Sikorski Saga

 Thanks to the Kensruds for having our girls while Daylight Savings time fell back an hour to Standard Time, Tim and Kyla got an actual extra hour of sleep! They woke up refreshed and decided on crepes for breakfast. So they walked to a little shop near the Moroccan restaurant from last night. They also stopped at a Farmer's Market on the way back to the hotel.  Kyla wanted to get Georgetown Cupcakes as a thank-you gift for the Kensruds. This place is now famous because of the TLC reality show "DC Cupcakes".  We enjoyed the smells as we waited for our order to be filled.  Hooray for cupcakes! We didn't realize that they shorted us a cupcake until dessert time. Kyla emailed the store and they sent us coupons for four free cupcakes. Tim and Kyla figured that they walked about 5 miles this morning. It's amazing how pedestrian we can be when there are actual sidewalks and destinations!  We met up with the Kensruds around lunch time at Potomac Point Winery. ...

 The girls had a fun-filled night with the Kensruds! They started out hanging out at the mall.  The girls all got new dolls! Kati got Rapunzel and Flynn Ryder and Luella got Pocahontas. Annika got Ariel.  They drove to a small town in Maryland to one of the last drive-in movie theaters. They watched "Puss In Boots" and had a great time!  The Kensruds are still living in a hotel waiting for their house to finish being built. The girls got the big bed!  Kati got to sing along with the Disney Princess Wii karaoke. They took a bike/trike ride along a nature trail near their new house. The girls had a blast!

 Tim went to our church while we took Luella to karate to help with the fall clean-up. Three-year-old Eddie Craig even helped out!  We met up with Ryan, Kit and Annika Kensrud at the National Harbor to give them our girls for the night.  We spent the night at the Hotel Helix, the same hotel we stayed at over the 4th of July 2008 about 6 weeks before Kati was born. We enjoyed their wine tasting and the mood lighting over our seats. We got silly and took pictures of all the different colors of lights!  Tim treated Kyla to a Moroccan dinner with a belly dancer entertaining the restaurant.  Once more a picture of us being silly in the restaurant!

Kati wants to say hi to Aunt Kirsten who go her this sweatshirt because she loves her (from their summer vacation to Grand Marais, MN)!

Today after Kyla's piano lesson, the kids wanted to sit on Ms. Annemarie Landry's rocking bench in her front yard. It's such a beautiful autumn day!

 The girls had fun tonight playing with Daddy's uniform. Luella has a big uniform to fill! Occupy Wall Street (OWS) is a protest movement that began September 17, 2011 in Zuccotti Park, located in New York City's Wall Street financial district. The protests are against social and economic inequality, greed, corruption and the undue influence of corporations on government—particularly from the financial services sector. To effect change OWS uses "direct action" instead of petitioning authorities. Their slogan, We are the 99%, addresses the growing income inequality and wealth distribution in the U.S. between the wealthiest 1% and the rest of the population. OWS was initiated by the Canadian activist group Adbusters and has led to Occupy protests and movements around the world. In response, many "we are the 1%" slogans have popped up and this is our favorite.

The kids decided to play "Jake and the Neverland Pirates" from Disney Junior with the sled in the front yard. Since the snowstorm was a bust, we had to do something with our new sled. Kati was Jake, Peter was Cubby and Luella was Izzy, the sled of course was Bucky. After Peter left, we decided to carve our pumpkins. Luella wanted to save the seeds to roast. The guts were so cold! Mommy called them GUTS! OH NO! The girls decided what designs should go on their pumpkins and were very happy about them! Kyla didn't trust them with knives, so she did all the carving with their directions, and didn't take during pictures. The monsters showed off their scary jack o' lanterns! Kati wanted Mickey and Minnie Mouse. The girls poked holes in this pumpkin and decorated it themselves! We love the Mr. Potato Head skeleton pumpkin! Luella wanted a spooky cat. This is Kati's pumpkin she painted at Fifer Orchard in Delaware while we were up visiting the Evers. Kati lea...