Good-Byes, Part 2

Katie on the super-awesome zip line, designed by a couple neighborhood dads!

Sorry for that significant delay!  With Mike out of the country, Traci both a.) didn't have much time to blog and b.) couldn't figure out some technical issues with the computer.  Anyway, we are back!

As we were saying, we have so many great friends leaving us this month...  Last week we attended an awesome good-bye party for some close neighborhood friends.  We have known them since our oldest and their youngest attended preschool together.  We kept in touch and eventually became close pool buddies.  Another one of our pool buddies had a party at her house that included a slip-n-slide and custom-made zip line.  How cool is that?

Diana, Tod, Kaylee, and Zoe - good luck in Montana...we will miss you so much!!  We expect a picture of you with a moose coming soon!

Michael, trying his hand at the slip-n-slide!

Katie and her buds (goofballs)!

Good-Byes, Part 1

It is always so hard to say good-bye...  By the end of this month, we have so many close friends leaving the area for new opportunities.  Such is the norm in this very transient metropolitan area.  We have started to say good-bye to some of them (sniff, sniff...).  On Saturday, we had our great friends Brian, Maureen, Connor (almost 7-years-old) and Maddie (4) over for dinner and a movie.  We've known these guys for a long time, and then they were transferred to Milwaukee.  They came back for a limited stint and we picked up as if they had never left.  We probably saw them at least once a week over the last year, so it will be hard knowing that we won't see them again for awhile.  Connor is Michael's building hero...he can literally make any masterpiece out of Legos, Magnatiles, or blocks.  Maddie follows Katie around as if she is her sidekick.  And, the parents love hanging together, talking, eating, and drinking.  Safe travels, guys!!

First Grade Festival

Katie's entire first grade class celebrated their end-of-the-school year festival this morning!  (Too bad we still have another week of school left....sigh.)  The first grade has been busy studying a unit on producers/consumers, so they set up a First Grade Mall with products they had created the past few weeks.  Today, everybody was given a couple of dollars to walk around and choose what they wanted.  It gave the kids a lot of insight on how to make, market, sell, and buy their products and why certain products were more popular than others.  Luckily for Katie's group, who had created little decorative fans, the temps outside were off the register; so their product was quite in demand!  After this little exercise, everybody headed outside for the rest of the day to play on the playground, picnic, look at the class' gardens, and just have fun with their buds.  (See Katie above with her pal, Ernesto, who also lives in our neighborhood.)  Traci, Michael, and Nevie also made it in for the festivities, so the littles got a taste for how fun Belvedere Elementary can be!  Just one more week to go.......!

Free-stylin'

It's kind of hard to tell, but Katie is in Lane #1 (farthest from the camera) in this free-style heat.  This was her first event of the day, so the nerves were definitely flowing.  Now she says that she can't wait for Monday night's meet!  Let's go, Sharks!!!

Dipping a Toe in the Water...

So proud of this girl today!  This morning, we began the era of swim meets in Northern Virginia.  This will be our weekend summer ritual for years to come.  But, today, it took on added significance as it marked the debut of Katie's participation in anything remotely resembling competition.  Most of you know our shy, sweet, non-aggressive 7-yr old is not keen on racing, competing, or performing in front of others.  Still, we signed her up for our local swimming pool's swim team because we thought it would be a wonderful way for her to gain strength and be more confident and safe in the water.  In that respect, we are already seeing it paying dividends.  But we didn't know how she would react to the actual meets.

Well, we are happy to report that, despite a few "butterflies" (no pun intended) on the back stroke, she jumped right in (no pun intended again) and did just great in her first two time trials: free style and back stroke.  We'll post the video of her very first race (i.e., free style) in a few minutes.

More pictures to come throughout the season (i.e., there is actually a pretty incredible photographer that takes pictures throughout the meets and makes them available for free downloads).

No Go on the Big Wheel

The little ones and Traci ventured down to National Harbor this morning to catch a glimpse of the newest tourist attraction in the DC area, a super-sized Ferris wheel built to rival London's Eye.  Unfortunately, the kids were not as brave as their mom and wanted nothing to do with actually getting on the ride, but they were pretty impressed.  They actually had a lot more fun just putzing around some of the other attractions, such as the sand sculptures, harbor docks, and boutiques.  They especially loved an art store that specialized in whimsical sculpture.  See Michael above with one of his favorites:  Venus Flytrap.  Miraculously, the kids spent about 45 minutes in this shop without breaking a thing!

If you look really closely in this picture, you can see the Ferris wheel jutting out over the Potomac.  Supposedly, you can see all of the monuments and buildings of the Mall from its summit.  Would have been cool...anybody want to go back there and brave it with us?

P 'Nats

Dad took the "bigs" to a Potomac Nationals minor league baseball game this past Sunday.  Katie's school had a spring reading program that offered free tickets to those that completed a certain amount of books, so we thought we'd give it another shot (i.e., we tried this two years ago but were unsuccessful due to both the heat and the kids' irrational fears of loud noises).  This time, the kids did pretty well.  Katie was off with her buddies (classmates) most of the time and Michael was, well, mostly concerned with snacks, to be honest.  But they did make it the full nine innings and got to run the bases after the game.  Perhaps next time they will actually realize that two teams take the field!

Speaking of a full nine innings, this is what becomes of a 7 and 4 year old after making it through them in the heat.  Can't remember the last time that Katie fell asleep in the car!

Literal Translation

Thought this one was pretty good.  If you've ever spent any significant time with him, you know that Michael is, without a doubt, the most literal of our three kids.  He always likes to be experiencing (first hand) what he is seeing.  For example, if a pirate cartoon happens to be on TV, he runs upstairs to grab his sword and eye patch.  Sometimes he constructs elaborate cruise ships upon seeing a program about the Titanic.  Yesterday, I tried to teach the kids a little bit about the Triple Crown in horse racing in advance of watching "California Chrome" make his (disappointing) run at history.  Well, the next thing I know, Michael has broken out his Magna-Tiles to construct his own starting gate.  And, yes, that's California Chrome, the #2 horse...second from the rail...exactly how he had seen it...

Crossing the Bridge

Congratulations, Daisys!

Our little Daisy Scout crossed the bridge into a Brownie this past Thursday.  Katie has really seemed to enjoy her first year of Girl Scouts camaraderie this year, and it was fun to see her and her buddies in their element at their final meeting (ceremony) of the year.  Almost the entire group is from a completely different elementary school than ours, so it has been so great for Katie to meet and make friends with an entirely new crew of girls.  And most of the group has decided to stick together next year in Brownie Scouts!

Katie with new buddy, Libby.

Katie with her long-time buddy, Wrennie.

Katie formally crossing the bridge.