Sri Lankan Food Bazaar- Jo.

This is why we moved to DC.  So mama could find some obscure food festival and drag us there and force us to eat weird food.  

The Buddist Temple (it's a house) in DC was hosting a Sri Lankan food festival.  She dragged us all the way doen there on Saturday, only to find out that it was on Sunday.  (As a consolation, we ate lunch at an Ethiopean restaurant. At least mama packed us GoPicnics.)  So on Sunday, we loaded up the fun wagon and headed back down.   

Here's the good news- the Sri Lankans served cookies.  We ate a bunch.  The bad news is that they also served a lot of weird dried fish-based foods that mama tried to get us to eat.

Mama was so excited to be here because of the little she's tried to make, Sri Lankan food is her favorite.  So she was really anxious to try it as prepared by actual Sri Lankans.  (It wasn't as spicy as mama makes it, but she thinks they tamed it down for the newcomers.)  

We explored the house and headed down to the basement for some hoppers (maybe mama's favorite food in the world).  Everyone was really nice to us even if we were the only foreigners at the Sri Lankan party.  

Henry was really impressed with the big Buddha.  We wished we could have seen some monks.  (Maybe they were there but in plain clothes?  Alas, it was really, really hot.  I don't tolerate hot weather at all, so after an hour, i sat down in the middle of the crowd and threw a huge fit.  Everyone was so concerned and tried to make me feel better, but no amount of fish buns were going to help me.  Finally, a glass of iced tea settled me down a little.  At that moment, mama was introduced to the Sri Lankan Ambassador to the United States, who was very nice and very interested in talking to us.  But I was done with this party, so I dumped my glass of tea on June's head.  And that is how the Turners represent America.

More around home- JoJo.

Surely by now you've seen Henry's new blog.  He did such a good job setting up a tour of our house that we don't think we can top it on this blog.  Head on over to Henry's blog and check it out.

The name of the game this year is to not invest any money in anything concerning our house.  Why spend money is we're just going to have to tear it down in 11 months?  So we've been creative.  The sun has been waking me up very early (our room in SC is completely covered in room darkening blinds).  So mama fashioned a curtain out of a blanket Great Grandma Seibert made mama a hundred years ago when she graduated from high school.  Problem solved and only $5 for a tension rod.

Henry and June have been bickering quite a lot lately.  (Will school EVER start?!)  But, surprisingly, they play very well when they get the legos out.  Henry builds and June sets up very complex dioramas.  

Did you hear about the Latino grocery and our purple corn soft drink?  It's amazing!

Who is this weirdo?

Mama is still torturing us with foreign food.  She is especially excited when she makes anything that involves tempering this many spices.  

Finished product- lamb vindaloo.  Very delicious (or so papa says, and very spicy). 

Mama has her projects, and we have ours.  Henry and June painted these.  They will eventually be assembled to make a "O" hair bow hanger for Olivia.   

Thrifty living lesson #2.  Move to Rockville and come to the awesome thrift store close to our house!  Papa picked out his new desk and chair for $17.  It would have been only $9, but mama insisted papa buy the fancy $9 chair instead of the $3 wooden chair.  Mostly, papa loves this desk.  It's the ultimate in shabby chic.   

After all this work in the house, sometimes you just have to take a break and relax.

More exploring- Henry.

By a strange turn of luck, Miss Juliet sent us tickets to the Capital Fringe Festival- a festival of independent self-produced theater in DC.  

Mama got us tickets for Medieval Story Land- a really funny play for all ages.  I wasn't into taking pictures, but I did like the show.  

Since we were all the way downtown, mama wanted to go out to eat before we went home.  She found a place called Ghana Cafe and convinced me to go int.

At 3:30 on a Sunday afternoon, we were the only patrons in a restaurant and had a prime view of the Olympics on the TV.  They brought out this gruel for mama.  No way I was going to try that, even when she insisted it was great.

They did however, have Ghanaian doughnuts, served with orange marmalade.  I polished off 3 in no time, then 2 more that the owner brought out for me.  Doughnuts really do bridge all cultures.  

One of the very first things we did in town was to get a library card.  June picked out a book that featured things you could make out of cardboard boxes.  So one morning, mama and I got up early to make June this castle as a surprise.  She loved it.

 
Listen, carefully and you can hear Jo sing "I fall on the floor and I'm laughing."  And a lot of babble.

June put on a pony play in her barn.  June has more creativity than the rest of the family combined.

So mama could finish up the last of the unpacking, papa took a day off and took us into the city.  We ate lunch on the Mall and hit up the Air and Space Museum.

It was a great day.

It was a great day for some of us, at least.  Jo has not proven to be a very good tourist and has mostly been a huge burden on all of our trips into the city.  Papa said she was a huge grump all day, but at least she slept on the train on the way home.

Olympics!- June.

We love the Olympics in our house!  We didn't bring our TV to Maryland with us, so we had to order a TV and were very worried it wouldn't make it in time for the opening ceremony.

To distract us from our worries, we hit a local park.  I climbed right up to the top and bossed everyone around from my perch.

You know mama loves a theme meal.  So she wanted to cook a full British meal for the Opening ceremony.  But instead of just buying some lamb at the grocery, she decided to take us to the Halal butcher in town.  Our eyes were opened when the butcher brought out a whole lamb (with head) and proceeded to chop off the leg in front of us.  

It may have been shocking, but that lamb was very delicious when paired up with Yorkshire puddings and vegetables cooked in the lamb drippings.

It may have been a classy meal, but you know we can't resist a leg photo.

Then we settled in for the Opening Ceremonies.  Mama foolishly said we could stay up for the torch lighting. JoJo gave up at 9:30.

Papa fell asleep before me.  And I didn't make it past 10:30.

Henry was very into the ceremonies, but gave up around 11 on the promise that mama would wake him for the torch.  He was pretty happy to see that and Sir Paul McCartney rock it afterward.

Getting to know Rockville- Henry.

Besides the fact it's a great opportunity for papa, mama had one major reason for moving up to Rockville- the food.  Rockville especially is a jackpot of foreign grocery stores and restaurants.  First stop- the Mexican food truck outside the thrift store that has fulfilled all of our temporary household needs.

Miss Leah thinks we're crazy for wanting to eat at what she calls a "roach coach." 

But as soon as Jo settled in on her bucket to read a Spanish language religious pamphlet, we knew we were in for a treat.

Indeed, we received the best quesadilla we've ever eaten- hands down.  Everyone begged for more and was sad when it was gone.

As mama and papa worked on unpacking, June and I settled in for some shirtless playing.  

It was like Christmas opening all those boxes.

June got a hold of the camera and experimented in self portraits.

Even though we're only here for a year, mama did bring a few things to hang on the walls.  We've been very interested in this map.  It has all the state flags around the edge of the poster.  Did you know Ohio has the only flag that's not a rectangle?  And Maryland's flag looks like something from a renaissance festival.

We made it- June.

We made it into our apartment and started unloading all the boxes.

It's hard work that requires all of our muscles to be exposed.

We didn't have any food in the house.  Luckily, our favorite Maryland Knight of Columbus (Mister Josh) invited us to the K of C cookout for lunch.  And there was face painting, too! Since we always refuse to have our faces painted, mama was pleased that we agreed to have our hands painted.  I got a unicorn.

As soon as she saw us getting painted, Olivia jumped right into the action, just like a big kid.

Henry designed his own paint- a blue H with a black outline and a green middle finger.  

Saying goodbye- June.

On our last day, we had a million errands to run, but we did get a chance to stop at the park for one last picnic with our friends.  

 I just love Maddie and she gave me a pony before I left.  

 And not just any pony.  A Princess Celestia!  It's the pony I've always wanted!  When you push the button on her back, her wings light up and flap and she says things like "I just love to brush hair" or "I'm so beautiful."  Clearly, she's a feminist.

 I'm sure going to miss Maddie!

 You might have noticed that I've been wearing this dress for a few days.  That's my new style.  Mama rewears clothes so she has less to wash now that we don't have a washer and dryer.  I just like my dresses so much I never want to stop wearing them.  This one is actually a beach cover up of mama's.  I insisted on wearing it, so mama clipped up the straps.  It's actually kind of cute as a maxi dress on me.

Poor sweaty Jo.  Once it hits 85 degrees, she turns into a sweaty mess.  She might even be worse about the heat than mama.  She's definitely ready to move north.

 We swung by 3 Spoons- our favorite frozen yogurt place- then hit the road.  We are going to miss the spectacular afternoon thunderstorms.

 They lasted about 20 minutes then the weather cleared up to it's normal hot, muggy self.

 We stopped overnight in Winston to see the Paytons.  JoJo had mixed feelings about the dog.  There are no other pictures because all the kids were upstairs playing by themselves all evening.   Henry and Grace (mostly Grace) cooked up a plan to stage a wedding.  Henry searched for something to wear, but we didn't have anything better than t-shirts and gym shorts.  So he tucked his t-shirt in and pulled his socks up to look as fancy as he could.  The plans sort of fell apart after Henry got tired and went to bed in a different room than the sleepover (he was still recovering from the surgery) and Gracie declared she intended on kissing when it was done. 

June did attend the sleepover and outlasted everyone.  at 11pm she came down announcing that she wasn't tired anymore and she was getting up.  She was still awake when mama went to bed at midnight.  

We made the rest of the drive up to Rockville without too much incident.  Papa drove the truck with all of our stuff (and a car hooked to the back) up the day before.  The kids were very excited to stop at our last taste of the south- the Huddle House.  (It's one step above a Waffle House.)  We got held up for a few hours by traffic.  Welcome to the city.

Wrapping it up in Clemson- JoJo.

As we got everything in order with the house, we had a few things we wanted to do before we left.

First up, visit the Village Baker in Pendleton.

They are the best!

After the surgery, Henry was worried his cinnamon roll might not be soft enough for him to eat.  Luckily, after he licked off the frosting, he got his courage back.

Well, those are the teeth of a happy girl.

While mama and papa were getting everything ready, we kids were at our last VBS.  When mama took June and Henry up to register, they said they also had a toddler class.  Mama asked me if I wanted to go and I ran straight into the church yelling "Hello there" to everyone I saw.

On the last night, the classes had a show for the parents.  Every kid got a chance to say what they learned this week.  Most kids said "Jesus loves me" or "Jesus is alive."  Listen to what June had to say:

That's right.  She said "I like to play with unicorns."  Thankfully, the rest of the parish was in a good mood.

Henry missed a few nights of VBS because of his surgery, but he was very eager to get back for the last night.  

And he did a great job reading his part.