The Tree Picture

I was just editing photos that I have taken in the past month and was looking at a picture of Abigail, standing between the 2 trunks of a tree, a few days after she turned 8.  The picture was taken at a local park where we were on a short hike.

As I looked at the picture, I thought I had already taken one of her just like that.  So, I went into my photo files from a few days before she turned 3, and sure enough, there was a picture of Abigail standing between the 2 trunks of a tree at my brother's house.

I put the two pictures side by side and couldn't get over it.  The lines from one tree to the next.  Almost the same pose by my girl, 5 years and 1 week apart.  It looks like it could have been the same tree or a planned picture set, but it was all 100% happy accident.

Kenny Weekend

Cousin Kenny came to visit for the weekend!  

First, we enjoyed a fun trip to Alexandria for sushi and drinks before catching the pre-Broadway run of the new musical Mean Girls at the National.

On Saturday, Kenny came to cheer on Abigail in her last soccer game, in which the girls won(!) but we don't keep score.  The game was awesome; the girls had so much energy and did a lot of passing and were more aggressive than they were all season.  I am not sure if Kenny is their good luck charm or if not having 5 subs on a team that can only play 5 kids at a time was our winning strategy.  (I kind of suspect it was not having subs: the kids get bored and unfocused when they have to sit for 50% of every game.)

After that, we went on a short hike at Government Island and got caught in the rain, which was still fun.  

Additionally, the kids "helped" Kenny prepare some of his vials for his big "science fair" at NIH in Bethesda.  They were super impressed that Kenny is a Very Important Scientist and he taught them how to use the pipette correctly.  

Our favorite little mid-fielder in action!

Kenny the Human Sherpa (for carrying humans)

Wordless Wednesday

Fall Pumpkin Patch! One of my favorite days each year!

We tried another new pumpkin patch this year: Sneads Asparagus Farm.  It. Was. Awesome!
There was so much for the kids to do and the property was SO beautiful.  So much of it reminded me of my parents' farm which they sold last summer to move to Virginia.  Speaking of my parents, since they did move to Virginia, they were able to go to the Patch with us today.

It was 85 degrees so we enjoyed the Patch in shorts instead of jeans and fleecy sweatshirts, but I will keep enjoying these hot days for as long as we are lucky enough to have them!

Here are a few pics. 

Pirate Day in D.C.

For our last big adventure of the summer, we took the kids on a pirate ship cruise in D.C.

They bought into the whole story that the pirates on the ship told them about the speedboat scurvy dog pirate who took the keys to the treasure chest.  Down the Potomac from Georgetown, past the Kennedy Center we went.

Joseph followed on the map and realized that we had gone under the Memorial Bridge and that, on the map, was where the treasure chest was depicted.

Lo-and-behold, this is where the speedboat scurvy dog pirate caught up to us.  The kid pirates blasted him with water cannons but he fled.

On the return trip, the kid pirates intimidated him so badly that he threw the keys back to the pirate ship and the kids were able to open the treasure chest and choose a prize.


It was so much fun, they forgot how hot they were.  They even walked around Georgetown with me afterward so I could find macarons!

Sunday Snapshot: Red Roll

At a local conveyor belt sushi place, Joseph homed in on some of his favorite fish, tuna!  Or, as he likes to call it, "red roll."

Abigail enjoyed veggies and a free dessert, brought out gratis because she is cute.  

NYC 2017

Thanks to a very amazing friend of Larry's, who was in our wedding and has a cat in need of cat-sitting at an upper-east side apartment, we got to spend our first week of the summer in NYC with the kids!  We love that city.  Love love love it.  The kids got the hang of how to be little New Yorkers during this incredible week in the city.

There were only two things they couldn't get the hang of and one was not touching the bottom of their shoes all the time. You know, walk though the city, the subway, through garbage and then sit down and tuck your knees to your chest while rubbing your hands on the bottom of your shoes.  They did this 10 times per day.  (Although Joseph won The Gross Award when he was shopping for a souvenir car and was test driving it on the floor.  As he knelt on the floor testing the vehicle, he sneezed and a sneeze ball flew out of his nose and landed on the floor by the toy car.  As quick as a flash, he scooped it up with his finger and jammed it back into his mouth.  I can't even.)

The other thing they couldn't get the hang of was being quiet in the apartment.  Kids run everywhere.  And they don't run like delicate predators such as cheetahs, barely whisking the floor.  Nope.  They run like scared prey such as elephants.

Those 2 troubles aside, we did have a blast though and even did new things that Larry and I have never done in the 20 trips we've made there over the years.

We spent one day at Snug Harbor on Staten Island. Despite the quick rain showers we encountered on the Ferry ride, the day quickly shaped up to be clear and beautiful.  We enjoyed the Botanical Gardens, with a maze (complete with hedge maze, castle, and secret garden) and the Chinese Scholar's Garden.  Also on the property was a 4-floor children's museum that was almost empty of children.  I usually can't last 5 minutes in a children's museum, but we were able to let the kids explore this one at their own leisure.

The rainy Ferry ride to Staten Island

Joseph's expression!!

Read the plaque.  The maze was like the dreams of
my childhood for a secret garden like this.

He adores her.  

The kids also got to pick shows to see.  Abigail picked Wicked again.  (It is her 3rd time to see it in 10 months!)  Joseph picked the Gazillion Bubble Show.

I don't have a great concept of large powers of 10,
but there really might have been a gazillion bubbles.

Another fun pastime in NYC is to eat.  We love going to the Greenwich Village/ Lower Manhattan area for this sort of thing.  If you are going to NYC and want to know where to go, my suggestion is that you just walk down Macdougal Street and around NYU.  However, I do not recommend you ever let a child buy a "firecracker junior" from a Mr. Softee ice cream truck.  The picture on the truck is of a small popsicle thing, but in actuality, it is a giant sticky mess.

Never again.

Pomme Frites

We also enjoyed time playing in Central Park.

Abigail was our coxwain on this trip.
Her directions were "Leftish.  More middleish.
Leftish then straightish."

We also went to the Natural History Museum. We saved the Gem and Mineral Room for last because it is my favorite but I wanted to make sure the kids got to see the exciting other things like dinosaur bones and animals and things about outer space.  But in the Gem and Mineral Room they got a 2nd wind and it ended up being their favorite thing in the museum.

He was indignant that I said a Head Butting dinosaur
was his ancestor.  This was 3 minutes after he (accidentally) bashed
me with his skull.  

Oh my god she cracks us up!

The kids were exhausted but said they loved "living" in NYC.

Hanami 2017

I have said before that the holidays and traditions of family provide structure and rhythm for our lives.  They are comfortable.  They help us understand the passage of time.  They ground the kids in family.  And they are FUN!

This weekend, after a Pi-Day snow storm stunted and killed approximately half of the early blooms and shocked the plants that had begun to emerge in late February, we had a 78 degree day and our yearly Hanami Party at Jim and Steph's.  Asian food was out all day (sushi, noodles, dim sum, octopus, miso soup, beef and bok choy, grilled meat-on-a-stick, squid, nori snack), Japanese beer and wine from Jim's vineyard (pure traminette!!) was flowing.  The kids were playing in the "sand box", swinging in the hammocks and on the giant tree swing.  We all talked and ate and played with the kids and caught up on our lives because even though we only live 30 minutes apart, we haven't all been together since the Super Bowl.

Family pic

She picked all of the kiwi and strawberries out of the fruit salad

Aunt Steph helped Abigail with some origami
after it got dark

The kids under a blooming cherry
tree right after the sun set

"Mama, whose toad is bigger?"

Alexander Hamilton

I detest 2nd grade homework. Having a kid in school has had quite an effect on my teaching.  I assign so much less homework now that I ever had, and when I do need to assign homework I focus on quality over quantity and try to give my students a week to do it.  This is because homework is a time drain on families.  Abigail gets off the bus at 4 pm.  She brushes her teeth and goes to bed at 7 pm, unless she has karate and it is more like 8 pm.  This means that on a good night, we only have 3 precious hours with her and part of that time must be used for feeding and bathing.  Putting homework in there frustrates her and us.  She wants needs time to decompress, read, play, be outside, be a kid.  We are lucky in the fact that she gets an assignment paper on Mondays and it is due on Fridays so at least we can spread it out and make it fit into our schedule as best as we can, but it still sucks.  

But if weekly 2nd grade homework sucks, one thing worse are the monthly projects.  They are supposed to be month-long activities for a kid to immerse in one particular idea or another.  Not all ideas were terrible.  Write a letter to a far-away friend or relative and have them write a letter back?  Ok.  Make a diorama of an Indian village?   Oh hell no.  What are we learning other than air-dry clay stains hands the color of pueblo?  Ugh, these projects make me want to scream.  And sometimes I do, like this month, when the students had to research a person in history, read about them, make a poster-board about their life, dress like them, and do an oral presentation.  Abigail instantly wanted to do Hamilton.  (I wanted her to do a powerful woman in history since her curriculum is severely lacking them. All they get are Helen Keller and Rosa Parks: women overcoming adversity.)  

Anyhow, back to Hamilton.  We checked some children's books about Hamilton out of the library and read them.  Abigail listened to the soundtrack to the musical with a new ear for the lyrics and asked a lot of questions.  Every time we asked her if she wanted to dress up, she said no, she would do the presentation in her regular clothes.  With our guidance and direction, she make a great timeline on her poster board.  (This is where my screaming came in.  She didn't know how to make a timeline and it took hours of our time to help her measure the board, divide it into sections, and watch her slowly and carefully print the important events she chose.  Hours.  This took hours.  I wasn't screaming at her, I was screaming next to her about her teacher who assigns these supervision-necessary projects that are a time drain on our family every month.  Not my best moment, but I am wise enough of my own defects to be sure parents have cursed me as the teacher of their children for one reason or another, so I'm over it.)

Abigail thought about rapping the first song from Hamilton the musical for her class presentation, but after her sweet voice started "How does a bastard, orphan, son of a whore..." Larry gently suggested that maybe she see if she is allowed to show a Youtube video from the performance instead.  She got permission to do that and chose the Tony performance of the Battle of Yorktown.  And, of course, the night before her presentation, Abigail announced the she did want to dress up after all.  In breathless excitement she said "I want to dress up because I think everyone else is and I don't want to be the only one not dressed up but don't worry I thought of it in my head and I can put together a costume with only stuff we have around the house!"

Abigail in her costume that she put together
the night before her presentation, using her
boots and leggings she has only ever wore once
and the bamboo sword she got at the
Shaloin Temple in China

The next day, Larry got coverage for his class and went across the street to see Abigail's presentation.  He videoed it for me and she did so well!  For 3 minutes she spoke on her topic with confidence and authority, which is a really big deal because she claims that she hates speaking in class.  When she showed the video, her classmates were captivated and shouted that they wanted to see it again or that they wanted to see it on Broadway.  Abigail was the cool kid for the day for having seen Hamilton in NYC already.  She was beaming so much she was practically floating.  

Book worm meets book store

Abigail reads in the car on the way to school.  (The distance is less than a mile.)
Abigail reads in the afternoon on the bus ride home and the short walk back to our house.  (Cars be damned.)
Abigail reads under the blanket at night with a flashlight. 
She reads to her brother.
Her favorite "specials" at school is "library."
When she goes to VCU for cleft appointments, she gravitates right to the free book cart and carefully selects her newest prize. 

Today, she learned that such a thing as a "book store" exists.
I couldn't get her to leave!

Snow Day

The kids got to play with their grandparents by making 5 snowmen, riding sleds and an ATV, and general snowy antics, like snow-ball fighting.  Then they had soup and hot chocolate and came home.  It is a joy to have my parents live so close!

Christmas 2016

We got to host Christmas at our home this year. Uncle Dean and Emily came to spend Christmas eve with us, spend the night and enjoy Christmas day here too.  They came at lunch time to make good on a promise to Joseph to take him out for sushi for his birthday present.

My parents joined us at dinner time.  We just enjoyed time with the family around a fire, in front of the tree, with Christmas music on and it was such an amazing time together.  Emily and Dean gave the children their (very noisy, but super awesome) gifts.  Abigail kept tabs on the big guy on NORAD's Santa Tracker.  As 9 pm approached, there was a yawn-full reading of The Night Before Christmas.

Christmas morning, my dad was first awake and happily drinking coffee, followed quickly by Abigail and Mama around 6 am.  Joseph followed around 6:40 (he slept in: it's a Christmas miracle!!).  We let the kids wake Dean and Emily at 7 and they took their time opening presents and enjoying time to play with each one throughout the day.

Mid-morning, Uncle Jim and Aunt Steph arrived and the rest of the day was spent enjoying family, eating, playing games, eating, playing White Elephant, eating, and watching the Steelers win.  The kids were wide awake way past bedtime (it didn't help that both passed out mid-afternoon for naps).  They giggled for almost an hour on their new sleeping bags before they fell asleep completely exhausted, happy, and used up.  Abigail said her favorite part of the day was having her family all together.  Joseph said his favorite was the toys.

I love the anticipation for Christmas.  I love the time with family and I love the ages of the kids.  I know that in a blink, they will want to spend the day with their friends and get new iphones (or whatever is the in gadget) for Christmas.  So for right now, I am just loving this time as it is.