Summer Fun (including Dance Recital)

It is that time of year again.  School is out and summer has begun!

Our fun began on the last day of school.  As the kids got off the bus, Ms. Roxanne handed them each a can of silly string.  The kids immediately put them to use, spraying each other and their caught-off-guard parents! I was wearing Luke, but he didn't serve as much of a shield--the kids were happy to squirt around, and sometimes at, him.  Then, we went to a neighbors house and surprised the kids with a fun water/pizza party. Kelley had personally filled 300 water balloons that she placed strategically throughout her yard.  Another neighbor, Amanda, had filled another 100.  It was awesome!  The kids had so much fun getting soaked. After we left, they were all asking if we could do the same thing next year.  It will certainly be a hard last-day-of-school-surprise to top!

It wasn't hot, but apparently this coat and hat had been left in Jack's cubby and it just seemed easier to wear them home.

Threatening their poor mother!

We love our neighbors, even when they are squirting us with water guns or throwing water balloons at us! Unfortunately, I couldn't get everyone in this picture, but pretty close.

Next on our summer schedule was the annual dance recital.  Anna and Kara once again participated in tap and ballet lessons and were very excited to show off their skills.  Anna's tap routine was set to "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" and her ballet was a mash-up of "Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend" and "Material Girl". Kara had 3 routines!  She had 2 ballet routines, "Let it Go" and "A Whole New World".  Tap was "These Boots are Made for Walking."  Unfortunately, I did not get any good pictures of Anna.  You can't take pictures during the recital and none of the ones I took at the rehearsal came out.  I tried to get her to put her costume back on after the recital, but she wasn't interested.  So, you'll have to take my word that she looked super cute (or sit through the video).  It was a little bit stressful having Luke at the show.  We arrived early enough to get front row seats, but I had to leave twice to feed Luke.  (Well, sneak into the back).  The recital was supposed to last 1.5-2 hours, it was 3.

I was again happy with the age-appropriate routines, but a little disappointed that they hadn't improved more.  I don't think I expect a lot, but after 3 years for Anna and 2 for Kara, it seems like they should be better.  Not they are bad, but I don't think you can learn much in just 45-minutes a week.  We told them that if they want to do more lessons, they have to commit to practicing at home.  We'll see how that goes.

Sometimes, my camera takes awesome pictures like this...

And, sometimes this is what I get.  Can't be user error, right?

Anna is in the back right corner

Luke enjoyed watching the dances during the dress rehearsal.

The first week of summer break was filled with fun activities. We went to the base pool one day, a favorite for the kids.  We knew our friends (Kelley and Amanda) would be there and they essentially took on the 3 older kids while I took care of Luke. We definitely couldn't have gone without people there to help. Luke does have a great swimsuit, but I was very nervous about him getting too much sun, so he only went in the pool for about 10 minutes.  He spent the rest of his time resting in the shade, with one snack break.  Jack actually passed the swimming test that lets him go on the diving board and slide!  He had to swim across the deep end and tread water for 30 seconds.  He doesn't have any form when swimming yet (they kept trying to get him to do the breaststroke, but he has his own method). But, he did it!  He was so proud of himself--justifiably so!  I think Anna could pass too, but she has no interest in the slide or diving board and is a bit more nervous in the water than Jack.

We also did craft days at Michael's, went to the library and did tie-dye t-shirts at Kelley's house.  She had everything set up for us and even had extra white shirts in the kids sizes.  Once we were there, I caught the bug and did shirts for Thomas and me and two onesies for Luke.  We have to leave them bundled up for a week, but I will post pictures after the big reveal.

Luke taking it easy while we tie-dyed 

And, that my friends, concludes our first, very eventful week of summer break.  It hasn't been easy carting Luke around with us, but I think we've had some good success.  He is (generally) pretty compliant.  We just have to keep him fed and well-rested (but, isn't that true of all of us)?  We are trying to stick to a routine, with a little bit of school work in the mornings, followed by a fun activity, and some quiet time in the afternoon. So far, so good. One week down, 8.5 to go!

Bonus picture, just because I like it!

Happy Father's Day, Thomas!

Top 10 Reasons Why Thomas is a Great Dad:

10) Anna: he does awesome magic tricks

      Jack:  he plays baseball with me

      Kara: he reads stories to us and loves us with all his heart
      Luke: coooooo

9) He takes no mercy during water gun fights (valuable life lessons to be learned here) 

8)  He does laundry, washes dishes, cleans, changes diapers, makes beds, sits through dance lessons (and yesterday's 3-hour recital--blog to follow), etc.   

7)  When we are out and want to make a quick stop, he will wait in the car and pretend he is Aba Juju Ba, (nationality unclear) and that the kids are trying to steal his "automobile".  They LOVE this game and it makes it so that I can do those quick errands without complaint.

6)  Even though he was (is) an impressive athlete, he doesn't pressure them into playing sports

5)  He plays silly games and doesn't mind acting foolish

4)  He instituted an instant reward for good deeds in our house that involves giving piggy-back rides up and down the stairs

3) He always stops whatever he is doing to read them books, complete with silly accents and voices

2)  He would rather be with his family then anywhere else; he willingly rushes home from work, forgoes golf and other activities that would take time away from us

1)  He loves them unconditionally and they know it!

Graduation Day(s)!

Kara had her Pre-K graduation on Monday and Jack and Anna celebrated Kindergarten graduation on Tuesday.  It has been an eventful year and it is amazing how much the kids have learned.  Last night, when Thomas went to read him a book, Jack said, "how about I read to you instead?"  Then, he read Thomas a (relatively speaking) fairly difficult book.  It is both fun and a little bit sad to watch them grow and change.  It just seems to happen so rapidly!

We are so proud of them.  They had some rough patches, but ended the year exhibiting great behavior, maturity (again, relatively speaking) and gained knowledge.  If they can keep this up for the next 12 years, life will be a breeze!

Without further ado, the pictures:

Kara was so excited about her graduation.  She picked out her dress and insisted on the headband with a "veil" (Gymboree marketed it as a "fascinator")

With her teacher and the principal receiving her certificate.

The whole morning Pre-K class

Can you find Anna?  Here's a hint, she is wearing a royal blue dress.

And Jack?  He's somewhere in the middle there.

Anna receiving her certificate from her teacher.

Cute shot of Anna and some of her classmates, including one of our neighbors!

Jack getting his certificate, from the very patient Ms. T.

We had a fun last day of school, but that will have to wait for another day.

George Washington Trifecta

People who know us well know how much we like history.  To give credit where credit is due, it is mostly Thomas driving that ship.  The guy knows everything about American history.  Going places with him is like walking around with your own encyclopedia (or Wikipedia, depending on your age bracket).  A particular favorite of Thomas' is George Washington.  We had been to Mount Vernon several times and had visited Washington's birth place at Pope Creek, but we had yet to visit Ferry Farm, his home in Fredericksburg.  With the Memorial Day 3-day weekend, we decided to visit one Washington home a day.

Saturday was Ferry Farm, his second home.  We wanted to make sure we got this one in, because we had never been before.  It is much smaller than Mount Vernon and Pope's Creek, and it also had an admission charge.  They loan you an iPad that you take on a self-tour around the property.  The kids were not at all interested in hearing what the iPad had to say, but Thomas and I found it interesting.  It is outside and self-paced, so the kids ran around and we tried to listen.  It was enjoyable and worth a visit, but not someplace we would go again.  One nice thing was the proximity to Fredericksbug, only 5 miles to a real mall!  After about an hour at Ferry Farm, we were done and decided to visit the mall, which was fun.  Oh, and there was also a Krispy Kreme nearby, so we made another stop. We were almost home (on Route 5 in Mechanicsville) when we heard a loud thud and the car shook.  It felt like we hit something, but there was nothing in the road.  Thomas pulled over and looked at the tires and saw that one was quickly losing air.  He felt confident we could make it the mile or so to a nearby church parking lot.  The church had a playground, so we let the kids loose while Thomas worked on the car.  Unfortunately, our jack was useless. Fortunately, there were some good Samaritans nearby who saw him struggling and offered to help. Once he had good tools, Thomas had the spare on in no time.  We got home and called a few places and were able to get new tires that evening.  I felt very lucky that the incident happened so close to home and not in Fredericksburg, or even worse, the Nice Bridge.  I was thankful that Thomas was driving and grateful for the people who stopped to help.  All in all, it was a great first day!

Standing in front of two cherry trees.  I wonder if they are descendants of the one George chopped?

The tread had separated

Sunday was Mount Vernon.  We are pass holders and well-acquainted with Mount Vernon, typically we try and get there before 10 to beat the crowds.  This time, we got there shortly after 9, but we did not beat the crowds.  Well, we beat a lot of them, but the place appeared very crowded.  There were several school groups along with the usual families.  We had never seen the movie in the visitor's center and since I needed to feed Luke, we decided it was a good day to give it a shot.  We were warned that there were some graphic battle scenes, but we felt the kids could handle it (they can always close their eyes).  However, the warning was enough to make Kara apprehensive. She managed to hold out until Luke was done eating and then I had to take her out.  When Jack came out he announced that he had changed his mind, he decided to "work in an office like Daddy, and not be a soldier when he grows up." (As an aside--Jack obviously has forgotten about Thomas' recent deployment.)

We had a nice visit.  As always, the kid's loved the children's area.  We also saw the shearing of a sheep and spent some time walking around the grounds.  When we left, around 1, the parking lots were all full. Memorial weekend is not the best time to go, although since we opted not to see the house this time, they really didn't impact our visit much.

Kara wanted to pose for a picture.

Shearing of the sheep.  Interesting fact, Mount Vernon buys the shears from the same English company that George Washington used.

Looking into Washington's famous 16-sided barn

My cute family

The girls LOVE this dollhouse.  They make a beeline for it every time and could stay there for hours.

Luke's first trip to Mount Vernon

We stopped a few miles up from Mt Vernon and took a picture of Fort Washington, just a stone's throw away.

Jack and Kara declared themselves too tired to go to Pope's Creek on Monday. Anna was really upset. She wanted to "finish the Washington unit!"  Instead, we stayed around the house. Thomas grilled for dinner and it was a nice, relaxing day.  We were a bit disappointed to not go on Monday, especially because we had gone to the birthplace on the previous two Memorial Days and wanted to continue the tradition.  It would have been fun to say that we visited his birth place, boyhood home, and final home all on the same weekend, but, if there's anything we've learned as parents, it's that unwilling participants can make any outing miserable.

So, we went a week later.  Well, on a Saturday, so just 5 days later.  We left early and stopped at Walmart to let the kids pick out food for a picnic lunch.  They were super excited to have juice boxes and Lunchables (it's the little things in life).  We got to Pope's Creek around 10.  This time, we actually did a tour of the house, which was very interesting.  We enjoyed walking around the extensive grounds and our picnic lunch. I can't understand why that place isn't busier--it's free, interesting and beautiful.  I really wished I knew something about photography because the grounds are so picturesque.  The sky was very blue and the trees were very green.  It was a perfect day.

Running around the outline of where the actual house stood

Inside the Colonial house (built in 1932, before they found the foundation of the original)

One of the few (only?) trees that existed in Washington's day.

The girls leading the way on our hike.  They liked to be tour guides.  Kara would point out trees and say, "this is a tree a beaver could knock down with one bite."  Anna also commented on the trees, but her line was, "this is a tree that George Washington cut down, but he didn't get the roots, so it grew back."  

Enjoying their picnic lunch

I love this picture of Luke and Thomas.

The four kids.  (I have to get used to that 4)

After lunch, we decided to see Stratford Hall, since we were so close. Plus, Thomas was wearing a Washington and Lee t-shirt and it was funny to us (well, me anyway) to visit the birthplaces of both our University's namesakes on the same day.

Stratford is the birthplace of Robert E. Lee.  It was a bit more crowded than Pope's Creek. We got there at 1:45, just in time for the 2:00 tour of the "Great House." The tour was over an hour long.  The kids were miserable!  It was way too informative and detailed for them (our tour guide gave an oral ancestry that seemingly rivaled the ones found in the Old Testament). However, they were very well-behaved. The tour guide also wasn't kid friendly.  We went into a wing of the house and she told people they could look around, then appeared irritated at the kids for going in a room that didn't have a barrier.  I was actually a bit happy when Luke started to cry, so I had an excuse to take him and Kara out (unfortunately, he waited over an hour to do so). The tour ended about 15 minutes after we left and the other people in our group made a point of commenting on how Thomas and I should be very proud of how well our children listened. However, I also heard some people telling the tour guide that it was among the best tours they had ever been on.  Some truths are relative, I suppose.  Actually, the tour was good and very informative, we were just expecting it to be more about General Lee and less about the history of the house, its other occupants and life in general during that time period (all good stuff, just not what we were prepared for). The kids did like seeing the school room in the house and hearing about the tutor's disciplinary techniques.  Anna commented that she was glad her teacher didn't adhere to those strategies!  We may go back to explore the grounds and visitor's center a bit more another day.

Stratford Hall, the birthplace of Robert E. Lee (much grander than where the Washingtons lived)

And that my friends concludes our Washington unit.

But, not our pictures.  Here's more from around the birthplace, just because it was so pretty.

Not a pretty picture, but that bull (either Lewis or Clark, I just can't tell them apart) was huge!

Kara's Special Day

A few months ago we realized that Kara had a perfect record at school.  Every day she brought home a sticker on her calendar, indicating another day with no no behavioral issues (a rarity in this rambunctious family). Thomas and I were duly impressed and told her if she managed to keep that up for the whole year, we would take her to Toys-R-Us and let her choose anything she wanted.  After seeing commercials for Build-A-Bear, she asked if we could go there instead.  Of course, we agreed.

Everyone who has talked to Kara in the past 2-months was made aware of what would happen if she continued her sticker streak. Teachers, bus drivers, neighbors, random strangers... In other words, Kara was excited. Very excited. We gave her some options on when we could do her outing.  It was very important to her that both Thomas and I accompany her, and that Jack and Anna stay at home.  That meant we had to do it when school was in session.  After her year of hard work, yesterday was the big day.  She stayed firm in her desire to go to Build-A-Bear and woke up early and ready to go.  Her excitement was contagious and Thomas and I were ready for a fun day. (The blow was softened for Jack and Anna by it being School Spirit day, which sounded to me a lot like Field Day.  However, it is not Field Day, because that is next week.)

She wanted a special outfit for her special day and put together this look by herself.

We left the house around 9:15 for the 45 minute drive to the mall.  During the drive, Kara wanted to play games.  We did "I Spy" and "What Color Am I Thinking?".  The color game is one Kara made up when she was 3 and she always wins.  Typically, Thomas and I will pick boring colors like blue or orange.  Kara comes up with some Crayola creation, like "rainbow," or "sunshine yellow."  After that super fun drive, we got to the mall just as things opened. We passed Claire's first and let Kara pick out some new earrings for her and Anna.

Then, it was on to Build-A-Bear.  Kara chose one of the Palace Pets, Ariel's Treasure, as her stuffed animal. For her sound, she chose the "My Little Pony" song.  We asked if she wanted to change Treasure to one of the ponies, but she was content with putting the pony song into the Palace Pet.  She liked filling it with stuffing and loved giving it a "bath" and "blow dry".  Then, it was on to choosing clothes.  She picked out a dress and accessories set.  Twenty-five minutes and $63 later, we were done.

Putting the heart in Treasure

Her favorite part

Ready for the ball, or lunch.

After a quick stop at Yankee Candle's Semi-Annual Giant Sale, we left the mall and were off to lunch.   Kara got to choose our destination and she picked Ghengis Khan, a Mongolian Barbecue place.  Kara loved picking out all the items she wanted in her lunch.  It was a nice, quiet lunch.  From there, we headed home, but not before stopping off at Sweet Frogs to complete her special trip.

Normally we limit toppings, but not on her special day.  I think he bowl was 30% yogurt and 70% candy.

Luke was very cooperative for the entire trip.  He woke up once to eat and slept the rest of the time.  It was nice to spend time with just Kara.  We try and do things individually with all the kids, but usually it is a quick trip to the store, not a whole morning/afternoon of undivided attention.  It was fun for all of us.  Kara is already trying to decide what she will do after she has a year of good behavior in Kindergarten.