kennedy center

Visiting the Kennedy Center to see a family musical called Me..Jane about Jane Goodall as a child. It was a perfect day for lunch upstairs and a walk around the terrace.

cavern

We visited Luray Caverns where Aiden was Keaton's size last time we visited.  The reflections are the coolest at the Dream Lake (in the photo at the very bottom).  The photo second down on the right was right after the tour guide joked with us that the big fallen piece behind us just fell seven days ago... turns out it was 7,000 years ago.  

valley

The next morning we enjoyed a nice breakfast at the Skylands on their last day of the season. We walked back to our room after breakfast taking a few official steps on the Appalachian Trail.  Then we headed down to Luray to check out the history museum and the caverns.  On our way home we also stopped in Sperryville for some lunch at the Headmaster's Pub and a quick pop in at the Spirit Trail Yarnworks (where I talked myself out of buying any more yarn!). 

visitors

Checking out the view from our room and the visitor's center... where on the way back we say the fluffiest tail deer (his tail stuck straight up!) and three black bears on the side of the road! The bears where hunting or after something up a tree, so they kept scratching up the side of it and showing off their long torso. Getting these junior rangers warmed up for more National Park visits this upcoming year!

sunset

Trying to capture the sunset over the valley!  Check out those fun panoramic where Aiden had the idea for the same person to show up on both sides of the shot (running behind the camera to the other side).

skylands

Shenandoah was a fun holiday mini trip.  We planned to stay the night since the sunsets are my favorite. We enjoyed not just one Thanksgiving meal at Skylands but inadvertently ended up with two turkey dinners that day (since one of the dining rooms was taken over by the buffet and our room included dinner).  

views

We really enjoyed cruising up Skyline drive in Shenandoah on Thanksgiving morning... Check out these views!

good list

Snowman pancakes with bacon scarves!

The doggie that comes to the library for kids to read to is such a sweetheart!

I found a montage video of the Pippin cast that they must have shown at their midnight strike... It had snippets of Aiden having the best time back stage and it was so fun to see him having fun!

The Wonder create your own logo... such a great story all around.

this turkey

Happy Thanksgiving from this turkey and all of us!  He was excited to finally get his photo taken with the grateful turkey at his school's entrance, since we'd missed our chance during his turkey luncheon.

adventures cast

This guy is now in the adventures level class with A FYP, which he is pretty pumped up about.  They are doing a Roahl Dahl original script that includes characters from a bunch of his shows going on a cruise to different islands.  Keaton was cast as Charlie (from the Chocolate Factory) for the show in December.  Here he is at his Barnes and Noble preview show which was a fun glimpse...

recital

Aiden played the William Tell Overture for his individual piece and Rondeau with five students playing in unison on three pianos. There were some concentrated faces!

good list

Those narwhal birthday buddies are settling in nicely along with Otto the duck formerly of Pippin stardom... 

The red kazoo the size of Aiden's forearm makes a nice addition to his collection.

The -ology books are very popular around here.. Aiden hopes to add to his collection because of course there are even more available!

That fun birthday hat from his Pippin surprise party found a very cute home on puppy... 

luncheon

I was able to enjoy two turkey lunches with my boys this past week. The Tom the Turkeys disguised in all sorts of creative costumes line all the walls... along with Aiden's class surprise Pilgrim smiles (remind me of those old JibJab guys). Keaton declared that he wanted his turkey to be disguised as a door... when I finished laughing I asked him what that would look like and he wanted to look up a door drawing online and print out a cut out ;) We were lucky to share our lunch with his very sweet friend Brooke who was so excited to play on the playground after visiting the book fair.  I had three days of work in my yearly retail experience at the very popular book fair.  We have five registers and they are all cooking non stop in 30 min increments when each lunch lets out... pretty busy, like black friday in the school library ;)

good list

Presents from Aiden's birthday party included plenty of gift cards, nerf galore (check out that negotiator), pokemon, minecraft potion, and Dogman books... 

The boys were determined to have a yard sale and it turned out to be a nice donation to Make a Wish and Hurricane Relief... and we made good use of the balaclavas.

Kenton's class is putting together a family quilt with squares from everyone including all their favorite things.  It was interesting what clipart Keaton chose to add that he thinks everyone in our family likes: music, theater, books, fencing, drawing, and traveling...with a map showing where they were born and where we are headed to live for a little while. He was very excited about his fancy B and the butterflies he drew from Bs.

good list

Santa arriving at the mall - it feels so early!  These guys weren't interested in stopping this time, but I'll get them back there.

Aiden's most prized possession right now, a golden kazoo!  That's what he said he really wanted for his birthday and his dad ordered it as a surprise - thanks to Amazon which does really have everything ;)  He also wanted a bike bell and I found a hamburger one also on Amazon that he thinks is hilarious.

The Tom the Turkey Thanksgiving Luncheon tradition continues with Keaton's funny idea to make him hide behind a door ;) These "disguised" turkey guys will be covering the walls at the school luncheon coming up.

We have the M antua Made Market that is hosted by our pool club twice a year, and the boys really wanted to host a yard sale when all the customers are driving past our house. Unfortunately, it was coooold that morning, but they still had a fair number of customers....many of which gave them a donation just for enduring the cold ;)

bday bash

Aiden was thankful we invited all his best buddies - maxing out the D&B's allowed party count with 18 kids coming to take over Dave and Buster's party room! Aiden declared that his party theme was all AWESOMENESS and GAMES!  So there were emojis, dabs, and of course narwhals!  The D&B's prizes even included these awesome narwhals that lotsa kids loved.  It was a big rush for them all to run around playing games and then coming back for some mac and cheese, chicken bites, pizza bites and cookie cake! That superhero emoji was supposed to have the big smile emoji, but they put the grimace smile face - which we all thought was pretty funny! 

spree

In the hustle and bustle of everything Pippin, rehearsing for Suessical, having Halloween fun, we found time to celebrate this guy turning TEN! He had his dreams come true with a shopping spree at Game Stop (where they had a buy one, get one free sale just by chance to help him celebrate!).  Those Feisty Pets look so sweet and innocent until you squeeze their heads and the wicked crazy fangs come out and make everyone laugh!  Although I think his favorite new acquisition was a golden DS3. Then he was excited his grandparents were in town for his actual birthday (the night before Pippin's opening!).  We headed to his favorite Unos where we shared a slice of Ridiculously Awesome, Insanely Large chocolate cake.

class dab

Aiden's class enjoyed a big batch of Duck Donuts - zebra striped chocolate and vanilla! I'm grateful that his teacher sent me these photos - love the dabs and funny faces!

solo

This snip of Theo's Corner is from the last rehearsal - The quality isn't great, video or audio, but it gives you an idea of that last moment of the show...  I wish I could watch it live every day...

closing

Some big smiles and tears on closing night!  He'd written a note to his director (Ms. Hobson, top right) and joked he was really going to miss everyone and especially Otto, his duck decoy prop.  So she surprised him during the closing by giving him that duck he loves so much!  That favorite photo on the top left pretty much sums up all the emotions of the closing - so touching! What other show could make you love a duck decoy that much!? ;)

Pictured below with Leading Player, Nick D ache, Catherine, Karlee S caggs, and Pippin, Jack Hope well... (tricking the google search bot with extra spaces)

support

This cast was such an awesome, supportive group.  On closing night they have a tradition of hanging envelopes for notes of encouragement.  Aiden wrote little notes on the back of a Mad Lib he wrote with quotes from the show... so fun to peek at some of his notes hanging out when I visited him at intermission to get him pepped up ;)  He sat in that spot outside the dressing rooms reading (mostly Tom Sawyer, Snoopy comics, Muppets graphics novels) during a big chunk of Act I, since his part was predominantly in Act II.  One night he asked for a pillow, but no one wants a Theo that is just waking up from a nap ;)

thankful

We are so thankful for everyone that came to see Aiden's show! Even Keaton saw it three times, that is how much he loved it!  My folks saw it twice!  I only wish I had taken more photos of everyone that came with this giddy tired Theo... but it was so fun to see his buddies especially excited to see him after the show.

Catherine (understudy) and choreographer, Mac Kenna Gordon (bottom right)

great falls 2

The boys appreciate a National Park Visitor Center which is nice to see since we plan to visit so many on our two cross country drives coming up!  The last bit of leaves to throw in from of some nice leaf color... 

great falls 1

On what is probably going to be the last warm day of of a very warm Fall, we fit in a visit to Great Falls with my parents.  It was a little slick on those rocks, but the boys love to climb around on them.  

happy 10th

The whole Pippin cast and crew pulled off a surprise for Aiden's birthday!  He had no idea and even thought I wasn't in on it ;) He said I was a good actress being able to surprise him... I'm just really good at distracting him.  They had the black box theater full of balloons and cards hung on a line with streamers. He loved the big cupcake cake.  Especially nice were all the cards they wrote to him which were so encouraging they nearly make me cry... Jack, who plays Pippin, got him a fuzzy mechanical bunny and said this one isn't a 'flop' (which is part of a scene where he tries to cheer Theo up with a bunny after his duck dies)  The cast has such great kids.  It was such a nice memory I hope Aiden will hold onto and remember.... oh the memorieeees!

pippin

Opening weekend was a huge success for Pippin! Aiden sang his heart out and brought tears to all our eyes... because that chorus from Corner of the Sky is such a good one... 

"Rivers belong where they can ramble 

Eagles belong where they can fly 

I've got to be where my spirit can run free 

Got to find my corner of the sky" 

These photos were taken by one of the Booster moms during the rehearsals and sold as a fundraiser. I love them because they capture so many great moments for Theo. One of my favorite memories was asking Keaton if he wanted to write a message for Aiden on his break a leg encouragement treat they were selling.  He thought for a second and then said I'm going to write "no cussing" - ha!  This is funny because Aiden calls Pippin a dumb-a$$ on stage (after talks about swearing and how we don't swear off stage and it's just for art/comedy...but it is shocking everytime I hear him ;)) So grateful my parents could come down to enjoy the show - twice!  Four more shows this weekend and then we will have to continue to listen to all these ear worm songs we've all come to love!  

williamsburg 1

Woke up at 4:30am to get on a bus for a little less than three hours with a huge group of fourth graders on our way to Williamsburg.  It was November and literally 70 degrees and perfect... The kids really enjoyed impressing their tour guide throughout the morning which made him inordinately happy. 

williamsburg 2

After lunch our tour guide let us go off in small groups for a couple hours.  My group learned about the coffee and tea shop that served liquid chocolate.  They poured mine with a two foot flourish off my cup and I gasped.  It was such a rich treat! The boys enjoyed the game area the most and got pretty good at the ring toss.

halloween night

Halloween night we joined our friends and almost this entire half of the neighborhood on a leaf covered culdesac. Our minion found his buddy ;) The toothless wonder found his jackolantern orange. The biggest smile from Aiden was his attempt to copy Link's pumpkin pose (from Youtube show Good Mythical Morning). They went around with their buddies (and J while I passed out candy) made out pretty well with plenty of candy!

carving

It's the year of the narwhal around here and this guy delivered - The inventor of the shish kabob!

class party

Keaton's class party worked out really well - J was the master of pin the stem on the pumpkin bringing lotsa giggles.  We had fun with coffee filter leaves and static balloons, cereal bracelets, and these funny dancing pumpkin pencil toppers.  It's fun to see how great Keaton's class gets along.