My Parents are in town!

I have been a bad, bad blogger lately!! We have had our first snow this last week, a tiny skiff of just over an inch and they canceled school one day and had a delay start the next day. So my workouts were sidelined, because the Rec Center follows the school closings, and on the delay start day they cancel morning preschool, so after a teacher work day on Tuesday and the snow day on Thursday, Adam was missing a whole week of preschool, and with Inauguration day the week before, in the last two weeks he was only able to go to school once! (and they don't discount tuition for missed days!!! So I am more than a little irritated!)
On the snow day was Adam's speech evaluation, so I had arranged a babysitter for the other kids and made my way on slightly scary roads, only to find the whole school board complex with out a car in sight and all the gates closed and locked!! When they called to reschedule, they told me that they could not see him any sooner than February 20th!!!!!!! So after we had already waited a month for the speech evaluation appointment, the stupid snow that shouldn't even register as snow, cancelled our appointment!!! And we have to wait nearly another MONTH!! Hopefully our next and only snow for this year won't happen on the night of Feb 19!

So now on to other things!! My parents are in town!!! We picked them up on Tuesday the 3rd and they will be with us for two whole weeks!! We look forward to their visits so much! It has been a year since we saw them last. I am so grateful that they are willing to take the time and come on out to visit. Because flying with the kids is pretty much impossible these days.
The kids have been so excited for the visit. The girls, especially Avalon have been telling everyone they see, that "Grandma and Grandpa are coming to visit!!" It has been so fun seeing them get so excited to see their grandparents again. They love to go to the airport to pick them up. But the waiting is the hardest part.
The kids have been extra hyper, but now that they are a year older, they are more obedient when Grandpa says that he is "all done". Adam even remembers them. He has been so sweet giving them hugs and letting Grandma read to him and playing with Grandpa. I am a little surprised (and pleasantly so) that he remembers them so well and has just joined in the fun without missing a beat!!
We went into the city to the American history museum yesterday afternoon. And learned a hard lesson! A $100 lesson. Yeah, I got a parking ticket. I didn't realize that the street we were parked on had a parking ban during rush hour. And rush hour starts at 4:00PM, so at 4:10 I was issued a ticket. But I am actually really grateful that it was only $100, because as we were loading up the van a tow truck came to tow me away. Can you imagine 8 people stuck without a vehicle in February, and no way to get home! So the hundred is cheap compared having to pay for the tow and to get the car out of impound and a taxi ride to either home or the impound yard, where ever that is! So I'll take a big ticket over that hassle any day!!
But, the museum was really fun!! And we were able to see the original "star spangled banner" that hung over Fort McHenry during the war of 1812, talk about neat!! It was huge! Probably 40 feet by 50 feet. It was made out of wool and the white sections are very worn. The wool that had been dyed blue or red was in much better shape. It also had been cut in a few places where people took a star or another scrap of fabric as a memento.
So today after Adam's school, the plan is to head to the Natural History museum. They have a new oceanic room with a live coral reef and real salt water fish. So this will be a nice alternative to the aquarium where it costs $25 a person to get in!
It should be a fun day!!