Ward Trunk or Treat

I went away for the weekend to scrapbook with Cindy (I am getting closer to being done with Jasmine's first year scrapbook) and so Lorne was left with Jasmine and his folks to go to the annual ward Trunk or Treat without me.From what I understand, it was a great time and Jasmine looked super cute in her costume. Lorne took some pictures and I also got some in an e-mail from my friend Mary Ady. Jasmine didn't get too much candy, which I was happy about since I knew she would be getting more during trick or treating. Lorne however, didn't give out all the candy we bought so now we have leftovers, which neither of us needs...sigh...

Hillwood Museum

Marcia told me about a treasure I had yet to discover in Washington DC called the Hillwood Museum, which was the estate that belonged to Marjorie Merriweather Post, the heiress of the Post company. Her father invented Postum. Anyhow, she was a serious collector of French and Russian art and artifacts and made her home into a museum to display all that she had collected through the years. When she dies, the house was willed to be a museum where the public could come and admire her treasures. And what treasures she collected! It blew my mind as I tried to conceive of how much money this woman must have spent and what the collection is worth now. If you ever have some time, I highly recommend visiting the Hillwood.The gardens are amazing, and the orchids growing in the greenhouse are fantastic. They also have a little cafe on the estate where you can eat lunch and the food was delicious and reasonably priced. There is a Dacha on the grounds (a Russian holiday home) where they have visiting exhibits and a Visitor's Center where you can watch a film about Ms. Post and buy some things at the souvenir shop.Lorne's parents had a great time there as they are history buffs and enjoy these types of places. I was lucky enough to go while Jasmine was in school so I didn't have to watch her so she wouldn't touch or break anything. I have decided there are places out there that just aren't appropriate for young children and The Hillwood is one of them. Next time any of you out of towners visit, I will have to take you to the Hillwood!

PetPourri

Some of you may be aware that my mother has been accompanying a local community theater for their production of PetPourri - a comical musical revue about pets. To support her and see where she has been spending all her time lately, we went to the theater to watch a performance.
It was a very cute show and we enjoyed it. Almost more enjoyable than the show was watching Jasmine and her reactions to the songs. She was mesmerized by it all and wanted so badly to be up there and have a go herself. She did a couple of funny things during the show that were of note.
First, when they were doing a song about a dog, they were pretending to pet this imaginary dog and Jasmine reached out and pretended to snatch the dog. She turned to me and said, "Mommy, I took the man's dog!" The second thing she did was during the short intermission. Since the theater itself is very small, in order to accommodate more people, they had a row of chairs right on the stage and we sat there. She went up on the stage during intermission and performed for the crowd. She was dancing and singing and did all her usual songs, God Bless America, I am a Child of God, Popcorn Popping, etc. Some of her songs had hand motions and I heard a lady behind me say, "Oh! She has choreography!" Everyone clapped and asked for more. Jasmine obliged of course and Mommy took pictures. The last thing she did that was quite funny was that they had a scene where a couple is sitting on a bench looking at an aquarium, of course it is pretend because there is no actual aquarium. This was center stage at the edge of where the chairs were and smack in front of Jasmine. As the couple sang the song about the fish and looked intently at their pretend aquarium, Jasmine grew quite disturbed. She leaned into me and said, "Mommy, they are calling me a fish and I don't want to be a fish." She thought they were singing to her and that they thought she was a fish. I had to stifle a giggle as I thought that was so cute and funny.After the show, we all congratulated Mom on her brilliant piano performance and the rest of the actors as well. We then went out together for a bit of dessert. It was a nice evening and we were so happy Jasmine enjoyed it as well.

Fun with Ouma and Grandfather

Jasmine has made herself a little routine with Ouma and Grandfather. She has found activities she enjoys doing with them. She loves to have Grandfather read to her and will sit on his lap for hours and and bring him book after book to read. She can't get enough and Grandfather never complains or seems to get tired of reading to her - even when he is asked to read the same books everyday.She also likes to play pretend tea party with both of them and asks to play it everyday. She will also spend lots of time brushing Ouma's hair and demanding she lay on the couch so Jasmine can make her beautiful. She will often crown Princess Ouma and then tell her they need to go get married in the temple.It has been so nice to see them together on this visit and I hope that Jasmine will remember her grandparents from Australia a bit more this time.

Lorne Mowing

I caught this cute scene as Lorne was mowing the front yard and couldn't resist the photo op! How cute is my little family, c'mon, you can say it!

In the beginning, all America was Virginia

Since Lorne had the day off on Columbus Day, we decided to take a day trip to Richmond with Dad. Our goal was to go to a museum where they had a large display of Faberge eggs but when we got there, they were closed until Wednesday. That didn't stop us, we found another museum a block away that we spent some time in called the Virginia Historical Society.It was a great museum, chock full of early Virginia History. They had some great displays and interactive activities Jasmine could participate in. She got dressed up as an early Virginia settler and it was so cute to see her get excited about that. There was a fine display of different modes of transport and old Virginia pottery. It never ceases to amaze me how much stuff is out there to be collected into a museum. I bet I could gather a few things, come up with a catchy name and have a museum of my own. This is not to say that I do not enjoy mucking around in museums, I often learn a lot and am fascinated by the record keeping that has been done to supply my mind with so much historical information.We headed back at the end of the day and stopped to show dad our previously purchased and sold house in Richmond and then had a leisurely drive back home. It was a really nice day.

Family Dinner

Sunday we had a family dinner, which my family tries to do 2 times a month on a Sunday evening. This one was especially fun because we had Dad with us and also Rory was home! Yay for that. We sat around and chatted before dinner and Dad gave Roman some gifts that they had brought from Australia. Jasmine was also given a beautiful dress for her to wear at Christmas from her abuela and grandpa.Mom cooked a great pasta meal and we had lots of fun and laughs at dinner. Jasmine was thrilled to sit next to her Tio Rory.
After dinner, we vegged out in the basement watching the Cowboys game, which was a really good game (even though they lost) because the Cowboys came back in the last minutes of the game and it went into overtime. The game wasn't all that important, it was just fun to sit and catch up with my brothers and play with my cute little nephew.