Memorial Day 2017

It seemed as if everyone was heading out of town for Memorial Day weekend this year.  Chad and I decided to stay home and enjoy some time together as a family.  We had a very busy and stressful spring and wanted to just relax.  It turned out to be a great decision.

On Friday, I took the kids to one of our favorite local ice cream spots, Pickle Bobs.  We ordered ice cream, sat outside, and took some silly pictures.

       

That night, Chad and I put the kids to bed and planned a "Stay at home" date night.  We ordered some sushi, popped open a bottle of wine, and settled down to watch a movie.

On Saturday, I took the kids to watch Chad play ice hockey with his Fairfax team.  The kids watched for a little bit, but soon began a game of hide and seek with the lockers.  I guess if I were that small, it would be a fun game, so I can't really blame a 6 year old and a 3 year old for not paying attention for the entire game.  The good news is that they were occupied and couldn't get into too much trouble, so I was able to watch quite a bit of the game.  The bad news is that Chad ended up taking a big hit into the boards and messed up his knee pretty badly.

           

On Sunday, Chad and I decided to take the kids and spend the day at one of our favorite wineries in the area, Barrel Oak.  They have a great outdoor space, a brick oven pizza place, decent wine, live music, and now they have added beer.  We packed up some snacks, drinks for the kids, some small toys, and headed out.  We got there right before a big rain storm hit, and managed to snag an outside table underneath a cover.  It was pretty fun to spend time together, watch the rain, and enjoy some food/wine.  Even the kids love it there, and Charlie got into quite the spirit.  (Don't worry, the glass was clean and he never consumed any alcohol)!!

       

That night, we had family movie night and watched Cars.  The entire family loved that movie and we now have a new Lightening McQueen fan in the house.  Charlie is currently obsessed!!

On Monday, we decided to hang out and grill some beer butt chicken.  Chad made an amazing batch of strawberry margaritas and we hung outside most of the day.  It was the perfect way to end our holiday weekend, and I see many more Memorial Weekends spent at home in our future.

Mother's Day 2017

On Mother's Day, we were all on the Eastern Shore, so we decided to head to The High Spot, in Cambridge, Maryland for brunch.  It was a delicious meal.  Many of us had eaten at this restaurant before, but Chad and Uncle Ryan had not and I knew they would really like it.  We enjoyed our brunch and then, as mentioned in an earlier post, we headed over to say a final goodbye to our Cambridge House.

We headed back to Gainesville, from Cambridge.  Our bellies were full, our spirits were hopeful (that we would sell our house), and my heart was full of love for our amazing family.  It was a great Mother's Day, and I am especially glad I got to spend some time with my favorite little girls that weekend!!!

Charlie Starts Kids Swim Class

Once Charlie turned 3 years old, we were allowed to switch him from "Mommy & Me" swim classes to independent swim classes.  This was more exciting for mommy than it probably was for Charlie.

I enjoyed our time together in swim class, but Charlie, in typical little boy fashion, enjoyed getting mommy wet more than actually learning any swim skills.  While all the other moms were able to maintain their beautiful hair, I routinely left the pool looking like a drowned rat . Charlie would alternate between splashing me and dumping cups of water over my head.  Additionally, he refused to go under water unless I was holding him and went under water with him.  I would hug him tight, take an exaggerated breath, and under we would go.  He refused to do it with anyone else.  We did have a lot of fun, but I would have enjoyed it more if I didn't have to come out soaking wet every time!

So, now he is in big kid class.  He and one other boy meet with an instructor at 9 am on Thursday mornings.  They do a lot of playing (Charlie is able to dump water on his own head and the instructors head) and have begun working on going under water on their own.  He seems to be enjoying it, and I love being able to watch him while staying dry and enjoying my coffee!!

           

It took Lauren quite a while before she was comfortable going under water and really developing her swimming skills.  Now she is doing great.  I have a feeling Charlie might be the same way, but at least he is having fun in swim class right now.  I love that little smile, and I know the swim skills will come soon enough!!

The Cambridge House!!

Chad and I bought our first house, in Cambridge, Maryland, in May 2006.  We lived there for 3 years, and after 8 years of renting it out, we FINALLY sold it!!  Chad and I have been waiting a long time for this moment and cannot believe it is here at last.

We loved the house, but we knew we would never be back in Cambridge, Maryland.  We dealt with multiple tenants, some good, some really bad, repairs, and managing two mortgages.  It was not easy, and Chad took care of most of it.  I owe him a big thank you for all that he has done!!!

Our last tenants rarely paid rent, so after months of paying both the mortgage on our rental property and the mortgage on our home in Gainesville, VA, we were thrilled when the tenants moved out.  That was short lived!  The house was an absolute mess and would need a lot of work/money to get it ready for the sales market.

Enter the Falicroft helpers!!  Our family put so much time and work into this house, and we never would have gotten the house ready without them.  So THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!!!

We painted nearly every wall/ceiling (including some 2 story areas), replaced all of the carpet, re-tiled the shower in the master bathroom, pressure washed the fencing/some of the siding, replaced some appliances, weeded garden beds, removed trash left in the garage to the dump, replaced outdoor lighting, replaced every light bulb (for some reason, none of the light bulbs matched and most didn't work), hired a big team of cleaners to scrub the entire house, replaced the compressor on the AC unit, and fixed some leaks in the roof.

It took a month of work, but we got it ready and had multiple offers within a week of officially putting it on the market!!!  We had our closing on July 14, 2017, and are now officially a 1 house family!!  WOO HOOO

Here are some before and after photos that documented all of our work....

                               

           

                               

           

 

           

                               

 

On Mother's Day, we returned to the house for the final time.  We brought our family to get a final look.  Lauren and Charlie had never been to our first house, and we wanted to let them have a look at where mommy and daddy lived when we were first married.  They, along with Quinnie, had a great time running all over the empty house!  And we brought Wrigley to sniff out the backyard once again.  This is the home where we brought our puppy home, and I like to think that he remembered the backyard.  

This home had so many wonderful memories for Chad and I.  We will fondly remember the Cambridge House, but we are very thankful to be moving on and continuing the Fisher Family story in Gainesville, VA!!  

(Photo credit to Meemaw, for capturing these amazing Falicroft moments)

Charlie's Birthday Party!

This year, we had a lot of stuff going on during the months of March and April.  Birthday parties kind of took a backseat, but we still wanted to do something to celebrate.

For Charlie's birthday party, we decided to hold it at the Build A Bear store, in the Fair Oaks Mall.  Unfortunately, it was not a good day for most of our invited guests, so we didn't have many kids.  The good news was that we were able to upgrade all of the bears to anything the kids wanted.  That made Lauren very happy, since she had her eye on a "Beauty and the Beast" Bear.

We met everyone at 11 am, on Saturday, April 22nd.  The kids got to pick our their bear, and moved on to pick our sounds.  After that, it was on to the stuffing machine, the bath tub, and then they picked out some clothes for the bears.

           

       

           

                               

All of the kids picked amazing bears, and I hope it will be a party favor they will enjoy for a while!!

We headed out into the mall to enjoy some cupcakes and then Chad and I took our family out to lunch to celebrate Charlie's birthday and to thank them for all of the help they did with our house in Cambridge (post to come soon)!

It was a great day, and the perfect way to celebrate Charlie's 3rd birthday.  He has become quite a spirited and crazy kiddo, but his smile will melt your heart and his cuddles always make our days!!  We love you Charlie Jack!!