Category Archives: Owen
Catching up on his summer reading.
Owen isn’t great about keeping up with his Summer Slide reading, so we’ve had to have some days where we read 40-60 pages to try and catch up. (It’s not as bad as it sounds—it’s not like he’s reading full chapter book pages. Some of them are, but some are also books for Katie with one sentence per page. So it averages out.) Notice he had a buddy today, as well.
Special Mommy and Owen Pokémon time.
There are a bunch of pokestops around where we drop Katie off for camp, so as a special treat for Owen, we spent time hunting Pokémon and gathering balls.
And then he won the gym!
Sometimes he doesn’t quite grasp getting dressed for the weather.
It’s been getting into the 100s this week, and even in the morning it’s 75-80. But this is how he got dressed for the day. 🙂
Cirque Kurios
We splurged on a Cirque experience for the whole family: KURIOS—Cabinet of Curiosities! We were worried because it was HOT AS HELL and the last tent experience (last summer) was awful—we were all hot and miserable and uncomfortable because the A/C and fans just didn’t cut it. So this year we prepped with special cooling towels and we took a cooler with drinks…and it ended up just fine—the A/C worked just fine and I was actually chilly. 🙂
The only kinda yucky thing was the seating—we had a decent view of the stage…until people sat in front of us. A smallish girl sat right in front of Katie and there was no way she could see anything. And then a guy about 100# overweight sat next to me so I was cramped. So I actually put Katie on my lap and scooted over to her seat so it was okay—but not great. Then we had to readjust after intermission because the family in front of us all changed seats!
But overall the kids loved it and they couldn’t even decide what their favorite parts were! For me, it was a little expensive for what it was…but then, Tom and I have seen a Cirque show before. But the kids were happy, and that’s what matters, right? 🙂
Owen’s half birthday pool party!
Once again this year, Owen decided to have his birthday party at the community pool with Costco pizzas and cake (which I forgot to get a picture of)! The trade off is that many of his friends are away on vacations…but even though we had a small turnout and it was about 110°, everyone had fun!
After his party, one of his friends came back to spend a few hours. They had fun playing Xbox and then building Legos.
After he left, Owen opened his gifts and was COMPLETELY GEEKED to get some Ninjago Legos, a bunch of Pokemon cards, a Nerf bow and arrow, a Star Wars board game, and $15 cash. This was my favorite card he got:
And it didn’t take long before Owen and Katie had their noses buried in Pokemon cards.
We made The Brickington Post!
I forgot to post the picture of us in The Brickington Post from the Brickfair this past weekend! 🙂
I figure we’ve lived here two years, it was about time.
We finally went to The Cheesecake Factory for lunch after swim lessons and errands. I’m not sure how Owen looks so angelic here. 🙂
Brickfair 2016
There was no traffic so we made it to Dulles in record time…which was good because at 9:30 there was already a line for the early 10:30 entrance! So I was a good mom and held our spot while Tom and the kids hunted Pokémon. 🙂
Then the ring thing happened so that put a bit of a damper on things for us. But we tried to forget about it because there was exactly nothing we could do about it at the moment.
So we looked at Legos. And wow, was it cool.
Rapunzel’s tower with mermaids swimming beneath!
Harry Potter’s Quidditch Field (both kids recognized it)!
One of my favorites:
This train had a camera on it. Check out the video feed toward the back!
The flying car from Harry Potter. Something like this was just on a random street scene, with maybe a Starbucks storefront and other random characters or cars. So it was fun to spy the things we knew.
I took these pics for Gramma Jean who saw this in real life. 🙂
The kids didn’t know these but we did! Iconic scenes from Charlie & the Chocolate Factory!
Of course there were lots of moving sets—trains and carousels and whatnot. But this was my favorite!
Then we did some quick shopping and we got Owen a Lego with his name on it.
And Tom got a marine. 🙂
By the time we were leaving it was really crowded and was a lot harder to look at the exhibits and it wasn’t nearly as fun…so I’m glad we were there early. The kids had a blast and spent almost the whole time saying “Come look at this! Look mom! Over here! OMIGOSH!” 🙂
The things you do for your kids.
I don’t walk to hatch eggs (alone) but I will open the app to grab balls at a Pokestop…and grab a Pokémon if it’s convenient.
Owen was impressed. 🙂
Puzzling together.
This went pretty well. She doesn’t really ever want any help but Owen really wanted to do some (he generally doesn’t like puzzles so I hate to tell him no when he’s interested). There was one small screaming match but otherwise they worked well together.
Harry Potter marathon
We watched two movies today. They spent a lot of time like this.
Heading out to hatch a Pokémon egg!
It’s easier to get them to walk with me now that Pokémon is involved. (And the rule is it’s only used on my phone when we’re on the trail—if they ask about it any other time it gets deleted off my phone. This is daddy’s thing.)
And then of course there were more berries.
Fast friends at the Lego store.
After Owen finished building, he made fast friends with another kid and they were running around the store like this.
Recreating the first time he held her.
Me: Do you kids want to recreate this?
Owen: Sure!
Katie: No.
But she did it anyway. 🙂
Six stops for blackberries!
The weather this morning was great for walking (72° with low humidity) so I made the kids go on a walk. Amazingly once I got them out of the house there was no complaining!
There are lots of blackberries on the trail so whenever we found a ripe bunch we’d stop and I’d pick them. And when I say bunch, I mean 3-4 edible ones. This was our fourth stop!
Our sixth stop!
Now the kids are somewhat excited to go back on the trail to see if there are any more blackberries!
We arrived during break time so they had to wait.
Pool and pizza birthday party with friends!
We haven’t done this in awhile.
Kids on iPads.
This is what I came downstairs to this morning: Ben on his iPad, Owen on his iPad, Katie on Emma’s iPad, and Emma waiting and half watching Pokemon on TV.
They’d been on long enough—and they really needed to play with each other—so I took them away and suggested Legos. Of course they had a blast. Sometimes I hate the iPads. 😐
Getting the cannon ready
Owen: Katie, I like playing with you.
Owen’s personalized puzzle
I had him draw on the back side of one of his puzzles. He thought that was awesome.
Owen’s first Pokemon gym!
Tom took him out last night for some one-on-one time and Owen had his first battle…and won! He was SO excited!!
I didn’t think this attitute would come around until much, much later.
Owen (out of nowhere) in a perfectly normal voice: I have to clean up my room.
Me: Okay.
Owen, in an 80% snotty tone: I guess I have like three seconds to do it. Hmph.
Me: ?????
Owen: I guess I hvae to go do it right now.
Me: If you want to.
Then he stomped off upstairs.
What?! When did he turn into a teenager?
Reading trio
It took some convincing but Owen was reading to us!
They were spoiled at the dentist today.
They got their cleanings done in the procedure room because it wasn’t being used…so they got a TV on the ceiling!
Katie is still a much better patient than Owen. He freaks out at the smallest thing—he said the hygienist’s rotating toothbrush hurt and then he was throwing a mini fit because he doesn’t like the taste/feel of the flouride treatment—he was whining a little and needed four glasses of water and looked like he was going to be sick; Katie just goes on like nothing even happened. 🙂
Shark PJs then and now.
All three of us worked on this puzzle today.
It was fairly difficult with lots of the same color pieces but we managed to do it over three different sessions. We wanted Katie to be in the picture, too, but she was being a poop for some reason I can’t remember and she was off pouting to the side.
Wow. They both wanted daddy cuddles.
They’re back to normal.
