May and June

Here is the last round of pre-#3 pictures. These are rather out of order, but maybe that will help you experience our whirlwind of activities in a more realistic fashion! June pics are first, then May. Enjoy!

Even David can climb this wall now!

There goes monkey Josh too.

Ready to go.

What? A playdough sandwich at the pool? Not exactly.

Joshua loves to paddle about in this ring.

David likes it too but not so much in the pool.

WWII flying ace.

Another handsome fearless flyer.

Rrrr...rings.

All the above photos are from our weekly pool day at a wonderful friend's lovely home. Rachel thank you so much for providing this incredible time for our family on a weekly basis! Look forward to coming back with the little one next month!
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A family in our care group invited us over one afternoon and the boys had a great time playing in their yard, as seen below:

Slip'n'slide...

Ker-splash!

During a recent family fun night, we broke out the children's golfing set that Chris's aunt and uncle passed down to us. I have to say it was the best golf I've played in years. I think I aced every hole but one. Chris told the boys not to smile because golf is serious, but I didn't get the message. =)

Our harvest, about 8 lbs. Not quite as many as I hoped but quite enough to enjoy for a while.

Hot, tired, and happy strawberry pickers.

Josh and David with friends Sam and Matthew

We vacuumed and rearranged the van to install the baby's seat. Joshua has the back to himself now and seems to be enjoying it despite the more limited view.

For one family fun night we practiced a magic trick called "The Floating Egg."

Can you guess how it's done?

They won't tell, and neither will I.

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Memorial Day Parade, Washington D.C.

Joshua helped carry gear since I was so pregnant. I put their bathing suits on because we were anticipating getting to play in the fountain we've enjoyed before, but this year, alas, it was off. A pity too because it was quite hot!

But that didn't diminish our enjoyment of the parade.

In addition to all the various bands and floats, some new things this year included:

A model motor torpedo boat,

a fighter plane,

and the space shuttle.

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On May 28th, the day after skating, we went with friends to the butterfly exhibit at Brookside Gardens. We were amazed! So many gorgeous butterflies everywhere we looked, flitting freely around a large greenhouse. Here are a few examples:

They will even land on you!

Challenge: Spot the butterfly causing this crazy reaction!

These were so beautiful but difficult to catch resting with their wings spread. Joshua pointed out this one to me.

Daniel, in the middle, is a super active kiddo who gave a daring butterfly the ride of its life when it rested in his hair. For some reason, maybe shock, it wouldn't let go and fly away! I had been telling Joshua and David that if they stood still and waited maybe a butterfly would land on them. They did so for about 10 minutes with no result. Then Daniel ended up with that one on his head for a good 5 minutes, all the while jumping and running and bouncing around! I guess my philosophy about attracting butterflies isn't exactly correct.

After the butterfly house we went through the outdoor gardens and Joshua found this feather, which the other boys quickly coveted. Here David is having a turn with it. Thanks J for sharing your feather!

Then we headed to the children's garden, where Joshua tried life as a gnome.

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Still riding multiple times a day if time and weather permit.

And building Lego creations in between rides.

Race car.

Tractor with lawn mower attachment.
It is so wonderful to see his creative powers developing!

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Inspired by children's cookbooks, Saturday morning pancakes took on a slight variation one morning.

The boys came downstairs and were thrilled to see their names in pancake!

Just a tip if you want to try it, we used the turkey baster to squirt out alpha-numeric pancakes on the griddle and it worked really well!

Continuing the fun food theme, when we babysat some other boys overnight we made personal pizzas, and these were the kids' creations. David's has the upside down mouth on the lower left, and Joshua's is the most symmetrical on the lower right.

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May 26th, Last Day of Preschool!

The school year zipped by incredibly fast.

Last day on the school playground...looks like Joshua made the most of it!

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A friend invited us to go ice skating May 27th. Nevermind that I was 8 months pregnant, it sounded like a great opportunity, so we went! Renee came along to assist and I couldn't have done it without her. Being a careful (some might say over-careful) mom and to help the boys not be as afraid, we put their bike helmets on in case of crashes.

Joshua edging along near the wall.

David skating with our friend. Her son was confident enough that he didn't mind letting go of her for a few minutes!

A natural reward: watching the zamboni at the end.

Below see footage of Joshua in the pool:

And of Joshua describing his playdough creation:

Some day we'll get some movies of David posted! I don't have any recent ones. But with this new little guy coming on the scene, I expect the camera to be seeing plenty of action in coming weeks.

At the doctor today, I found out I am 3 cm dilated! He'll be here any time now...

April part 2

This first picture is supposed to be at the very end of the post, but for some bizarre reason I can't move it. So, when you get to the end, scroll back up to see the picture again!

Now on to the real post:

David is our drummer boy. Both Josh and David love music, drumming, and most instruments, but David for nearly his whole life has been drumming. He drums constantly, on whatever surface lies close at hand. When he brushes his teeth, on the counter. At the table, on his cup lids (which we are trying to train him not to do). On his lap. On anything and everything!

So here he is in action. These are improvised "upstairs" drums for accompanying Dad on piano. The drum set of course is downstairs and gets quite a bit of use as well. He has since broken the green drum pictured, as well as at least two or three sets of drum sticks, and a maraca or two. You should hear him wail when such a tragedy occurs! You would think his heart was broken.

In the pictures above, we were in the midst of spring blossom season and you can see from his puffy eyes that David had terrible allergies. I sure hope he grows out of it because he suffered a lot for a couple of months, even with medicine. I took these shots mainly to get some "before" pictures because I was going to cut his hair soon. I kind of like his hair on the shaggy side, it suits his personality, so I waited a while to give him a trim.

In mid to late April we had successive visits from Chris's parents and my parents, before going to Williamsburg with Chris's parents, who were still in town staying at Renee and Del's. Below are pictures from a family fun night activity with Grandma and Grandpa Kinsinger.

Squeezing the lemons for lemonade. (Note the hair cut! I like him with short hair too. ;-) )

Working hard to get those melon balls on the straw.

Assembly.

I loved the colors.

The chefs displaying their traffic light fruit skewers.

The finished product! And a refreshing draught of lemonade to boot.

(We needed it after all that work!)

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Cygnus the Sugar Ship

We met my parents in Baltimore for the Wee Workers program on "Boats & Ships," a favorite topic for my dad whose father was in the Navy and also worked tugboats in New York Harbor. After the program, we were able to watch this freighter being unloaded at the Domino sugar factory dock nearby! We couldn't see the stern to learn where she came from, but she was filled with raw brown sugar. We could smell it across the water from a 1/4 mile away.

I posted lots of these mostly for my dad's sake, but also for those of you who have never seen such a thing and might be interested. It was fascinating to watch, I have to say. If you look closely, you can see the big clamshell bucket dumping sugar into a hopper near the center of the photo.

Now it's empty and going down for more.

Opening the jaws wide to get a big scoop!

Coming up again, full.

Dumping again. They had two of these going back and forth to and from the hold constantly. How many tons of sugar???

Then my parents took us to visit Fort McHenry. I'd never been there before.

Looking at things across the water.

The fort. The flag is still there.

I appreciated that it was the same design as the flag actually flying at the time of the famous battle after which Francis Scott Key penned The Star-Spangled Banner. 15 stars, 15 stripes. Then I think they realized they couldn't keep adding a stripe for every new state, so they reverted to 13 stripes and just kept adding stars.

At the very site (see the base of the flag pole behind David).
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Joshua's preschool class to a field trip to Homestead Farm to plant strawberries, see baby animals, and take a hayride.

Joshua is seated second from the left. It was freezing that day with terrific winds.

Fortunately it warmed up enough to mow the grass within a day or two. Grandpa loves to mow so he is a good teacher.

And on the last day of April, Grandpa and Grandma furnished the absolute highlight of the spring (maybe the year) for Joshua:

A two-wheeler!!

How he LOVES this bicycle! And he's getting to be a pretty good rider, too.

Not to be left out, David received a helmet, a new horn for Joshua's former tricycle, and a promise that when he gets bigger he will get a bike too. (Remember the pic up top?)

Thanks for hanging in there for a long post! We'll see if I get May and June posted before I go into labor. I'm trying to catch up so that I can get a fresh start on baby photos! The due date is 8 days away...