Go O's!- Mama/

We suckered Miss Leah into coming over and watching the kids so we could go up to Baltimore and see an Orioles game at Camden Park.  We hate to speak ill of other ball fields, but everyone (including you, Great American) could learn something from Camden Yards.  What a great ball park!

It even prominently featured local beer and its ridiculous one-eyed mascot. 

It was a short game, so we took advantage of our babysitter (you're the best!) and stopped by at the bar right across the street for a quick National Bohemian.  Nothing tops off a great night of baseball quite like drinking a $2 beer on a closed street.

Well done, Baltimore.

First day of school!- Jo.

Why is mama so happy?

 Because lately, things have been sounding like this at home.  And August 27th was the first step toward everybody getting a break from each other-

 Henry's first day of school!

This year, Henry started in 2nd grade at his new school.  We had him tested over the summer and had a talk with the principal and decided 2nd grade was the best option for him.

We could hardly get him to sit still for a picture because he was so excited to set off.  Henry gets to walk to school and home every day.  (Don't worry Grandmas, there are crossing guards and someone goes with him.)

And he walks home with his friends (there are at least 50 kids in our complex that go to his school) in the afternoon and mama meets him out front.  He loves his new class and especially loves the library.  The librarian is great about working with kids to find books they'll like.  And you can even go to school early in the morning to visit the library if you finish your book before your class' library day.  

House art- June.

You know it was only going to be a matter of time.  Bare white walls, a wide open schedule and unlimited access to Pinterest was all mama needed to start a new project- sprucing this place up.

So she headed to Michaels (it's our second most frequented store, right behind the foreign grocery circuit) and stocked up on all the supplies she needed.

Add a little liquid courage to steady her hand...

... and mama was well on her way.

What do you think?  I like them, but often point out that mama still needs to paint in the faces of all the Beatles.

Henry wanted to get in on the action and painted this map of the Washington Metro system.  Mama painted the lyrics (thanks Pinterest). 

Last up, Jo got in on another Pinterest inspired project.

Does she love to paint!
Take heart- we were able to scrub all of that paint off sweet Jo.

After a while, she got tired of painting the canvas and moved on to the newspaper.

The chair still bears a remembrance of Jo and her paintbrush.

After those thick layer of paint dried, mama peeled off all the stickers he put on the canvas.  Here's our final masterpiece.
 

Mama has a painting project planned for me, but as usual, I don't want to do anything anyone else wants me to do.  Instead, Georgie and I have been taking turns wearing this lovely frock that used to belong to mama and recently celebrated its 25th anniversary.  (Recognize this, Aunt Kathy?  Why don't you get your wedding dress out and you can come dance with the girls?)

We never get tired of taking videos of JoJo singing. 

Manassas- Henry.

The end of a very long summer was starting to get to mama, so papa decided to take us big kids out for a day before mama locked herself in the bathroom and refused to come out.  

First, we visited the off-site Air and Space Museum to look at all of the planes and space shuttles that are too big to fit downtown.  Next, we decided to swing by Manassas Battlefield because- well, why wouldn't you go visit a Civil War battlefield if it was so close?

This little guy was so excited about Stonewall Jackson, he couldn't resist joining us for a picture.

How lovely.

We are going to get a ton of stamps in my National Parks Passports book before this year is over!

Back at home, June has become very adamant about "doing her homework" every afternoon.  She's turned into quite an artist and has given us hundreds of pages of pictures she's drawn.  (This is new to all of us because I've never been very interested in coloring or drawing for more than 2 minutes.) But every afternoon, June settles in with a pencil and paper and gets down to filling the page with tiny As. Ms, Ns, Hs and Ts.  Periodically, she'll ask how a word is spelled and will write it down, but mostly she sticks to those letters.  When we try to tell her she should try other letters, she merely states that the words are spelled exactly right.

On this day, she had her apple school dress on and was working while she sang her new favorite song- "Stacy's mom has got it going on."  (Don't get mama started on the recent debate about what music is appropriate to listen to while the world's greatest lyric memorizer is in the same room.)

Last week before school- Jo.

The high school down the street was hosting a Back to School Festival and mama thought it would be nice to walk down.  Unfortunately, no one checked the radar and the lightning started right after we arrived.  Mama insisted it would blow over, so we took cover under an awning at the school.  

We started to get worried when the rains turned torrential and that big puddle behind us started inching closer.  Luckily, some teenage girls ran over with ponchos and mama was able to run the half mile home to get the car.  (Hooray the kindness of strangers!)  This ended so much better than the time mama locked us out of the apartment while papa was in downtown DC with no cell phone and the apartment office was closed.  (We invaded Miss Leah's house and eventually got someone to let us in.)

Mama got one of those daily deals for Ben and Jerry's ice cream.  And we had no problem getting through the $20 amount we had to use.

Mark this down as the first time mama couldn't finish her ice cream.  Luckily, she had three kids who couldn't get enough.

Now on to the controversial part of today's blog.  Our apartment complex is 253 feet down the road (we checked google maps) and across the street from the girls' new preschool.  One day after a playdate at the school, Henry asked if he could walk home with June since he'll be walking to school this year.  (His new school is right next to the preschool.)  So mama watched from the car and tailed them the whole way home.  Henry and June held hands, waited patiently at the crosswalks, and were very careful the whole way home.  

Of course, I had to ride in the van with mama.  That's so unfair!

 

But what is fair is this new Indian spice box that Aunt Katie and Uncle Adam sent us.  It showed up around my birthday, so everyone has dubbed it "JoJo's spice box."  And that's appropriate because I do like to stand in the kitchen and play with all of mama's spices.  

Here's and old video from South Carolina that papa took back in May.  But even though it's old, it captures the essence of June perfectly.  Entitled "Dangerous Water."  That alone should be enough to get you to watch it.

Jo Jo's 2nd birthday!- Henry.

We got home from the beach on Jo's birthday.  And she'd been in Ohio with Papa and June.  They got home at 2am.  And she was a huge grump.  So we called off her birthday party and decided the 19th would be a do-over birthday.

The 19th was also the last day of Ramadan.  And you know how mama loves a theme meal, so Jo's bithday dinner was a Moroccan Eid feast.  (Really, that was the grown-up meal.  We ate hot dogs.)

Mama was so busy celebrating a Muslim holiday that she didn't have time to make Jo's cake.  Instead we got this yummy German chocolate cake form the store.  Look close and you can see "JoJo" written in sprinkles.

Here's the birthday girl and Olivia.

June is so excited for cake!

Let's sing!

She never quite got the idea of blowing out a candle, but she did like singing to herself.

Let's eat!

JoJo had a special present form South Carolina.  Miss Juliet got her all of these Dora decorations before we moved.  A store-bought cake AND themed plates and napkins?  This officially moves this into the realm of the fanciest party we've ever had.

A store-bought cake AND themed plates and napkins?  This officially moves this into the realm of the fanciest party we've ever had.

Next up- presents.  JoJo was surrounded by some very excited siblings that essentially opened allof her presents for her.

But she didn't notice as long as mama got all of the presents out of the package quickly.

She loves her new Tiana doll.  Thank you, Olivia!

You better believe we polished off our cake and begged for more!  When's the next party?

Beach vacation- Part 2- Henry.

Did you know I like to swim?  

Neither did I.  Last year, I'd doggy paddle a little, but mostly I'd cling to mama and papa with my razor sharp fingernails.

This year, I was a fish.  

I loved swimming in the ocean, especially when I had a boogie board and I was out in the deep with Maggie and Holly. 

At papa's suggestion, mama got me a pair of goggles and a snorkle.  I really liked them, but my favorite thing to do was have mama wear them and watch me underwater as I swam across the pool underwater with my eyes open.

By the end of the week, I was swimming in the 8 foot deep end with no life vest.  It was so much fun.

The goggles ended up being a great investment, because mama has never properly learned to swim and still plugs are nose.  The goggles covered her nose and made it a lot more fun to play with her in the pool.

Check out how tan my legs got compared to my milky thighs.  

 

One day, we rode into town with Miss Maggie.  Mama and I read books while Miss Maggie got some work done at the coffee shop.  Then we all went out for lunch at a 50's diner.   

Our favorite night was the night of the thunderstorm.  

Those are some ominous looking clouds rolling in over our condo.

We all spent a lot of time trying to get the lightning strikes on film, but the real treat came about two hours later when a bog cloud out over the water produced some spectacular lightning shows.

Mama got these using a really long exposure time.  There were probably about 8 lightning bolts in the clouds during each shot.

I was so excited that I got to come out of bed to watch the storm with the moms.

On the last night, mama promised to take me mini golfing.  

 If this isn't proof of a good vacation, I don't know what is.  We can't wait until next year!