Things to Do - Grateful List (June 2014)

ARTS
* Reading Richard Schmitt's essay "Sometimes a Romantic Notion"
* Watching True Detective, Season 1
* Reading Seating Arrangements
* Watching Divergent
* Reading The Museum of Innocence

FOOD
* Carla Brown's Harissa Spiced Nuts
* Mazagan with Allegra
* Trader Joe's cold pressed juice

PLACES
* T's Bowie Baysox birthday party
* A night away at Blue Rock Inn & hiking Shenandoah's Broad Hollow-Pine Hill Gap loop with Dan for our anniversary (except for the ticks, so so many ticks)
* Menchie's opening 30 minutes early when they saw a sad T at the door
* Floating and fishing on the Shenandoah River for Father's Day
* Day 1 of the double decker bus tour, which included tickets to Madame Tussauds
* Cabin camping at Cunningham Falls - esp. the kids playing flashlight tag with all the other children in the campground & the girls building a fairy home

ETC.
* P'S awesome math skills
* Happy hour at Katie's house
* My new personal trainer - Myra
* Friends who drive you to bootcamp at 6 am
* The girls TRYING swim team
* F's sleepover with friends in the grade school gymnasium
* The girls playing "drunk mom" while watching the US beat Ghana in World Cup Soccer at the Drafthouse (long, funny, disturbing story)
* Our summer solstice party (gumbo, bounce houses, face painting, snow cones, balloon animals, and kegs)
* T FINALLY swimming this summer (or, at least, doggie paddling)
* T's first sleepover with friends
* The children's "signature" phrases: P - "that's not fair", T - "that's insulting", F - "I don't know"

THE KIDS' LISTS:

F - boogie boarding, going on vacation with all of my friends, petting a stingray at the aquarium, parents that let me stay up late, reading in bed, Camp Troutman

P - everyone I like, everyone I love, SOME of the Bowie Baysox party, Tessa's birthday party, the beach, art, school, the bus tour, playdates with Laney, Menchies

T - watching Cosmos with dad, my birthday, Silver Diner, my ninja castle from grandma, Menchies, watching TV, my cousins sleeping over, playdates with Mateo, the bus tour, our solstice party