Pool

 July 2

Contrary to what these pictures may lead you to believe, Little Guy had a great time at Grandma's pool.  His favorite part, squirting Grandpa with water.  The big kids also had a blast.  There were two water slides that dumped into three and a half feet of water that they were just tall enough to go down.  Buddy was brave and agreed to go after I told him I'd pay him a quarter if he went right then.  He spent the rest of the time (hours) going down the slides.  Princess Sparkley was promised a quarter from me and another from Grandma.  It turned out to be her favorite part of the pool.  Even B, Grandpa and I went down a few times.  (Video coming of the big kids on the slide).

Cincinnati Reds vs. Cleaveland Indians

July 1

The grandparents were trying to take us to their local minor league game, but they were sold out.  Then they decided if they took us to a Friday night Cincinnati game there would be fireworks, and we wouldn't have to make a crazy stop on our way home to see a fireworks show in West Virginia somewhere. 

At the beginning of the game, Princess Sparkley, who isn't as excited about baseball, asked if I'd ever been on the giant tv at a baseball game.  I explained to her that we've been to a lot of games and never known anyone on the jumbo tron.  Flash forward several innings, the jumbotron pans across Buddy's arm (he says he's sure he saw it and it was waving) to Little Guy, me, Grandma M and PS before it heads to the baby Reds fan next to PS.  Very fun!

And the fireworks afterwards were awesome!  We tend to hit baseball games around the 4th of July because we're already going to be in a a crowd, why not skip the 4th of July fireworks viewing crowd and just enjoy the fireworks at the game.  This show was really long and super impressive.  Very loud as well, which PS didn't enjoy.

Also, I have a cousin who lives in Cincinnati.  I figured there was no point calling his family when we'd only be in the town for a short period of time during which we'd be at the game.  I found out the next day via Facebook that his family was at the game!  Based on their pictures, they were a few sections to our left and down.

Ohio: Wright Patterson AFB Museum

July 1

Richmond Children's Museum

We finished up at the Children's Museum and then Aunt H took us to a candy store to For the Love of Chocolate.

Last T-ball Game

Cars

The other day all of the cars were in Buddy's traffic cones.  Then I came downstairs and found this set up.

Graduating from Brownie Girl Scouts

Emails Home

B was in Richmond for an economics conference of some sort so PS went with him to hang with cousin Pickles.  I got these emails from her while she was gone:

 We went to Virginia Beach.

And Yosemedy.

And Kings Dominion.

And in a second email, "And the moon."

Silly girl.

Piano Recital

The kids' piano teacher had a little recital (combined with another piano teacher) at a retirement home.  Buddy was adamant that he didn't want to be in it.  We let him skip it this time, just going to watch Princess Sparkley so that he'll know what it's like next time when we make him do it.  Princess Sparkley was very excited.  She played two songs: "Jiffy" and "Skipping Frogs."  She did great.  She's only been taking lessons a few months.

The group of musicians (and 2 teachers on the left)

Red Sox vs. Braves: 6/18/11

2nd at bat (I missed filming the first one)

3rd at bat

4th at bat (last batter=Grand Slam!)

At the end of games or practice the coach chases the kids.  He gives them a head start (the players, their brothers and sisters, etc.) on first base.  Then he says go and tries to beat them (he starts on home plate).  And he goes FAST!

Little Guy

This is probably Little Guy's favorite song to sing.  He usually insists on singing it alone, without any help.  And he usually belts it out (as much as a 3 year old can "belt" something out).  He was being a little shy with the camera on and didn't sing quite as loudly as normal.

We have two different kid games with plastic frogs.  This week, somehow, both sets of frogs escaped their game boxes and have been having "battles" on our couch. 

We got all the fridge magnet letters down and several times a day Little Guy creates all of these "words" for us.  It started with just his name (which can now both spell and write) but then he started stringing long lines of letters together to create new "words."  As for writing his  name, he does a great job.  Yesterday he was writing his name for me and informed me that now he was a big kid so his teachers at nursery didn't have to write his name on his paper for him anymore, he could do it himself.  He was very proud of this.  And today at nursery he wrote his name on his paper and his teacher's were very impressed and made sure to tell B when he picked Little Guy up.  AND, Little Guy wore underpants to church.  He really only wears a pull-up at bedtime now, and for church (or long crazy days like going into DC or something).  He went potty once at the end of the first hour, and about 45 minutes later his nursery teacher brought him to us again to go potty.  Such a big boy!

Last night, for a family movie night we watched Snoopy, Come Home.  Little Guy thoroughly enjoyed it.  I had to get some of his cracking up on film.  If only I'd kept the camera rolling.  He got the giggles.  He started his prayer and started cracking up and it was so funny to see a 3 year old with the giggles that we were all cracking up.  He was laughing so hard he started crying.  So so so funny!

Kayaking

We went down to B's sister's yesterday just for dinner (and a super nice birthday dessert for me) to return all of their camping stuff before they go camping later this summer.  They had rented kayaks for the day before and decided to take them out on their community lake.  H got better pictures on her better cell phone camera, but here are a few.  The kids loved it.  We saw a bunch of fish jump.  Little Guy went all on his own (with B in the back seat) and then wanted to go again so I asked if I could go with him.  He said yes.  Then he was super disappointed because he didn't want to share a seat with me.  Luckily Mr. Grumpy Pants (is it a three year old thing?) perked up when I reminded him we were going to get to eat cheesecake.

Four at Bats

Saturday, June 11 vs. Baltimore Orioles

Tinkerbell and Friends

 Little Guy drew these people today.  When I asked him about them, he told me that it is Tinkerbell and her friend.  That's why they have wings.  So adorable!

And he wrote these letters all on his own without any help.

All on his own.  6/12/11

Family Pictures

More adorable pictures by Little Guy.  This is our family, including grandparents, cousins, etc. (Still left-handed.)

National Museum of the Marine Corps

For awhile now, B has been taking the kids out on father/child outings individually.  Usually he and Princess Sparkley end up at a pet store or bookstore.  And then somewhere for a treat, usually Denny's.  He decided he'd take Buddy to the National Museum of the Marine Corps in Quantico, VA because PS is terrified of going there because she thinks it'll be scary and all about war, and we figured Little Guy wouldn't enjoy it.  So today he took Buddy to the museum, and Little Guy, PS and I went to the giant mall nearby (which is sadly one of the largest tourist attractions in Virginia).

At the mall with the cell phone camera.

 

B's parents got him a graduation card that has Homer Simpson on it, and when you open the card, Homer sings, "I am so smart.  I am so smart.  S-M-A-T.  I mean S-M-A-R-T."  The kids think this is hilarious.  Then we saw this t-shirt at a store in the mall so we took a picture with the cell phone and sent it to B and Buddy.

P-Nats

One of the Washington Nationals' minor league teams is the Potomac Nationals who have $1 Mondays.  So for $1 per person we got into the game.  And for an additional dollar per person, everyone got a hot dog.

Their mascot is Uncle Slam.  Some people near us won the "sweetheart of the game" or something so the mascot came up and gave a girl some flowers and balloons, then sat with the group in front of us for a minute.  This bottom left picture was as close to him as I could convince Buddy to get.  Ryan Zimmerman was playing with the P-Nats the night we were there doing rehab starts.  He's normally the big league 3rd baseman from the Washington Nationals.  He signed autographs (top left picture) and got a lot of cheers.  (Professional pictures here.)

Little Guy told me at one point that baseball games are really long and T-ball games are really short.  He was happy some, and grumpy a lot.  He was also disappointed because at the big league stadium they set off fireworks last year when we went (and for home runs).

P-Nats lost 8 to 1, I think.

Team Picture

Top: Assistant Coach Rob, Grant, Jesse, [Buddy], Christopher, Coach James

Middle: Haley, Caleb, Ethan, Aiden

Front: Garrett, James, John


Buddy had a great hit today in the third inning.  I wish I'd gotten it on film.  Great swing, strong enough hit that he went up and over the pitcher and bounced out past second base.

PJ Shorts

This is my first attempt to sew clothing (other than two skirts I've made for Princess Sparkley) and a pair of shorts I sewed in 5th grade or so.  PS's turned out best although the waist band is really low, hipster-like and if she gains more than three pounds, they probably won't fit her.  All three of their shorts would probably stay up on their own without the elastic waistband.  And now I've learned from my mistakes (hopefully) and I have three more pairs (one per kid) to sew this week.

 

From here, here and here.

 

Little Guy's Art

 I came home from driving Princess Sparkley to a birthday party today and discovered that Little Guy had been quite an artist and drawn all these "people."  Otherwise, he's mostly been drawing pages and pages full of this, which he's been doing for a few weeks now and says are branches.

"Branches."

Imperial Walkers (Star Wars)

Buddy drew the orange face on the top, left side guy.  Ewoks and clone troopers.

"Bad Guys" or "One legged Imperial Walkers"

His name.  He had me come help him with the "S."  And he apparently writes things backwards.