Float Night!

Older kids means later bedtimes which means we can stay out later! And this summer that means that we can attend Float Nights at the Greenwich Club. Every Sunday night starting at 5:20 a multitude of kids descend on the pool with giant floats. We added to the flotilla of gators and dolphins!

Julia and Mr Ben: Flowering Rocks Part 2

Summer is....

Summer is coming in from helping Ben water the plants, asking Julia what she up to and getting the response: 

"I'm sitting in my room, drinking my gatorade, eating gummy bears (both of which she bought at Target this morning with her own money), and listening to Ramona. Doesn't that sound GREAT?!?"

Julia Violin Recital 2016

A fantastic performance by our little violinist! So proud of her!

Andrew's Birthday 2016

Andrew's request for his birthday this year was to take a trip to Beavertail to climb on the rocks and check out tide pools. Granted!

the rock climbers

birthday lunch

tag! You're it!

a great day!

Virginia Beach 2016

Three hours south of Washington, DC we found ourselves at our next destination, Virginia Beach. Our family loves beach vacations and Andrew and I had stayed here several years ago so we thought it would be a great place to celebrate the beginning of summer! 

The view from our hotel room in the mornings. 

I could get used to waking up to that view each morning! We also watched the dolphins from our balcony. And soaked up as much sunshine as we could!

my kind of vacation

We did wake up to a bit of rain on Tuesday but we found a fabulous diversion, the Virginia Aquarium! It was fantastic! They had some wonderful exhibits and animals that we hadn't seen before but I was especially impressed with the additional information that was presented in the exhibits. There was lots of information about the watersheds, environmental impacts, the animals' environments and natural surroundings. It was very well done.

discovering how marshes clean the water

komodo dragon

rays

Wild One #1

Wild One #2

a girl and her dolphin

By lunchtime the sun was shining bright and we made our way back towards the beach and pool.

beach hair don't care!

we pedaled for ice cream

Andrew taught Julia the art of digging fiddler crabs, just like he had been taught by his Grandfather

Benj, hitching a ride!

We didn't stray too far from the water but we did work in a few quintessential shore activities - mini golf and go-karting. Benjamin has become a miniature golf lover and begged to play every day. After experiencing 3 different courses in Virginia Beach, we spent a good chunk of our ride home discussing his plans to build a course in our backyard! He has grand plans!

And Julia got to experience the speed and excitement of racing for herself! She was hung-ho and tried 4 different go-kart tracks! Her favorite was the mini-stock car; I think because it was a little more enclosed than the rest and maybe a little easier to drive. She wasn't entirely sure about the experience when we were leaving but after having some time to digest it she has declared that is ready to hit the tracks again!

NASCAR here she comes!

B is sticking to the roads

watch out!

Facing our 9 hour drive home (which ended up being 12 - thank you Connecticut!) Andrew and I were wondering why we chose VA Beach instead of the Maryland or Jersey Shore but we all really had a fantastic vacation. It was a great mix of city exploration, catching up with friends, sight seeing, museums, and down time!

Washington DC 2016

FINALLY, we have taken our first trip back to Washington, DC as a family!!! We spent 3 days in Washington, DC and Alexandria, VA and then headed to Virginia Beach for the next 3 days.

Our first stop was Old Town, Alexandria. We dodged a few raindrops and took the kids to the Torpedo Factory. Benj was impressed with the torpedoes, Julia loved some of the art, and we were interested in a project that the archeological society of Alexandria has going on to reconstruct a shipwreck that was recently discovered. 

Dinner was at Pizza Paradiso. A favorite pizza place of Andrew and me; it wasn't such a big hit with the kids - the pizza was too fancy!

dinnertime antics

who will laugh first?

Saturday morning we woke up and headed to the Old Town farmers market. It's the oldest running outdoor farmers market in the country and was often an early Saturday morning stop for me when we lived there. We had a true farmers market breakfast of fresh chocolate milk, carrots, sausage pastries, and strawberries!

From there we hopped on the Metro into the city and headed for the monuments. First up, Washington!

quack, quack, do you think they see their reflection?

After a stroll through the WWII Memorial and by the Reflecting Pool we headed to the kid's requested destination -- the Natural History Museum! To see.... the Hope Diamond! They have been really into geology lately (and both are lovers of all things shiny!) and so they were excited to see rooms and rooms of rocks and gems. 

The Hope Diamond didn't actually live up to their expectations as they had imagined something much bigger but there were plenty of other fascinating objects.

giant quartz - Julia's favorite

my favorite - another quartz formation

Julia's favorite color these days is yellow so she was drawn to this sulfur 

and of course, a meteorite!

he's watching you!

We also saw the mummies (a favorite of Benjamin) and a few dinosaurs but the geology hall was really the highlight.  From there we headed back to our hotel for a rest and then had a very fun evening visiting with friends of ours and their daughter. 

Sunday, we awoke with another museum destination in mind - the Air and Space Museum. I've been looking forward to taking Julia there for quite a while given her obsession with everything space related! We didn't take too many pictures but we did get this one of her in front of her hero's, Neil Armstrong, Apollo 11 Command Module. 

And Benjamin chose a captain hat as his souvenir! He's ready to fly!

Then we headed up the Mall, made a swing through the Botanical Gardens (another of our old favorite spots), past the Capitol, and over to Union Station to meet some more dear friends for coffee. 

tired feet!

Benj was there! But he may not remember!

We ended the weekend with a delicious dinner at Mai Thai in Old Town along with a co-worker of Andrew's and his wife. The kids were fascinated because they both race cars and were happy to show off pictures of their rides! And so ended our short stay in DC. But we'll definitely be back and it won't take 4 years this time!

Julia and Mr. Ben: The Scientists

The kids have recently discovered Youtube videos. Their watch lists consist mostly of Minecraft videos but they are starting to branch out as well. And they are starting to create their own. So this may, or may not, be the beginning of a series!

Julia and Mr. Ben (you'll understand when you watch) Present: How to Grow Flowering Rock Crystals.

Reading Time

big sister story time! 

Chef Benjamin

Julia and Benjamin decided to make lunch yesterday. On the menu - a peanut butter, Nutella, and jelly sandwich for Benj (his usual), a roast beef and cheese sandwich for Dad (his usual), a tortilla, tomatoes, and hummus for Julia, and a salad for me.

Benjamin made my salad and as he did not want to use the knife to cut the carrots (probably a good decision) he broke them up for me! I'm calling it an eat-with-your-hands salad!  Thanks Ben!

The Squirrel

"The squirrel was on the deck. Then he saw a person and fell off!"

This is Benjamin's first self-written story! We were talking about books and reading and he watched a squirrel fall off the deck and decided to write about it. What impressed me is that he asked for almost no help. And while it might look like a jumble of letters there are a few phonetically spelled words that stand out - person (prsin), deck (dek), fell (fel)! 

Benjamin's Gallery - The Fisherman

Benjamin is taking an Outdoor Nature Crafts class in our co-op this session. A recent creation was using items found in nature to create a picture. Benjamin chose pinecones and sticks and created a man fishing!