Bashy's Second Birthday, Part I

Because 'Better Late then Never' should really be the *name* of my blog!

Pat had an interview in DC the Friday prior to Sebastian's second birthday, and so we packed up a bunch of stuff, drove in with Pat, dropped him off, and the kids and I headed to the National Basilica. It was a beautiful, and after a quick visit (because 3 yo + 2 yo + newborn = not a lot of quiet prayer) we headed outside to the Mary Garden so the kids could run around. They had quite a lot of fun, and Kateri was delighted to find her very first "climbing tree". She has been in search of a climbing tree for some time now (most trees look amazing, but as soon as she gets close to them she realizes that sadly the lowest branch is still far too high for her, oh the troubles of being three!). And she climbed up as quickly as she could, with a heady sense of accomplishment!

After the interview, we picked Pat up and headed down to Virginia Beach! Despite the traffic, the drive down was fairly smooth, no one had any accidents, the crying was by no means constant, and Pat received a call with an informal job offer from the company he had interviewed with earlier in the day! Thanks be to God! We were both in shock, and really couldn't believe it until about three weeks later (after he had been working there for a week).

Sebastian was thrilled to see the beach! He would have been content to just sit in the sand and play there for hours!

Kateri, however, spotted the play ground and wanted to go check it out immediately!

The kids cajoled Pat into testing out the the slide with them!

I think everyone liked it!

Cap'n of the ship!

Ahoy from the jolly Roger!

Kateri really loved the water, and was particularly keen on hunting for treasures. Sebastian, on the other hand, cautiously watched from a safe distance.

Afterwards, everyone needed a bath, and that helped the kids relax. We let them watch some TV since they were still pretty awake. We employed the strategy of: stay up super late until everyone is so exhausted they will sleep well, and it worked great, considering both Kateri and Sebastian were sleeping on an adult bed, without rails, and never had experienced that before!

After saying the Rosary, everyone fell asleep by 10:30 or 11, and slept well. Even Chiara only got up once!

Part II to come later (hopefully sooner rather then later!)