Random stuff from December 2012

The giving tree

Ok so it's Feb of 2013 but I thought I'd do a quick flasback to Dec and the things I skipped. Besides our guests we saw/heard the Navy Band at DAR Constution Hall, checked out the National Christmas Tree, sold Christmas trees at church with some friends, and put together a giving tree at church before ending the month with Christmas in Iowa with the Lenharts.



After the Navy Band Christmas Concert

National Tree. Sorry it won't rotate :(



Navy Band Christmas Concert

Our small amount of Christmas
decorations we put up this year

Playing baseball with tree stumps
and branches while selling trees @ church
 

Logan selling trees

The Lenharts, Mandels, & Ottens

I should probably follow that title up with OH MY!!  The first weekend of December brought a house full of guests to the Lenhart house. We were so excited to host both Mom & Dad and Charlie & Linda for a long weekend. Plus Pastor & Gwen for meals and hanging out.  It was SOOO much fun to see everyone and have our house filled with people. Each couple had their assigned bedroom and bathroom so I have to say it was a pretty smooth weekend-especially compared to the year of 9 people in our apartments or even 5 of us in our old house. :)
    We started the weekend off with everyone coming in on Saturday. We had lunch and then the 6 of us headed down to the boat parade and dinner in Old Town Alexandria, VA. I think they enjoyed seeing it for the first time though it was a little disappointing compared to some years. Sunday found us going to early church and Dad even did the children's sermon! Then we came home for french toast casserole and turkey bacon wrapped whoppers. Don't ask! Rest of the afternoon was chilling, daddy do list, shopping, and football watching.  Then Pastor and Gwen joined us for pizza, trivial pursuit, and more football. Monday Logan and I went to work while the Ottens and Mandels had an adventurous day downtown.  After work we headed out for half price burgers at a local restaurant and then early to bed to be ready for the big day Tuesday.

White House tree

 Tuesday morning at the crack of dawn we were all up and headed out to the Metro to meet up with Pastor & Gwen to be at the White House at 7:15am.  We were disappointed to find that despite what we had been told cameras ARE allowed during the Christmas season.  So we did the best we could with our phones. It was so neat to see all the decorations. It's pretty amazing how many there are. They are very pretty. Oh and we did see the dish room. No reenacting though. :( After the white house we headed to the Capital for our insider tour. That was neat and we even got to see the Senate Gallery during the opening of a session of congress with the Speaker of the House. Word of advice- sleeping is NOT allowed in the gallery! :)  We did some more wandering and had lunch at Union Station before heading home for naps. Finished the day out with Pastor & Gwen coming back over and grilling out. Yes it was that nice out!  Wednesday found a tired April & Logan heading to work and Mandels and Ottens heading home. So that was the latest slumber party weekend in a nutshell. Was a lot of fun and we can't wait to do it again. We're aiming for a Capital Dome tour next time! Enjoy some pictures of the weekend. Maybe more to come once I can get more from the others.

Dad & Charlie in Old Town

On the trolley

Mom & Dad watching the boats

Dinner

One of the boats

Capital Dome

Another boat

Speaker of House Office

A White House Tree

In the White House

In front of the dish room

White House tree

White House made out of Gingerbread

In the White House

Dish room



A Christmas Bo in the White House

View onto the Mall. Awesome!

Thanksgiving 2012

Ok so I'm once again I'm behind in posting.  I'm going to try and catch up a bit before its time for Christmas posting. This year for Thanskgiving Logan and I hosted dinner for friends who like us didn't have other family to spend the holiday with. We ended up with ourselves, Pastor, Nate, and Mike who Logan works with.  It was fun to host and have a house full of people. Besides as Logan and I have learned when you can't be with your actual families, its great to be with those friends who are like family.  And we are so blessed to have many of those.
I have to say we were a bit leary after the disaster we had the last time we tried to cook without parental help, but I'm happy to say that Oscar the 5th turned out wonderful along with all the other trimmings. Including my first attempt at homeade pie crust! :) So here's some pictures of the food prep and things. My students thought it was great fun to see Mrs. Lehart in her "p.j.'s".  Hope you enjoy too! Oh and check out my awesome apron Sarah made me. It's super cute!

Oscar IV thawing in the sink

My first totally homeade pie!

Getting the turkey bag ready

Making stuffing

In the oven bright and early



Table set & ready to go



Logan & Pastor carving Oscar



Serving the stuffing

All the yummy food!

Fall at the Lenhart's

 Happy November! Before it gets to be Thanksgiving I thought I'd better post a few pictures from our fall fun in October. A couple weeks ago we went to a pumpkin farm with some friends and their kids. We walked through a corn maze, went on a hayride, and picked a pumpkin. Unfortunetly we didn't get to carve it because the squirrels ate it before we got time. For Halloween we went to a costume party at a friend's house. We were able to borrow bacon and eggs costumes so that was fun. Then for Halloween I dressed up as a butterfly with the other 2nd grade teachers for the party and parade. I even wore part of the costume for passing out candy. So here are some pictures of our fall fun. As with the previous post please excuse the quality as we are still using cell phone cammera for some and a borrowed cammera for others. Enjoy!

April as an egg

Logan as bacon

Bacon and Eggs

My butterfuly costume for school

Part of my costume
for pasing out candy

  

Our pumpkin



Horrible pic of us eating kettle corn
on the hayride

 

Logan Turns 28!

On October 4th my wonderful husband turned 28! This year he only got two birthday celebrations. I hope he enjoyed his as much as I enjoyed all the things he did for me.  On his actual b-day we had dinner of all his favorites bbq ribs, mashed potatoes, snicker salad and chocolate ice cream cake. Then he opened gifts and we watched Big Bang Theory. Friday night we went out for dinner with our friend Amanda for a 2nd celebration. So here are pictures of his big day. 

 
 

National Book Festival 2012

One of my favorite D.C. activities is the National Book Festival every September down on the mall. I have been 6 out of the 7 years we have been out here.  This year Logan was off so I took him with me. Having him along made it much more fun. The other thing that made this year more fun was getting to see and hang out with people from school. One of the teachers I work with was in charge of one of the tents so we got to see her and also got to hang out with the school libarian, one of my students and see my principal. We had fun wondering around, getting a book signed and getting pictures with the characters for Abigail and Rebekah. Then we headed home to get ready for Michigan football with some friends. The funny thing was there was a delay on the metro so we were stuck on the train for a long time. We were so tired we ended up falling alseep and some lady had to wake us up when they made everyone get off the train. OOPS!  Oh and bear with the quality. We had a cammera mishap on the metro down so we were stuck with just our cell phones for pictures.
 So girls these pictures are just for you. We hope you enjoy them and maybe next year you can come with us! And let us know if we put the wrong name with any of the characters. :)




Logan & Super Why



On the metro coming home

Us with a Princess

Logan & Arthur

Curious George

April & Buddy

Clifford

April & Daniel the Tiger

April with Martha

Logan with Cat and the Hat

Book Fair sign