Today was Evan's second violin recital and he did so well, we are so proud of him!

Merry Christmas to All!

We are so very busy this year, and we haven't taken our annual family photo. So my dear friends and loved ones, this is our card to you! Merry Christmas!

Happy Talk Like a Pirate Day!

Talk Like a Pirate Day

Here is Evan at his Kindergarten Open House. He was so proud and excited to show us his rom and all he is learning.

Kindergarten

The time is here, Evan is starting Kindergarten. Today he went to orientation and next mid-week he officially starts. Big leagues! He seems to like it though today was primarily for evaluation. He starts very early in the morning so we are all quite bleary eyed getting used to our new schedule. Drew starts preschool at the end of next week.

Happy 4th of July

Happy Independence Day to all! We went to our first fireworks show as a family at the State Fairgrounds. We all sat down near the dirt track so the kids could run around without annoying anyone as we arrived pretty early for the fireworks not knowing what to expect.

The kids had a lot of fun before the fireworks. We watched some traditional Japanese drumming and during our wait down on the dirt track, Evan chatted up a lot of people, including two police officers.

Drew was crying we didn't go to some fireworks on Saturday because he was so tired. Sunday all he talked about were fireworks. What happens when they finally start popping on Sunday night? Drew is scared out of his wits, buries his head in James' shoulder, demands to go home, and doesn't look up the entire show. Later Drew said he wasn't scared he just felt like crying.

Evan and I enjoyed them though. We are all tired here today as we didn't get the home and the kids put in bed until 11:30!

The Beach, 2010

Another beach vacation has come and gone and already we all feel the tug of wanting to go back. It is so relaxing to not have a schedule and lay around the beach, come in for afternoon siesta and head out to the beach again. So nice to catch up with family, meet new family members and watch children grow.

Evan had a lot more fun in the surf and sand this year. He is slowly getting over his apprehension of the waves.



There was no holding Drew back from the get-go. He and Madison had a lot of fun playing with his dump truck. Loading and unloading sand, aka "soup."











New family members,





Putt-putt, Drew came along this year. He is such a big boy now.





Arcade fun.





Celebrating everyone's birthday.





S'mores!









Ice Cream.



Looking forward to next year.

Evan's First Violin Recital

Evan has been practicing and preparing for his first violin recital. As some of you know, he started violin in December. The pauses are him getting his fingers in the right places on the string. Mr. Craig, is teacher is helping him follow the notes on his music sheet.

Easter!

Another holiday blog post. I am sorry I am so neglectful, but life is busy as I am sure you all relate to.

For Spring Break this year we headed up to my parents house in Virginia and Easter weekend was the tail end of our visit. The boys were very excited to visit their grandparents and we had an all in all relaxing visit with lots of outside play time for the boys. We were able to venture down into DC for a day on one of the busiest tourist times of the year, with the Cherry Blossom Festival in full bloom, as it were.

We did not head to see the flowers but rather went down to the Museum of Natural History on the DC Mall. Lots of fun, but looking forward to doing it at a less touristy time of year.

Natural History Museum



Lunch first.



Leg bone.



T Rex! I think anyway, they have changed all the names since I was a kid.



The good old days.



Inspecting.



You have a little something stuck in your teeth.



Coloring eggs with Grandma.





Which color...



Uncle Mike sat with us and ate lunch, he really really enjoys his food.





What a dork.













Easter morning.




Egg hunt.