Category Archives: Kids
Katie swimming for rings
She taught herself how to retrieve rings from the bottom of the pool!
Princess ballet camp!
This is what I walked into to pick her up:
And this is her craft (the crown) and treat (fairy godmother finger puppet).
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.
I might have gotten suckered into buying puzzles last night at Marshalls and TJ Maxx.
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.
She did this in eight minutes.
She also did a new 48pc Olaf puzzle (for ages 6+!) in a short amount of time. Of course, I just got rid of a bunch of puzzles at the garage sale…now it’s off to find more!
Pool and pizza birthday party with friends!
We haven’t done this in awhile.
Katie cracks us up on camera.
Every once in awhile we find a video like this from the camera in Katie’s room. Cracks us up.
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.
It’s been a while since I let her do this.
I only let her do this when my hair is straight…so she’s been at it forever (last night for about a half hour straight and this morning).
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!
Thanks for sharing one of your last nights with us.
Our good friends Beth and Frank (and daughters Ainsley and Avery) are moving to Ohio after only two years here…so we had them over for one last dinner.
Two peas in a pod.
And in a chair. 🙂
Katie can do this puzzle all on her own now…
And this is what generally happens seconds afterwards.
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. 🙂
Apparently I had Anna braids all day and didn’t even realize it.
Katie just told me. 🙂
Shark PJs then and now.
