sunday morning stroll: huntley meadows

We hadn't been to Huntley Meadows in a few months and as usual, the landscape had completely changed. The beavers have made quite a change there over the last year.

It was a good day for turtles.

(This used to be water.)

something new at the zoo.

A few weeks ago I took Elsa and Oliver to the zoo to check out the newly opened "American Trail" exhibit which includes the seals and sea lions. They loved being able to see the animals up close. It was so nice to enjoy the zoo without the summer heat and crowds.

family photos. the making of.

As long as I'm posting things that happened long ago, here are some family photos I took when we were in Branson with Ben's family back in April. It's always a little crazy trying to get so many people (children) looking good for a photo.

But I did manage to get a few pretty decent pictures. (Okay, so there was still a lot of photoshopping of heads that had to be done...it turns out adults have a hard time keeping their eyes open.)

The group shot:

The grandchildren shot:

And of course Elsa had to have one of her signature sneezes in the middle of the photo shoot:

 

I actually prefer the "real" shots that really capture the true spirit of the moment. I know endlessly looping animated GIFs can get a little annoying, but here is a small sampling of what transpired:

ballet.

For some reason I never got around to posting pictures and video from Amelia's ballet recital back in June. We tried out a different studio this past year and really loved it. It's smaller and much less crazy/competitive than the first place we tried. And the dance recital wasn't such a production (no long rehearsals and expensive costumes and make-up). The teacher is remarkably good with children and Amelia had a lot of fun in class. She learned a lot more in this studio and really enjoyed herself. She just started again a few weeks ago.

The dance recital theme was "Headlines in History" and Amelia's class did a dance based on the 100th anniversary this past spring of the gift of the cherry trees from Japan to D.C. Her costume was really pretty and her dance was very fitting of the "headline." She enjoyed performing and was excited to celebrate at Krispy Kreme after the performance. My amateur video of the dance is at the end of the post. We were sitting pretty far back and I'm still cursing the man who just had to return to his seat 5 seconds before the dance ended and block my view.

These pictures were taken during the middle of the year when parents were allowed to observe one of the classes.

The cherry blossom dance (Amelia is third from the left):

dates.

Ben and I had a fun date night seeing Cirque du Soleil (Totem) at National Harbor.

We are trying to get in a more regular pattern of doing date nights with the kids. I had a super fun date with Amelia last week. We enjoyed soup at Panera and then went shoe shopping.

preschool.

Elsa started preschool a week after Amelia started school and she could hardly stand the wait. She goes to school twice a week but wishes it was every day. She loves it. She gets to bring her lunch this year which she thinks is pretty cool. She is always the first one ready in the morning on a school day.

We really like Elsa's teacher, Ms. Wilson. Amelia had her a few years ago.

second grade.

Amelia is really enjoying second grade. She is in the Young Scholars class and being challenged a bit more. She is always eager to give me a detailed report when I pick her up from school. There is usually good news (I had art today!) and bad news (you forgot to put a spoon in my lunch!).

She is doing ballet again and has also started piano lessons (and is responding much better to this teacher than she was to me). Now if we could just remember to practice...

Elsa is always excited to be reunited with Amelia at the end of the day. These two play/scheme/create endlessly together.

Amelia was not happy that I wouldn't buy her a new backpack this year (I insisted her backpack from last year was still in great shape). So she was beyond thrilled on the first day when the school handed out new backpacks to all of the students. She was especially excited that she got one with zebra stripes.

the great outdoors.

We wanted to do something outdoors over Labor Day weekend that didn't involve crowds. Saturday was a hot day but we decided to do a hike in Prince William Forest that is fairly short and very shady. Plus, you are rewarded with the perfect swimmin' hole in the river. We had the place to ourselves. The water was warmer than we've experienced before and the kids loved splashing around and climbing over the rocks.