international

Aiden's school hosted their annual International Day right before the break.  Each classroom hosts a different region and Aiden's classroom was Europe, more specifically Germany and Ireland.  They danced a German Polka, the Chicken Dance!?  Aiden's favorite was the big African mural picture hunt in the room next door.  My favorite were the peacocks and fish windsocks made out of shirt sleeves in Asia.  There were so, so many cute crafty creations.  In Aiden's room we worked on helping the kids stitch swans.  After the kids performed, there was a parade through all the rooms led by the drumming class.  Then each classroom hosted food from their countries.   

The kids were each given a passport with their photo inside to stamp after visiting each area.

Reading some German with swans hanging on the big castle mural the kids helped paint.

Performing the chicken dance on the left and dressing in the American history room on the right.

American history worries Aiden:

Peacock suncatchers in Asia and Aiden pointing out his swan with the orange legs:

In South America there was a mock up of an oil rig:

butterflies

Dog and puppy released a huge batch of butterflies in our front yard where there are plenty of blossoms coming out to keep them happy!  Thanks to Gran and Pop for bringing the fun!

bunnies

It was crafternoon for bunnies!  The success rate at keeping the bunny hats on was about 10% and that's generous. The little guys were all about leaving their crafting chairs for some bunny hops.  Thanks for coming over to play!

book party

One of the admission director's at Aiden's school is a children's book writer. She invited everyone to her little book party at a local bookshop. We had a sweet treat at the French cafe across the way before we knew about the hippo cookies ;)

wheeee

Happy Monday! We will be up to a bunch of this fun this week:

tiny chefs

The tiny chefs took on some ginger snap shamrocks.  

 The tiniest check thinks: I'm just going to swipe this big rolly thing and try to put it in my mouth...

Loudest, tiniest chef: Man, they won't let me play with the big roll thing or put any of that in my mouth!

blossoms

The cherry blossoms are peaking already! This morning the somewhat undependable weatherman said to expect rain this weekend and then muttered something about it taking down the blossoms. Um, I jumped on the Internet to discover that it was true that the blossoms could all be washed away with one good storm! Booo!  So as I nursed KC, I was reminiscing back to almost nearly a year ago while I nursed a tiny infant version of him daydreaming about being in DC to see the blossoms.  I even had some blossom stickers to stare at on his nursery wall.  So I hatched a plan to get there as soon as possible.  I called J and he was game to try to meet us (super yay)!  I packed up some picnic lunch and when Aiden hopped in the car at carpool I let him in on the plan...  He was more excited to ride the metro than anything else.  We haven't ventured out on the metro so that was part of the excitement. As soon as we took off he said it felt like we were surfing down in the belly of a whale! The ride was about 20 minutes and the train got pretty crowded by the end of the ride, but at least we didn't need to cruise for a parking spot.  It was pretty amazing how many people were parading around the area on a Friday afternoon, and it hit nearly 90 degrees!  It wasn't quite the romantic ideal that I'd hatched in my mind oh so long ago, but I do think it's a DC tradition worth visiting (a many thousands of people agree with me unfortunately).  We had a little picnic in the perfect shady spot and walked all the way around to the Jefferson Memorial. KC napped and Aiden got a case of the Tadas! when I asked for his picture.  I didn't bring the big camera (smart choice given the hoofing it with two kiddos in hot weather), but here are iPhone snaps:

doodle tea

The local toyshop hosts a bunch of fun programs and crafts, mostly on what they have dubbed Wild Wednesday! Aiden now remembers this and asks/reminds/bugs me to be sure we've signed up ;). Some programs fill up fast and this was the case with Tea with Ms. B (which was familiar from a few months ago). We knew this program would be fun, although I wondered how she'd carve out enough space in this crowded shop. They pushed big racks of stuffed guys and puppets (KC's fav!) aside and set up three tea tables. Before tea, they had a puppet parade, poetry reading (on National Poetry Day!), and a scavenger hunt for doodle hopper store dollars (Aiden found six dollars worth!). Some kids didn't show up, so the kids were allowed to invite their moms to tea (they extended a polite invitation with a flower!) So as KC slept on my chest, I enjoyed a pastry Aiden called a peanut butter bomb - um, yes please! KC woke up and he even gobbled a little biscuit. It was a treat.

spring!

Happy first day of spring! To close out this mild winter (which I can remember wishing for during the insane extreme weather of 2011), we took a trip to a new park. I'd heard about their nice new playground. Well, I was somehow mixed up because we didn't find a playground there - instead we found our second geocache thanks to my new iPhone app! So a disappointed four year old was happy again after locating a sandwich container hidden next to a tree behind a train caboose. This one had trinkets, one of which was a mini version of Aiden's beloved Pop the Pig. We hiked back across the bridge and Aiden was excited every time a bike rolled over it and made it vibrate. KC woke up from a nap on my chest and sly guy smiled at the big blossoms.

starfish

A young girl was walking along a beach upon which thousands of starfish had been washed up during a terrible storm. When she came to each starfish, she would pick it up, and throw it back into the ocean. People watched her with amusement.

She had been doing this for some time when a man approached her and said, "Little girl, why are you doing this? Look at this beach! You can't save all these starfish. You can't begin to make a difference!"

The girl seemed crushed, suddenly deflated. But after a few moments, she bent down, picked up another starfish, and hurled it as far as she could into the ocean. Then she looked up at the man and replied,

"Well, I made a difference to that one!"

The old man looked at the girl inquisitively and thought about what she had done and said. Inspired, he joined the little girl in throwing starfish back into the sea. Soon others joined, and all the starfish were saved. - adapted from the Star Thrower by Loren C. Eiseley

My first knit guy - a starfish!

circus

What do you like to do on a whim? Well, we like to go to the circus!  We were walking past the Verizon Center and noticed the circus was getting ready to start.  So we walked up to the box office with KC asleep on J's chest in the ergo and Aiden asking us where we were going.  We hopped up to our nosebleed seats in the very crowded circus just as it was getting started.  KC woke up a few minutes into the show and I think he was stunned.  He was pulling out the claps and then in between acts he started signing for more!  I think his favorite part was the girl with the twirly light next to us.  He lasted the whole nearly two hour show!  Aiden was bouncing in his seat, hooting and spontaneously giving me hugs - not surprisingly he liked it!  He told us his favorite part was the guys standing on their heads and jumping (aka. the tumblers).  Then his second favorite was the guy being lit on fire and shot out of a crossbow (which really did happen!)  What a way to top off a fun weekend!

game fest

The American Art Museum was hosting a Game Fest that we decided to check out on Sunday.  They had a fun photo booth and some cool live action video games with funky music wafting around the inner courtyard of the museum.  The pixel art craft was a good counting game too.  The fest kicked off a new exhibit all about the evolution of pixel design.  It really is an art!   We ate some yummy pizza with a tasty corn meal crust at the Pi Pizzeria just a few days after pi day ;)  Then we walked around Chinatown a bit and played tourist on the nice mild day.  Aiden thought he was a video game character jumping lava bricks and throwing ice balls.  Then the on a whim we headed to our next bit of late weekend fun... more on that later...

bunny

The Easter Bunny is in town! We skipped up to the mall while Aiden sang, "Here we come, hopping down the bunny trail!" He and his brother had just woken up from a car nap, so he was kinda giddy. We rode the elevator down looking over at the big brown bunny, which surprised and perplexed Aiden. KC was yawning and spinning his little turtle neck around to check out the springy butterflies and fake flowers. Aiden hopped over to the bunny and gave him a high five. The boys sat nicely and KC gave his sly guy half smile while looking towards his daddy. He scowled and quietly winced his way through a haircut and then declared he loves haircuts ;)  On our way out J gave Aiden a coin to make a wish, he told me he wished all the trees would turn red - so when we were in the car, these red lighted trees blew his mind!

first geocache

We found it! Our first dip into geocaching/letter boxing worked out well. As a surprise for our little leprechaun hunter, we cruised over to Lake Accotink to find a cache dubbed the Canoe. This hobby/sport/hiking adventure was something I wanted to try but I was a bit skeptical whether it would work out. Would we be able to easily hike to the area where the box was hidden and then would we find it? We used the clues posted online (instead of GPS coordinates) and I think J was probably more skeptical than I was that we would manage to find it (or at least have fun finding it). We knew it was near the top of a hill, near a Y in the path, at the crook of the roots of a leaning 2 inch diameter tree. As Aiden got more and more excited, I started getting nervous that we might not be able to find it. It was not obvious even though it said online that someone had found it in February.  J scurried from tree to tree brushing leaves away from the base, while Aiden followed him closely and KC kicked away on my chest trying to get in on the action. We were concentrating on trees the diameter of Aiden's wrist, but if we had looked closer we would've realized the clues were written in 2003! So our 2 inch tree was now nearly double that size! Despite our skepticism, I think the rush of finding it was pretty thrilling. J spotted it and let Aiden pull out the rocks to reveal what is considering a micro cache according to the geocaching website (essentially two tiny rubbermaid containers to keep it water tight). There was a tiny log book and a stamp for you to record in your book that you found it.  I think we will try another adventure again soon... if you visit the geocaching website and type in your zip code you might be amazed at how many are hiding out there!

reptiles

Aiden is getting to the age where he wants to pick out what we do. He turned down a Dr. Suess parade because he's "seen enough of him lately," and picked out a reptile show at a local toy shop. They had cool scaly creatures to show off including this huge snake. The very green mini carts were fun too! We took another big adventure with the little leprechaun hunters after the show, but I will get to that story soon.