richmond yum

We had a tiny peek at the Richmond food scene and it was pretty tasty.  We ate at the popular Shockhoe Bottom's Up Pizza when we first got to town where a pizza slice is thicker than the thickest book you can imagine according to Aiden.  Then we enjoyed dinner at the New Zealand inspired Burger Bach where we has limeades and fresh fries that were OOC.  We had breakfast at our Inn which we figured out was the oldest place we've probably slept since the building was built in 1852.  Then we picked up some yummy meat pies (the pork verde was so good) and a chocolate chess pie at the Proper Pie Co.  It was just a bit after Super Pi Day and they had mugs for the perfect souvenir.  Daddy had dinner with his colleagues while the boys and I enjoyed massive amounts of food at Perly's.  The matzo ball in my soup was much larger than my fist and so delicious, and the egg salad was slightly sweet - yum yum yum.  We brought home a big batch of the fresh chips to share with daddy.  The next day we checked out the 821 Cafe for some peanut butter and jelly french toast.  I'd like to go back just to try more of the cafes like that...

science 2

More fun with hair raising electrical balls and smooshed pennies ;)

science 1

We are science museum fans, and who wouldn't love hands-on exhibits, dome theaters hosting humpback whale imax movies and rats trained to play basketball - you know, just all the normal stuff at the Virginia Science Museum ;). The animal trainer taught us about conditioning and animal psychology.  The Boost exhibit gave everyone a personal code and they had challenges like how far you could jump, how far they could balance on a tight rope, reaction time, and even how small they could become.  There was a super sleuth exhibit to track down a mystery using all sorts of evidence.  A whole exhibit about genetics giving you info on how unique you are. Aiden is like less than 0.2% of the population!

children's imagine

Our little mini spring break trip down to Richmond didn't disappoint.  Proof that you don't have to travel very far to find adventures ;). We cruised straight to the Children's Museum and the boys were both into it immediately.  They had so many fun areas for imaginative play.  The favorite roles were the news reporter/cameraman, waiters, and teacher - Mr. Aiden Brennan only had to put Jason's name on the board once before he shaped up.

dinoland

Riding dinos!  The big cave area was full of hiding spots for these sneaky devils.

children's play

So many amazing spots for the kids to spread out and play. I could've planted on those fat bottom cushions in the reading spot, but these guys had lotsa other plans for fun. The shows they put on at the stage area were so fun.  The outdoor backyard area was full of cool instruments and those funny doggie chairs Keaton wanted to take home.

artist workshop

The Artist's Workshop is a place I'd like to visit every day.  These boys went back again and again to this funny spot with cool color discs hanging from the glass ceiling.  These guys made sun and wind masks to pretend with in the theater area. Then Aiden loves making collages and picked food as his theme from this huge batch of magazine cutouts.

puppets

Aiden is cast as the Beast this season in his spring performance, so we took him to do some character research at the Puppet Co.'s version of Beauty and the Beast. ;) They always do a less Disney version of the story that seems more authentic but still entertains.

pi day

Almost forgot to document the second Super Pi Day rounded this year!  We had our smaller Super Pi shirt in rotation, Aiden's new Star Wars intro inspired 3.14 shirt, and my new Octo-pi shirt, ready to visit the library for the scavenger hunt (Aiden solved all on his own this year).

pizza pi

Couldn't have planned it better, but K's class had a field trip on 3/14 to the pizza parlor.  Pizza pies on pi day! The pizza cook hats were so much fun!

interview with AB

Aiden's version 

One word to describe you would be: 

Intelligent

Why do you like being a kid? 

Because you can learn new things in school!

If you could be any animal, which one would you be and why? 

Blue whale so I could be the biggest animal in the world and not very many people hunt blue whales

Tell about a funny time in your life. 

When I came home from school and no one noticed that I had come in because there was too much noise, and I walked into the room where mommy was on her computer and scared her

What is your favorite thing to do? Why? 

Read, because reading is better than watching tv because you can picture them in your head and you don't have to see what they actually look, you can make it up and think of it your own way

What do you love most about your brother? 

When he dances

What was the nicest thing you did for someone? 

After we went shopping I helped bring in some of the bags

What do you think you will be doing 10 years from now? 

Getting married, ok no, delete - changing my name to Lone Wolf

What is the grossest thing you can think of? 

Dissected Prairie Dogs which I actually saw one before!  Remember when I was doing that Prairie Dog presentation and I was doing research online at school and I saw that picture.

What is your happiest memory?

When we went to Disney World!

spring fling

Happy First Day of Spring!  Here is this guy with his entry in the school spring fling poster contest:

interview with KC

One word to describe you would be: 

Brother

Why do you like being a kid? 

Because it's fun and I can have a brother

If you could be any animal, which one would you be and why? 

A cheetah because want to be a fast runner!

Tell about a funny time in your life. 

When Aiden tickled me one time, I was like ahh! and then I just looked around and I saw that it was Aiden sneaking away

What is your favorite thing to do? Why? 

Play with my brothery, because he's fun to play with and I love him

What do you love most about your brother? 

When he hugs me and stuff

What was the nicest thing you did for someone? 

Say please

What do you think you will be doing 10 years from now? 

Can I change my name and stuff and dye my hair blue?

What is the grossest thing you can think of? 

There are actually no grossest things I can think of

What is your happiest memory?

Aiden hugging me and sharing for me

bunnyville

These guys turned shy for 90 seconds and hopped in to meet the Easter Bunny.  How is it that Aiden is so far off the 'how tall' chart?! 

hey bunny

It's 2016!  Who are these giant kids sitting with the bunny?!

happy st. pats

Happy St. Patrick's Day from these guys! Aiden was convinced that if we didn't set a trap for the Leprechaun he'd bring us treats.  He brought green Beanie Boos and plaid dancin' socks ;) Aiden drew a shamrock in JavaScript this morning to celebrate.  Wishing you a pot of gold and all the joy your heart can hold!

tidbits

Kidding Around Yoga has been such a perfect match with Keaton and his buddies.  Who doesn't love a good yoga shake down?!  They moved outside last week to enjoy the beautiful day.

We cleared out the mishmash extra chairs with toys hidden under and around them and added this min sectional.  New couch day doesn't happen very often, but when it does we lounge.

Keaton picked out a coconut and a pineapple for his unique try deal with daddy.  They cracked into the coconut and both seemed to like the coconut milk/water inside.  

This pineapple and chicken deal represents J on spring break! Check out that fancy business - eating out of a pineapple ;)

one sec winter

It's December 9 to March 9 in one second a day!
One Second Winter from LB on Vimeo.

destination imagination

This past Saturday was the Destination Imagination regional tournament.  The Mantuamals were representing again this year in the Rising Stars challenge.  This year it was all about maps in a challenge titled "Change in Direction."  We had so much fun incorporating all their creative ideas and tidbits they'd learned about mapping into a skit called the Search for Acorn Village. They enjoyed the Instant Challenge first thing in the morning - they worked out 3 of the 4 bits that I can't mention since we are sworn to secrecy!  Then they got a chance to enjoy the cake walk this year and Lucy won a bunny cake to share.  We also made all sorts of duct tape creations in the duct tape room. They sweetly gave me flowers and a knit shop gift card for coaching them all year.  I'm going to miss our Monday's after school!  I had so many warm fuzzies on Saturday, and I was really struck with how much older they seem this year versus last year.

search for acorn village video

100 days

Some art with numbers on this Pi Day!  Happy 3.14!

Aiden celebrated his 100th day of school last week and brought home some fun art from their family rotation.  My favorite is the drawing her did of himself at 100 - His class voted that he looked like the oldest old guy ;)  He was really into creating drawings out of the numbers.

brain chase

We aren't any closer to solving the location of the treasure - although we're guessing that we will somehow get coordinates and the final location will require us to draw a triangle and use the Pythagorean Theorem to calculate the final location - which was a big part of this week's Bonus Challenge.  Aiden was pumped to learn how to use the Pythagorean Theorem and I was grateful that J is engaged to be sure we get it right ;)

The Art Challenge was melting crayons to make a "stained glass" panel.  Aiden was pumped that his looked like a jagged piece of colorful coral.

The Engineering Challenge included making a tower out of spaghetti noodles and some sort of connectors.  After trying many different types of tape, he finally had good luck with marshmallows!

His writing feedback from his online teacher is always so nice!

school is cool

I went with Keaton's class to the planetarium at the high school (which is super fancy!) and the teacher did such a great job of getting the students engaged under that big dome.  

It was Suess week for Read Across America.  The kids made Trufulla trees from the Lorax with these big poms while I was cooping.  I made green eggs and ham for snack which were a big hit.  The kids all helped crack the eggs and only made about half the mess that you'd expect ;)   Keaton and his classmates love making themselves into signs - and this arrow was directing guests to the zoo.  Keaton and his buddy were dissecting google eyes and putting them on "microscope slides" aka. tape to examine them closer.  Ha!

tidbits

Went to see the Encore's Treasure Island which was really fun for these swashbucklers. They sang some sea shanties and there were raucous sword fights - and these guys were mesmerized.

We are finally getting outside with so many mini breaks in the weather and now it's full fledged no coat weather, and dare I say shorts weather?!

This photo of me at the bottom is a funny shot from an actual game night with couples in the neighborhood. It was raining money and I walked away with the entire pot ;)  Hah, so many memories with good people.

drawing

Aiden just started an after school cartooning class and boy does he love it!  He has been coming home with so many doodles all year, but check out the expressions he's getting out of his drawings lately ;)

brain chase

Brain Chase continues...duh, duh, duh... we have no real guesses on where the actual treasure is hidden, but we've completed some pretty cool projects.  This experiment with milk, food coloring, and a qtips of dish soap was really fun.  The molecules repel and move around as you combine all the ingredients thanks to the fat in the milk.  Then he even printed his Kadinsky like circles on paper.  The art assignment was to sculpt a bar of soap.  Aiden used all sorts of kitchen tools to make a pretty schnazzy owl.

lego night

Aiden's school hosted Lego night again this year.  15 baby pools full of legos, hundreds of duplos to build a castle, and tons of train track covered the floors... along with giddy kids digging and building and showing off their creations.  We also got to see Aiden's paper bag house creation that made it into the display case. 

super readers game

We are pretty lucky that just a few miles down the road is the arena that seats 10,000 and hosts tons of concerts and games. It's always easy to park there and get in and out.  Poor J was out with the worst cough in a long time, but we didn't want to miss this GMU basketball game because the boys had an invite to go out on the court before the game. They were hosting a "Super Readers" kid's night celebration complete with capes for kids who read a certain number of books.  Free tickets and a chance to parade around the court, yes please! We waited at the sideline right by the band that was rocking out (the band has three singers!). The boys danced around swirling their capes. The boys marched right out under the big lights and while Keaton struck a superhero pose, Aiden looked kinda shy and wide eyed. The announcer called them "representatives of all Super Readers" and I think Keaton was especially proud and wanted to explain to the security guard that he does actually read.  I was amused by the big green horned "Tuition Monster" by the college savings plan sponsors. Our number was picked by the golden tickets and we won the fuzzy warm bomber hat, and since they won the game everyone got Mason bobble heads.  The game was like a big party with favors ;)

spirit snow

It was Suess week and in honor of Read Across America both boys had special spirit days.  Mustache day in honor of the Lorax where we dug up the mustache shirt and sharpied a pencil stache on Aiden's finger.  Dress like a Suess character where Aiden wore his old AFYP Suess Adventures shirt and some Horton ears.

I finished this shawl scarf in this cool vintage stitch called the Venetian Plait.  It was a knit along with my friend and I'm really happy with it.

Today was the best kind of snow day! School was on since it stuck only to the trees and grass!

pool n yoga

My view from the pool with lotsa visits with two lessons a week with Keaton and one with Aiden (who just passed two levels in one class!). These guys are both swimming for realz now.  The pool will be even more fun this summer.

The yogi toes at the weekly Kidding Around Yoga were expanded this past week when all the big sibs had another day off from school for Election Day.  

bunny fest

You know what goes well with giant inflatable bunnies?! Bunny masks, balloons, ice cream and giant light brites! 

Hey kid, you have a red ninja on your back!

giant bunnies

Yards Park was hosting a mini fest to celebrate the arrival of this art installation of giant blow up bunnies. It was bright and sunny and giant bunnies seem to make everyone smile.