Rock Climbing

This was a special weekend. Yesterday we celebrated Leah's birthday. She actually turned seven on November 14th but the children were with my ex-husband last weekend.

The first part of the birthday celebration was Face Painting. The girls sketched out the designs they wanted and I tried my best to faithfully execute them as directed. Leah wanted a witch on her cheek trying to steal a baby (the baby's face was her nose). Natalie wanted rockstar yellow sunglasses with green earpieces and nosepiece, red eyebrows, a blue line under her mouth, and a red tongue hanging down. Rebecca didn't get face painting because I discovered she had a rash on her face (the dentist used latex-free gloves at our appointment but then gave her a latex rubber bouncy ball in her goodie bag and Becca was putting it in her mouth) so she only had hand painting. Natalie and Becca both had colored dots on the back of their hands and Leah had bats (to go with her witch).

After Face Painting it was time for Rock Climbing. My boyfriend and I gave Leah a climbing harness - the Petzl Simba Full Body Harness- for her birthday and it was time to try it out!




We went to Carderock along the C&O Canal. He's an experienced climber so he was the belayer for all three girls. They had an absolute blast!!!

After climbing for a few hours we took the girls out to dinner. Leah has a favorite restaurant where the staff all gathers around and sings to the birthday child, plus she gets a free ice cream sundae, so we went there. Then I took the tired children home to bed.

Saturday was also a special day for me because it's my three year anniversary of leaving my husband. I moved out on November 20, 2007 to a safe house.

On Sunday I took the girls bike riding. The sun is now setting; it's time to make dinner. Leah is putting away her clean laundry, Natalie is soaking in the bath, and Rebecca and I are making breadsticks to go with the lentil soup for dinner. All in all, a wonderful weekend of family time.