Aunt Jenni!- Jo.

We found the camera.  Mama says goblins must have taken it, because she search the vans 4 times, then the goblins brought it back and put it in the pocket in the door as a joke.  Sure thing, mama.

Aunt Jenni flew in for the weekend a few weeks ago.  She split her time between us and her best friend, Miss Erica.  The highlight of the trip (besides when mama, Miss Erica and AJ went to an Oktoberfest without any kids  (double cheer for papa for watching 4 kids)), was when mama pulled Henry out of school for a day trip into the city.

We started off at the Bureau of Engraving to see how money was made.  Then we headed to our favorite place- the old Post Office Tower.

Right there we knew we nailed the day for AJ.  A factory tour AND climbing steps up a tower?  It doesn't get better than that!

Mama always demands we go to the post office tower because there's a food court int he basement that has any kind of food you'd ever want.  AJ was feeling so good, she treated the kids to ice cream.  

I threw a huge fit when mama tried to feed me the ice cream, but became very happy when I got to feed some to Aunt Jenni.

Henry's famous!

Here's a few of Henry's patented self-timer shots.

These two sure are goofy.

Next up, the American History Museum.

Of course, our favorite part was a Lego table they had set up.  June made a unicorn.

On our way home, mama bribed us for a picture.  Mark it, guys.  We're all looking in the same direction!!!

What was our bribe?  See that green and yellow thing June's running for?

It's the National Mall carousel!  

Don't worry guys, Henry would never do anything as dangerous as actually sit on a carousel horse.  He opted for the seats instead.

I loved the horse but kept getting mad at mama for trying to hold on to me.

Junie (and unicorn) had a great time.

And since it was a Tuesday afternoon in October, we had the whole thing to ourselves!

We've been back to the Mall since this day and I saw the carousel and screamed "Horsies!" and took off running!

Kindergarten training- Henry.

June's preschool sent home a list at the beginning of the year explaining things a 5 year-old should know for kindergarten.  I read it and got pretty worried might not be prepared.  So I've taken it upon myself to make sure June is ready.

I decided work stations would probably be the best approach.  In this one, June has to practice writing her name.

Next up, mama made a number-color-matching station.  (And if you're wondering, Jo is complaining about the fact she wrote all over her hands and it won't wipe off on her shirt.)

June had to match up the correct color and number of beads to each circle.

June liked the stations, or at least when she felt like doing them.  The rest of the time she just tells me to leave her alone because she's doing her own homework (writing letters on a paper).  We did just get a new app for the ipad that let's you practice writing letters correctly, so maybe we can at least get her to stop drawing her J's backward.  (Though she says she does that on purpose because that's how her J's go.)

When we go to the library, mama lets us check out whatever we want.  So June generally checks out all the books she can on reptiles.  On the last trip, mama said she'd exhausted the collection, so June moved on to bugs.  She found this DVD that just shows close-ups of all kinds of bugs.  Mama thinks it's pretty gross looking at them so close.

Georgie likes the bug DVD, but we've recently discovered that if we really want to get something done, she LOVES Yo Gabba Gabba.  You can see how brain dead she is in this picture.  We generally reserve this for Friday mornings when June is at school and mama needs to get things done around the house.  Jo gets very needy when she's alone with a grown-up.  We just hope that awful show doesn't do permanent damage.

September flashback- Henry.

Mama just pulled these pictures off my school website and thought you might want to see them.

My school had a campout in September.  We borrowed Mister Josh's hiking tent.  That's me in the yellow by our tiny tent.

It was supposed to be a campout to promote reading, so we had a few times we were supposed to be in our tents with a book.

The link between reading and camping was storytelling.  See me in the yellow in the middle? And June is sitting on mama.

This lady was supposed to be a great storyteller, but she kept stopping to tell a bunch of 4-8 year olds they needed to be quieter.  Work with the audience, lady. 

The playground monitor took the stage next with his electric guitar and told a story that was about 50 times more engaging than the earlier stories.  Papa came and picked June up around 9 (she was not happy to go) and mama and I settled in with our Harry Potter books by 10.  I hope they do this again in the spring!

Caught up- sort of...June.

Can you believe it?  Mama is caught up with the blogging!  Well, she had a little help, because last weekend we were downtown and she lost our camera.  We're still hoping it turns up because it contains photos that would probably win prizes AND a picture of all three of us looking at the camera at the SAME TIME!  No wonder she lost the camera.  

Here are some pictures she does have.  This is the pumpkin Henry picked out at a church festival we went to.   Grace and Audrey (I still call her Aundrey) came to see us with their parents.  He and Gracie decided to carve it to look like everyone's Halloween costumes.  Pirates for Henry and I, a witch for Grace and Rapunzel for Aundrey.  (You can't see it, but besides the bow, it's painted yellow on the back.)  They put in a lot of hard work on this pumpkin.

On Saturday, we decided to do the full Washington DC experience.  So we headed downtown, started at the Thomas Jefferson Memorial and worked our way around the basin.  Here are all 5 kids at the FDR Memorial.  And we're all smiling!  And looking in the same direction!

 Next up, MLK, which was a first for mama.

We stopped at the District of Columbia World War Memorial for lunch and found the perfect picnic spot.

Next up, the Lincoln Memorial!  We're so glad the Paytons came to visit.  Instead of it being absolute madness like it used to be when we were all very little, it's actually pretty fun now.  And that's speaking from 9 people spending the night in our tiny place.

 The fun really started when we left the Natural History museum.  Papa was a hero and took all 5 of us kids beck to our house on our own.  He left the rest of the adults in DC and met up with a babysitter, so all the grownups could have a night out on our own.  (Looking back, when we lived in DC, we were each other's primary babysitters, so this may actually be the first time the grownups have ever been alone without us.)  Not that they were excited about it or anything.

 They wondered around the city, drinking fancy coffee drinks and refusing to share with anyone.  After papa came back down, they went out to eat, then went to a Father John misty concert.  And didn't even get home until after 1 in the morning!  Not that it stopped us from getting up any later in the morning.  I hope they learned their lesson.

National Museum of the American Indian- Henry.

While mama was living it up in Kentucky, we headed downtown to check a few more museums off our list.

 This time we visited the National Museum of the American Indian on the hopes of seeing some horses on exhibit.

 Don't worry, no one fell in this reflecting pool.

 Or in this one (that's finally fixed and full again).  Though there was a bit of a scuffle over whether it would be June or Dolly in the picture.

 Looks like Dolly won.

 How's about a try for a shot in front of the Capitol?

 Or June's artistic shot of "Dead on the Steps."

 Then we headed over to the Botanical Gardens.

 Can you find Henry in this jungle?

 "It says here they've already started setting up the big Christmas model train exhibit!"

 We've never seen the outside garden (as we've only seen the Botanical Gardens in December).  Turns out there are tons of fun things to do!

 Like water plants!

And get totally soaked!

 And fill up jugs (and listen to your mom wax nostaglic about old pumps like this when she was little one hundred years ago).

 And pretend to be a giant!

This and that- JoJo.

Aunt Katie sent mama this awesome masala dabba to keep spices in.  But mama couldn't narrow it down to just 7 spices that she wanted, so she decided to make it into a boxes for her tea spices.  (Kingkini gave mama a hard time about this, but mama thinks it's pretty handy.)

 

While mama was working on her spices, she didn't notice how tired I was.  Not until I laid down inside the step stool.  Gross.

Luckily, my big sister takes care of me.  She "read" me this book all by herself.

(And if you ever try to get June to sound out words, she'll just say "This is how I read the book" and tell whatever story she wants.)

 Aren't we so sweet?  As long as I have that nuk blocking my whine and I'm not touching any of June's things, we get along so well.

 June just figured out I'm thinking about her unicorn.

June rarely naps anymore.  Instead she uses her quiet time to create elaborate "set-ups" in the bedroom.  And she memorizes every tiny thing she carries around the house.  God forbid she lose unicorn's pillow, toothbrush or toothpaste or the special gold box unicorn uses as a potty.

You probably know that mama does a lot of cooking and loves trying out new foreign recipes.  So for Uganda's Wasteland Day (Independence Day), she made this Olowumbo.  It's chicken, tomatoes and onions stewed in a peanut paste and steamed in banana leaves with steamed plantains on the side.  It's so crazy good.  She even made it a second time that week when Aunt Jenni came out to visit.

With all that cooking, housework tends to fall to the wayside.  Luckily, Henry was willing to step up to do all the things the rest of us hate.  Mama says this was the best dollar she ever spent.

Now if we could just find someone to put away the laundry.