Private Firehouse Tour

The other day we stopped by the fire house to schedule a tour. You see, I have been trying to call them but they never answer the phone, so we thought we would stop in. Calder has been asking for a tour for a month or so. He was so excited when they asked if he wanted a tour right then. Fireman Jeff showed us around. The firehouse is brand new and very nice. Calder got to sit in the fire truck and turn on the lights and siren. He loved it. Don't let the pictures fool you, he was having a blast. 

Oh and I forgot to mention he wanted to dress up like Cowboy Woody that day.

#72 Washington Wizards Game

 I took the car in to get an oil change and some routine maintenance at the dealership on Wednesday and they happened to be giving out tickets for the Washington Wizard's game on Saturday. I took three in hopes that Jason could come. Thankfully he made it! We met at the Verizon Center and enjoyed a good chunk of the game. Our seats were higher up but not at the very top, so that was nice.

 Calder loved getting a giant pretzel and the mascot. He laughed every time the mascot came out.

 At first, Calder was a little scared because it was loud and he wasn't sure what he was supposed to be watching. He caught on pretty quickly.

This was the first time I have taken Calder on the Metro without his stroller. He was so excited and felt like a big boy. Oh and we picked up this brand new backpack at the thrift store this week. He has wanted to take it everywhere.

#67 Visit the Audubon Naturalist Society

On Saturday we went to the Audubon Society for a hike. It was a lot of fun although, it was a rather quick trip. I think it will be much more beautiful in the Spring and Fall. We'll be going back for sure. Calder loved having the place to himself and hitting leaves with various sticks he found. We tried to find the turtles they told us to watch out for but couldn't seem to locate any of them. Maybe in a few months we will.

#51 Ice Skating

There is an indoor skating rink about 3 miles from our house and on Fridays they do toddler and parent time for $3.50! That includes skate rental for both of us. It was awesome. I haven't been ice skating in about 10 years and it was Calder's first time. I was a little nervous that I wouldn't be much help but it was fine and Calder didn't really need much help anyway. 

Many of the other parents were surprised that he was so good and so little. They almost didn't believe it was his first time. He is dying to go back and keeps asking if we can take daddy or some friends next time.

He liked to chase the other kids around the rink. Some of them thought it was fun and some weren't too thrilled. As you'll see in the video below. 

#14 The Bureau of Engraving and Printing

Calder and I had an awesome tour of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing on Monday. I honestly think this is one of the best things we've done in DC. It was short (30 minutes start to finish) and Calder loved it. He was fascinated the whole way through and wants to do it again. Unfortunately we couldn't take pictures on the tour so this is the one picture we got in the lobby. The sign says One Million Dollars in ten dollar notes. During the tour we saw a sign in the printing area that said "How do you think I feel, I print my lifetime salary in just a few minutes".  I thought it was clever.

A few interesting facts, in case you don't get to take the tour yourself. 95% of the money printed is to replace worn out money. 4% of the money they print is a mistake and gets incinerated in the basement. And if you happen to have a bill with a star at the end of the serial number instead of a letter, it means there was a mistake while printing a sheet of bills and they had to substitute it with star notes.

To the Park WITH DADDY!

 It was so nice to have nice weather so we could go to the park but it was even better could go with us last weekend. Calder was especially thrilled that Jason rode the motorcycle while he was in the sidecar. I'm sure Jason will love that I posted this picture. If our blog goes private next week, you'll know why.

 We dug.

We climbed and we had so much fun!

Spending Fast Recap

This has been a good month. I didn't feel the stress I felt last year when I did this for the first time. I am already not buying anything new this whole year, so this wasn't all that different other than decreasing my grocery budget and not going to the thrift store. I am really happy I did it but I don't feel like it was as life altering as the first time I did it. Here are the things I've learned. 

• Jason LOVES Spending Fast month. Or at least he loves watching our bank account during the month. He recently said "Can you believe I looked at our Amex bill and there wasn't any charges" Uh, yeah, I can. 
• I can live without saran wrap and sandwich baggies, at least in the short term. I am doing better about using tupperware. I want to make reuseable sandwich baggies, but haven't done it yet. 
• I plan more fun outings when I don't shop.
• I sew more when I don't shop. 
• I re-focus my grocery priorities. I stuck with fresh fruits and veggies this time which meant I really had to skimp elsewhere. I'm glad I did though. I definitely prefer fresh over canned or frozen.  

I spent $44.84 at the grocery store this week, so I was successful in staying under $50 per week! Yay!

I did have a slight lapse in judgment on Thursday and went to a yarn shop and new thrift store. It was really fun to walk around Alexandria and the stores just sucked us in. I bought a skein of yarn for $6.00 and spent $5.00 at the thrift store. Thankfully LuAnn bought the skein of yarn from me when I found very similar yarn at the thrift store. So, yeah, I ended up only spending $5.00 but I still felt guilty about it. 

How did your month go?

#2 Visit Mt. Vernon

Calder and I went to Mt. Vernon last Monday. It was free in honor of President's day. I'm so glad we went. It was chilly but manageable. We saw the tomb, the museum and took the tour of the mansion. We couldn't take pictures of very many things so, here is what I got.

 This is a very large stained glass window inside the visitors center.

 This is how Calder spent the morning, when he wasn't on my shoulder so he could see the band or walking through the mansion.

 George Washington's Army. Calder LOVED watching them shoot their guns. He would laugh uncontrollably each time. As other kids would cry or cover their ears, Calder just laughed.

THE GEORGE WASHINGTON. Okay, not really but he was a good actor and did a good job pretending to be GW. Calder didn't get a chance to talk to him because the line was too long. When we were looking for a bathroom Calder suggested we ask GW where his bathroom is.

And this was the drum and fife band performing on the mansion lawn. Calder very much enjoyed this too. 

It was definitely a good day. I probably wouldn't pay for it but I'm glad we went.

#46 Brookside Gardens

 Since we've been having beautiful weather Calder and I took an evening trip to Brookside Gardens. It is a huge garden about three miles from our house. This is the Children's Garden area. They have tables and stools made out of logs, a tree house and a gnome house.

 Calder loved the gnome house and was frustrated the door doesn't close.

 And he took a pretty decent picture of me.

 I can't wait to go back when we have a few hours to explore and I can only imagine it will be amazing come spring.

Spending Fast Week 3

Okay, I had a cruddy week at the grocery store. I spent $57.15. So, I went over even though I had some saved up. So, that means I have $47.17 to spend at the store this next week. That should be manageable. We'll see. 

Otherwise I did really good. I didn't eat out at all and didn't buy anything but gas, so week three was a success. 

I don't feel like this is as hard because there is so much to do for free here. Calder and I can stay busy without spending money. It is so nice. It also helps the weather has been warmer so we can spend time at parks instead of malls.

How was your THIRD week of the Spending Fast? This next week is your last week! Yay!

#69 Gravelly Point

 After our "hike" around Roosevelt Island we went to Gravelly Point. This is a great park where you can see the airplanes taking off and landing at Ronald Regan National Airport. Calder LOVED this and can't wait to take daddy. We brought a picnic and just had a great time. You can sort of see the flag Calder is holding. It is an American flag he insisted on having from the thrift store. It has been well loved and he wanted to bring it to wave at the airplanes. I think he was thinking it was going to guide them like the workers who direct planes with small orange flags or sticks, but I'm not sure. Either way he waved his American flag for the airplanes.

 I had a hard time getting this picture because Calder kept wanting to watch the airplanes.

This is my friend Liz and her son Henry. We always have a great time with them!

So, back to the bathroom story from the previous post. We got here and Calder hadn't mentioned needing to go to the bathroom for a while. Then he needed to go poop. They only had porta-potties and so we went in and I told him how it works. He desperately wanted to poop in the urinal part because the other one was "already used". Thankfully he had to go bad enough he didn't argue much when I told him it doesn't work that way. He did make me crouch down so he could see my face the whole time because he was scared, but he did it and was so proud of himself when he was done. So, I guess we can go camping now.