father's day with a quick stop at the ER

Father's Day was a simple day filled with a few food requests from Ben, hanging out as a family, and a quick trip to the ER to fix a case of nursemaid's elbow.

The kids helped make biscuits for Ben's breakfast request, bacon & egg sandwiches.

Sunday evening dessert was this amazing salted caramel cheesecake pie (recipe from here).

A little quality father/son time in the ER. Ben is now trained to fix this problem should it occur again. (Miraculously nobody was at the ER and they were done within about 30 minutes. I have never spent less than 3 hours at the ER.)

And somehow I made it through the day with no pictures of Ben. Just the food he consumed. But let it be known that he is the best. The kids go crazy when he gets home from work. And cry when they wake up in the morning and discover he has already left. He's definitely got the father thing down.

pizza picnic.

We celebrated the last day of school with a dinner picnic on the waterfront in Old Town. We picked up pizza from Pizzeria Paradiso and then spent a few hours just enjoying the pleasant weather, playing in the grass, watching boats, and catching fireflies.

Oliver walked around with this pizza crust in his mouth for a long time.

Airplane rides!

moonrise kingdom with pie.

Our last date night began with dinner at Dangerously Delicious Pies. We started with savory pies and tried the SMOG (steak, mushrooms, onion, and gruyere) and the tofu curry pie. Both were awesome. I particularly loved the flavor of the curry pie which was loaded with veggies, rice, and tofu. We topped off the savory selections with some sweet pies. We tried the strawberry rhubarb (delicious) and the Baltimore Bomb (made with the famous Baltimore Berger Cookies).

We cleaned our plates in record time. Partly because the pie was awesome and partly because it was 9:00 at night and we were starving. (The pie shop is a great spot for a late night treat...it's open really late.)

Enjoyed every last bite.

After scarfing down pie, we made our way to the E Street Cinema to see Moonrise Kingdom. We loved the movie. You will too if you're a Wes Anderson fan.

We also loved that we found close, FREE parking at each stop. A rare treat in D.C. 

messy braids.

Elsa approached me the other day and requested that I take pictures of her. Let me repeat. Elsa requested that I take her picture. "I just think you might want some pictures of me with these braids in my hair. I think it would be nice out by the flowers." Yes and yes. Since a request for photos has never happened before and will likely never happen again, I accepted.

end of school.

Amelia's first grade picture, taken at the beginning of the year. Couldn't they have fixed her collar!?!?

Amelia finished school last Friday. She is incredibly excited about summer vacation. She loved her first grade class and received the school's "Really into Reading" Award and the Citizenship Award. She is mostly excited about having a lot of free time to read chapter books this summer.

Amelia with her teacher, Ms. Canty, on the last day of school:

 I loved walking Amelia home from school every day and hearing her report on the day. Elsa and Oliver were always so excited to see her. Amelia and Elsa had a very specific routine on the way home. There were certain barking dogs that they always ran past and they were always collecting treasures (garbage) from the ground. They also loved to collect flower petals and "thingy grapes" (a term they created for fallen crab apples). We had quite a large pile of them in our yard by the end of school. They also found a dead bird a few weeks ago and insisted on locating it every day, until it finally decayed beyond recognition.

A conversation from one of our walks home:

Amelia (nearly in tears): Everybody quit the butterfly club. Nobody could agree who was going to be president and vice president and everyone was fighting so then people started to quit.
Me: What's the butterfly club?
Amelia: Me and Ishrat started the butterfly club. We collect beautiful things to attract butterflies. Then we asked other people to help us. And then everyone wanted to be in charge. Ms. Canty said we can't have clubs anymore. Some kids want to start a new club. The ladybug club.

Next day...

Amelia: I have good news! The ladybug club is going great!

I loved having lunch with Amelia on occasion. It was fun to see her interact with her friends. All of the kids would always yell out "Hi Amelia's mom!" when I arrived. And they always freaked out about how much Elsa looks like Amelia.

 

Elsa also finished up preschool a few weeks ago. She loved her class and loved all of the social interaction with friends. She was sad to see it end and is already looking forward to her next preschool class.

Ms. Lori and Ms. Amy on the last day: