cousins!

"My cousins are coming today!" said Cameron first thing this morning. He's very excited because Auntie Donna is coming to visit with his cousins George and Michael. We have a fun weekend planned and Cameron thinks it is great that George and Michael will sleep in the room next to his room. Let the Elliott madness begin!

Counting our blessings

Last week I found out that a work colleague's 6 year old son Mattie, who both Cameron and Jamie were playing with just a couple of weeks ago, has been diagnosed with a cancerous bone tumor. The clinical diagnosis is osteosarcoma which apparently is very rare for a six year old. Mattie will have to have an aggressive course of chemotherapy over a period of 12 months as well as the surgical removal of the bone occupied by the tumor. Assuming the cancer has not spread then the prognosis is good but clearly the next few months are going to be challenging for Mattie and his parents Peter and Vicki.

Since hearing of this news I cannot help look at Cameron and Jamie and count our blessings. We have no idea what is around the next corner but today they are healthy and happy. And we love them more than it is possible to imagine and know that Mattie's story could so easily be Cameron's or Jamie's.

I ask that you all give a thought for Mattie, Peter and Vickie as in the absence of anything else I have to believe postive thoughts count. I have added their blog to ours (Mattie's blog) for anyone interested and we will continue to keep them in our thoughts.

sleep...

This is one for the record books - Cameron slept until 8.25am this morning when Jamie and I went in to wake him up! As many of you will know, Cameron and Jamie are normally 6am-ish wakers so this morning's long lie was amazing. Jamie didn't get up until 7.30am too. Cameron slept so long that I actually went in to check on him and yes...he was snoring... so I just left him to sleep. He's not taking naps every day and if he doesn't nap during the day it really catches up with him. My little boy is really growing up.

fountain fun

Look what Grant discovered in Reston Town Center! A new fountain that the kids can play in (not really allowed but who's going to stop them having all that fun!?) We went for a bike ride this morning and this was a great way to cool off afterwards. Here is Cameron about to sit on one part of the fountain.

And this is Jamie taking a rest from all the splashing.

And look! a photo of Miranda with the boys..who are all wet and tired after splashing in the fountain.

little fishes

Yesterday was so hot we went to the pool in the afternoon. Look at Cameron swim! He loves diving into the water to get diving sticks.

And Jamie is a little fish too. His favourite pool trick is jumping into the water from the side. He's also working on his diving skills. Our little fishes.

happy campers

In a moment of madness we bought a tent and Grant promised to take Cameron camping. The first test was to see if Cameron would actually sleep in the tent. So last night, after lots of excitement over torches and sleeping bags, Grant and Cameron went camping in our back garden. They had a great time! Cameron slept really well but Grant says that Cameron was snoring and kept him awake! The good news is that Cameron loves camping and I know his Uncle John in Canada will be happy about that - next year he wants to take us camping in the wilds of BC.

meadowlark

I probably blog about Meadowlark Botanical Gardens more than any other place. Grant calls it my "go-to" place when I don't have other plans with the boys. It is a beautiful garden and we always have adventures when we are there. Yesterday we had a great walk. We were chasing chipmunks and running from monsters. We also saw the huge turtles and catfish in the pond.

blonde hair

At least once a week, when I'm out with the boys, someone asks me "is their daddy blonde?" With the implication that it couldn't possibly have been me! Mostly I tell them, yes - Brad Pitt is a blonde. However, just for fun here is a photo of me and my brother, John, when we were in nursery school. This morning I've been showing Cameron photos of me when I was little and he said "where is Jamie in this picture?"...I don't think he quite gets it yet!

my superheroes

Anyone need to be rescued? Spiderman and Superman are at the ready!

garden surprises

We've had such a hot summer so far with lots of thunderstorms and heavy rain. It's been great for our garden. Grant and I are always struggling to keep our rather large garden looking tidy. We were both surprised with these beautiful lillies. They are my favourite flowers and because it was so dry outside I cut them and brought them into the house. I love the way these flowers smell. They remind me of Hong Kong because they were so popular there and I often had them in my apartment.

ahoy there!

Yesterday we took a walk along the harbour in Alexandria with our friends. You can see Oliver, Max and Oscar along with Cameron and Jamie saying hello to a pirate that we happened to meet. The boys were so excited to meet a real pirate!

bike accident

Jamie is really adventurous on his bike and took a spill yesterday. He was wearing his helmet but managed to scrape up the side of his face. Although he was crying he wanted to get right back onto his bike. Jamie *loves* riding his bike.

down the shore

The girls weekend with some special guests!

Haircuts and Super-Heroes

Yesterday the boys weekend was interrupted by a girl as the boys were invited to visit their friend Ruby. Since this was simply an unavoidable distraction to an agenda of all boys activities neither Cameron nor Jamie took it seriously, paying little to no attention to their appearance. It was, after all, only a visit to the pool.

And this morning we went to Reston Festival at The Reston Town Center. The boys had Ice Cream and Pizza, and spent a little more time on their appearance. Not sure whether Ruby is Mary Jane Watsom or Vicki Vale.

One further anecdote, riding the bike back from the festival in the heat of the midday sun and pulling both Cameron and Jamie in the trailer Cameron piped up "Daddy, are we nearly there yet. I'm tired". I looked for a reaction from Jamie but he had already fallen asleep. So much for superheroes.

Boys Weekend

Miranda headed off for a weekend at Long Beach Island this morning leaving all the boys to fend for themselves. It got off to a great start with a game of Putt Putt at "Perils of the Lost Jungle, Miniature Golf" in Herndon.At first it was Putt Putt as normal

But then Cameron entered the Vampire Bat cave and didn't like what he found!

It is off to the pool this afternoon. Hopefully that will be a little less scary.

madness on the cycle path

For the first time today I took the boys and their bikes down to the cycle path in Herndon. The W&OD trail is a very long cycle path that I think goes all the way from DC out to Leesburg. Anyway, there is a good stretch that goes through Herndon and the boys asked if they could cycle there so I thought what a good idea. As soon as we got on the path Cameron shot off and didn't look back. Eventually I started to panic. There are roads he'd have to cross and I couldn't see him. I shouted like a mad woman for him to come back but he was gone like Lance Armstrong at the start of Tour de France....only with training wheels. Eventually I stopped a jogger and told him to tell Cameron to wait for me. (Thanks to the kind jogger for being so understanding.) He told Cameron to wait and Jamie and I eventually caught up with him. I asked Cameron why he didn't wait for me at the road he said, "don't worry mummy, I looked both ways". So I realised that I hadn't explained all the rules of riding on the cycle path. Here are the rules I can think of for now:
1. always wait for mummy
2. never cross roads on your own
3. don't cross the yellow lines (stay on your side of the path)

Thankfully there was a Dairy Queen in Herndon happy to serve up icecream to calm my nerves.

burke lake park

We decided to take a trip to Burke Lake Park this morning and it was a big success. We got tickets to ride on the train, then the carousel and then we got to play putt-putt. Cameron and Jamie held the tickets for the train and carousel rides. They were both so excited to go on the train. The carousel was quite pretty and Cameron loved that the horses went up and down.


Tickets please!

just counting teeth

Cameron went to the dentist today and already he hates having his teeth brushed and checked. How do people and even kids instinctively know that it's not really that nice to go the dentist. I hate it and yet I have to tell Cameron how much fun it will be (perhaps he sees right through me?) Last time we were there the dental hygienist said "the toothpaste is great it tastes just like bubble gum"... how many 3 year olds know the flavour "bubble gum"?? Not mine.

Sleep-over

We spent the 4th of July holiday with our friends Anna and Dan and their little boys Oliver and Archie. We had a swim in their pool followed by a pizza making session for the kids.Then at dinner time the kids enjoyed 4th of July cupcakes with red and blue icing. It was quite messy as you'll see in the photos below. First is Ollie with blue icing...
Then his brother Archie with red icing...
Then Jamie with blue icing...
And finally Cameron with red icing..
Yum!