Grandpop Shoots the Boys

With his camera he shoots them--with his camera! You knew what I meant, right?

A couple of photos by my dad, "Grandpop" to the kids...

One Saturday this month, Grandpop and Nana took Matthew over to Udvar-Hazy for their 70th Anniversary of V-E Day celebration. They had to wage a war of their own just to get there--stuck in traffic for two hours, a security line that went on for miles--but in the end, they had a great time and got to see some cool stuff. Dad snapped a few pictures for memory's sake.

Then today we were at my folks' house, and my mom brought out her latest haul from the thrift store. (Thanks goodness for those places! And thank goodness for grandmothers! I don't know how my parents would have clothed me if not for the fact that my Gran volunteered and bought liberally at Blossom and Bloom, the King Street thrift store in good ol' Leesburg, VA, where I grew up. And now my mom is paying it forward, scoring lightly worn finds to keep my kids well dressed.)

Anyway (digress much?), this is the size 3 treasure that Nana found for Graham last time she thrifted, and this is Grandpop's shot of Graham enjoying it:

A totally sweet, good-as-new, dragon costume! When Graham laid eyes on it, he just ran up and threw his arms around it. Knights errant, beware! Graham the Dragon stalks these parts.

Thank you, Dad and Mom, for good pics and better memories!

This Week's Craze

Everyone here is playing with paper cups this week. Stacking them, throwing them, knocking them down, leaving them all over the kitchen floor so we stumble over them... the possibilities go on and on!

First Co-Op

Last week our co-op gathered for our first lessons of the school year. It's our third year with the same three other families (fourth year with one!). We love, love, love these folks and are so grateful to share school life with them. Look at all these great kiddos!

It was lovely to do show-and-tell with the students and hear them enthusiastically share some of their summer memories. They have all grown up and learned so much. When we did our first show-and-tell together two autumns ago, some were so shy they couldn't fully participate, and some (like Esme) were barely old enough to speak in complete sentences.

My friend Christine, who took the group shot above, also snapped this one of all the girlies with our latest addition: Baby E!

They were all quite smitten and spent the first few minutes after her arrival sitting quietly around her car seat, staring and cooing and asking questions of the lucky big sister. (This was a pretty big deal--normally most of these girls tend toward the rowdy side.) In just a few months, it'll be deja vu all over again when Baby C arrives to help the boys fight back against the overwhelming current of femininity.

We're using our twice-monthly meetings to study art and science together, as we did last year. It's so much less daunting to approach projects and experiments as a big group, with more mama hands to make the work lighter! The kids are already excited about tackling physics, and we moms were very happy to find Meet the Masters art curriculum.

All aboard for another year of learning, fun and fellowship! Here we go...

Matthew's Soccer Camp

Mathew just wrapped up a few weeks of soccer camp with none other than Uncle Kris as his coach. On their final day (which, as you'll notice, was "Mismatch Day"), I got some pictures of the boys in action.

Skill drills...

Matthew and Jack!

This was a final game of Mud Monster, or something like that.

Frozen and waiting for help...

Bringing it in one last time.

"1, 2, 3...

Soccerrrr!!!"

Belt Test

Meg and Matthew have been studying taekwondo at Han Mi Martial Arts. (I highly recommend them if you're local and interested.) I can't remember if I've mentioned that here on the blog before. Anyway, Matthew's been at it for almost a year, and Meg started in January.

Last Saturday they had their most recent belt test. It was a rough morning for Esme, Graham and me, and I wasn't able to get any pictures during the test itself. But here are a few shots from after the test was over, as Matthew and Meg (who both passed their tests!) graduated to their new belt levels.

Here are Matthew and his fellow mid-ranks waiting to receive their new belts...

...as Meg and the low-ranks look on.

Matthew is a green belt!

Master Thompson always makes this moment very special for the kids, joking with them and taking time to encourage them about their tests.

Now it's time for Meg and her comrades to remove their old belts...

and go up to receive their new ones.

Meg's turn!

A brand new yellow with green stripe!

Yay for Meg and Matthew! Now onward and upward!

"Lasts" of the School Year

Our school year wanes. In the last month, we've marked our last co-op of the year, our last field trip of the year, our last dance class of the year, and our last science class of the year. At two of these events, I failed to get any pictures at all, but what I do have, I will share.

First came the end of Meg and Matthew's botany class that ran all semester. We had a lovely farewell meeting at a local farm-park, where the kids put their newly-acquired botanical knowledge to the test in a series of games against (gulp) their mothers. (We moms made a decent showing but got schooled in the end. Rightfully so.)

Here's the whole class, with their lovely teacher Mrs. Perdue with them. (Matthew's the one in the hat.)

Cute story: all the younger siblings were invited to attend this botany shebang along with the moms, so Esme and Graham were with me. At some point Esme pulled me aside and asked, "Mommy, who's dat lady in the puhple shut?" (Translation: purple shirt. We're working on that "R" sound.)

"That's Mrs. Perdue, Meg and Matthew's teacher."

"Her looks bootiful in dat outfit."

"Oh, Sweetie, that's so nice. She does look lovely. You should tell her! I bet that would bless her so much!"

So we went over to talk with Mrs. Perdue. "You look bootiful in dat outfit," Esme said, and all fifteen pounds of Esme got scooped up in a big, long, thank-you hug, which Esme happily returned. Love that sweet affectionate heart. May she always be so free with her compliments! (By the way, she does weigh more than fifteen pounds. Slightly.)

Our last official field trip of the school year was down to good ol' Udvar-Hazy, the auxiliary Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. We went there several times when the kids were tiny, but it was so long ago that none of them have any memories of it. They had a great time, and the museum folks did a fine job with our group.

This is the younger half of our group in their workshop, learning about space suits.

Then they got to touch it, and even try on the gloves and boots.

The littles had their tour after lunch, while the big kids did their workshop. Here are the littles with the shuttle Discovery. They learned about all the animals that were sent into space before any humans ever made it there, which was a cute approach and succeeded fairly well in holding their attention.

And this is Esme and her buddy Addie "flying" a Cessna as the finale of their tour. A major highlight.

Perhaps the best part of this field trip for me was that I didn't need directions to get there, and I didn't get lost either coming or going. Thank God for those wonderful signs all along the Dulles toll road. (Some time, if you want a laugh, you can ask me about our field trip to the Rock Creek Nature Center and Planetarium earlier this year. Suffice it to say that I could not. find. the signs. Both ways. It was not a good day in Mommyland.)

8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1

Last month we did a joint family day with the Marcantonio family. Dave and I so loooove D.C.'s famous cherry blossoms, but we haven't made it downtown to see them in several years. Kris' and the Marc kids' spring break just happened to coincide with the peak week for blossoms, so on a perfection of a spring Monday, we loaded up both minivans with eight kids and four grown-ups and two huge strollers and lots of picnic stuff and headed off to find us some pink trees.

Instead of the Tidal Basin, we opted to visit Kenwood, a very tony, mid-century neighborhood in Bethesda that has street after street after street lined with cherry blossom trees. And let me tell you, it was buh-reathtaking. I mean... so much beauty it was hard to take it all in. Light blue sky with heaps of white cloud scudding along, spring-green lawns, and millions and millions of tiny, pink, silken blossoms--on the trees, swirling in the air, blanketing the ground like fine, pink lace. Along the streets we walked, there were spots where the blossoms had pooled in great, pink drifts. The kids gathered huge handfuls of them and flung them at each other, unleashing bursts of gossamer confetti. It was glorious.

We ended our outing at the neighborhood playground, which was mobbed. But we grabbed one of the benches for long enough to take a few pictures. Sometime during our walk Jess realized that, put together, our kids, for a few months, are ages 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1. As both of our families have now broken the babies-every-two-years pattern, we will never again have this straight of ages starting at one. Jess insisted that commemorative pictures were in order. So we tried.

And we tried.

Left to right, this is Graham, Sam, Esme, Emma, Matthew, Henry (on the lap), Jack, and Meg.

All of these pictures were taken in the course of about 120 very hard-fought seconds. The dads tried to keep everyone in line, while the moms clicked away frantically. Then we tried to take a picture of the adults, just for fun. This is what we got.

Just this one. And that only by the grace of God (and Meg's camera work)!

Another wonderful day added to our storehouse of memories with the Marcs! I think this was one of the best yet.

Chocolatey Field Trip

In honor of Valentines' Day, some pictures (once again courtesy of Mrs. Apple) of a recent field trip to take the Factory Tour at SPAGnVOLA Chocolatier:

Love the chocolate smear on Matthew's chin!

Happy Valentines Day and many celebrations of true, self-giving love to all of our dear ones out there--with a happy helping of chocolate on the side!

Dance Class and What the Boys Do

Apropos of nothing, I would like to begin by saying that there are times when you just pray that your toddler is teething again. Because the only other explanation you can think of is sudden insanity, and teething seems vastly the most preferable of the two.

*   *   *

My wonderful friend Christine lives just down the road from us and has become our carpool partner. Her girls and my girls both take the same dance class, so on Tuesday mornings, one of us drives the four girls to class, while the other keeps my two boys at home. Recently, Christine took some pictures of both groups of kids, which are much too cute not to share. (See? I told you she's wonderful.)

Here are the goyls, enjoying themselves at Ye Old Dance Studio. (Not its real name, by the way. That would be goofy.)

And here are the boys, very happy at "Mrs. Apple's house." (Graham refers to every member of their family as just plain "Apple.")

Mrs. Apple has super cool toys that Graham will actually play with! (At our house he just wanders around dumping small pieces out of their containers and then ignoring them.)

We are grateful for the opportunity to have the girls taking dance, but we're much more grateful for good friends with whom to do life!