nyc checklist: where have all the flowers gone?!

hi y'all! the time sure is flying by. as the final semester of my college days is coming to a close, things seem to be going by faster and faster! well only one month until things slow way down for the summer and i'm wishing for some busy work.

first things first, i hope everyone had a fantastic easter! i had a blast this easter. michael came down from boston to celebrate with me an three of my cousins: rachel (who has made several blog appearances before and lives in the city), ellen (who moved to ny few months ago), and their sister, annie (who was visiting from tennessee). after a beautiful service at grace episcopal church we had delicious brunch at my house. sadly, we only got one picture. here are all of us girl cousins after eating out fill of easter treats:

(me, ellen, rachel, annie)

this weekend i finally got started on my nyc checklist. rachel and i took a little trip to d.c. last weekend! we planned the trip a few months ago with hopes of attending the cherry blossom festival. well, the blossoms ended up peaking three weeks ago and were completely gone by the time we got there...bummer.. luckily, d.c. is just an awesome place to be so we still had a fantastic time! 

we stayed with rachel's brother david. he recently took in 11 chicks. these little guys sure grow up fast! we had a blast playing with these gals. chickens are surprisingly entertaining. 

david and his housemate also have a fantastic garden in the backyard. it was so delightful to have breakfast in the garden. that is the thing i miss most living in new york--a yard. hopefully there will be a yard in my near future! 

on saturday, we took a long bike ride by the white house and the washington monument. we also saw the mall and ended up at a fish market were we had the sweetest strawberry lemonades. i loved the bike riding. i didn't realize that d.c. is so small. we could easily get anywhere we needed to on our bikes. it certainly made me miss my bike, which has been in tennessee because there just isn't room for me to store it in ny. 

saturday evening we went to hear a series of 'flash bands.' about a month ago, my cousin and about 20 other musicians got together and played music together, experimenting with different styles and breaking off into smaller groups as they connected with similar artists. a month later, twelve separate bands (all formed of semi strangers who connected that evening) played 15 min sets, including at least one original song. it was really neat. 

(my cousin, david, playin' the banjo. he's pretty amazing.)

overall, it was a wonderful break in a wonderful city, even though the blossoms were all gone. now i'm back to massive amounts of work to finish up the semester. only three weeks til graduation--woohoo!

i hope everyone's week is off to a great start(: