more great wolf

Great Wolf is really a treat and even more than just the water fun! Once they jump out of the lazy river, water slides, or wave pool, these boys cannot get enough of the dry land fun. Aiden earned master magi and Keaton beat the red dragon this time! Aiden figured out how to navigate it all and essentially completed every rune and challenge, so he can move from Magiquest to Shadowquest next time. They added a new adventure with your stuffed friend that activates another scavenger hunt throughout the building. It was cute and sends you photos so I liked it too ;)

great wolf

We took one last summer road trip down to Williamsburg. The boys have been dying to go back to Great Wolf Lodge so we planned a very early birthday visit for Aiden. He got the special paw pass just like Keaton where he got a new magi topper, an etched leather wand, a cape, a new stuffed friend (which now has a microchip that leads you on a new scavenger hunt), and access to games and bowling. This place is pretty much made for the Brennan boys because they love everything about it.

echo

We ventured over to Glen Echo on a beautiful day to catch the last showing of Garfield the Musical!  The set and costumes were just like the comic strip in real life. It is a great setup where there isn't a bad seat in the house. We took a spin on the carousel, played on the playground, peaked in at the pottery studio, and topped it off with some popsicles.

strasburg

When asked what thing he "looked forward to the most," Keaton enthusiastically told the radio host live on national radio that it was "riding a train!" It was a little unclear if he just meant the metro, but I think the Strasburg Railroad did not disappoint. We took the cruise on the first train of the day on the most beautiful summer day with the windows wide open. The 50 cent train ride-on and playing in the Thomas the train store topped off our fun visit.

dutch

After some really hot weather cleared out,  we made it to Dutch Wonderland and it turned out to be a really good match because both boys were eligible to ride every single ride offered at the park. So that meant that Aiden could still squeeze on the Whirly Whirl kiddie whip and Keaton was tall enough to ride his first big coaster.  My favorite are the diving shows in the water arena - for some reason the hokey show reminds me of many shows at Seaworld in my childhood, minus the whales ;)  The boys loved blending right in with the very realistic moving dinosaurs on Exploration Island. They also loved digging and sifting for sharks teeth, fossils and minerals - which Aiden carefully matched with the chart.

tidbits

The last of the summer reading library shindigs was this One Man Band guy. He had the kids grooving! Keaton randomly started the choo choo conga line ;)

The hose in the backyard on a warm day is always fun, minus the bug bites...

We've nearly doubled our geocache finds the past few weeks! We even met our old buddies again to cruise around west of town for all sorts of grab and go finds. I think Jack wins the youngest geocacher award.

We found this tiny nano magnet cache at the library under a bench. Pretty cool tiny log roll!

Swinging on the rings is a favorite for these guys...

balls!

The National Building Museum has a different special event each summer (architecture firms that setup cool mini golf holes), but this year they installed the very popular DC Beach. It is considered an art installation full of white balls and structures. It is wildly popular! We went on a weekday expecting it to be less crowded, and got in without much of a wait, but it was at its 400 person capacity nearly right away (I think the tourists were on it!) Now I expected to be able to hop in and "float" all around, so we headed straight to the edge of the "pier" and hopped in... Plunk, and you are essentially stuck in nearly four feet of balls with nothing to push off against.  It was sorta hilarious and scary all at the same time. Eventually you could squeeze a foot to the bottom and trudge along, but the kids needed to be rescued nearly every 30 seconds. They would disappear as they sunk down and just a little hand or foot would shoot up for someone to yank them up. Thank goodness J was there to help rescue all of us. We hung out in the shallow spot since it's all on an incline. After we picked up some snacks (marshmallow s'mores pops) from their food truck setup. Then we got an aerial view from the Play zone upstairs. We love the NBM, but even more when it's nearly empty. And I guess we will leave the ball pits to the kids...

bday tidbits

My boys got the memo that it was my birthday and everyone (and their good behavior) was on board for a nice birthday full of treats. J and I both like to spread out gifts and why wait until a specific day to share some birthday cheer?! The boys both crafted for me and I can't tell you how charmed I am that Aiden can sew now! He hid himself in his bedroom and stitched away at that stuffed owl kit on a couple different occasions with a few bits of help from his dad (whose sewing knowledge is probably on par with Aiden's now). It is such a fun surprise treat! Keaton drew on this schnazzy new bag and he was very proud to carry it to the library. J found a shirt with tiny words from one of my favorite books, Jane Eyre, which was a surprise among other gifts like a new Fire stick for the tv.  The cookie cake with another owl was a huge treat we all got to share.  So grateful to my sweet family and friends that all wished me happy birthday too!  It's so great to catch up a bit with friends near and far and I even found out about three new babies on the way on my birthday too!

sci lab

The new Children's Science Lab setup at the mall is right up the Brennan boys' alley. You could see the excitement on their faces and even more smiles when Keaton dubbed himself scientist kid.  The majority of our time was spent with our chairs pulled up to the Experiment Bar to enjoy the current menu of experiments: Magnetic Slime, Bubble-ology and Floating Rainbow. The magnetic slime is still a hit here at home. The Tinker Shop had a wind tunnel to test out some hover crafts and a chance to play an electric piano by conducting electricity through your fingertips into the magnetic slime.

good list

Pizza party at the pool complete with the neighborhood band playing and I don't just mean Keaton on the play shovel ;)

This spiffy new wooden board from my seester who really pays attention as we cruise around the art fest and finds the best birthday present!

Kondo's Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up is like a phenomenon that can't be avoided in the mommy blog world. I read excerpts and even though I didn't start talking to my clothes, I did purge. Lining up my clothes on their sides has made it so much easier to find what I need.

The CTY Alumni network posted this old photo from the year J and I met in Rhode Island - It is a #tbt to 2001! You can find us in the Where's Waldo shot in the upper left corner.  I think this was taken as we headed out to the 4th of July parade.

Our intrepid geocaching buddies went back to the tricky cache by the newspaper stand we couldn't find after we got a hint online from a really nice guy. Turns out it was a really cool one hidden behind a flat white magnet!

J and I had a chance to play tourist in DC and take a segway tour all around.  It was a breezy day with the highs in the 80s so it was perfect for a cruise around town.  The boys were with their favorite babysitter who happens to be the sister of Aiden's friend, so it was one big party all afternoon for them!

more bw brothers

Some more black and white brother moments...

intl cache day

It was International Geocache Day this past Saturday. In 2015, we are celebrating the 15th year since GPS signals were descrambled, increasing the accuracy of GPS devices worldwide by ten times and the first geocache was hidden.  To celebrate, we headed out to Frying Pan Farm where we knew the kid's geocaching camp had hidden many different caches many years ago.  We found two before getting too sweaty and hot.  We peeked in at the animals trying to stay cool. The boys also took home a new stuffed raccoon and bat from the general store to celebrate.

bw brothers

Been a while since I've posted some brother shots... Top shot is their brother sandwich, Aiden is the peanut butter and Keaton is the jelly.

art show

Keaton finished out a week of Abrakadoodle's "Paws, Claws and Hooves" Art Camp with an art show.  He was so excited to give us our invitations the other day. When we walked in all the kids were sitting in front of tables full of all their hard work... and the best part is that in unison they all roared at us from behind their lion masks. Then all the kids shared their favorite piece of art from the week. Keaton's was his lion mask and unicorn horse.  My favorite was the bear paw stamper he created to stamp all over his tissue paper forest.

cache

These old buddies were out on a geocache hunt!  We managed to find the first one we looked for thanks to some very persistent big kids, while the little kids played on the playground.  Then we tried to find two more but we were thwarted by a high creek bed and one that is super tricky near a newspaper stand.  They did find a pokey caterpillar on the fun playground. They were quieter with that ice cream in their hands than any other time that day ;)

magic show

Lotsa magic shows around here lately... with very enthusiastic assistants ;)
Abracadabra! from LB on Vimeo.

good list

Our two weeks of day camp have ended but it was a nice way to break up the summer a bit in between trips and summer fun.  Both the boys called into the radio station on our long morning drives to the spot that I thought would be closer (darn traffic!) I wish I had Keaton's recorded but they never replayed it like they did Aiden's... but he was sharing what he was really, really looking forward to - and it turns out he can't wait to ride a train! He told her about how he loves the metro and can't wait to visit the big train.  She asked him which one and he said Strasburg with the cutest four year old pronunciation. So i guess Keaton picked another summer adventure we need to go on soon...

The Draw 50 books Aiden had at school were missed, so we got a bunch out from the library. We found his schnazzy pencil set and he has been having fun... He says he's working on his shading.

This big moth/butterfly guy greeted us one day at camp drop off and he was still there at pickup. Aiden was nervous getting so close to him but wanted to show that he was bigger than his head!

Lemonade at the thai restaurant with the comfy chairs and a visit to the new square park in downtown Fairfax.

Reading with daddy at the library is just as fun as bedtime.

This dragon and knight can entertain themselves for quite a while.

magic

alexandria

It was a beautiful day for a visit to Old Town. We cruised first to the still new Sugar Shack for their light, crisp donuts that were yummy despite the lack of chocolate flavors. Then a visit to Why Not to check out the toys, a walk through the farmer's market and the Torpedo art galleries. The magician charmed the boys and really shocked Aiden by pretending a coin fell out of his nose. Then we stumbled upon the Irish Festival right on the water.

selfies

Some selfies for this summmmer sundaaaaay...