Things to Do - Grateful List (July 2013)

ARTS
* Reading The Woman Upstairs and The Flamethrowers: A Novel
* Immogen Cunninghamn's photos
* Gwyneth Glyn at the Folklife festival (most beautiful voice ever)
* Listening to Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zero's new album, Better Days
* Watching Great Gatsby at the Cinema Drafthouse (this might be the best movie I've seen in years, I have no idea why the critics shunned it, both Dan and I found it mesmerizing, especially Leo)
* Listening to Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity (book on tape) during our roadtrip to NYC
* Our whole family's obsession with the Cups song

FOOD
* Gwyneth Paltrow's fried zucchini pasta
* Homemade peach ice cream
* Margie's pistachio/mint pasta
* Watermelon (we practically live on it)
* Daily recipes from Arcadia's farm camp (esp. garbonzo bean/walnut/pesto dip)
* Rasika with Alison
* My herb garden (all the rain is causing a summer of fantastic food)

PLACES
* Beaver sighting on a rainy day at the zoo with friends
* Our super cheap apartment pool membership (we love it there)
* The zipline playground at Madison Community Center (we spent a lot of time here waiting for Art Camp to end)
* The Navy museum with T
* Stories in Art at the National Gallery (Winslow Homer) - all three kids are old enough to go now, Yay!!
* Baltimore Museum of Industry (Baltimore, MD)
* An afternoon at the Building Museum with Julia and Tracie - concert/ Work, Play Build/ Building Zone/ mini golf/ BBQ

ETC
* "Mom, it's just sort of awkward when a 36 year old woman sings baby you're a firework." - F, trying to shut me up
* P reading to T (particularly the Cowgirl Kate and Coco books)
* Journal time
* T and Claire's "band"
* A full week of happy hours and MNOs - thank you Liz, Christi, Beth, Alison, and Jennifer
* T, as soon as Claire walks in the house, "want to go downstairs and check on our baby?"
* T's new pirate and batman costume (thank you, Ann!)
* F to T - "I wasn't punching you, I was shoving you gently to protect my personal bubble."
* My badly organized but still successful "summer stars" rewards program for the kids (the girls earned razor scooters and T earned a new gun through helping me out at home)
* A successful DOUBLE sleepover (both F and P invited a friend), I guess it won't be long until we stat hosting triples
* Obama's Trayvon Martin speech
* A great night out at Clare and Don's with Beth and Cathi
* A wonderful month of camps - art camp[F], gymnastics camp[P], farm camp[P and F], and preschool camp[T]

VACATION (Snowshoe, WV for the 4th of July and NYC)
* Geocache/hike around Shaver Lake (Snowshoe, WV)
* Our tour of the NRAO (National Radio Astronomical Observatory) (Green Bank, WV)
* Channeling our inner Gatsby at Coe Hall (Long Island, NY)
* Central Park zoo's sea lion show (NYC)
* Northlandz HOME OF THE WORLD'S LONGEST MODEL TRAIN (Flemington, NJ) - this place was amazing!!

THE KIDS' LISTS:

F - a great hike, Snowshoe, our family, a nice house to live in and food to eat, a great vacation [at Snowshoe], playdates, E coming over, the library, that we have everything we need/actually a little more than we need, visiting Hannah and her parents, a great vacation in NYC

P - bungee jumping, rock climbing, geocaching, Snowshoe with grandmad and grandpa, my friends times a zillion because I love them so much, ice cream, going to the pool, summer vacation, my sleepover with P, art, my family, visiting Hannah

T - my family, grandma's house/hotel in Snowshoe, P letting me play with her toys, the playground, a nice house to live in and food to eat, playing with Hannah