A Future Ballerina?

Sarah has been taking a Pre-Ballet/Creative Movements Class this summer with the infamous Miss Kim. Miss Kim is a parent at my school who is wonderful at teaching the little ones ballet and dance. This past Tuesday was parent observation day where parents get to go in the studio to see what their girls have learned.

Miss Kim had some pom poms and hula hoops out when we first got there. Sarah and her friend Lily enjoyed playing with the pom poms.

Miss Kim started her class by having everyone get in a circle to hold hands.

Miss Kim played a song where the girls had to jump, skip, hop, and then fall down. Sarah liked falling down.

 Sarah really liked using the ribbons. 

She missed the last two classes and I was impressed at what she had remembered.

Onto Our Capital

After spending two days at Sesame Place, we packed it all up and headed to Washington, DC. We stayed at the Washington Court Hotel that was three blocks away from the Capital Building. Because we were in downtown DC they valeted our car. The boys didn't quite understand why we weren't going to be able to use our car for two days. They did love riding the glass elevators, though. We got checked in and then walked the two blocks over to Union Station. We walked around and looked in some of the shops. Jackson was disappointed that we weren't going to ride the train, but they enjoyed seeing the Amtrak train station. It was very busy! We had dinner and then walked towards the Capital building.

Here we are in front of the water fountain that is in a park in front of the Capital Building. Jackson and Adam were amazed at all the guards around the building.

The next morning we had breakfast in the hotel restaurant. The three of them were very well behave, but I think they were in awe. They could tell we were in a very fancy place. I don't think Adam and Jackson have ever been served orange juice in stemware before.
We headed towards the Air and Space Museum, but stopped to pose on the other side of the Capital first. There is a lot of construction going on at the Mall which was a little disappointing.

After the Air and Space Museum, we walked over to the American History Museum. Here are the boys with Kermit.

 If Jackson were President...

 I think Adam needs to grow a few more inches before he tries to make a speech.

Well, well, the Dumbo ride from Disneyland. Guess who wanted to ride the elephant? Sarah wouldn't go near the flying Elmo but was very upset that we wouldn't let her ride Dumbo. Go figure....

They had a section for kids with all of the classic toys, Legos, ViewMaster, Etch-a-Sketches, Mr. Potato Heads, and Slinkies. The kids were in heaven. 

 Adam's tall Lego tower.

They really enjoyed the transportation section of the American History Museum. This display was actually talking about the trains in Salisbury, NC.

 We couldn't go up in the Washington Monument due to that earthquake we had about a year ago. This was as close as we could get. 

The next morning we ventured down the street to the Post Office Museum before heading to the Building Museum. The Building Museum was supposed to have the best gift shop of all the museums, and it did. They had all kinds of Lego sets and toys. After visiting the store we headed out to the Lincoln Memorial.

 The boys are standing by one of the columns in front of the memorial.

Notice the reflecting pool? It's not so reflecting. It too, was closed and drained due to construction. I've never seen so many "orange fences" in one place before!

We stopped by the Potomac River to have a picnic lunch before heading home. It was a nice quiet ride home because they all three took a nap for the first part of the trip!

Our Fearless Wonder Isn't So Fearless After All

On Tuesday, July 24, we all piled into the van and headed to Langhorne, PA. We were taking Sarah to Sesame Place. Adam and Jackson went a few years ago, and now Sarah is way into Sesame Street, so we just knew she would love seeing Elmo and Abby Cadabby. She was quite excited to be going to "Elmo's House" asking for about a week if we were headed to "Elmo's House" every time we got in the car. All was well until we actually arrived at "Elmo's House". 

I expected Sarah to be timid around the characters as she always kept her distance from the Chick-fil-a cow. What I didn't expect was that she didn't want to do anything. Nothing. Nada. Zippo. She wouldn't even ride the carousel. The same little girl who has no fear of jumping into any depth of water wouldn't even go in the ankle deep water until we dragged her kicking and screaming. Of course, once she was in, she was happy. There is one place where water sprays from all directions all over you. Kevin said she said, "It's raining!" as she walked through finally with a smile on her face.

 Adam and Jackson's favorite place- the nets.

 Here we tried to get the three of them to stand in front of the "Elmo Bush". As you can see, Adam and Jackson were happy to stand and pose to have their picture taken...

 Sarah, on the other hand, ran the other way and hid on my lap.

 Again, we found Cookie Monster on the street and Adam and Jackson ran up to give him hugs...

Sarah had the death grip on me just standing near him.

 She wouldn't even get close enough to the boys for a picture on the front steps of Sesame Street. At this point, we were wondering if it was too late to cancel our breakfast with the characters for the next morning.

After some swimming and avoiding Abby Cadabby who was right across the street from this fire truck, Sarah climbed up and was happy to "drive" the fire truck. We headed back across Sesame Street to save us a spot for the parade. Sarah promptly fell asleep 45 minutes before the parade began. She did wake up to some monsters dancing in front of her and was actually mesmerized by the whole thing.

The next day... We had reserved breakfast with Cookie Monster since Abby would be there. We saw Ernie, Bert, and Big Bird, too. Sarah again had the death grip on me.

 From this distance she was always excited to see the characters.

 But don't get any closer...

 This was as good as it was going to get for a picture with a character.

 Adam and Jackson had a blast. I think they rode everything, especially the water slides, twice!

 Sarah finally enjoying the sprinklers after being coaxed to go in.

I was very surprised at how well they all three behaved during the drive up. It took us 8 1/2 hours and it actually went by pretty fast. I think I feared the worst so it couldn't get any worse than what I had imagined! Sarah did love driving through the tunnel and Adam was excited to stay in a hotel. Who needs Sesame Place when we have tunnels and hotels?

Toilet Aversion

I am sure you are thinking what in the world is this post about. It was going to be about how much I love my boys but how different it is to have a girl. She is such a care-taker. She cleans up and makes sure everything is in its place (most of the time). But then it happened again...


Kevin came in the door with handfuls of stuff he'd bought at Sam's. I started putting it away while he and Jackson ran off to Scouts. Sarah got excited when she saw the box of Pop-Tarts. (Yes, I feed my children Pop-Tarts for breakfast and popcorn for dinner.) She decided that she was going to put them away. She was too cute. I ran to find the camera. While I was looking, I heard, "Mommy, come here! Mommy!" She had some urgency in her voice. While she was putting the Pop-tarts so nicely in their basket, she proceeded to pee on the floor.


I swear, people, she does not like our toilets! She stays clean and dry all day at school. She stays dry when we are out and about and uses the potty whenever we take her. At home she will sit on the potty for forever, get right up, and pee somewhere in my house! Luckily we don't have much carpet and she does enjoy cleaning up. She wipes her pee up, puts her wet clothes in the washing machine, and then runs off to re-dress herself. We won't even talk about the #2's. 


I hate potty training. I wish there were people out there who you could just send your kids off to, and they would bring them back to you all potty-trained. It is the only thing I haven't liked about parenting so far. At this point I am thinking that she is going to be in kindergarten still wetting her pants.

I know you can't see it, but there is a big puddle of pee in between her and the basket. No, it didn't get the rug or any of the food. Just so you know, when I took the picture, I didn't really know what I was taking a picture of.

Here is how the picture was supposed to turn out. Of course, she has now had a bath and gotten all cleaned up.

Coach Mom

Kevin had the camera. I had Adam. I can't even remember what made me call him over. I am sure he was misbehaving. Adam is trying to work on being nicer to people, so I am sure I was reminding him that he needs to be nice. We probably weren't saying a thing about basketball but it sure looks like I am giving him some good pointers.

The Basketball Finale

After the whole get the stitches out and get some ice cream incident we headed over to the YMCA to watch Adam's last basketball "practice". They had a cute little ceremony at the end.

 They always start off with some stretches. I think sticking the tongue out must help in stretching the muscles.

 Then they huddle up around the coach to find out how they will be grouped and what skills they will be working on.

 Adam practices some dribbling. They had to dribble their ball around the edge of half the court. I was surprised at how well he was controlling the ball.

 He's taking a shot. Look at that face of concentration.

After their little basketball exercises, they lined them all up and gave them a chance to "cut" the net and take a piece of the net with them.

 Adam chooses just the right piece.

 I still can't figure out why they didn't let these three and four year olds actually cut the net. What were they thinking? They can use scissors, right?

 Coach Mark places a medal around Adam's neck and gives him his certificate.

 Adam was so proud of his medal. He wanted to take it to school the next day to show his friends.

 We can't leave without a big group high five.

Oh, in case you are wondering. Yes, Adam is wearing the wrong color shirt. They give them a shirt every year they participate. The shirts look alike but the colors change each year. Adam has quite the collection of YMCA Family Hoops Shirts because he has his two and Jackson's two. Kevin accidentally grabbed his shirt from last year which was burgundy instead of this year's green shirt. Oops!