Graduation from Pre-K and K....

Where did the last 5 years go?  Olivia started Vinings Creative Learning Center the summer of 2005, right after Zach was born.  Since then, five quick years passed by and last week I was looking at my little girl in a white cap and gown.  The cap was falling off of her head and she was concentrating intensely on keeping it on, but that's one cute, little snapshot that I can remember from this wonderful graduation evening.  

Zach decided to expend all of his energy at the end-of-year Karate show one hour prior to the Spring Fling/graduation, so by the time his turn rolled around, he was a quiet, almost shy, Zach with his hands in his pockets.  It just reminds me how Zach's personality is flexible.  He fits in where he wants and plays the shy bit when he's not in the mood.  On the other hand, Olivia has been painfully shy for the past several years, but is opening up more and more.  Case in point, she gave a speech in front of an entire audience during gradation.  All of her classmates did, but I had a small doubt that she wouldn't do it.  I was so proud, just knowing her personality, that she trusted herself and did it!  She walked away with a smile....well, Grandpa Bob's shout of encouragement probably helped, but a smile is a smile!  

Both children walked to the podium to receive their diplomas and the afternoon went by in a flash.  We officially have Teasley Elementary bound kids now.  

I had a tinge of sadness knowing we were leaving VCLC, but five years is a good run, so onward we must go.  I missed saying my final goodbyes to the group due to a crazy scheduled week.

Lucky for us, I think both kids are excited about starting Teasley....but first things first....let's enjoy summer.  August 5th will come way too soon.  

Let the festivities begin!

Mother's Day

A relaxing day and a half at the lake is good for the soul.  Especially, when the aforementioned weekend is spent with good friends.  Boating, eating, walking, relaxing and reading books made up our time at the lake and we were all very pleased.  Thanks Amy, Liz and Cat.
Zach's last soccer game finished up this past weekend as well.  I think he was more in it for the trophy, so whew!, he got one this season!  Here is a picture of Zach and Coach Donncha.  He played a tough game as goalie this year :-)  Now that soccer is over, we are on to swimming.  Rookie swim team started Tuesday in Smyrna.  Much to my surprise, Olivia LOVED swim team.  It could be due to the fact that Ava and Gage accompanied us to practice, so Olivia had to show the "younger kids" how swim team works.  It could have been ugly, but turned out awesome!  On the flip side, my 'go get them' Zach ended up crying and said  "I never want to do swim team again"!  Oh no.  Where did this go wrong?  It turns out, he was cold, so I put a shirt on him (not advised for swim team, but hey, he's 5 and on the Rookie team, so it will fly).  He was happy today and the weather/water was warmer.  Both kids loved the fact that we had to write their name and age in Sharpie on their back shoulders.  They love drawing on themselves, so this made Swim Team even cooler!
Mother's Day itself, was a little quiet.  Dave was delayed on his flight from Germany due to the volcanic ash, so he missed taking me out to dinner for Mother's Day.  I went out with the kids, but it was chaos.  Oh well, I'll take a do-over any time!

Mother's Day was redeemed when I attended the Mother's Day Tea in Zach's class.  Thanks to Ms. Onsager and Mrs. Dominquez, the Tea had most mother's in tears.  The kids' behavior was perfect, they served us, gave us presents (artwork from the year), drew portraits of us and sang the sweetest song of all time!  That is what brought the tears on.  It also made us realize our Pre-K kids are going to be real Kindergarteners in a  few short months.    It all seems to run together with Olivia and Zach being one grade apart, but I had to take notice with this last gathering.  Over the course of last week, his teachers had been 'helping them' with their manners.  Zach would repeat things he discussed in school and it was all so very sweet.  Just to keep this one in my memory, I have to write it down.  One afternoon, he called from the bathroom "we are out of toilet paper".  I told him where we keep extra rolls and went to help.  He said 'oh, I can do it, it's Mother's Day'.  Umm, ok, this is nice.  He worked to put the new roll on with success.  Then comes, in the typical manner, "will you wipe me?  Oh wait, it's Mother's Day.  I'll wipe myself"!  I almost lost it, but hey, I took him up on his offer.  It was classic!

And that, my friends, is a Happy Mother's Day!

White House Correspondents Dinner 2010 and Washington DC trip

Unexpectedly, we were invited once again to the annual White House Correspondents Dinner which was held Saturday, May 1.  We had such a great time last year, so we knew it was a big deal.  The annual dinner is called the "Nerd Prom" or Washington's Oscar Night.  I can only assume we didn't make fools of ourselves last year, thus we were the only repeat invitees from last year.  So thank you again, Vanity Fair's publisher, Edward Menischeski for inviting Dave and me.  Vanity Fair also hosted the after party along with Mayor Bloomberg at the French Ambassador's house (mansion).  I have photos to prove it was a mansion! We didn't realize it until the next day that NYC had a bomb scare, so Mayor Bloomberg had to miss his own party.  Unfortunate events.
http://www.c-span.org/Watch/Media/2010/05/01/HP/A/32290/2010+White+House+Correspondents+Dinner.aspx
C-SPAN has the dinner video on their website.  If you have time, fast forward to the President's portion.  He was hilarious (again this year) and actually topped Jay Leno.  Hey, it's great having speech writers.....and having a natural talent for telling jokes.  My mom watched and caught Dave and me leaving the dinner.  Just in case you want to see a tired Jennifer and Dave, fast forward to around hour 2:48.  You'll see Kathy Lee and Hoda, then us.  The guys in front of us were with the Vanity Fair group as well - he was President of Hermes and the other guest, no photos, was PR executive of David Yurman jewelry. She gave me compliments on my necklace, so 'thank you' Amy P. for the loan.  It was a fun group.  We also sat at the dinner table with Secretary Donovan, head of HUD.  Dave's dad and Barbara worked at HUD most of their careers, so it was ironic that we sat next to them the entire evening and chatted it up.  
As you can imagine, it was an unbelievable evening.  We stayed at The Four Seasons hotel and I ran into Michael Douglas, exchanged 'hellos', on my way out to get my hair done and one of the Jonas brothers on my way back in.  Georgetown was hopping all afternoon, so the streets were crowded.  I think they had to import black SUVs for this event because that's all we saw.  We even had our own black town car that drove us to The Washington Hilton for the dinner, waited on to take us to the after party and back to our hotel around 3 am!  After we were dropped off at the Hilton, Secret Service stopped everyone and we had to wait until the President arrived.  Helicopters flew over, the motorcade arrived with motorcycles, black SUVs and finally the President's limo.  We were standing with Donovan McNabb, Mike Shanahan (football player and coach for those of us that are not fans), Rosario Dawson from Lost and several Congressmen (Senator Levin specifically).  It was funny because we saw the President looking out of his window to see who was at the event :-)  Of course, we were all looking at him!  Unfortunately, since the President was taken into that entrance, we all had to take a walk around the block...UP Connecticut Avenue in tuxes, dresses and high heels for 15 minutes.  Tough walk!  
We walked in with Anne Curry of the Today Show and Angela Kinsey (Angela from The Office).  Everyone was going crazy over Anne Curry, so I asked Angela if she wanted to go into the news business.  She said "yes, that's going to be my next job".  :-)


Inside, at the reception, we saw Tracy Morgan (30 Rock), Al Sharpton, Matt Lauer, John Cramer (eh) and many more.

We had a table right in the middle this year - great spot.  The Jonas brothers were next to us, Kathryn Bigelow (Best Director for Hurt Locker) - that's her back on the above picture and Christiana Amanpour at the next table and Ty Burrell (Phil from Modern Family) was at another table.  Seriously, everywhere you looked, was another famous person.  Julie Bowen (Claire from Modern Family was waiting outside with us - she's extremely skinny, too skinny).  When we arrived at our table, I saw Kathryn Bigelow and talked to her for a bit.  I told her she deserves a huge congratulations and what an amazing year she has had.  She was so nice and said that this year has been incredible and overwhelming for her. She kept talking to me, so that was really nice!  Jeremy Renner, actor in the Hurt Locker stopped by her table.  Photo of Chevy Chase.... Justin Bieber popped over to talk to the Jonas brothers, and everyone crowded around - weird for an older crowd.

As you will see, my photos were not so great at the dinner, but hey, at least I took a few.  


The Washington Post:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/gallery/2010/05/01/GA2010050104100.html


Here are the people we met/saw:
Stephen Spielberg
Madeline Albright
Morgan Freeman
Scarlet Johansson
Donovan McNabb
Tony Romo
Mike Shanahan
Ashely Judd
Jessica Simpson
Anna Kendrick - Up in the Air actress
Matthew Morrison from Glee
Dana Delaney
Mariska Hargitay
Tim Daly
Kim Kardashian
Michelle Pfieffer
Cynthia Nixon -Sex and the City
Justin Bieber
Randy Quaid
Elizabeth Moss from Mad Men (woo hoo - love that show)
Jeff Probst
Greta Van Susteren
Kathy Lee Gifford & Hoda
Jon Bon Jovi
Gabourey Sidibe - Precious
Jessica Alba

At the after party:
Morgan Freeman
Colin Powell 
John Oliver - from John Stewart show
Donnatella Versace - walked in with her to the party
Ryan Seacrest - again
Seth MacFarlane - Family guy
Ty Burrell- Modern Family - talked to him a couple of times
Quinton Aaron - played Michael in The Blind Side 

We talked to Quinton and I took a photo with him.  As you can imagine, he is a big guy.  He moved from NYC to Augusta, GA.  Graduated and loved acting and singing (not football), so he moved to L.A.  He was a super nice guy with a very soft voice and was perfect for the role.  We also met the Tuohy family, the Blind Side was based them.  Mom, Dad and daughter were all there and we chatted for a while.  Mom definitely had a strong personality.  Ashley Judd sat for a bit and it was nice to just hang out and enjoy the view of the house.  Dave could not pass up talking to Seth MacFarlane, creator of the Family Guy!  

Sunday morning, Dave and I were trying to remember everyone we saw and talked to, but there were so many famous people there!  Luckily, Vanity Fair's link below will show you beautiful photographs from the after party.

http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2010/05/white-house-correspondents-dinner-slideshow-201005#slide=1

It was long night, and we finally got into bed at 3:30 am.  But 8 am came around soon and reality hit that we had our two little munchkins waiting to see us.  Dave's dad and Barbara took Olivia and Zach to the fair Saturday while we were in DC.  We were all able to see lots of family while we were there and enjoyed hanging out on the Miller's farm (Barbara's parents).  Olivia's dream is to grow up and own a farm (really), so it was hard to get her to leave.

Back to DC we went and enjoyed a tired, but fabulous day at the Air and Space Museum and the Smithsonian.

Of course, we took a few breaks to savor the perfect DC spring weather by the numerous fountains and parks.  I asked Zach and Olivia if they told their classmates about touring Washington D.C. and asked what they talked about.  Zach said he told them he went to Washington D.C. and pet a dog named Ariel.  Well, in fact he did, but that tells you what's important in the life of a 5-year old!