TeamAHearn.com

Since I’m hopelessly irresponsible about keeping the blog portion of our site up to date, I’ve been thinking recently of redesigning the focus to more of a landing page. This seems to be the trend lately, with hosted sites such as about.me and flavors.me. Because most of our time online can be found among various social sites, anyway, the landing page concept seems ideal for someone like me who can’t be trusted to post a quick update with any regularity.

I still don’t have a design in mind yet, but look for changes in the near future. And I’ll be sure to keep some photos available, since that’s one of the more important content areas to our non-Facebook family and friends.

Last week, we took a long weekend trip up to Pennsylvania Dutch country primarily to visit Dutch Wonderland, a family/kids amusement park located just outside of Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Although the excitement caused a few issues with Lily’s sleep schedule, we all had a really great time! I’ve updated Lily’s 2012 album with some photos from the trip.

And the end of August means back to school for Stephanie (again working half-time for the county), and the start of preschool for Lily!

Beach cutie! (July)

As in past years, we have just returned from a great week in Corolla, North Carolina for family beach week. It’s always nice to get away for a bit, and with each year Lily has more and more fun running around in the sand and surf. I’ve added a slew of beach photos to Lily’s latest album, which also includes other summer fun we’ve had so far: soccer camp at the South Run Rec Center, visiting Grandma and Opa in Richmond, and a very hot afternoon at the City of Fairfax 4th of July Parade.

Barring any more unexpected derechos, we should be able to pack in a lot more craziness before September!

Stephanie has had her last day of school, so that’s enough to call it the official start of summer. With that, Lily said a final goodbye to her friends at daycare; it was really just another day for her, but Steph and I couldn’t help but feel bittersweet about it. She’s had two incredible years there, and it truly helped shape her little personality in wonderful ways. But it also means our baby is growing up! Everyone is eager and excited to see what adventures await in preschool in the Fall.

We’ve been having some fun now that the weather is warm and daylight hours push right into bedtime. As seen in recent photos, Lily has been spending a ton of time at Hidden Pond Nature Center, a little park just down the street. In addition to the usual pond/woods/mosquito fun, the Nature Center has exhibits and educational programs that Lily has really taken to. It’s a tiny little place, but it seems like there’s always something new to do.

Last weekend, we went to the annual Celebrate Fairfax festival – a huge community fair that we had been hearing good things about. It was a blast, and Lily had a great time playing games, eating junk food, and screaming with glee on some of her first carnival rides. From a mommy/daddy perspective, it was a success – decent price on tickets, very kid-friendly atmosphere, and good entertainment even for the 3-year-olds.

Finally, as seen in the thumbnail above, my eagerly-awaited inaugural homebrew recently emerged from the basement, and I’m happy to report that it was actually drinkable! The one gallon batch yielded about six and a half 16-ounce bottles, each of which were consumed selectively over the course of the past two or three weeks. Hopefully this is a casual hobby that I can continue – despite the effort, it was fun and rewarding. Also, it appears that Whole Foods sells various grain packs, so another batch is right around the corner.

Nine wonderful years ago, we said “I do.” Happy anniversary, Stephanie!

Challenging everything we knew about good nutrition, Lily started Easter 2012 like every good 3-year-old should: with chocolate for breakfast. It certainly isn’t every day we break out the wet wipes at 7am for that kind of cleanup. She held herself together, though, for a fun day of celebration with family. Then, through some cruel twist of irony, Lily went for her first trip to the dentist the very next day. She did a great job, and came back with enthusiasm for brushing and a whole new set of stories to tell.

Later in the month, we checked out the Spring-Mar Touch-A-Truck event, which gives kids a chance to climb around real fire trucks, garbage trucks, and other big equipment. We arrived a bit late, but still had a fun time. And Lily was playing shy, so only “looked” while Steph and I climbed around and honked horns.

April also marked Lily’s first trip to the circus! We all had a really great time; definitely worth the price of admission (despite the Groupon). The show (at the George Mason Patriot Center) was packed with people and excitement and though she had some ants-in-the-pants towards the middle, a box of popcorn, roaring tigers, and parading elephants held Lily’s attention. It’s almost a month later now and she still talks about it!

I’ve started Lily’s 2012 photo album – keep track of that, because I update it more frequently than the actual blog.

Grown-up activities last month included a terrific concert with Colin Hay (former front man of Men At Work) at the Birchmere - thanks to Becca for the tickets! I also finally broke open a Christmas present and am trying my hand at home brewing. The 1 gallon kits are pretty neat – self-contained, with everything you need to brew up a batch of tasty goodness. I bottle next week, then wait another two weeks until it’s completely ready. Fingers crossed that it turns out!