May - Williamsburg

Jamestown Settlement

Here we are at our first stop, Jamestown Settlement. We loved this site for its hands-on nature. The kids had a great time watching the movie, then going aboard ships, into buildings in the fort and wigwams in the Powhatan Indian village, tying knots on fishing nets, touching all kinds of animal furs, grinding cornmeal, trying on armor, reclining on beds, washing clothes, lifting water buckets, and more. These good first impressions set the tone for a positive experience the rest of the trip, with the possible exception of the live gunfire demo.

We liked how this fountain represented the three ships. I'm glad the man who snapped this photo for us kept us small to fit the whole fountain in the frame because it is actually the end of our day, and we are tired, hot, sticky, sweaty, grimy, dusty, and dishevelled beyond description. We could not wait to check in at the resort and jump in the pool!

Like Almanzo carrying the maple syrup buckets during sugaring time.

Father working hard.

There's a man after my heart, doing the laundry.

Ready to protect his family from the dangers lurking all around the fort.

Pretending we're drifting downstream in our dugout canoe.

We were able to take tours of replicas of the Susan Constant, Godspeed, and Discovery, the three square-rigged sailing vessels that brought the original colonists to Jamestown.

Grinding cornmeal at the Powhatan village.

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Meanwhile, back at the ranch...

We saw a duck family with a dozen children in the lake at the resort. That is one amazing mamma duck!

The boys did much better at miniature golf this year, although they were not too big on form and played ambidextrously as well (note the left handed putt). I guess I don't have any pictures from the pool, but they had a blast swimming. Joshua made a lot of progress conquering his fears and was floating with a noodle all by himself! David still vividly recalls his dunking in Williamsburg last year and was a bit more cautious than his big bro.

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Colonial Williamsburg

David was infatuated with these pigs. He kept asking to see them, and we did in fact make a point to go back the next day so he could admire them some more.

Bad Mommy.

Outside the Armory.

One of the boys' favorite parts of the trip, the Fifes and Drums.

I have to add here that while last year Joshua enjoyed the horses, this year he most decidedly did not. He insisted on turning away or covering his eyes anytime any horses were in sight, which caused him to bump into quite a few things while walking. However, a highlight for David came when George Washington's white horse dumped a huge load of you-know-what right in front of us during the Revolutionary City show. Maybe it even outranks the Fifes and Drums?

Williamsburg charm.

Hauling a bucket of water up from the well.

Having lugged it through the garden and received help to dump it somewhere, now they are going back for more. We later saw one of these handmade buckets for sale for $175. Anyone want to buy a bucket? And then let your preschoolers play with it?

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Yorktown Victory Center

This was another fun place for the boys with so many hands-on things they could do.

They had a room where kids could dress up in costumes (way too big for our boys but they still enjoyed it). We went there more to escape the cannon and musket demonstration, which they heard fired in Jamestown and decided was much too loud for their taste.

Love my young patriots!

Washing more clothes.

Armed and dangerous with his musket.

It seemed like we heard "there's something in my shoe!" a million times from both kids. Fortunately there was this handy Continental Army tent with a chest to sit on for easy removal of the offending objects.

All in all, we accomplished above and beyond what we expected in terms of sight seeing. In spite of the heat, the boys did a great job walking and being interested in the historic scenes around us. And it was so nice to be able to go back "home" and splash in the pool, eat popsicles, and rest in air-conditioned comfort. Thank you, Grandma and Grandpa Kinsinger, for a wonderful vacation!

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...

April

This year Chris was able to join us for the annual Gas & Steam Show, antique tractor extravaganza complete with a saw mill and incredibly loud steam whistles.

We'll be measuring the boys by this tractor wheel they've stood by for two years running now.

Chris and I so enjoyed strolling around the park in the gorgeous spring weather while the boys ran ahead totally entertained by all the machinery surrounding them.

We also enjoyed the weather at the playground!

It is so nice to have a buddy!

And then for some reason I loved David in his orange tee and was his personal papparazzi:

We baked sugar cookies for Easter dinner at Aunt Renee and Uncle Del's:

Like my elephant?