Monday, May 16, 2011

Future BMXers

Near our home is a plot of cleared land.  I think someone was planning to build townhomes before the real estate market crashed.  So the land had just remained empty for the past few years.  We've seen people riding dirtbikes and four-wheelers there and decided to take the kids on their bikes and give it a whirl.

Caroline wasn't so sure about riding around in the dirt and mud.

But she gave it a little try.

Whit had fun riding around, but didn't try anything crazy.
She's a smart girl.

Brandon was all over the place.

He might not like roller coasters,
but he is a little daredevil on his bike.

Wheelie.

Woo hoo!

And I'm happy to report that there were no major injuries.
Took me back to my days of riding bikes 
around the desert with my brothers.
Good times.

Saturday, May 14, 2011

Caroline goes to the dentist

Caroline had a BIG first:  a visit to the dentist's office.  She was extremely excited about it and talked about it for days beforehand.  "Is it Tuesday yet, Mom?  Do I get to go to the dentist today?"  That's my girl!  I was surprised because she is my only child with doctor anxiety.

 She was happy as could be!

Until Miss Alice actually wanted to put tools in her mouth.
Then she got a little hesitant, but hung in there.
Way to go, Care Bear!

The funniest part was how much she LOVED her 
"goodie bag" with new toothbrush, paste, and floss. 
She carried it with her non-stop for the next three days.
Even out to dinner.

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Talented

Our church's annual talent show was last week.  Unfortunately, Andrew was out of town which messed up my plans for a fabulous performance with Michael and Shelley.  Maybe next year.  Whitney and Brandon both shared talents.  Whit sang "Part of Your World" from The Little Mermaid.



She loves to sing!  But not to be reprimanded.


And Brandon played two songs on the piano:  
Ode to Joy and Toymaker's Dance.

His piano lessons are going so well and it was fun to see him sharing.

This year, there were tables set up to share visual talents as well.  Whitney shared two pieces of artwork that she's done in Mrs. Bettini's class.
 A self portrait

And a painting of vegetables.
(My personal favorite!)


Way to go, kids. You rock!

Friday, May 6, 2011

Maryland friends

Our friends, Christian and Mandi, have moved from NY to Maryland.  When I checked Mapquest to see how far they were from Williamsburg, it was a quick three hour trip.  Three hours?  Piece of cake.  We checked out of our hotel and hit the road.  But then we hit the DC traffic.  And it started SEVENTY miles away from our destination.  D'oh!  Ended up taking us six hours.  And reminded us of another reason we're grateful to live in a mid-size city and NOT a big one.  :)

We had a fabulous (but way to short) visit with Christian, Mandi, and their girls.  And celebrated Easter early. 


 We hunted for eggs.

 Enjoyed our spoils.

 Had fun with Christian's ipad.

 Had even more fun with the Barbie jeep.
(Caroline did a lot of driving on this vacation.)

 Brandon's manliness did not deter him from taking a turn.

 Chased each other around the park.

 Threw alley-oops.
(How do you spell THAT?)

 And dunked.

 Also colored eggs.
That weren't quite hard boiled.
We found that out the hard way.
When Christian and I dropped several.
Oops.

 And we did all that in less than 24 hours.
Phew.

Next time our visit will have to be longer.
And can we take a helicopter?
Any other ideas on how to avoid that nasty traffic?

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

A few more Busch Gardens pics

Andrew did a great job documenting the highlights and funnies of our Busch Gardens trip.  But there were a few pics that didn't fit into his running diary that I still wanted to document.

Andrew going for the tie in the 3-point in contest.

 Waiting in a little darkened corridor for the child swap.

B going crazy on the whack-a-mole game.

 He won!
And got this cute little monkey.

Riding the tea cups while Andrew
took his life in his hands on Apollo's chariot.

 He survived.
Just barely.

 A little snippet of Celtic Fyre.
LOVED this show.

 So did C and W.
This was their reenactment when the show was over.

 The bald eagles.
Awesome.

 Drew and B-train going hands free on the Grover coaster.


Waiting to ride Oscar's Wiggly Worms, the only ride we all did together.
 It was fun!

Weeee!

As we were leaving, Andrew noticed that our mugs were
right next to each other in the gift shop.  Awwwww.

Sunday, May 1, 2011

Out of the Mouths of Babes--April

4/3--In the bath today, Caroline told Andrew, "I'm afraid I'm going to turn in to a cookie."
 Recently diagnosed with cookiemorphophobia:
the fear of turning into a cookie



4/7--This is not the confession you expect to find written by your children in the shed chalkboard:
I would not have pegged any of them as felons.

Who do you think it was?

Could this have been the getaway car?

4/17--Having Whit's birthday soon before hers, Caroline has embraced the idea of birthday wish lists.  She spouted hers off to me today.  She wants, "A teddy bear, an Ariel talent (?), a picture of our whole family, some flowers, a little house, and a little blankie to cuddle with."  

She knows what she wants.
And has pretty reasonable requests.
Except for the Arial talent.
What's that?

4/19--I was trying to talk Whitney into eating a fruit or veggie for a snack, but our options were limited.  She told me, "I don't like cantaloupe and carrots leave a bad aftertaste that feels like my mouth is on fire."   

 Recently diagnosed with veggiefruitaphobia:
fear of fruits and vegetables.

4/21--Our hotel in Virginia served breakfast in the mornings.  Before we went down today, C was already planning out her meal and said she wanted cranberry juice to drink.  I tried to talk her out of it and said, "I don't think you'd like cranberry juice.  It's very tart."  She said, "I like tart things...pop tarts...rock stars..." 

4/22--Whitney began to write and illustrate a story during our drive.  She is a great writer.  Here's a sample:

 The Woodpecker Goes to McDonalds
One day a woodpecker was not hungry for bugs.  He wanted A hamburger, A fruit parfae, and a snack wrap.  So he went to McDonalds.  He wanted to eat at home.  He took the fly through. [to be continued]

Apparently got that talent from her Dad.

4/28--Caroline has been completely obsessed with planting flowers.  She asks if we can plant some almost every day.  I told her we had to wait until after spring break.  She was thrilled to help me pick out three types, which we already planted.  I also wanted some Gerbera daisies (my favorite!), but have run out of pots to plant them in.  I said, "I really want those daisies, but I don't know where I'd plant them."  Care Bear knew exactly where they should go and excitedly yelled, "I know--the mud!  The mud!" 

Random photos for the month:
A kid who rides BMX professionally visited
B's school for career day.
And now B has a new aspiration.


 He's off to a good start.

Check out that face.
Love it.



W's favorite trick

How Caroline entertained herself while
I packed the van for our trip.

And here are some of the faces
Care Bear made during our Easter photo shoot.


She has a flair for the dramatic.