Springfield, VA (USA)

[Mollie made us breakfast this morning (pancakes) - watched some movies, read some books and did some other paperwork while the kids did homework - later (1230), Erin drove us over to Huntington Metro Station to move my Explorer (I left it over the weekend) - once that was done, we stopped by Nicky's house to pick up some items for the Chrysler - after that, we headed to the Springfield Mall to go shopping at Forever 21 - I had a nice time with the kids, walking around in the improved mall (first time ever for me) - I also got lots of birthday ideas and we chatted about the summer and future weekend visits - we ate a snack/lunch at Auntie Anne's (pretzel shop) - when we finished, Erin suggested we go visit the Accotink Lake Park (Mollie and I had told her about it) - we drove back into the neighborhood where it is located and couldn't find the entrance - we parked at Brookfield Park and walked around for a bit until we found the access road - returned to our car and then drove to the parking area near the dam (where Mollie's field trip had been in April) - as we walked up to the levee, I had no idea what we'd see at the crest - it turned out to be a real lake with paddleboats, canoes, lakeside carousel and mini-golf course (!!) - we were all very impressed and decided we'd need to return for a weekend of fun - we called Brenna after that and told her we were on our way to pick her up - arrived at her home around 1645 and went to Mass at St. Lawrence - afterwards, we ate at Magic Wok again (mmm...) - after a nice dinner, we dropped Brenna off so she could study some more (for big tests in the coming week) - then the rest of us headed back to the apartment - we watched movies for several hours before bed]