I think we all actually had a very nice time. And we managed to squeeze in a few extra activities as well while we were down there. At first it looked like the weather might keep us home. It was a bit rainy this weekend. And then we decided SCott should go to his swim lesson in the morning, so that limited the amount of time we could spend in DC. But we managed to get down to the Washington Monument by 2pm after parking in Union Station and taking the train to the Smithsonian. I even brought along a few small kites for the kids to fly and they had fun trying to keep them from dive bombing us and everyone around us!  They still have the WAshington Monument closed off due to damage from last summer's east coast quake. And all the water is out of the reflecting pond(looks strange), and we missed the cherry blossoms by 1 week. They were just too early. The Cherry Blossom Festival parade is not even until the 14th of April.  And today was the Cherry Blossom 10 mile run. Just no cherry blossoms.  But we did enjoy seeing all the kites, and there was a pretty good breeze blowing. And we even squeezed in time to sneak through the Smithsonian Natural History museum. We wanted to see the prehistoric snake exhibit-titanoboa. They just discovered this prehistoric snake in Columbia. We need to watch the National Geographic special that was on Sunday night at 8pm(we recorded it). The thing was so big it swallowed alligators whole!  That is a big snake. We also had to get Allison back to work by 6 and stop and pick her up dinner, so there was not much time for dawdling. After we dropped Allison off, Scott, Tom and I went out to dinner. Yeah no cooking for me.

And no cooking on Sunday night as we are took Tom out for his birthday to a Hershey Bears Hockey Game. He was so sad when he tried to buy tickets a month ago and he said they were all sold out. Ha Ha. I got on line and bought us 4 tickets for Sunday's game as it was Girl SCout night!  I even got cool patches. Allison could not find someone to work for her, so she  just took off an hour early so we could get up to Hershey in time for the puck to drop. Happy Early Birthday Tom! His gifts are simple this year. He already spent his birthday money rebuilding his computer. (But I still have one or two more surprises for him besides the hockey tickets).

During the week we were busy with boy scout meetings, piano, gymnastics-the usual. We also enjoyed the Cultural Arts night at SCott's school. He had a few pieces of his artwork on display, as well as helping to demonstrate the Lego robotic system. Tom spent some time planning out next year's event with the school team captain. (Guess that means he may be even more involved next year). And they also announced the winners of the science fair in the church paper this week. All those tasks keeps SCott and Tom busy. So busy, Tom has not had a chance to get out and cut the grass. Not that it desperately needs it, but our neighborhood has certainly caught spring fever. Everyone is busy mulching and trimming and cutting the lawns. Tom has just not had a chance in between rain showers. At least he did get a chance to see if the mower started(and it did). We thought it was done for last season. Tom and I even ran out on Friday to check out mowers just in case. 

I couldn't spend too much time away from home on Friday though. I was trying to take care of some phone calls, including a call to our insurance agent to close on my car accident from last June. I want to make sure all my medical bills have been paid before I settle with the other two insurance companies involved in the accident. I was also waiting to hear back from our furniture salesman. We bought a pull out couch in December and had not heard if it was ready for delivery yet. We had one phone call saying it may be back ordered, but it looks like it will be coming in on time after all. Then on Friday night Allison had to work and SCott was at gymnastics.

And I was busy trying to order Allison some Girl SCout accessories she needs for her uniform when she makes her presentation at the Distinguished Women's Dinner at the end of the month. The Girl Scout store changed their website and it seems they left off the online order form. So instead I called the store and placed the order by phone. I also needed some Green 100th Anniversary tshirts for upcoming GS events, like our Orioles game. And then I needed to sign Allison up for the SAT(again). She was not pleased with her score from the first test, so she decided to try again. That is not until May. Tom also wants us to schedule out a few college visits. It looks like Allison is going to be spending a week at a University on the Eastern shore this summer. WE put in for a Girls Legislature week long camp scholarship sponsored by the American Legion. If they accept her application, she will get a chance to try out college life for a week. We actually have had a few college orientations, but there are a few more places on our list. Spring break seems like a nice time to visit colleges(if we weren't working and if the open houses were scheduled then!).

And speaking of Birthdays, this is a very busy time of the year! The first Happy Birthday goes out to Dad Seitz. Hope you enjoyed dinner out. I am sending out some photos of SCott at his Cultural Arts night-with a sculpture and the Lego robotic table, photos from the Mall in DC-Kite Festival and the kids flying their mini kites. Check out the amazing snorkeling woman kite. They even had a guy scuba diver, but I don't think it was windy enough. Also, since there were no more cherry blossoms, I got some shots of the wisteria vine growing on the wall of one of the Smithsonian museums. Also a shot of the prehistoric snake(that is an alligator tail hanging out of its mouth!).

See you next week! Kathleen