aid

I love the chance to be with Aiden and his classroom friends, and I had a bunch of chances over the last few weeks helping out at the school. It's clear that Aiden can be a pretty muted version of himself when he's concentrating in the classroom.  However, when they are doing fun things or playing on the playground (I love watching him when he doesn't know I'm watching), his personality really shines.  He can make up funny songs about anything on the spot and crack up all his friends. On the last week of school his teacher has everyone put down a blank paper on their desks and their friends come by and put one word they would use to describe that person down. Then she compiles them and the repeated words are shown as bigger on their word bookmark.  I'd say that his is pretty accurate... my smart, funny, fun, creative, hard working, artistic, kind, nice, fantastic, cool Aid.

tidbits

Our friend was selling her tickets to what we affectionately called the Half of Fleetwood Mac concert with Lindsay Buckingham and Christine McVie.  The opener was Wallflowers who I didn't realize I liked so much.  The concert was a good mix of new and old stuff, although a very low key crowd...

The boys enjoying the ice cream social at the pool after the last day of school. Woot!

X Y Z T

A new art space in DC called Artechouse (Art+Tech+House) is hosting an exhibit by Adrien M and Claire B from France called XYTZ. All of the interactive installations were very well done.  There were many reflections and movement reactive exhibits and even some that reacted to you blowing air or making noise. Our imaginations were filled with all sorts of interesting tidbits!

Super dramatic music for the kitschy trailer - da, da, daaaa!

X Y Z T from LB on Vimeo.

tidbits

Grad parties to celebrate, nosh on good food, and bounce their hearts out!  There has also been a stream of going away parties that I don't want to think about, but there are seasons to life...

The ice cream truck is such a treat!  On the first official day of summer we ran after it and this is the nicest ice cream guy!

The kickstarter from the Oatmeal comic strip author for his new card game Bears versus Babies arrived just in time for summer!  These guys just loved the customized funny comic they included on the packing slip.  The game is a hit!

tidbits

Right before school ended I volunteered to help at the Walk for Wishes.  I was in charge of helping the KPMG team and they were so much fun! I want to work there ;)

Birthday parties on the pool deck with cute luau buddies!

The end of the year party with the Kids Care Club had us trying out crayon melting art.  Once we had a technique to catch the splatters it was fun, although I'm still not sure if there is wax in my hair dryer ;)

gtown

They let these pirates wander around Gtown's waterfront a bit with a stop at Baked and Wired for some crazy good cupcakes!  Pirates like to make wishes by throwing pennies in every fountain they see.

pirates

Arrrr, these pirates headed out from Georgetown ready to get the treasure back with the help of water canons and dancing.  

party

Aiden's buddy invited both the boys to join in the epic birthday fun!  His birthday is legendary for the "candy cannon" that rockets candy into the air with a pressurized cannon that involves some sort of compressor.  This thing is amazing!  To top off the foam sword madness, they had plenty of water guns, some with backpacks!  The new addition this year was an epic slip and slide down the sprinkled incline into a perfectly sized pool.  These are the things of childhood memories!

eoy K

The last two weeks of school feel like one party after another for the school buddies.  The End of the Year party is a tradition at the school were the class is hosted by a family that lives within walking distance of the school.  These classroom friends were in full on competitive mode with some giant ring toss and volleying. They had tons of fun at their buddy Kellen's house and it's always fun to get a change of scenery.

eoy 3

What a great bunch for Aiden's third grade year!  These kids are active and engaged, yet just easy going enough that they are always making their teacher happy. The sheer number of watermelons and popsicles consumed in the last week of school is remarkable.

field day 3

The PE teachers put the 6th graders and the parents in charge of all the stations for the day (I think there are 18!).  We joked that it should be renamed bucket day, since almost all the games involve some sort of bucket, you are either filling it with water or tossing something into it.  The highlight is a big pvc pipe contraption hooked up to a basketball pole, called Niagara Falls, where you have to stand under it to fill your bucket with water.  Popsicles top off the morning!

field day K

Keaton's kindergarten class rocking out the water games on a toasty day!  Although, it took Keaton a while to stop asking, "but why are they spraying us with water?!" It was his dad's job to keep track of the score for these three surprisingly competitive kindergartener teams.  

last day

These 1st and 4th graders wasted no time getting off the bus and heading straight to the pool.  There was an ice cream social to attend so the summer hats were out! 

Getting to the end of a great year can be full of emotions!  When Keaton climbed off the bus and saw me he broke down a little bit because he says he will really, really miss his teacher.  All the teachers come out in front of the school and wave at the kids as they ride away on the bus and I think there are many tears (mostly of joy probably - ha!) Aiden made sure he knew that he can always go visit her next year.  Aiden was pumped for summer, but he will miss his excellent teacher too... We were really lucky to have such great teacher matches this year!

family

A rare shot of our whole family with everyone spiffed up and looking at the camera - from the A F Y P 20th Anniversary Celebration earlier this month - I love suits on all three of my boys:

singing in the rain

I realized that I never posted any video from the Singing in the Rain and Little Stars shows from the fall.  Unfortunately, my camera wasn't cooperating very well with the bright lights and focus, but you get the idea - and I got a new camera ;)

Check out Fred Astaire and Sparky the Wolf


SingingintheRainandLittleStars Fall 2016 A F Y P from LB on Vimeo.

mulan

The Little Dragons and Mulan video snippets and some more general photos from the big show. It was fun to see them from the front row ;)

The A F Y P 2017 Little Dragons from LB on Vimeo.
A F Y P 2017 M u l a n from LB on Vimeo.

one sec spring

Snippets from Spring!
One Second Spring 2017 from LB on Vimeo.

would you rather

This shiny eyed guy is getting ready to graduate from kindergarten! His favorite shirt (pictured below a bunch) is getting a little short, but the message will always be big - "Courage will take you anywhere" - I hope he always remembers that!

happy dad

Happy Father's Day!

The boys are lucky to have this motivated, hard working, brave man as their example. Daddy is always the first pick to help out at field day or play a game or read a story...  I miss the days of watching him cuddle little babies, but I look forward to the next stage of parenting with him.

grandpas

Happiest of dad's days to all these grandpas!  To my dad especially, thanks for always sharing your patience, laughs and napkin hoard with us!