spring fling

It was a true spring day for the school's Spring Fling this year (previous years it has snowed or sleeted).  Keaton was hyped to get over there to dunk his teacher in the dunk tank, which instead of water was full of balls this year ;)  Aiden missed it by just a bit for rehearsal, since this is such a busy time of year.  It was a really fun afternoon!

playwright festival

Such a rewarding and enriching experience it was for the boys to enter the Playwright Festival competition sponsored by the Fairfax Commission on the Arts.  Aiden converted his novel from November into a play and Keaton practiced his writing by entering an original story.  He was giddy in  anticipation to see it up on stage and said it exceeded his expectations. It really is fun to see and hear written words come to life. 

The Adventures of Chip the Pretzel and Pretzel the Chip from LB on Vimeo.
ROCK from LB on Vimeo.

tidbits

New clean haircuts for these slick guys! Keaton's may be the shortest it has ever been, but he loves it.

Keaton was asked to join a college film project where he wore a 360 degree camera on a helmet while he filmed a ten minute sequence shot. He had an absolute blast with all ten takes for nearly three hours, while I was cast as "neighborhood mom" or an extra that he passes by in the shot.  He was such an encourager every time our timing worked out.

good list

Bubbles on the deck!

Standing on your tippy toes to check out all the other doggie friends at the vet... She weighed in at 4 pounds 7 ounces at her 14 week appointment.

bath time

Not too squirmy, but not too sure about this bath time business.  This tiny floof looks even tinier with the crimped curls.

easter

Thankful to get together for the actual holiday with our other cousin buddies and introduce them to the cousin puppy.  She tried to make friends with their cats and got along well with Dora too. Thanks for the fun egg hunt too!  Top right is a shot of the stuff the Easter bunny left for us too ;)

cousin puppy

Cousin puppy got so much love with all the cuddlers in town for spring break...

hammock

These giggle guys on the hammock may be one of their favorite things.  Cousin puppy looking huge in that perspective shot with a tiny PopPop ;)

legos

Met up at Tyson's to play on the patio and visit the Lego store with our RI/MA buddies.  It was fun to see a giant Aiden greeting his favorite babysitter from when he was a tiny guy, Rebecca, and meet her two boys!

april bdays

These cousin buddies celebrated their April birthdays together with an ice cream cake!

peeps

The main attraction at the National Harbor was the Peeps store!  The cousin buddies collected a ig variety of peeps and it was declared a Peeps Easter.

hands

Check out all those hands!

harbor

We visited the American icons like a bunch of tourists... but the highlight may have been the smorgasbord of crab cakes I shared with my sister and my dad.

ikea

With a belly full of meatballs is the best way to wander around Ikea pretending that we are taking catalog photos ;) with a good faux laugh.

caboose

Family, old friends, new little buddies, and a puppy met up on a bright sunny day for dinner on the patio at Caboose Brewery... Doesn't get much better!  

peeps

Happy Easter from all these Peeps!

eggs

Decorating some eggs with with cousin buddies. Our kit that included some "gold" which had some splotchy, mixed reviews ;) - haha!

poppy

Walter Henrich, January 23, 1922 to April 13, 2019

break

We kicked off spring break with some Sky Zone action with our buddies!  Can't get enough of the sticky sock warp wall and climbers...

bunny

Baby's first Easter!  Visiting the bunny and eating at the table like a big girl...

floof

Just more of the hundreds of cute shots of this floof!

sleepyhead

This sleepy girl could not be much cuter when she sleeps... and I've been able to sneak in a few rows of knitting here and there.

deck

This pup makes us enjoy being outside so much more than normal. We are really enjoying the cuddle couch we moved up on to the top deck outside our kitchen.

hippo

Could not resist this hippo toy! Zoe loves to wrestle it while it make a sort of honking oink noise.

puppy buddies

My friend adopted her foster pup and her sister. Charlie and Ginger are almost the same age, but at 12 weeks they are already much bigger.  They love to play!

farmer's market

Zoe's first, and certainly not her last, visit to the Mosaic Farmer's Market... one of the first really beautiful spring days!

recital

The piano recital was earlier than usual because Aiden’s duet partner Juliet is going her brother’s graduation on the actual recital day. So Ms. Wallin invited us to come play at her adult piano group. The kids did a wonderful job and it was fun to hear the adults play their very elaborate pieces. Aiden accompanied Juliet on the Colors of the Wind from Disney’s Pocahontas, then played Kabelevsky’s Horseman. Keaton played Waltz of the Dandelion and Drifting on the River.

eight!

Mom, I’m out of pants! I oh-so-frequently hear you say this as you stand in front of a drawer full of not-so-favorite pants. Turns out your favorite pants aren’t in the laundry either, but are about two inches too short and are already headed off to your cousin buddies. Your legs are even achey lately because of all the growing! You were so, so excited to technically be big enough to ride without a booster seat and turned on the seat warmer in April just because you couldn’t wait to check it out.

You were so excited to pass out donuts to all your classmates, favorite teachers, librarians, and principals. I had a chance to go around with you and watch you interact, pick out treats, and express your gratitude. It is always a joy to see you feel grateful because you feel everything so, so much. I can always tell how you feel and you try to understand how others around you feel. I hope you turn your big emotions into empathy and big will power to help those around you as you get older.

marvel-ous bday!

This Marvel-ous Birthday idea was thanks to this Marvel Universe Live show coming through town at just the right time! There's a storyline which featured Spiderman a lot, one of Keaton's favorites. I thought it was neat that is incorporated a bunch of circus acts, silk flying, motorcycle stunts, trapeze, etc.

Keaton was very excited to share the fun with his best buddies and then come back home for part two which he called the puppy party ;)  J made him a big double chocolate brownie cake with the Marvel Avengers symbol on it!

bday video