VBS night #2

The threes all caped up and ready to go!
Ethan was so proud of his yellow cape. He asked us about ten times to make sure we came down to look at it. All the classes start out listening to the lesson from our Pastor, Jason. Lincoln was so excited to see Ethan for the first two or three minutes......
Then, he starts acting crazy and lays down on the floor.
This little cutie, Ceci, has been my girl the last two nights!
Our friend, Trey has been coming with us each night. He has been fabulous!!!

The last twenty or so minutes we have some free time. The kids really enjoy running around in their capes and masks! This is the highlight of the night for Link!

VBS night #1

Vacation Bible School started tonight. I was the the luckiest teacher/wife there. Nate volunteered to help teach the three year olds with me. Besides our pastor, he was the only adult male there! It was a fast two hour and this is the only picture I took that actually turned out. It's hard taking pictures of three year old that are always moving! Our theme is God's heroes. Lincoln LOVED the capes. He flew everywhere he went.

Imagination

Lincoln was in character all day today.
It didn't matter if he was making pizzas,
getting ready to go to the movies,

or eating ice cream. He was playing all day!

Lost tooth #1

At bath time, Nate noticed that the loose tooth was gone!!! We have no clue where he lost it! I am confident that the tooth fairy will still come!

Graduation

I didn't talk much about Ethan's graduation on Saturday. We were so busy site seeing with Dad that I didn't focus on it much. I thought he needed his own post since it's his last time at daycare before he starts Kindergarten in the fall.
Their theme was around the world. The kids sang songs about all different countries.
Ethan's class sang and danced the Tarantella from Italy.

Have you noticed that Ethan is the only one without a button up shirt and a tie. That would be because his mother did not read the directions for official dress very well. The good thing is it was HOT and he didn't have a tie on! :)
He has only spent one day home with me, but he is already missing his friends. He says it's not fair that the other kids get to go to school! Maybe he does have a little bit of his mother in him. I missed school all summer when I was little!

Museum

Today we went to the American History Museum with Dad and Gale. I hate to say that they didn't make one photo this trip. Ethan and Lincoln were on the fast pace today. We left Dad and Gale and toured the entire museum in about an hour. For some odd reason, Dad and Gale needed a little longer! ha!
Ethan found C3PO as soon as we entered the door! Before we left, he had to go by one more time.
They have an entire room dedicated to the invention of play. The boys loved all the interactive exhibits. Daddy took them windsurfing.

The first floor is ships, trains, buses, and automobiles. The kids LOVED this part. We are going to have to add this to our list of cold weather places to visit! We left for lunch and Dad and Gale decided to stay in town and see the rest of the museum and the Smithsonian castle. They took the metro back to Van Dorn and Nate picked them up! I was super impressed that they ventured off on their own!! Tomorrow we are going to Mount Vernon!

Whirlwind

This is a picture from our Friday night drive into the city with the kids! It was a gorgeous night. The temperature was great!
Nate kept the boys busy running around.
An orchestra was playing on the steps of the Capitol.
Saturday we ran all day Saturday. We started off the day at the Arlington Cemetary.
We gave Lincoln the Ipod to play with and we gave Ethan the camera to take pictures.
We arrived at this stop just in time for the changing of the guards.
We took a shuttle bus tour to the three major spots (Kennedy graves, tomb of the unknown soldier, and the Lee house). The bus forgot about us at the Lee house. We sat there waiting on the bus for a half hour.

We rushed home to get changed for Ethan's preschool graduation. Then, we rushed home to go to Saturday night church. Today we are heading back into DC to see a couple of museums. It has been a whirlwind!

The extreme tourist!

The Arnolds made it to Virginia Thursday afternoon. This was Gale's first airplane ride. She did really well! We took the boys to school on Friday and headed to DC to some touristy stuff. Dad gave us his itinerary beforehand. Let's just say....it was a little unrealistic! :)
Our first stop was the National Archives Building. Nate, Dad, and I agreed that this was a definite first stop for Gale. There is nothing more magnificant than the original Declaration of Indepedence and Constitution. A really nice DC information guide offered to take our picture. She literally had the camera tilted crooked while she took it.
I am not sure why these two are grinning so big outside this office. Maybe it's because they know so much of their money is in there.
The Ford's Theater was on Dad's itinerary. I knew there was no way we would have time to wait for tickets and wait to watch the show, but we could go into the Petersen house. SOOOOO we thought. We did stand in line, but apparently you have to have tickets for that as well. So, we went to Dad's favorite lunch spot....the Old Post Office. After lunch, we went up in the bell tower and got a great view of the city. Then, we headed to the Mall.
We stopped to look at the White House and some guards shooed us away. We heard on a walkie talkie that they needed to prepare for arrival. We just figured some one was coming outside and we needed to leave. We headed to the World War II Memorial and then we heard and saw three of the Marine One helicopters. We learned later than Obama was in Columbus and was probably landing around that time.
We headed to Lincoln Memorial and then started our trek back to the metro.

I barely made it! We were all EXHAUSTED!! That didn't stop us from heading out four hours later with the boys to see the Capitol and the monuments at night! I am telling you.....Dad is an extreme tourist!!!

Badder Mommy

I made the Linkster mad last night when I sent him to timeout. This was overheard while he was in timeout:
"Mommy you are the badder Mommy I've ever seen."

Coloring

Both boys have a new love~COLORING! It has made going out to eat or running errands much more enjoyable. As long as they have a coloring book handy, they are great! In fact, Nate worked out of town Thursday night. I took the boys to a restaurant with outdoor seating. We sat outside eating and coloring for over an hour. It was soo nice!!!

Art

These are a few of Ethan's photographs from Saturday. They are pretty good.

Holy Smokes

Nate wants a new truck, but we may have to buy this camera!!! It's amazing!

Proud Mama!

My great friend, Beth, took us to Green Spring Park today to take some photos for us! Ethan stepped in some mud while he was looking at frogs and was pretty bummed that he got his new sandals all muddy. We were about done and Beth let him take all the shots he wanted with her camera! Now that is a good friend!!!
He was in heaven. He loved it!!

Do you know how proud I would be if I had a real photographer in the family?

The not so daredevil

Today was our much anticipated dentist day. Ethan is not a fan. I honestly don't blame the boy. He fell as a toddler and his tooth went up into his gums. Then, last summer he had four root canals and four cavities. He's had a rough time at it. However, we've been flossing and using an electric toothbrush. We've been preparing for this for MONTHS!!! This morning I took a picture of his teeth before the dentist and I was going to show him how pretty they were after the dentist cleaned his teeth. HOWEVER, we never got to the clean teeth part. He refused. It was horrible! I guess we will try again in six months.
Today was Lincoln's first visit to the dentist and he did WONDERFUL! I thought Lincoln should go first and have Ethan see how patient he was, but I was filling out paperwork and they called Ethan back first. So, I didn't have a chance to tell them we should swap the order. Oh well!

The boys are slowly inching their way back to being Mommy's boys....or at least Mommy and Daddy boys evenly.