Other Stuff

Christopher has started T-Ball and is getting some well needed extra energy burning exercise! Run, Christopher, Run! We went to the Fire Station's Open House. The boys got loaded up with balloons, fire hats, but one of the best parts is being able to spray the water!

Christopher is going out on official business! Anna at the park. She enjoys the swing, but only if she can see her brothers.
Mark and Christopher play fairly well together. Tinkering with the tinker toys has become something they do together and try to get inventive with their projects. Mark likes the basic tractor, but usually tries to "improve" it somehow.

Here is Jerry the Gerbil. Christopher earned Jerry by meeting his goals for the summer. One of which was learning to ride a bike without training wheels and the other was to take good care of his plants. He showed real dedication as a caretaker.
The boys had an outing to the Air and Space Musuem with dad.

First Day of School

Christopher's school started on August 26th. He was very excited and is lucky to have a fantastic teacher. The only mishap was that he missed his bus coming home. Luckily this didn't happen in Kindergarten or else he might never had gotten back on. As it was it took a day or two to recover! Mark started Joyschool the first week of September. We have a great group and if you want to see more of Mark's school, you can check out http://joyschoolfun.blogspot.com/.

Camping

We went camping down in Virginia. It was a bit of a drive and even though we had a good time, I don't think we would drive that far for that campground again. It's not quite the same as camping in the mountains out in California, but it was still an adventure! Can there be a more appropriate look for camping?

Christopher was a great help and actually helped with the dishes. This picture was taken shortly after he had finished one of his rounds. When we returned home from camping, Mark informed me that doing the dishes while camping was too hard of labor for the kids. When asked who should do the dishes, he stated matter-of-factly that it was grown-ups work, NOT kids!
There was a little beach on the lake. I refused to go swimming, but couldn't stop the boys. It was full of algae and had a little bit of a rancid odor. The lifeguard informed us that it is the second cleanest lake in Virginia; I'm not sure I have a lot of faith in Virginia's lakes!
Anna, as usual, just gets to kick back and watch the show, which is mostly her older brothers.

Summer Highlights

We got back from California, which I have pictures of somewhere, but can't find as Alex uploaded them and filled in the rest of the time doing some fun summer stuff. Here are a few highlights.

We went to the Baltimore Science Center which is very interactive. Mark is excavating dinosaur bones. As you can see, he is quite serious about it. We met nonna there who came down from Jersey City on the train. She is giving a lesson to Christopher who is always ready to learn. In fact, he was saying in his prayer tonight that he was grateful that mom read a book to him (Mr. Popper's Penguins) and that he is sure that he will learn something even though it was not non-fiction. How is that for trying to encourage a love of literature?
Christopher was fascinated with the tornado demonstration.
We got to go to the county fair. The boys really seemed to have a good time, especially when dad is around.

Mark did get lost briefly at the fair. I tried not to panic. We backtracked a little only to find him hanging out with the sheep. He said that they were his friends and was trying to pet one.
What would a fair be without the rides?

We also went to a few water parks. The boys had a great time and overall, they weren't too crowded.

Anna didn't really like the fountains, so she hung out and ate snacks.
This is a picture that Alex took while visiting the Brookside Gardens. They are not as expansive as the Arboretum (LA or the National one here in DC) but there was plenty of nature's beauty to enjoy.
Here are the boys at a fountain in the Brookside Gardens.