A JJ themed day!

It was a rainy day in Arlington so it was the perfect day to check out Jumping Joeys which just opened the week prior. JJ is a room full of moon bounces and is conveniently located near Washington-Lee HS. It is $10 for an all day pass and socks are required. Mason loved it - shocker - and Mark got in on the action too!

Great exercise and family fun!

Later in the day we headed to JJ's first birthday party! It was a great celebration with lots of kiddos and Lilly everywhere. Mark snapped this great pic of all the kids.

Happy first birthday JJ!

Playdate Calling Cards

A few months ago Mason and I were at the park and he spent the majority of the time playing with one little boy. I started chatting up the mom and found out they live a few blocks from us and her son is similar age to Mason. We had a great conversation plus I really want to make local mom friends. Anyway, I didn't have my phone, a pen, anything, but I oddly had one business card on me. I gave her that and said to call me if she wanted to get together for a playdate. It's been weeks and I haven't heard a peep from her so I'm blaming my lame business card; that, and/or she's a busy mom.

I definitely needed a cuter way to pick up moms and kids. Ta da! Here are our new playdate calling cards....

I love these adorable cards and made them in theme with the nursery, his wardrobe, my favorite colors, etc. I heard about the idea from a Manhattan mom so I don't think they are big on the Arlington playground scene but I'm going to shake things up! 

Father's Day Weekend

Saturday night we had dinner plans with Andrew and Stefanie at Blackwall Hitch in Old Town. Parents night out - whoop, whoop! It basically opened last week so the few reviews online said great food, bad service and I'd say our experience was consistent with what we'd read. The restaurant is right on the waterfront and huge, with indoor and outdoor dining space and a small stage for live music. There are three bars, including one on the second floor with couches and a loungey space, which was perfect for a night cap after dinner. I was so engrossed in eating, drinking, chatting and the monsoon outside that I forgot to take a single photo. Lots of potential to be a great spot but I would give it a few months until service smooths out a bit!

After much discussion and planning about what to do for Father's Day, Mark woke up and just wanted to do something low key in Arlington. It's his day so low key it is!

We headed over to Lyon Village Park to enjoy the spray park, have fun and keep cool. Of course Mason was very happy!

For lunch we headed over to CIRCA in Clarendon. CIRCA is sort of kid friendly...they have highchairs but no changing station and no kids menu. There were lots of families enjoying lunch so we made it work.  These two are so cute with their matching head tilts!

Mark ended his day getting snuggles from our first son, Barney!

Flight Trampoline Park

After the success with the bounce house at the MONA picnic, I was excited to take Mason to the Flight Trampoline Park in Springfield.  The park has specific times for the 6 and under crowd to access the entire park, and during those times the cost is only $10/hour for child accompanied by parent. The parent gets to jump too - YES!

First of all, this place is amazing and great exercise!  I think I had more fun than Mason. There are trampolines, basketball trampolines, dodge ball trampolines, a pit of foam squares and an airbag area. There is also an arcade which came in handy while we waited for our assigned time.

I didn't realize this from the website, but they admit people in 1/2 hour segments.  We arrived at 10 am, waited in line for tickets for 15 minutes (I heard that was not typical) and then had to wait 15 minutes until the 10:30 time slot started. Everyone needs to sign a waiver, which would be an additional step, but I was able to complete it on my phone while waiting for the ticket line. There are cubbies to store your items, and benches and the arcade where you can wait until your time slot starts. You also have to be in bare feet or some sort of special flight socks.

I purchased an hour ticket, but Mason was so exhausted he only lasted 30 minutes! Here is Mason enjoying the activities:

At some point they added dance music so it became a jumping dance party.  I love little kids dancing! We got home and Mason took an extra long nap!  I'm sure we'll be back soon.

Mary Elizabeth's Birthday Party!

This weekend Mason and I took our first road trip just the two of us to Exton, PA to celebrate Mary Elizabeth's first birthday.  Mark had headed down to New Orleans for a bachelor party so I was solo parenting for the weekend. Kudos to all that are solo parents - I went to bed at 7pm last night because I was wiped out from just a few days.  On Saturday morning, I ran Mason down until he could barely stand and then we hit the road.  It worked out perfectly because he slept nearly 2 hours of the 2 1/2 hour drive. We are big road trippers and our key to success is 1) sleeping baby and 2) cartoons on the ipad.

The birthday party theme was Peter Rabbit, and Molly and Steve outdid themselves!  There was Mr McGregor's garden, a carrot hunt, Beatrix Potter book favors, and themed food. The cake was so beautiful and delicious!

Here is Mary Elizabeth eyeing up her first bit of cake. So cute!

I really need to step up my kid birthday game considering Mason's first birthday was basically a "we survived the first year" party for Mark and me.  I think people say kids don't remember much before they are age 7 so at least I have a little time to work on this.

Anyway, we don't get to see our Exton friends very frequently so we took the opportunity to stay the night and get some extra catch up time.   In the morning, we were lounging around having breakfast and I was so happy to see Mason playing with Emmett, Mary Elizabeth's big brother.  Here they are together and Mason looks so smitten with his new friend.

Hopefully we can get back to Exton soon. Happy Birthday Mary Elizabeth!

NKOTB concert

Last January it was brought to my attention that New Kids On The Block would be performing at the Verizon Center with Nelly and TLC! How could I miss this?!? And to be fair, it was really the two opening acts that I was excited about. Luckily many girlfriends were excited about it so we all got tickets...I love ladies night!

We met on the Poste patio and enjoyed the happy hour scene for a bit, including many orders of truffle fries. Yum! We headed over to the Verizon Center and ran to our seats since Nelly was starting. We had basically the last row in the upper level which ended up being kind of awesome because there was a large empty space so we created our own personal dance floor.

Dance party space in section 421!

Sister selfie!

And pics from the show....it was magical!

Date Night! Rasika and Adams Morgan

I was so excited for our Saturday night date night!  Mark and I looooove Rasika, as does the rest of DC, so I had to make reservations for a reasonable time on a Saturday night two months prior.  Arg! Anyway, I'm a planner and its worth it, so it works for us.  The sitter arrived and we headed off to Rasika's WestEnd location. We had a pre-dinner bev at the bar - I love the bar popcorn and the Rasika cocktail is delightful! - and were lucky enough to snag an outdoor table for dinner.  Usually when we go out, Mark is the King of Ordering and I'm trying to be healthy and my dish is just 'good' and then I have to sneak bites of his when he's not paying attention. On this date, I won the ordering contest!  I had the Andhra Chicken Curry and it was delicious and HOT! The Palak Chaat is heaven and a staple in our Rasika order and the Tawa Baigan is a recent fav.

Date night selfie!!

After dinner, we headed to see a friend's improv show in Adams Morgan.  As we were walking through Dupont, we stumbled upon a Silent Disco in the park.  The crazy thing is that just last week a friend was telling us about wanting to host a Silent Disco at his house and explained the whole thing to us. Basically everyone rocks out to music in headphones and a few music options get provided by the host.  Thanks for keeping us informed Dave!  Otherwise, we would have seen this and been completely confused...........(this looks like people just standing around, but they were all dancing in real life).

As we were walking to Adams Morgan, we tried to guess the last time we had a night out in that area...it seemed like ages!  Over the course of the next four hours, we hit Jack Rose, Millie and Al's, the improv show - shout out to the Wonder Years, Black Squirrel, and ended the night with Jumbo Slice - YES!  Definitely a happy, fancy (just the first half), fun night!

MONA Annual Family Picnic

Today was the MONA Annual Family Picnic at Lacey Woods Park which was free for members and their guests. The picnic included BBQ lunch, balloon animals, face painting, bounce houses and a kids musical performer. There was no way Mason was going to wait in line and sit still for face painting and balloon animals, so we skipped those activities all together.  There were four bounce houses and one was specific for the three and under crowd.

Most of the toddlers were being placed inside by their parents and then promptly crawling out. Mason had never been in one of these but thought this was the best toy ever so he jumped around solo for the first few minutes. I think others saw how much fun he was having and decided to test it out. He's such a leader!

This occupied him for about 20 minutes which is a looooong time for him. (I think we need to buy one!). After bounce house rounds 1 and 2, we met up with a girlfriend and her family for the BBQ lunch. We also ran into a few playgroup families. I loved being out in the neighborhood and seeing friends. It makes me feel really connected to the community!

After lunch, some playground time, and bouce house round 3, we decided that Mason was already quite off his routine and we better get home for a nap. Lucky for Mark and me, we have a date night so the sitter gets to deal with him being off schedule today. :)

Lilly Pulitzer Warehouse Sale

Yesterday was the annual Lilly Pulitzer warehouse sale in Oaks, PA. I hadn't been in previous years but after the disaster that was Lilly for Target, I decided to give it a whirl. I'll start by saying....man, was I unprepared!!! My plan was to leave at 5:30am, drive three hours, maybe wait in line an hour at most, shop until 1 and be home by 4:30pm to collect Mason on time.  When I arrived at 8:45 my friends who stayed in PA the night prior had been in line since before 5am and were still waiting to get in! I love the dedication. Lucky for me, I jumped in line with them and 30 minutes later we were all shopping together.  Long story short, if not for these ladies I would have still been standing in line when it was time to start the trek home.

Long lines....

Lilly lovers...

I'm quite pleased with all my purchases! Three dresses, a zip up, two shorts and a silk blouse!

Blue, green and a splash of pink is my color palette for life! Now that I have some experience I'm ready for next year!