iphone dump

Claire loving dinner.

 Claire exhausted after throwing a temper tantrum. She fell asleep right there.

 I love early release Mondays. We spent the afternoon with some friends after school walking around Del Ray.

 Claire loves to eat.

 Claire is eating cream cheese. She picked it right out of the fridge and decided to eat it. Apparently it looked good. She thought it tasted pretty good too.

 Siena and Ben went to Kennedy's 5 bday party at a gym. They loved it! Siena loved it so much she keeps asking me to take her back for classes. At back to school night she drew a picture that said she wants to be a gymnast. I am excited for gymnastics. I think it would be something she is good at.

 Siena is always so excited to hear all about Bens day at preschool. I think she just thinks she is so big and has already done all that stuff. She wants to talk all about it with Ben. Ben got this visor from school and Siena went and got hers so they could be twins. Cuties.

A fun weekend- Saturday

We started off Saturday bright and early going to see Dave run his final leg of the race. It was way far away and took us an hour to get to but they had this amazing playground so we thought it would be worth it. The kids woke up and I threw them in the car as they ate breakfast. We made it there with a couple minutes to spare. We saw him pass the baton to the next runner. The kids loved seeing him. They keep asking him if he was the winner of the race.

 Claire had been missing her daddy. We only got to see him for 5 minutes before it was time for him to go drive to the next stop for the next runner.

Then it was off to the point where Dave had started his last leg. Apparently he had slept at this park that night. It was the coolest park we have ever been to. It was huge. There were so many toys. It was seriously awesome. The theme was adventureland. It had a castle with a mote and a bridge going over it. It had a pirate ship and awesome swings.

 Claire was content playing in this tunnel the whole time.

 Claire also fell asleep on this swing. Crazy girl!

After a fun couple hours at the park we decided that we wanted to hit up the National book fair in D.C. Really this wasn't the best of ideas, but I had told the kids about it and they were excited and we had missed it all previous years so I said we would give it a try. I had forgotten my double stroller and Ben was exhausted. The National Mall was crazy packed and I drove around so long trying to find a parking spot. I kept trying to persuade the kids to just go home and we would get it next year. They weren't convinced. So I conquered the National book fair with 3 tired kids all by myself on a busy national mall. We initally went because the author of Siena's favorite books, The Magic Tree house, was there. We had forgotten Sienas book to get signed but it was so crowded I know now we never would have gotten it signed. We did hear her speak a little bit. I think it was too crowded. We couldn't really see what we wanted to see. We were all hungry and of course all the kid exhibits were right next to the carousel that was way expensive. We did go on the carousel but Ben was sad the whole time because he didn't get to ride the dragon like he wanted to. So I think we will skip the book festival next year, or atleast take Dave with us so we will have 2 adults to conquer it.

We came home early evening and Dave came home shortly after. He is mega sore from the race but the kid are sure happy to see him.

A fun weekend- Friday

Dave had his big RAGNAR race that he has been training for this weekend. He left at 5 in the morning on Friday and came back Saturday at 7pm. He had fun and took lots of fun pictures. I tried to do some new fun things with the kids while he was away.

I told the kids that dad was camping out Friday and they wanted to camp too. I wasn't too sure about it so at 7 at night we went in to the back yard and got blankets and our pajamas on and candy and books and had a fun family book night. We were out there for almost 2 hours. We had a lot of fun. The temperature was perfect. We could snuggle up under the blankets. It helped that we had candy corn to snack on. We read books until it was too dark then got our flashlights out or looked for stars. Surprisingly we could see some stars. The kids loved it. I just thought it would be too cold to sleep out there and they were way hyper from the candy corn so there was no way that they were going to go to bed anytime soon. It was a fun alternative to our family movie night. I would almost prefer this instead of family movie night. I loved hearing Siena read books to us all.

Ben

Ben on the first day of preschool. He has loved preschool. The first day his 2 best buddies weren't there and so he was a little sad. He said he didn't play with anyone that day. I think he was fine really. We went back Wed and he had so much fun. He couldn't stop talking about how much fun he had. A magician had come and made candy appear. He was so excited. He told me all about his day the whole way home from school. This is the complete opposite of Siena. I love that he was so excited to tell me everything. I have to drag everything out of Siena about her day so it is nice to have this change.

 I need help in entertaining little boys all day long. I feel like he is bored with me. I never had this problem with Siena. I realized Ben wants to play ball all day, or fight with sticks or make swords or run around all day. I can only take so much getting pegged in the head by a ball all day. It's hard to play with him.  I think Siena was a lot more content in playing by herself or just along side me. With Siena I could just do a nice quiet craft together. I can't do that with Ben. I need to plan more playdates for him and find active things for him to do. They definately are different.

 The weather has been BEAUTIFUL here lately. I have been to multiple parks a day just to wear out the kids. I have locked my backdoor while the kids are in the backyard just so they won't come back in. I love it and they have been falling asleep promptly. It's awesome. I wish it was always like this. So we have been walking to school whenever Ben doesn't have preschool. Some days it takes the kids forever to get there. They pick up sticks and rocks and look at every little thing on the way there. It's ok when we are coming home but not when we are going to school. I found a way to move along faster. I bring the scooter. One kid gets the scooter for one way and the other kid gets the scooter on the other way. It has been so nice and so much faster. I can almost jog with my stroller to keep up with the kids.

 He's got the cheesy picture grin/pose down.

1st Grade

Siena is off to First grade. She is so excited. She is in Mrs. Erbe class. We haven't figured out how to say her name but Siena said it was like Herb. We will see next week at Back to School night. Siena loves her already. When we were all waiting in  the cafeteria I asked if she wanted us to walk her to her class she said no. She wasn't nervous or anything. We missed the meet your teacher day as we were at the beach. So she went off with all the first graders and found her class. We did follow behind her a little ways just to make sure. Mrs. Erbe is really young and Siena came home with lots of fun things already. The first day she came home with sunglasses and a new reading book. The second day she came back and told me that this day was even better than the first. Mrs. Erbe had played Disney music during class time and they did art. It is so funny to me what makes her day fun.

Apparently a lot of parents come in and have lunch with their kids. I never did this because I didn't want to trudge all my kids in there and make a scene. Dave did it once last year and he said Siena didn't seem to happy about it. I asked her if she wanted me to ever come in to have lunch with her and she said no. Awesome... I already embarrass her.

 So life is good in the first grade.

first two pictures courtesy of Ben.

walking to school.

 lining up in the cafeteria waiting for school. Her school starts so late. 9:05. Ben starts preschool before Siena starts elementary school.

 I was so happy that we convinced Siena to get a new backpack that wasn't a character.

Back to School dinner

I saw this a couple years ago on a blog and loved it. We now have had our second back to school dinner. It is so much fun. We do a little school decorations and the kids choose the food and we have a good time before school starts the next day. Siena and Ben love macaroni grill so we had Macaroni Grill at home. Pizza and Pasta

We made a table runner of old workbook pages the kids have done. Then each kid had a place mat of two worksheet pages they could do while they waited for dinner. We had a pencil jar with thoughts for school. The papers said I will be a good friend, a good example, a good listener and I will try new things. They each came up with 2 things that they would do this year at school. Ben said he would be a good listener and a good helper. Siena said she would be a good friend and a good helper.  

Siena loves school and loves the worksheets and reading. I don't worry about her at school and about listening and obeying. I was trying to reinforce things with Ben. I need him to remember that he needs to listen and obey and to do the things the teacher asks him to do. He is a preschool class with lots of his friends and I am worried that he will be too crazy with all his little boy friends.  

 I had to make these chunky Rolo pencils. The first actual "success" from Pinterest.  They were so stinkin cute. The kids loved them! Rolos, a hershey kiss, tinfoil and different color paper to cover the Rolo wrappers.

 waiting patiently to eat their 'pencils'

Labor Day

Ben and Siena love mini golf. We went last time we were at the beach and they loved it. The beach was so nice all week we didn't ever want to leave and go mini golfing, so Dave promised them we would go when we got home. We decided to go Monday even though it was awful weather. It was really humid and rainy. By the time we got to the golf course it was getting sunny but it was still really hot. We decided to go to Pohick bay golf course. We wished we would have brought our swim suits since it was so hot so we could swim afterwards, but it looked like it was going to rain all day. Pohick mini golf couse is awful. You have to drive to a different place to get your golf balls and clubs, then you drive back to the putting greens. It is new so maybe that is the problem but it was a big pain to be driving all over the place. Good thing we had coupons to make it free. Claire loved it too but was all over the place and moving everyones balls all around.

These photos are from Ben that is why no one has a head.

The kids had a great time and that is all that matters. Ben is getting better at golfing. Siena just can't seem to grasp how to hold the putter. She was really frustrated that we had to keep helping her but she had fun too.

Ben and Siena's perspective

Going down to the beach at the end of summer was our third road trip this summer. We all were getting a little tired of our road trip toys. So this time I gave Siena and Ben our old camera to play with. They did really good with it. They have been carrying it around our house for a couple days now. We have lots of good pictures of their favorite toys and the ground. Here are the pictures from our trip back home from the beach.

We were in tight quarters so there are a lot of close ups.

All the girls did face painting while the adults packed up the beach house that is why there is paint all over Siena's face.

Daves Birthday!

Dave celebrated his 35th birthday. We had a good day. It was right before we were going to the beach and he had to work so we went out to eat at Cafe Rio and had some yummy brownies and ice cream with raspberries. It was fun. The kids made tons of cards for him as usual. They love making birthday cards. We went also went to Coldstone a couple times that week. We love our coldstone. Such a yummy treat.
Happy birthday old man!

Mancathlon

The men decided that they wanted to start their 'man day' with a man-cathlon. I think it was the funniest thing I have ever seen. They each came up with an event that all the men had to participate in. They got points for each event and then the winner would get to choose the restaurant and all the other men would pay for him. It was quite the show. The kids weren't too excited at first when we pulled them out of the pool to watch but by the end they were begging us for a kid-athlon.

Siena and Paige find a shady deck to watch the games.

 First Event: Ball toss. They had to toss a football through this floatie.

 Then they went three stories up and tried to get the football through the same floatie. I don't think Dave got any through.

 Second Event: Knockout. Basically you shoot the basketball and the person behind you shoots the basketball right after and the person behind you tries to get the basketball in the net before you get yours in. I think Dave won this event. It probably was his suggestion too.

 Third Event: I think this was the kids favorite. Donut push up contest. Duck Donuts are the best donuts EVER! Each man got a donut and had to do push ups to eat it. It was so funny.

 After Kevin one his son Kyle gets in on all the crumbs.

 Fourth Event: Belly flop contest. I don't have any pictures of Dave doing this. Bryon was too funny and the women were the judges so I guess I was busy doing other things. Bryon won just on style. He ripped open his button down shirt before belly flopping into the water.

 The last and final event: Run to the beach from our house in flip flops. We wanted them to run with floaties down the street but they wouldn't do it. It was really funny watching these guys run down the street, hitting each other with towels and trying not to lose their shoes. I guess a neighbor saw them and later asked if they were all college buddies on a reunion. No they are just this crazy all the time.

 I think Dave ended up winning this event too but I think there may have been some cheating going on.

 The men of Mancathlon...