March Madness

Yes, I know...it's April.  That's the whole point....March was such a crazy month, it took most of the month of April to regroup.  (OK..so I am exaggerating a bit...but this is my blog so I am allowed to puff things up a bit, right?)  Of course, in the Middleton house March is birthday month.  All three of the Middleton males celebrate birthdays within an 11 day stretch.  The oldest boy Ryan is first, followed by dear husband, and then youngest son Parker.  This was a big year for Parker.



It was a low key celebration--chinese food for dinner and this fabulous cake for dessert.  I am pleased and proud that the first thing he did as an 18 year old was register to vote!

We were surprised with a few small snows the early part of March, but we were really surprised when  we got 4 inches of snow on Palm Sunday (yes--as in March 24, three days into spring!)

This is our front yard a few minutes after the snow started.  It ended up being a lovely snow (I liked calling it our spring wonderland), the kids got a snow day, and the roads were cleared very quickly.  So, this ranks high on the all time best snow days according to my snow day rating system.

A week later we were on the road to Washington with some of Tim's high school friends who were in town for spring break. We only had one full day in DC but that happened to be the best weather day in a very long time!  The sun was shining and it finally felt like spring--- and, except for some brisk wind gusts, we couldn't have picked a better day to be in the nation's capitol.  
We visited the Old Post Office building for the first time (I am not sure how we missed this during our numerous day trips to DC, but somehow we did.)  An elevator took us all the to the top of this tower where we were treated to an amazing view of the city.  What a fun way to end our day.  The next morning our friends took off for Pennsylvania but we decided to stay and attend an Easter service in the city.  We chose National Community Church, which meets in an old restored movie theatre in the heart of the Capital Hill neighborhood, literally just blocks from the Capitol building. 
 This is one of the  fastest growing churches in America and we were thrilled to see so many people lining the streets to get into the church---most under the age of 35.  While I felt uncomfortable taking photos of the front of the building with soooo many people around, I was able to take this photo of houses that were just down the street from NCC.  What a cool place to put a church!  And what a great vision this pastor had to start a church in the heart of the nation's capitol. 
Our friends returned mid-week.  We decided to drive to Williamsburg one day, and again the weather   could hardly have been better.  It was a fairly brief visit, but we were able to see all the highlights of Colonial Williamsburg as well as a quick visit to the William and Mary campus.



  Tim and I topped off our afternoon with a Captain's Mocha from a cute little coffeehouse cafe on Prince George's street called Aromas.  We will definitely revisit this sweet place the next time we are in Williamsburg.


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