Many, many exciting things took place this week, including Mom and Dad celebrating their 7th anniversary with little ones on Saturday (the actual date is not until Monday, but given every one's work schedules, we decided to celebrate early). Other exciting news before we dive into the anniversary details and pics (like the one above of Dad exiting Magnolia's): the Moo cantered for the first time this week in her riding lessons. If you did not receive a phone call relaying this exciting news consider yourself lucky, as she is so proud of herself that she has been telling everyone -- including perfect strangers--that she cantered. Most look at her like they have no idea what she is talking about, which they may not. On the Bean front, her teacher Ms. April informs us that she is ready to move up a class again, and in fact will probably skip the next class and go directly to the one above that, as she is ahead of the rest of her classmates. So, it appears that it is always feast or famine with the Bean in terms of her advancement at Beantree; Dad and I think that this will essentially put her where she should have been all along, however, so we are happy about it. One Bean quirk that I believe I have failed to report somehow in the blog before: every night she sleeps with a volume of Winston Churchill's biography in her bed. I generally find it when I check in on her at night, remove it, replace it in the book shelf, and without fail the next night I find it in bed with her. It has no pictures or anything else that might make it an attractive book to a three year old, so I leave you all to make of that what you will. Better that then my old grad school copy of "Thus Spake Zarathustra" I suppose!!!On to the anniversary! First of all, since it is our anniversary that means it was already the Mayers' and it will soon be the Millers', so happy anniversary to all! We spent ours at the Key West Fest at Breaux Vineyards, and then having dinner at Magnolia's on the Mill in Purcellville (for those who have visited, Magnolia's is the second restaurant in the Tuscarora Mill chain; Tuskies is in Leesburg).
Magnolia's was having a beer festival when we got there for dinner, and the girls enjoyed playing in the displays as they were being dismantled!
The four of us split the chocolate chocolate-chip brownie for dessert! YUM!!!
We have a strict "no soda" for the girls, but since it was a special occasion we ordered them Shirley Temples, their first time having soda and having "big girl" drinks. They were a little put off by the fizziness, so they did not drink much, but they felt very sophisticated having them!
The Bean has been very mom focused lately and she and daddy have been having a few issues, but they really had a great time together today! The Bean is a carb queen like her mom, as you can see!
An interior shot of Magnolias.
There were several beach balls flying around the dancing tent at the Key West Fest, as all of the people who had been there drinking wine since 11 am danced to an excellent Jimmy Buffet cover band. For those who don't know, Dad is a HUGE Buffet fan, and he has converted the girls (I counterprogram them with Coldplay and Death Cab for Cutie, and so far they manage to do well with all, but I worry that some day their heads are going to explode). The girls can sign all, and I mean all, Buffet songs. They had fun dancing with around with Mom and Dad and did not seem to notice the somewhat odd behavior of some of the more intoxicated adults around them, thank goodness!
It was 96 degrees outside so we packed plenty of water to keep hydrated! Here is the Bean looking for some.
There was a clown there painting faces and tatoos, as you will notice in the pictures throughout. She did a GRRRRRREAT job with the Moo's tiger face! Thanks, Sparkle!!!
Oops, out of place pic! This is an exterior shot of Magnolias.
Breaux Vineyards is the largest winery on the east coast. It was founded by a Louisiana family and they currently harvest over 400 tons of grapes a season, at least according to Dave, our hayride driver. The girls just like them because the label has a crawdad on it!
Here's the band at work.
This older girl was thrilled that the Moo got a tiger face too and insisted on having her picture taken with her!
The Bean opted for a more understated butterfly on her arm.
Here she is trying to make up her mind if she likes it or not.
It's HOT!!!!!!
Becoming a tiger . . .
Sparkle is awesome!
The sand areas were awesome too, although the sand was very HOT!
We took a hay ride around the vineyard and got to see the whole operation -- very impressive!
A partial view of the grounds and the crowd.
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