Here's a new DC blog for you.

Henry took up a free lance job today.  Apparently, mama isn't doing a very good job of keeping up with the blog, so Grams said Henry should keep a blog and offered a modest weekly wage for his work.  (I think this is the modern day equivalent of getting a journal on the first day of summer vacation.)

Henry has a serious goal of earning enough money to by this bad boy.  It costs $100.  We told him we'd pay $30 if he could earn $70.  He only has $23.54 to go.

So swing on over to Henry's new blog for his first post- a very thorough overview of our apartment as told by our future tour guide.

Henry's picture blog of Rockville/Washington DC and home

We are still here! And we promise to be back!

We haven't abandoned the blog and we hope you haven't abandoned us.  We're all moved and settled in Rockville and I have a new power cord for my computer so we're back in action.  It's going to be an active week of blog madness!

When we left off, June was spending a week in Ohio with Grams and her cousins.  Aunt Jill was a real sport with all three kids.

Sadie and June.  On the way up to Ohio, June and Grams stopped in West Virginia to stay with Great Aunt Joann and Great Uncle Dean.  There, she managed to acquire several pieces of costume jewelry from Joann and Great Aunt Lillie, as well as this very large headband that she insisted on wearing everywhere.  She still talks fondly of her visit to the holler and feeding cornbread to the fish in the creek under the driveway with Uncle Dean.

 At home, life was a breeze with just two kids, especially with Henry in school for half days.  Henry and I passed our time playing long games of Battleship.  I don't think Henry has lost at this game yet.  I don't know how he can be so good at a game of chance.

 George is finally growing some hair in, so we made a little fountain.  It instantly makes her look much older and looks a little funny because she has her long layer of baby hair and another layer growing in underneath it.

 After school was finally out, we went up to Winston Salem to visit our good friends, the Paytons, to meet up with papa, who'd been at Wake forest for a conference, and to do a switch off with Grams to trade June for Henry.  It's a great time at the Paytons now because all the kids are old enough to play on their own, are fairly tolerant of JoJo and generally leave the adults alone for long periods of time to every each others' company.  

 And as a reward for sticking around after our long absence, here are Henry's school pictures.  It's like someone pushed his half grown out mohawk forward and told him to give the goofiest smile ever.

 This photo alone will be featured on awkward photo websites for years to come.  A terrible background, a clearly uncomfortable kid, and a "very handsome" wardrobe choice.  Matching plaids are always in, in Henry's book and the blue socks/black shoes combo is inspired.

And just in case we hadn't dropped the $40 on these shots yet (we didn't), there was a collage!  Future Henry, I'm sorry, but I will display this at every party in your honor for the rest of your life.

Henry's school program- Mama.

Papa was out of town, so I got an early morning babysitter and headed to Henry's class for the end of year program.  

It was supposed to be outside, but it was raining, so 42 kids and their parents all squeezed into one room.

First up, the "Read a Book" song.

You can't really see Henry in any of these videos, but he's the one in front of the pink hairbow and behind the ponytail with glasses.   You'll catch a glimpse of him from time to time.

It seems Henry's class has officially made the switch over to bigger kid songs rather than the cute little kid songs I like to hear at the preschool programs.

While you can't see Henry in this silly song about a manatee in your bathtub, you do get to see a few of my favorite boys.  Eamon (yellow) and Maximus Corpus (plaid and the most awesome name ever!).

Next up, the teachers gave out Candy Bar awards to each student.  And with 42 kids, they did a good job coming up with something original for each kid.

Henry got the Milky Way award, because his school work was "out of this world."

Finally, the "Goodbye Song."  This one is pretty cute.  They had the older friends and the younger friends face each other because the older friends will be moving up next year.

Proud kid and greasy, wet mama.  I was at boot camp in the rain at 6:45 and came straight to the school.  (Who's the real hero here?  Our fourteen year old neighbor who came over at 6:30 in the morning to get Henry ready for school and watch the girls.)

Henry and his teachers, Mrs. McAtee and Mrs. Bailey.  We'll sure miss them next year!

We're still here.

We've fallen behind on the blog again.  The good news is we found renters for our house.  The (also good but) crazy news is that they want in the house on July 14th.  So it's going to be a busy few weeks coming up!

We can't compete with Aunt Elizabeth's thoroughness of blogging or Aunt Jenni's craftiness, so we'll just have to go for bizarre.  Here are some videos of Henry dancing.  He really has a gift.

Girls' summer- June.

Henry is in school until June 14th, so it's just us girls for a few weeks.

 Periodically, Jo can get a hold of some of my ponies and I don't go crazy over her touching my stuff.

 Mama let us watch some My Little Ponies together.

 We're touching and no one is crying!

 Since Henry doesn't wear a shirt to bed, June wants to do the same thing.   

 I know there's a lot of these pictures, but Jo is just so cute.

 And so am I.

 I found an eye dropper Henry was using to make baking soda and vinegar volcanoes, so I used it to feed Jo some water.

 The last few weeks of Henry's school haven't been been very productive, but they have been fun.  One day was Pirate Day.  Mama made this vest and eye patch for Henry.  And Henry brought me home an eye patch.

Henry's main focus lately is getting computer time so he can play on coolmath.com.  

Henry went to a birthday party for our friend Andy this weekend.  For a party favor, he got a surprise Lego minifigure.  Guess how surprised we were when it was papa! 

More Memorial Day Weekend- JoJo.

 Mama promised Henry and June that they could have a slumber party in June's bed, but only if they didn't make a peep after bedtime.  Henry read June stories and June talked Henry's ear off, but they didn't come out of their room, so mama let it fly.

 No one ever has a slumber party with me.

 Mama organized a Work Widow's Memorial Day blueberry picking party.  

 Followed up by lunch at CookOut!

 And a blueberry and strawberry upside down cornmeal cake.

 We picked 4 pounds of blueberries and they lasted about 5 days.  

When I wasn't inhaling blueberries, I was chomping down on spaghetti.  Don't I look just like Henry?

Memorial Day Weekend- JoJo.

On Memorial Day weekend, papa was out of town visiting some friends.  

So we hung around home and enjoyed the not terribly hot weather.  Henry built a water table for me to play in.  And I refused to take off my Dora bathing suit for the rest of the day.

Like I said, it wasn't terribly hot, but it was still in the high 80s.  Of course June wore long sleeves.  She suffers for fashion.

Henry insisted on an action shot.

Mama bribed us with potato chips to take a group picture in front of the garden.

Now a goofy one.

I guess it's not so bad being related to these two.

Mama decided to interview June to capture a bit of what makes Junie so unique.  This is worth taking the time to watch.  

Henry loved the idea and wanted to be interviewed too.  He is such a boy now, and not a little kid anymore.