trains and celebrity sighting

Yesterday we took the underground (Metro) into the city. Cameron and Jamie have been so excited about going on the Metro because it was their first time on an underground train.

Here is Jamie on the train. At first it goes above ground for about 3 stops.

The boys loved seeing the cars drive beside the train - here is Cameron. Granny Tina and I took them to see Union Station and the model train exhibit. Union Station has a Christmas tree from Norway and a model train exhibit that is meant to be the Norwegian countryside. To be fair, I think we've over done model trains this holiday season! The boys thought it was interesting but they were also very interested in a cup of hot chocolate and a cookie. Here is Granny Tina with Cameron and Jamie checking out the model trains.


Since Inauguration time is fast approaching it is not surprising that President-Elect Barak Obama was wandering around Union Station speaking to the public and posing for photos. Granny Tina and the boys got in on the act.

Jamie's abc song

brookside gardens

Today we visited Brookside Gardens for the first time. The gardens are in Maryland, so about a 40 minute drive for us, but it was worth the effort. The gardens are beautiful and at the moment they have a train display in the hot houses full of tropical plants. Can you see me with Jamie checking out the trains? There is also an ice rink with moving figures that the boys loved.
That's my little boy!And here are the boys with Granny in the butterfly chair. As you can see, Cameron and Jamie are dressed in their Christmas jumpers from Granma Allison and Granpa George in Scotland - they looked cool and stayed warm.

merry christmas

Christmas morning was great for Cameron and Jamie. They rushed downstairs to get Granny and then rushed back upstairs to see if Santa had eaten his cookie. Then they wanted to open presents. They were very lucky boys and Cameron said, "Santa is a sweet man to bring all these presents" which was a lovely comment. Although they have played with all their presents they have been particularly interested in the train set that Santa brought. Here is Cameron controlling his train "Knight".

And here is Granny making sure that the matching plane takes off on time. The boys are busy dealing with the trains and making sure everything is running according to schedule.

Since there are two trains and an airplane the boys seem to have fun playing together - I know, it's a shocker!

The other toys that we played with a lot were the racing helmets. There is a race car and a police car so the boys (and dad and granny) took turns to chase each other around the room. I'll have to get some video of Cameron stopping Jamie and giving him a speeding ticket!
Jamie also loves the dominoes that Santa brought him. He likes an adult to line them all up so he can topple them over - he could do it for hours!

Thanks to everyone who sent presents to our lucky boys and our lucky family. We had a wonderful family Christmas and Cameron was rather surprised to hear that it another whole year until we get to do this again.

Christmas Eve

Just a few photos of Christmas eve when we had our friends over in the morning so the boys could exchange gifts and play together. I know many of you know Anna so I thought you might like to see this photo of her with her husband Dan and the three boys.
The boys tried to stand still in front of the Christmas tree for a group picture.

After a big play, running around in the garden, lunch and presents it was time for a quiet episode of Little Bear on tv so the adults could have some lunch and a chat. Baby Harvey took a nap in the baby swing.
When our friends left there was lots of preparation for Santa's visit including tracking his progress on the computer. Cameron was very interested in how close Santa was getting and was keen to get to bed before Santa came. We put out a glass of milk, a cookie for Santa and some carrots for the reindeer.

Cameron Singing Rudolf

My present for Christmas was a small video camera that takes about 60 minutes of video...so watch out for more videos on the blog coming soon!

carousel

Before visiting Santa, we took a whirl on the Dulles carousel. It is beautiful and the boys love it.

santa is coming to town

Today we went to visit Santa at Dulles Town Center. The boys were so excited and had a very nice chat with Santa. They both asked for new train sets. Santa said he should be able to make that happen. Merry Christmas! Ho, ho, ho!Do you see how Jamie is holding onto Santa's finger? He was also touching Santa's fluffy coat. He liked the soft fur.

zoolights

Last night Granny Tina and I took Cameron to "Zoolights" at the National Zoo in DC. It is a wonderful evening event where they decorate the zoo with lots of light displays and open some of the animal houses so you can see the animals at night. We saw lots of the small mammals inside, include a sloth and an armadillo which Cameron loved! We also saw some of the big apes getting settled in for the night.

We went to the event with Ruby, Dave and Jean. Cameron was so excited to be out with Ruby at the zoo at night. The photos below are kind of funny. For some reason they had a dancing panda bear in a snow globe. The kids could dance with Panda and give him a high five. After a while Cameron said "that panda's wearing shoes!"... "no, way" I said, "yes!" said Cameron, "and pandas don't wear shoes mummy". I guess he figured it all out.

Here is Cameron giving the "panda" a high five.And here is Ruby wondering what is going on with a panda in a snow globe.Next was Granny and Cameron checking out the Komodo Dragon light display.

And this blue tree was just beautiful. Some of the trees were flashing on and off in time to Christmas music.Cameron and Ruby loved the big blue triceratops.And Ruby loved climbing all over the frog.At the end of the evening we all hopped into the minivan for the trip home. Cameron and Ruby were tired but had a great night at the zoo.

christmas moment

The boys had their school Christmas concert today. We all had a moment as we watched them sing their songs and try so hard to remember the words even though they were dealing with a little stage-fright.
Jamie's class was second on stage. He was great and did all the hand actions as well as singing Go Tell It On The Mountain. I thought he would be nervous with so many people watching but he got into the whole performance and seemed to enjoy himself.Cameron's class performed Hark the Herald Angels Sing and he looked very sweet on stage with his little friends and with his tinsel crown. His friend Chase is standing in front of him in the photo below and Chase was belting out the song - he told me the day before that he knew all the words!

christmas tree

We went down to see the National Christmas tree this evening. It is beautiful and is surrounded by miniature trains which the boys love.

Here you can see some the trains and the little villages they have set up.

And here are my boys with big smiles!

And here is the lovely tree. Cameron was amazed by such a big Christmas tree.
Then we came back to Reston for dinner and took a few photos in front of the Reston tree.
We also brought home our own tree today. Not quite as large as the National Christmas tree but it is very grand and when Granny Tina arrives tomorrow we will decorate it together.

One quick mum question - why do boys always have to chew on their winter coats?

letter S and the number 10

This week's art corner is brought to you by the letter S and the number 10.

Cameron's teachers have some great art projects - here is a snowman snowglobe with his name in glitter writing.
And for Jamie we have a dog with 10 spots.
The number 10.
And this is a lovely glittery christmas tree.Yesterday was another cold afternoon. The weather has been a bit wet and cold here. So we decided to do some cooking together. First we made cookies, taking turns to add raisins and stir them in, then we made pizza - what a great dinner!
Cameron and Jamie are very enthusiastic cooks so I hope this interest continues and soon they'll be making dinner for me!

candy canes

How happy can a little boy be?

hot goods - hot wheels

Yesterday, when Cameron was sitting on the sofa after school, he told me he brought home something from school. "It's for you, me and Jamie to play with," he said excitedly. "What did you bring?" I asked. Then out of his cargo trousers pocket came a small matchbox car. It was from school - Cameron had taken one of the cars without asking. Although it was sweet that he wanted to bring home something for us all to play with together I knew I needed to talk to him about taking things that didn't belong to him without asking. So we had a chat. He said he understood and this morning I made him take back the car and say sorry to his teachers. They were very sweet about it. So was the lesson learned by my 4 year old? Guess what Cameron brought home from school today?I will be looking very apologetic at school tomorrow as we do the same apology to his teachers.

art corner

I think I might have missed a couple of weeks of artwork but here are some of the latest masterpieces from school.

For Christmas we have a lovely Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer. The antlers are Cameron's hand prints and the head is his footprint - what a fun idea.
He's been working on the letter G at school. G is for Granny - she'll be here in a week. G is also for George - Grant's brother, nephew, dad and of course the monkey Curious George.
Jamie has been working on his numbers. As I picked him up his friend Clare was picking the cheerios off her picture and eating them - eewwww - with glue too! Kids are so sweet.Jamie loves to do colouring.

pretend play

There's a cafe that we've found recently that has a great play area with an indoor slide and dress up clothes. Plus, they do art on a Monday - so today we went over there and Cameron and Jamie both did some sponge painting and dressing up. The part that cracks me up about Jamie is that he puts on princess shoes to go with his fireman coat and hat - and totters around in heels - he's so funny!Cameron was a police officer today and kept racing after drivers who were speeding. He wanted to stop them and give them tickets.
Many of my friends at home will be pleased to know that Cameron wants to be a nurse. He doesn't want to be the doctor he knows he wants to be a nurse. Last time we visited the doctor and the nurse gave him a vaccination it didn't put him off this future career. Brave boy!

campfire capers

It was really, very, very cold at the campfire this evening. We were perhaps a little crazy to go out there, with the freezing cold wind and the radio saying it was the coldest night of the year so far...but I had promised two little boys that we would toast marshmallows with their friend Ruby. So we went!
Cameron is addicted to S'mores. Watch out Uncle John in Canada - you need to be ready with your campfire and toasting sticks this summer. Jamie wasn't so sure about the sticky marshmallows and didn't like having cold hands.

Luckily I had also packed some hot chocolate so that warmed up everyone before we headed home. Next time we might be warm enough to listen to the park rangers telling stories about the animals in the park at this time of year...but tonight was for s'mores and more s'mores.

thanksgiving art corner

This is our wonderful Thanksgiving art corner. As you can see, the boys have been busy at school this week.

Today Cameron produced a full Thanksgiving dinner!And this is a sweet little fluffy, pine cone, turkey from Jamie.
And finally the hand-print turkey from Cameron. This one is also a placemat that he's been using since he brought it home from school.
Rachel has been visiting from Atlanta the last couple of days and it was great to see her. I realised that we did lots of chatting, catching up, running errands, playing with the boys and Rachel even got to watch Peter Pan with Cameron, but we didn't take any photos. My mistake. Hopefully Rachel will visit again soon - we miss her!