Things to Do - Grateful List (November 2011)

ARTS
1. Anthology magazine (it keeps getting better)
2. Hot jazz Saturday night on NPR (like a date night in PJs)
3. Weekends with Chopin on the stereo all day
4. New music - Frightened Rabbit's The Winter of Mixed Drink, Real Estates' Days, Beirut's The Rip Tide, and everything by The Tallest Man in the World
5. Rough Faced Girl at Synetic Theater
6. Flickr's Habit group (so much inspiration)
7. Family movie night with popcorn (Annie, ET, and The Great Muppet Caper)

FOOD
8. Dan's pork chops (he's mastered the chop)
9. Roasted brussel sprouts with apples and bacon
10. Magic sauce on baked potatoes
11. Sweetfrog

PLACES
12. Teddy bear tea at the Pentagon City Ritz
13. Picking our own kale and swiss chard at Great Country Farms
14. It's Academic Night at F's elementary school (hieroglyphics, multi-national paper dolls, and the "tree game")
15. Beautiful warm weather for P's birthday party at Hidden Pond Nature Center (35 kids is a lot of kids)
16. A day at the zoo with Auntie Laurie (esp. watching the orangutan play computer games and checking out the monkeys in Amazonia's trees)
17. Making mud pies and visiting Chinatown at the new Playseum in DC (two thumbs up!!)
18. Julia's wedding reception on the third floor of Crystal City Brewpub (the adults drank beer, the kids partied in the bouncee bounce, and all the TVs played Rio - so fun)

STUFF
19. Our new comforter and shower curtain
20. A stocked wine rack and mulling spices
21. The Magnetic Doll House and listening to F make up stories about all the dolls
22. Playshapes

VACATIONS (Dover, DE)
23. Travel Bingo(so much fun)
24. Bombay Hook at dusk
25. Delaware Agricultural Museum (esp. feeding the chickens and walking around the outside village)
26. Indoor hotel pools

MOMENTS/ETC
27. F reading everything in site (and then some)
28. A clean kitchen floor (you can't beat it)
29. Free stickers at Trader Joes (endless entertainment)
30. P's "snuggle huggles", full of backrubs to help me nap
31. "Mommy, I love you and loving is sort of like best friends, except you can't be my best friend because you're my mommy and we live in the same house. but you're SORT OF like a best friend" - P
32. T "fixing" our house while wearing his construction worker outfit
33. The kids' backyard "fort" (a blanket over the patio table)
34. P always standing on her head on the couch
35. Dan and F playing soccer in the backyard
36. C's birthday card for P ("P is allergic to peanuts and cats and it is her birthday")
37. Haircuts for all the kids (I can finally see P's face again)
38. P's drawings of monsters and aliens
39. Jesse and Amie's Thanksgiving feast
40. Kid-friendly waiters (they make all the difference)

F's List - soccer after school, making presents for my friends, birthdays, my family, nature, the play [Rough-Faced Girl at Synetic Theater], our class fieldtrip to the planetarium & riding the bus, Xmas is coming, home, my new paper doll baby, NOT that I'm clumsy, family movie night, school, spending Thanksgiving with our cousins, my locket [from Grandma T]

P's List - my family, my friends, dollies, playdates, the play [Rough-Faced Girl at Synetic Theater], my birthday, my cousin sleeping over, my new babydoll, dessert

T's List - dada, dada cuddles, "you", good guys, bad guys, hayride [at Great Country Farms], tractors, "my construction worker" [costume], sissies [sisters]