Kites!

Today was the kite festival in DC. We went down to the National Monument this morning with boys and met up with Dave, Jean and Ruby. The boys loved flying kites but Jamie did keep forgetting to hold on and his Diego kite took a dive a couple of times. There were thousands of people flying kites today. There was a professional competition and lots of homemade kites too. We had Spiderman and Diego kites. It is a beautiful day, sunny and windy and a bit chilly. Perfect for flying kites.

(Below) Cameron, Ruby and Jamie were looking at the Nemo kite display. They had lots of clown fish and a shark and diver kite that needed a bit more wind to get off the ground.

(Below) Jamie checks out his Diego kite which Grant seems to be flying more than Jamie! Look at the cherry blossoms. Today is also the start of Cherry Blossom Festival in DC.

(Below) Cameron found it difficult to look at his kite because of the sunshine.(Above) We passed the White House on the way home and couldn't resist a quick photo of Obama's new place...that's what Grant is hoping for anyway.

Books!

Grant's niece, Laura, is at university in St.Andrews. She's about to finish her final year but she came to visit us in January for a few weeks and the boys loved her. Laura sent them a box of surprises this week including some wonderful books. They were so excited to get a parcel and even more excited to see the books inside.Guess which book Cameron likes the best?

Jamie zones out during a good read of "dear zoo".

Easter

Cameron and Jamie had a great time at Ruby's Babci's house. We went over on Easter Sunday for their family egg hunt. Ruby's grandma (Babci) took great care of us and made sure that the boys had a fun time hunting for eggs.

We all went to the zoo

Today we had a great visit to DC National Zoo. We went with Ruby, Oliver and Archie...and their mums too! The kids loved the elephants. See Ruby with a model elephant tooth.

Hot Cocoa?

Jamie has recently discovered hot chocolate. He prefers Starbucks hot chocolate but will make do with the stuff I make at home. He calls it "hot cocoa" because that's what Little Bear calls it.
Today was the first time he put down his foot and demanded hot cocoa. After nap, he woke up, I gave him his regular warm milk and after a quick taste he dropped his sippy cup to the floor in disgust and said "hot cocoa mummy". I guess he knows what he wants! Needless to say he's making do with the regular warm milk. Little Bear has a lot to answer for!

More Meadowlark

I thought it was warmer yesterday but it turned out to be rather cold. The boys still had a good time on our walk in Meadowlark Gardens. We did a slightly shorter walk because it was so cold and then headed to Starbucks afterwards to warm up with hot chocolate - Jamie is addicted at the moment. Here are a few photos of our Meadowlark visit.That little speck on the right is Cameron going for a run after a few little birds.

Movies

I took Cameron to see "Horton Hears a Who" this afternoon. It was his first movie theatre experience and he was really excited. I told him that he had to whisper during the movie so he whispered the whole time we were inside the movie theatre including hushing me if I spoke to him in a normal voice. We had popcorn and watched the movie. It was far too old for him and I'm sure he was bored half way through....during one scene change he said to me "is that the end mummy?" unfortunately not...another 20mins to go! He loved the "biiiig" screen and the whole experience but next time we'll wait for a more suitable cartoon. Still, it was so sweet being there with him and getting some quality time just the two of us. On the way home I told him that the popcorn could not come into the house and when we got home the popcorn was done. So when I pulled into the garage he told me he wasn't getting out of the car and he'd come into the house soon. "Don't you want to tell daddy about the movie?" I asked him. Then I saw how quickly he was eating popcorn! "eat slowly!" I told him. "You can finish the popcorn then come into the house." Of course Jamie came out into the garage to share popcorn - boys!

Haircuts

The last time Cameron had a haircut Grant took him to his barbers and Cameron ended up with a helmet cut. It was a bit of a mess. So today was Miranda's turn to take the boys to Cartoon Cuts where the ladies know about kids haircuts and the boys get to watch Dora while they have their haircut. We had a fun afternoon together.

Cameron and Jamie compare haircuts.

Cameron checks out his new look in the mirror.

Jamie is handsome with his short hair.

Boys and boxes

We had more fun with boxes yesterday.

Think we could mail Cameron like this?

We play the sleep and "WAKE UP!" game.

Jamie chills on the step.

Throw-back Thursday

I love the idea of a throw-back Thursday. Here is my throw-back from March 2006 - Cameron was about 16 months old. I can' t believe how he's grown.

He did a great "fish face" and loved sticking out his tongue to be funny.

Preschool day

This is Jamie's class at school. I went into school today for one of my co-oping days and had fun playing with the babies and the duckling class. Jamie is in the duckling class with his friends Sully, Colby, Catherine, Rain, Brendan and Rodrigo.
You can also see their teacher, Ms.Sara and their assistants Ms. Maria and Ms.Fatima in the picture. They are all sitting with their hands clasped to show they are ready for snack.

And here are Jamie and Sully playing outside with hoola-hoops.

Jamie's faces

Sometimes Jamie can look so serious and it is difficult to get a good photo of him smiling. He loves copying the faces of the engines in Thomas the Tank Engine books. He can do a good surprised face and his angry face would make you tremble. Thankfully...we now have a photo of his happy face.

a box with feet?

Is it a walking box or is it Cameron, playing inside his booster seat box? Why are the boxes always more interesting than their contents? Cameron is now travelling in style in his big boy car seat.

Jackie and Pam visit

Jackie and Pam came to visit this weekend. We had lots of good playtime with the boys and Miranda got some good girlfriend time with a dinner and movie. Cameron was especially pleased that we made time for a group session of Ring-around-the-rosies before they headed back to NJ.

Thanks for visiting!

And we never seem to get a family photo so Jackie took some for us - thanks!

a walk in the park...

This morning we went to one of our favourite places - Meadowlark Gardens. We did our nature walk, listening to the birds and chasing the squirrels. The boys had their walking sticks as usual.

The park has recently added some sculptures so the boys had fun feeding the bear. (?)















Then they took a look at the snowdrops that have just come out.










And we also took a walk around our favourite tree...it's great for for climbing and the best spot to stop for a snack.