good list

More Before and Afters: Still a work in progress (with new furniture planned once we are well potty trained around here just in case)... Also I look forward to replacing the traditional Virginia metal railing at some point.  A carpenter told me last week that he takes one out nearly every other week around here  - I'd love wooden craftsman style banisters!

Indian food still tops the adult list of favorite eat out spots, and the boys have found their favorites too.  Keaton would eat all the rice in the restaurant and Aiden loves a huge serving of Tandoori salmon.  Keaton thinks it's a special occasion and throughout dinner wishes everyone happy birthday at random.

Books by Bob Staake - Look, A Book! And Look, Another Book! - these books are full of cut outs and the appeal of a look and find.  A perfect visual feast for bigs and littles.

Rubber band bracelets made on a Rainbow Loom - There were boys a little older than Aiden selling these on the playground the other day.  The little entrepreneurs even offered classes to learn how to make them.  I'm all about boys enjoying crafts - and I scooped a loom up on Amazon to feed Aiden's interest.  Two more bracelets already made at home ;)

PB and Jack art day, etc, etc... We all love everything about PB and Jack's play area and fun activities.  Aiden has fine tuned his freeze dance and Keaton can already climb to the very top of the octopus.  Art day is an extra layer of weekly fun.  Here is Aiden's noodle cowboy and tumbleweed.

Experiments, especially with diluted chocolate milk, are Aiden's new favorite notebook addition.  This experiment was a ploy to get more chocolate milk because he just had to know what happens if you add white milk to the chocolate.

brothers

Squeezing in the maximum amount of brother time before the school schedule starts...  Aiden's favorite part of the summer = "cool kid sleeveless shirts!" Keaton's = "mommy hat!"

toasty

We had a toasty afternoon on the mega playground which Aiden calls the rainbow track.  Because it has rainbow colors everywhere and his favorite spot is a series of lanes to run.  It reminded me why I love our shady playground spots, although there was a nice breeze that saved us.  It's so nice to see familiar faces before the school year takes over.  Yay for meet ups!

gtown

We took a trip to Georgetown to enjoy the waterfront and M Street.  Baked and Wired cupcakes were such a treat along with the really fun splash fountain - good thing we brought the swim suits!

play time

I don't usually break out the camera on play dates, but with the sparkly eyed baby and costumes out I couldn't resist!

 That motley crew had a really nice time burning some energy at PB Jacks and then broke out the costumes after lunch at home.

That dragon must not like the camera flash ;)

Keaton loves his "Phia" (Fee-a) - She got some extra snuggles!

 Then it was time to tame the tigers so that they could ride them ;)

This sleepy smiley guy slept through all the hustle and bustle!

gong

You know what makes storytime even better?  Meeting up with friends, having it outside on a beautiful sunny morning at a favorite spot, and a huge gong!  The stories were all about dragons.  The story teller said our boys were the best roarers... I think the quote was that everyone else sounded like a wet cat in comparison.  He was a character, but won over the boys letting them hit his gong.

many faces

This guy mugging for the camera:

sculptural

We grabbed a quick snack before our parking meter ran out in the Sculpture Garden.  Aiden remembered the sculptures and specifically asked to go see the bunny. Keaton's hair wanted to imitate the sculptures.

museums

The museums on a Monday when some schools are back in session was a nice break back into DC minus the tourist hype.  Even though our favorite kid discovery room wasn't open on Mondays, we found a ton of fun stuff in the Ocean floor room.  Then we were lucky to meet our friends and explore more upstairs in the insect world and bones.

pitts

Why didn't anyone tell me how nice Pittsburgh is?!  We stopped on our way home to VA to check out the K nit the Bridge installation.  It was so cool to see the yarn wraps in person and the two tall vaulted areas completely covered amazed me!  Aiden thought they looked like lego heads so he was very excited.  The side railings were wrapped on both sides and completely outlined in black knit tubes.  It was still being completed on one side so we got to see just how labor intensive it is to wrap it nicely.  The boys just wanted to touch the whole thing!  We ate lunch in front of this cool sculpture fountain, and my crab cakes were waaaay better than the food on the interstate.  It made a really nice day out of our travel day.

parade

Last Stop Willoughby replaced a long running event called Frontier Days.  I have many memories of nabbing candy pitched from the city utility vehicles or from the hands of potential politicians.  This event happened to fall on my birthday this year.  Keaton was convinced that they had a parade for my birthday, another reason Ohio is tops on his list.  My family was working hard in the Kid Zone for six hours while my boys ran around like they were in their living room at home - bouncing from family member to family member for some fun crafts and cuddles.  It was also a treat that an old high school friend made it down to watch the parade and enjoy some of the Taste of Willoughby with us.  The parade delivered some serious candy and Aiden literally lost his mind when Smiley the Cookie was actually walking past him!  There was even a station to decorate your own cookie.  It was a nice way to spend an afternoon.

bday

Do you think KC likes cake?  Look at those wild eyes!

I had such a nice birthday in Ohio.  The day started with crispy tapioca dipped french toast and ended with a tray full of cheese, fillo dough treats, and my favorite orange cake.  Thanks to my family!  The special edition cork dorks topped off a nice day - which also included a parade full of candy - more coming soon!

pain

Aiden asked me the other night as I tucked him in to sleep, "Mommy, why do we feel pain?"  I explained that it is because we have nerve endings and he said he understood how, but why?!  I tried to concisely explain that it is your body trying to tell you to not do that thing.  Pain teaches you a lesson, like sunburn is telling you that too much sun is bad for your skin.  The conversation went fairly smooth despite my tendency to ramble on - I think I even gave him a mini evolution lesson - When he kept asking questions I found that I didn't want to say I didn't know.  But I think recently the best lesson I've learned from my kids is that it is ok not to know.  It's also ok to avoid the nitty gritty details, because sometimes they are just gritty.

Aiden now knows that his teacher died at the beginning of the summer - unfortunately because his buddy told him before we did.  I overheard him insisting to his friend that it wasn't true, and I let him believe he was right until we got home and I told him his friend was right.  He didn't ask any questions and just seemed to be a little peeved his friend was right.  He doesn't really get what it means to die.  He knows that it's something he doesn't really want to know more about though.  The second time I brought it up because they are building a bench in her honor at the school, and he just sorta shut down his normal inquisitive mode and moved right along - with a "cool, I like benches too!"  His life is simple and I think we should keep it that way for a while.

While at the same time, I hope he is learning how to think of others and what he can do to help them, which is not always very simple.  When we were in Ohio, my parents were organizing a bunch of volunteer opportunities through their church.  Aiden agreed to go to the crafting event with adults with developmental disabilities and he helped make cookies for the homeless meal.  Keaton even helped with the sprinkles.  I appreciate my parents exposing Aiden to what it means to help others.

cousins

We had all the O cousins and their counterparts in one place to celebrate my aunt's 70th birthday!  I'm missing a picture of the birthday girl, but I love these shots of the cousin crew.  I'm sure it would've been one of my grandma's favorites.

friends

We had fun seeing our Ohio buddies again at Shaker Lakes.  The fun there is nicely spread out and even the bike racks are fun to climb. The little brothers enjoyed some watermelon breaks as the big kids played rain monster with daddy. We will miss our summer fun with Ohio friends, but we will get them down to VA soon!  

gully

We took somewhat grouchy boys to the Gully to run off their cruddy moods.  It seemed to work with the help of some staticy hair and some super spy glasses.