proud to be an american

Now you all know that we're Scottish so you might be surprised to hear that today, Grant took the pledge of allegiance. It was a big day for the Elliott household. Grant became an American! Cameron didn't think it was such a big deal because he's American already and he was shocked to hear that I'm the only non-American in our house now...however, we were all there to celebrate Grant's big day.
This is Grant with his "official" certificate proving he's American. Can you tell that the boys have the "what's all the big fuss about?" attitude?

hello friend!

If you've ever seen Little Bill then you'll know why Cameron and Jamie love it. Sweet stories about a five year old boy who is learning to play with friends, deal with disappointments and basic life lessons - always with good humour. A while back, Cameron and Jamie saw an episode about writing, sending and receiving letters. They were hooked! They love to receive letters and cards! There's lots of excitement when something arrives for them in the mail.

Today was such a day. Laura sent notes to both Cameron and Jamie who both had big smiles when they said "we got a letter!"

barefoot in the park

We had a standoff before we left the house this morning. It was me against two determined little boys who wanted to wear their flipflops for a walk in Meadowlark. Cameron started the flipflop madness and of course Jamie joined in. So we made a deal. You can wear them but you can't complain if they start to hurt and mummy will not carry you. Deal. So off we went to Meadowlark with Crocs hiding in the car boot for later.

We had a great time running through the woods, racing each other, chasing off imaginary bears etc. Then Cameron and Jamie started to have sore little feet and we ended up with Cameron and Jamie as bears using their flipflops on their hands....And then just barefeet boys in the park. People kept asking me where their shoes were so I told a couple of the mums the flipflop stories and they laughed knowingly...been there!

Back to the car for Crocs and then we had a picnic. Here is Cameron with a mouth full of grapes!


And Jamie enjoying mummy's yogurt.

new toys

Yesterday we spent the afternoon at Dave and Jean Worth's house. They live around the corner from us and have two older boys. Dave Stewart and Jean McMahon introduced us to them. Very confusing with so many Daves and Jeans! Anyway, we had a great afternoon messing around at their house and Jean's sons, Evan and Patrick, were kind enough to give Cameron and Jamie some of the toys they've grown out of - particularly lots of great Playdoh stuff. This afternoon we're having a major playdoh session.

tennis and soccer

For the last couple of weeks Cameron has been taking a tennis class. Unfortunately I don't think he's really old enough for tennis yet. He says there's not enough running around in tennis! The coach has been focusing on getting the children to hit the ball properly so they do spend quite a lot of time waiting their turn to hit the ball. Anyway, it was fun and we met some new friends. All the kids in the class were boys. Jamie wasn't in the class officially but Coach Nick was kind enough to involve him in some of the games and Jamie loves tennis.This isn't such a great picture but I wanted to get one of Cameron at his football class too. He loves football because there's lots of running around.

calling all super readers!

Cameron and Jamie have just discovered SuperWhy! on PBSKids. They love it and I really think it is making them think about reading, spelling and sounding out words. This morning Cameron said, "I'd like a spaceship mummy". The characters in SuperWhy all have their own spaceships so naturally Cameron needs to have one too!

totally trucks

I'm a little behind in my posts. Have taken lots of photos but sometimes it is hard to keep up with the busy schedule of Cameron and Jamie Elliott!

Last Friday we went to Reston's Totally Trucks event. Cameron and Jamie got to climb on all sorts of trucks and diggers and they loved it. The bonus was the fire truck which they really enjoyed.The fireman let the kids put on the headsets - he's talking to the kids and look how they are paying attention.
Here they are driving a tractor - do you think either of them should get a license yet? Perhaps they should only be allowed to drive without helmets?

scooters

Watch out Gilman Court...the boys have new wheels!

big boy pants

Jamie is wearing big boy pants! Yesterday he went all day in big boy pants with no accidents. We are so proud of him. He has Diego, Thomas and Cars pants and loves wearing them. I can hardly believe it's happened. Today we will have a victory visit to Toys R Us so he can choose his reward. The deal is that because he went all day with no accidents he gets to pick any toy (with parental guidance) which I'm hoping will be a scooter since the one we had sadly broke and he loves anything that makes him go faster.

meeting the teachers

Yesterday was Open House morning at Sterling Park Baptist Church. This is Cameron and Jamie's new preschool. They will attend 3 mornings a week. Both boys were really excited about going to meet their new teachers. Cameron's teachers are Ms. Pam and Ms. Colleen. Jamie's teacher is Ms. Lisa and the teacher's assistant couldn't make it so we'll wait to meet her later. They have lovely classrooms and the teachers, parents and other kids seem very sweet. School starts Sept 2nd and we are looking forward to a fun school year.

a helping hand

This just made me laugh. In a moment of unusual brotherly helpfulness, Cameron offered to help Jamie take his shoes and socks off in our driveway so they could run around together. The first sock came off quite easily but Jamie had to lie down for some reason.The second shoe caused them both to fall over!
But then they were both able to run around, barefoot and happy....

great visit

We had a great visit with Donna, George and Michael. Here is a photo of Donna with the boys on our front steps just before they left for the airport. Afterwards there were tears from Jamie and Cameron wants to know when they are coming back - soon we hope!We went to the zoo this morning and had a great time watching the lions, tigers, orangutans, lizards, snakes, turtles, elephants and the pandas.

back garden

Here are Jamie, George, Michael and Cameron playing in the back garden yesterday. (Cameron is hiding at the top of the slide.)

loudoun county fair

We went to Loudoun County Fair yesterday with Auntie Donna, George and Michael. There were lots of sheep, goats and other animals for the little boys to see and touch. We got from the car to the fair on a hayride pulled by a tractor - very exciting for Cameron and Jamie.














There were also a few unusual animals in the petting zoo. Jamie liked the camel "hamel" and the donkey. There was a very soft donkey foal that they all wanted to touch. Michael helped Jamie feed the baby donkey.