The National Zoo

Uncle Brandon is currently completing an intership in Washington D.C. as part of his Master's degree program, so while we were in Delaware last week we made a day trip to D.C. to visit him on his "home turf".  Since we weren't meeting up with him until early afternoon, we decided to pass our morning at the National Zoo.  This zoo is run by the Smithsonian Institute and is free (my preferred price range).  This was an excellent zoo.  The exhibits were large- probably the largest I've ever seen in a zoo, and there was a wide variety of animals.  Brian and I commented several times that they had animals at this zoo that we'd never seen before.  The premier exhibit at the zoo was the Giant Panda exhibit.  The National Zoo is one of only four zoos in the U.S. that has Pandas, so there were lots of people at this exhibit .  We enjoyed many different areas of the park- including the Great Ape and Large Cat exhibits.  I don't know why, but the kids always love the reptile house, so spent quite a bit of time here.  I really liked the way that the zoo was organized because anmials were grouped by their similarity to each other (birds, small mammals, large cats, etc...) and not by where they are found geographically. Here are some pictures from the zoo.

Crabbing

While we were in Dover, we went crabbing with Uncle Brandon.  Well, Brian and the kids went crabbing- I just stood around and took pictures.  The kids each held a string with a chicken neck on it.  I got so tickled as the kids tried to lure the crabs close enough to the shore so that they could be caught with the net.  No crabs were caught this way.  We did catch a few using the crab trap, though.   

Delaware Trip 2012

We've just returned from our annual trip to Delaware.  A lot happened during the week, so I've created a "top 10" (in no particular order) of things that we experienced.  I'm also including some pictures that were taken throughout the week.

10 cool things about our recent trip to Delaware:

1.  Spending time with Poppy and Nana:  The kids had such a great time "helping" Nana in the kitchen and "helping" Poppy walk the dogs.

2.  The dogs:  Bear, Duke, and Penny-No-Tail have probably never received so much attention in their lives.

3.  The weather:  Low 70s all week long. 

4.  Uncle Brandon visits:  Uncle Brandon visited for the weekend and the kids had so much fun with him.  He brought with him a set of golf clubs for the kids, and they enjoyed playing with those.

5.  Fireflies:  These bugs were everywhere, and the kids enjoyed catching them.

6.  Visiting Uncle Mike and Aunt Connie:  We were so excited to see them, and they took us to a place with the BEST ice-cream ever.

7.  No sales tax:  Which we took advantage of by purchasing new computers.

8.  Celebrating Grandma's (Barb's mom) 94th birthday

9.  Game of Thrones:  Brandon introduced us to this series and we became addicted.  We watched episodes on-demand every night after the kids went to bed.

10.  Day trips:  We took a few day trips from Dover, and I will be doing seperate posts for many of these.

 

 

 

The Mets and The Bombers

Owen and Olivia both played t-ball again this year.  They were in two different leagues because of their ages.  This meant that we had two practices and two games to attend each week.  Sometimes both kids would play at the same times on different fields, so it took a little more work for Brian and I to get everyone where they needed to be on time.  Owen played for the Mets in the 3/4 year old division.  The kids in this division use the tees to hit the ball.  Brian was the coach for Owen's team.  Owen did a much better job this year than he did last year.  Last year, Owen fussed the whole time and didn't want to do anything but bat.  This year, though, Owen really got into it and enjoyed playing in the field as well as batting.  Olivia played for the Bombers in the 5/6 year old age division.  In this league, each kid gets three pitches from the coach.  If the kid doesn't hit the ball, then they get to use the tee.  Olivia had to use the tee most of the time, but she did get a few hits from the pitches.  Both kids enjoyed playing and received a little trophy after the last game. 

Tropical Storm Beryl

Tropical Storm Beryl rolled through last weekend and brought a lot of rain to our area.  Most of the rain was light, but it was steady- perfect for playing in.  The kids were so excited to get to run around and get wet.  It's certainly cheaper than a waterpark.                     

                                       

Memorial Day Picnic

"Dedicated to the memory of the men and women from Pierce County who fought in all the wars of our great nation to preserve and protect the freedom and peace we all enjoy."  -City Park Memorial

For the past two years, the kids and I have kicked off our summer by having a picnic on Memorial Day.  The kids always look forward to the picnic, and have been anticipating this year's outing for several weeks.  Even though the weather on Memorial Day was iffy thanks to tropical storm Beryl, we decided to carry on and made our way to City Park.  City Park is a memorial park that honors men and women from Pierce County who have served in the armed forces.  After eating our sandwiches- which was an adventure in itself as the food kept trying to blow away- we visited the various memorials located within the park and we talked about why we celebrate Memorial Day.  We even took a moment to look for the names of all of the "Walkers" who served in WWII on that memorial plaque.  Unfortunately, our fun was short-lived as it started raining (again).  Still, we had a nice time and celebrated the holiday in a meaningful way.  

 

 

The Recital

 All of the girls at Olivia's dance studio have been working very hard this year, and their hard work paid off at the studio's recital last weekend.  I have to say that I was thoroughly entertained.  Although all of the recital participants did great, the three that I was there to see were Olivia, Ava, and Claire.  The first up were Olivia and Claire.  They are in the same gymnastics class and had a "circus" themed number.  After a few moves as a class, each girl got to show off their moves individually.  It was a really cute routine.  After the circus number, Ava's gymnastic class did a cheerleader-themed routine.  Let me take a moment to brag on my niece Ava.  She is an amazing gymnast.  She is one of the smallest girls in her class, and she can do more moves (well) than most of the other girls in her class.  There were even some girls in the middle school class that didn't look as good as Ava did.  Tumbling is definitely her "thing".

 

Once the gymnastics routines were over, the tumbling matts were moved, and the dance routines began.  Olivia had two routines: a ballet and a tap.   She is one of the girls who remembered the routine the best, so she was front-and-center for both dances. Both dance numbers used music from "The Little Mermaid" and were choreographed accordingly.  After Olivia's final performance, she was surprised by flowers from her daddy.  He's so thoughtful. 

I am very pleased with Olivia's progress in her dance and gymnastics this year.  It was rough going at first.  Back in the fall of the year, she would pitch a fit becasue she didn't want to go to her lessons each week.  I had to remind her frequently that she had put in to take these lessons and that we were going to finish what we had started.  Her attitude improved significantly during the spring, and she's recently been asking to go to lessons- even on days that are not her designated day.  I asked her if she would like to take dance and/or gymnastics again next year, and she responded that she'd like to take both and add baton.  I doubt that that the baton thing will happen, but it's good to know that she likes what she's doing.