tales from a far-land

Madilyn Rae turned seven last month.  Seven seems like such a BIG age. I can’t quite wrap my head around it, but I do know one thing.  It’s going to be amazing.   She is so much fun right now.  She is becoming quite the little-big girl.  She loves to embrace responsibility like chores and helping around the house, but she also wants to sit and cuddle on the couch and hold hands while we run errands.  She loves school, especially art.  She loves to read.  She has started to read chapter books and cannot get enough of the Junie B. Jones  book series.   Madilyn enjoys having conversations and telling you all out her day or what is going on in her life. But she also loves to ask questions and learn the hows and whys.   She is super imaginative and very artistic.  Every day she creates some new masterpiece or drawing. She is also very emotional, although she is becoming much better at controlling them better.   She loves to dance and be silly.   She is quite the little swimmer

This winter both kids wanted to play soccer.  After watching Aiden play soccer last fall, Madilyn really wanted to play with her brother.  So, we enrolled her with the Sereno Soccer Club and now both of our kids play for the Orange Crush. Our kids had a great winter season!  Aiden even played with his fractured elbow.  We actually feel that it made him play a little more aggressive and with better balance. Madilyn played really well for her first season.  She wasn't afraid to get in the middle of the pack with the other kids.  She learned to dribble the ball towards the goal.  And she even scored more goals than her brother. She has really blossomed into a good soccer player and she does seem to like it. I cannot wait to see how much better they get this spring.  It should be fun! Madi ready to play Aiden warming up Team meeting before the game Aiden playing Madi dribbling Aiden and Coach Pete after scoring a goal Madi tells Coach Pete, "That&#

Each February, my national industry association has their annual Capitol Conference in Washington, D.C. This conference provides me the  opportunity to join with hundreds of my colleagues from around the country to lobby for health reform changes of importance to me and my clients on Capitol Hill.  It is, by far, my favorite industry conference I attend annually.   This year's visit to Washington, D.C. was extra-special.  My sister and her husband, who recently moved to Alexandria, just recently welcomed a baby girl into our family.  What a perfect way to blend business with pleasure!  And now that the kids are getting a little older, we thought it would be a perfect time to introduce them to their cousin and to some their country's history.  My conference started on Sunday afternoon, so we arrived into Washington, D.C. on Thursday.  That gave us a couple of days to visit with family and tour some of the capitol's infamous monuments, museums and sights.  The kids favorite