Library Time

Alex and Abby finished their 15 books for the summer reading program at the library. 

They were happy to hang up their die-cut characters on the glass block wall and received a coupon book full of goodies! 

Once a week Alex meets up with his first grade teacher for a little summer review session.  He seems to be retaining material well and should be ready to hit the ground running in second grade!  They do a half hour of math and a half hour of reading/writing.  Meanwhile, Abby and I do what she calls "Abby tutoring" in the children's section of the library.  She's been working on ABC phonetic sounds and opposites.  Next week we'll bring the rhyming words game and some puzzles.  This is definitely going better this summer than it did last summer when she would just play with stickers and markers.  This little gal is so excited for preschool in September.  I hope she loves it!

Ice Cream Tour

Meeting up in Georgetown

 Alex was excited to start the ice cream tour and record his favorites in his scrapbook!

 Mission Accomplished!

 Gelato anyone?

Build-your-own Frozen-Yo 

Abby posing along the Potomac River 

Touring Georgetown in 100 degree heat! 

Abby was glad to have a little ride in the stroller that day.

Post ice cream tour photo from Jackie and Scott's apartment

For Alex's birthday, Aunt Jackie gave Alex a tour of ice cream shops in the DC area.  We met up a few Sundays ago to make that happen.  Alex was a trooper, hitting four shops and a park along the way.  While they took their "tour", we walked around Georgetown with Abby.  We enjoyed a delicious cajun lunch then worked our way back to Jackie and Scott's apartment.  Alex's favorite switched between the gelato shop and Frozen-Yo where he was able to top his yogurt with gummi worms!  We headed straight from there back to Fairfax for a birthday party at Chuck-E-Cheese before collapsing into bed at home later that evening. 

Visit to Columbus, OH

Alex and Jack were good little buddies!

 Alex, supervising a little "eenie, meanie, miney, mo" with Jack, Tessa, and Abby 

Abby entertaining Baby Liam 

Abby, Liam and Alex

Our kids slept like rocks that night!

Our friends, and Alex's Godfather, Jeff and Jenna, had Baby Liam back in April and we were thrilled to get to stop by Columbus, OH on our way home in July to meet him!  The kids had a great time visiting with Liam, Jeff, Jenna, and our good friends Jeff and Nikki and their kids Jack, Tessa, and Leo.  We do miss seeing our friends from college, especially now that they have kids similar in age to ours and they get along so well.  We enjoyed catching up and look forward to swinging through Columbus again soon! 

Cincinnati!

We had an AWESOME visit to Cincinnati during July 4th week!  To set the stage...an awful storm had rolled through Virginia (and IL, OH, WV and all states in between) the night before we left.  On Saturday morning we awoke to no power and storm damage around our town.  As temperatures in the 100s loomed, we stewed about leaving for several hours before finally jumping in the car and hitting the road at 9am.  We learned that the drive from here to there takes us between 10 and 11 hours with oodles of stops.  We like to consider Alex and Abby as pretty flexible travelers, but holy cow!!  This was the first road trip where "Are we there yet??" kept coming up.  Reminding Alex that he used to travel between Houston and Cincinnati by car doesn't really help much...and truthfully, Abby struggled more than he did.

 Grandpa had one big tree down after that storm Friday night.  He and Brad tackled it with a chainsaw while we were there.

 A visit to the Aquarium in Newport, KY complete with Cincinnati skyline views!

Snowcone break in Newport, KY.  We had numerous snowcones during our visit to Cincinnati!

 Lot of swimming at the Erickson's on July 4th!

 Waiting for the "fireworks" with Aiden and Abby.

 Chillin' with Gigi!

 We stopped up in Hamilton, OH to visit Gigi.  The kids had fun on a scavenger hunt around the yard.

 This picture of Alex, Abby and Aiden followed their flag "parade" around the pool.

Alex and Grandma built this robot one afternoon after reading his robot book night after night at bedtime. He named it "X.T.L."

Abby and Aunt Nicci when we went out to lunch with her, Grandma Eileen, and Great-Grandma, post-Madagascar 3! 

There were numerous cookouts, swimming, movies, stops at the Aquarium and Fountain Square, more swimming, family meals and visits, some swimming, and a little handyman work along the way.  Alex and Abby are both little fish this summer and love to be in the water.  With temperatures hovering around 100 degrees all week, air conditioning and swimming were the best two activities for us! 

At both Grandma Kathy's and Grandpa's we celebrated Aunt Jackie's engagement to Scott over dinner, although they were in D.C. and we were in OH, but nevertheless, we were so excited for them! 

We had a super time and but felt like being gone 7 nights/8 days was probably a little long, despite having had a pet sitter.  It probably didn't help that our power here was out 48hrs and it was roasting in our house in VA.  We did a big fridge cleanout when we returned and have retrained the cats to be law-abiding house pets.

Cub Scout Day Camp

 Ready for his first day of camp!

 Better bring lunch and lots of ice

 Alex, the master archer

Target practice with a BB gun

Each day they'd note on the back of the scouts' shirts how many bullseyes they hit.  By the end of the week, Alex's shirt was pretty crowded!

This was Alex's first year of Cub Scout Day Camp and he could not have enjoyed it more.  With the exception of the last day, the weather was in the low 80s each day, just beautiful.  Alex went to camp at a local park from 9-4 each day for a whole week!  The camp is staffed with volunteer parents who teach the boys fishing, archery, BB guns, crafts, geology, and much more!  Brad volunteered on that Friday (Family Day) and while temps soared into the 100s, Alex was still excited to show us what he'd learned at archery and BB's.  They taught the kids quite a bit about safety and we were amazed at how much Alex learned over the course of the week.  He cannot wait until camp next year!

Tennis/Soccer

On Saturday mornings through the summer, Alex takes tennis lessons while Abby's attends a soccer class with other 3 year olds.  The soccer field is adjacent to the tennis court and both are across the street from our house.  It doesn't get more convenient than that!

Cart Escalator

One of the Target stores nearby has a cart escalator.  Coolest.  Thing.  Ever.

Father's Day

Brad had a pretty chill Father's Day, as we spent the day picnicking at the park and swimming.  We also hosted the Talley's for a cookout in the evening, as they were still in town.  No yard work.  No home projects.  Just fun.  It was a good day!