Mama joined a road runners club- primarily because they have 30 races a year that don't charge admission. And they host multiple kid races.
Mama and I ran the quarter mile race. I was one of the oldest in the race. Mama thinks next time I should run the half mile race. But I was the only one who ran in a pirate costume. And probably the only one who had to be dragged across the line because she was scared of the mascot dog at the finish.
Henry ran the big kids' race- the one-miler.
Mama ran the race with him, thinking he might not want to do the course on his own. To prove her wrong, he took off at the start and it took mama a half mile to catch up. He never stopped to walk once and finished the race in 8:50.
Who would have thought a kid with that bad of form could run so fast? We asked Henry why he ran so fast. He said it was because he was only running a third of a 5k, so he might as well run fast.
Georgie did not run a race. You can hardly get pants on that kid on a good day, let alone move in one direction without throwing a fit.
Mama complains about how crazy we can get, but really, we're not so bad. June has recently developed an interest in "doing her homework, " or sitting at the table writing letters. And I just want to do everything June does, just louder and more demanding.
Luckily, when the paint came out, mama had this paint-with-water book on hand.
Henry and June have recently become very concerned that we left most of our stuff at home. So they found a kit of Christmas ornaments and got to work creating.
When did June get to be so big?
Henry had been the leading proponent in the Christmas movement. He's very worried about not having any decorations, so he's been collecting everything to add to the Christmas box. It's going to be a great tree.
The weather has been so nice lately that we didn't want to stay inside. So we headed to the Takoma Park Folk Festival.
They had 7 stages with all kind of great music. Henry figured out how to program the camera to take pictures on it's own. Here's mama and papa dancing to the waltz band in the dance hall. We returned there later for Henry and mama to take part in a contra dance session (that's old-timey English music). Henry only agreed to it because mama promised to buy him a snack from the food truck later.
While they contra danced, we stayed at the coloring table- maybe the best part of the festival.
Later, mama found her calling- taiko, Japanese drumming. It looks pretty fun. All in all, a great day was had by all.
Mama found out that the National Geographic Museum was having a family festival (and free admission).
The real reason for the festival was the opening of the 1001 Inventions exhibit. But our reason was the Titanic exhibit.
Did you know that James Cameron (the director of the Titanic movie) is actually an expert in deep-sea exploration? The exhibit combined many props from the movie and a lot of footage of the wreck of the Titanic uncovered by Cameron.
If you didn't know, I am OBSESSED with the Titanic. I've read all the books in the library we can find about it. We walked through the exhibit 4 times.
I keep begging mama to let me watch the Titanic movie. She says someday I'll understand it's not really about the ship.
Mama says someday she will mock us with "I'm the king of the world" jokes.
After our third time through, we stepped outside for lunch.
We had to eat packed lunched while mama and papa got to eat off the food trucks.
Inside there were musicians.
And tons of crafts! We made marble paintings (with whipped cream and paint), tiled blocks, learned printmaking.
Made possible only by the fact that our very fussy little sister, who apparently really hates cultural tourism, fell asleep. 2 hours to us!
I was setting up an elaborate scene with my Littlest Pet Shops and kept telling mama it was called "Sold Set Separate." Mama couldn't figure out what it meant until Henry explained I was saying "Sets Sold Separately." Apparently, I've been watching too many commercials on the TV at the gym.
Mama is very proud of her french braids. I'm going as a pirate for Halloween.
JoJo's few hairs are getting long enough to pull back. She's going as Draco Malfoy for Halloween.
June has been talking non-stop about how this year she's going to a new school and how when we get back to South Carolina, she's going to elementary school with Henry.
We couldn't get to school fast enough for June.
JoJo, on the other hand, preferred to take her time. Her favorite thing to do is walk on the curb like a balance beam. It makes any walk start slowly.
We made it. This year June is in the Tiger class and is going to school 3 mornings a week. Georgie is in the Panda class and goes two days a week.
I don't know about you guys, but mama is from the midwest, and they love a parade out there. So for the Labor Day Parade in Gaithersburg, she made us pack up early so we could get a good spot. When we got to the parade route, we had to ask someone if we were there on the wrong day. Nary a body in sight.
So we set up our blankets and ate our lunch figuring others would show up.
We took a walk downtown (where there were some people waiting for the parade). Like June's hair? She's discovered how french braids after a bath yields bumpy hair int he morning.
With minutes to go, this is still how the parade route looked.
But the good thing about a deserted parade route is that everyone throws tons of stuff at you.
Commemorative coins? I think I will!
Everyone waved right at us and honked if we asked them to. June perplexed the driver of this truck by trying to tell him that his lights were the same color as her unicorn's horn (white).
Probably the best part of the parade were all the Bolivian dance groups.
Everyone else might have bailed because it was so hot, but the Bolivians brought it- in full costume, no less.
We had our pick of the candy until Henry got a belly ache and mama noticed that June had three suckers in her mouth at once. Then they made us put the rest away.
A clown gave us some glasses.
And the Confederates also made a good showing.
During a lull, I showed off my jumping skills. I also like to do this when I'm throwing a temper tantrum, which makes it pretty hard to take me seriously. Also, look at the back of my legs. Any time it gets above 80 degrees (and today it was), my whole body turns bright red and everyone worried I'm getting sunburnt. Luckily, it goes away once I cool down.
And more Bolivians!
Mama says she has a new culture to love now. Look at how pumped these guys are to be in full sweaty costume on a 95 degree day.
We'll save our hijinx for home and the air conditioning.
I've been dying to have a lemonade stand outside our apartment.
So I made signs and helped mama make lemonade and cookies. Then I begged her to have the stand set up so I could sell to the kids walking home from school. June also came down with her ponies and tried to sell hair barrettes to the kids.
It was a very successful day. I made $13, thanks to the quarters from the kids and the few generous adults that stopped and bought a couple dollars worth of snacks. (Zoom in on the picture and check out June's face- she's mad no one would buy hair barrettes.)
JoJo wasn't interested in helping out at the stand. Instead she practiced squats on her booster seat.
And in case you think our days are full of funny jokes and cuteness, we came across this video that's a pretty good indication of how most of the interactions between the girls end up.
A while back, we were in at the Halal grocery and made friends with another kid waiting to get the head chopped off an animal. His mom and mama exchanged numbers and planned to meet up. Much to mama's chagrin, the plan was hatched to take the kids to a local garden to see the "Wings of Fancy" butterfly exhibit. You might know that mama HATES butterflies. A college friend once reduced her to tears by holding a moth in front of her. So to review-
This is no problem.
But this is reducing mama to cold sweats and dry heaves just looking at the picture.
But this is the year of saying yes, so mama agreed to meet up and pay money to let these disgusting creatures flap around her face. (gag)
We were all very fascinated by the table where you could hold dead butterflies.
JoJo really wanted to hold one.
I finally mustered the courage to take one. Mama said "no way."
The best part of the exhibit was the butterfly chair. We spent most of our time there. Being in a greenhouse, it was pretty hot. and it doesn't take much to turn Georgie into a sweaty mess.
Jo, Shriya, June, Arjun, and Sujata. I like Arjun a lot because we have almost the same name.
So how did mom do? She made it. She didn't scream when the butterflies got close to here, but she did wiggle around alot to make sure none were landing on her.
She was much happier to get outside. So much in fact that walking four kids across the gardens to use the bathroom without incident was (literally) a walk in the park. Mama says now that she's said yes to a butterfly exhibit, she never has to do it again, right?
