Busy Little Bees

We stayed closer to home for the rest of this week but kept up a busy pace with oodles of things to do, not to mention calamities that only two brave super heros could resolve! 

After a morning spent learning about dolphins at science "class" the boys spent the afternoon hitting the links! We took our darling little neighbors, Channing and Lyla to the near by mini golf course. I don't need to tell you how much the boys like mini golf, I know but Colin was giving Channing *8 years old* pointers. It was hilarious. We usually only play 9 holes at a time so playing a whopping 18 holes was exhausting for these little ones, thankfully Mamma was a sucker and bought everyone ice cream popsicles to boost moral. 

This is my favorite picture from the day. Four kids in four directions, pretty much sums it up! 

Thursday we were off to the National's game. We really have our routine down at this point. We arrive an hour early so that the boys can run roughshod on the kids' zone playscape. Then meander up the "escamalator" as Colin calls it to begin the gorging of ballpark food! This trip is was popcorn, peanuts, hotdogs, french fries and cotton candy. Oh and a vanilla milkshake to kick things off, natch! We got to see a few friends who stopped by to say hello which was fun and as always, we hung out with the best usher in the park, Mr. Mike. I didn't get a picture with the boys and Mr. Mike but that's a must for our next game. He is so sweet to the kids and even bought them both boxes of crackerjacks last game! 

Mr. JT comes to visit while Jim is getting drinks.
Will told him, "you're in my daddy's seat." Nice welcome.  

Friday we hosted an 80's dance party in the morning for Channing and Lyla and then headed over to the pool for lunch and a lazy afternoon. Later that evening we held our first family movie night with pizza and popcorn. The boys picked Wall-e which was a new movie to all of us. I must say, I feel like the boys miss out a little but just downloading a rental instead of roaming the aisles of blockbuster narrowing down the seemingly infinite choices. 

Saturday we had some fun friends over for a bbq. The boys husked their first corn! I'm a little embarrassed I haven't made them do it before now. Will whined about it (shocker I know) but all in all they did a great job!

And of course a little Saturday afternoon baseball practice before fall baseball classes with Coach John start back up!

We're off to North Carolina later next week for a long weekend with Tia (Colin's godmother) and Naya and Babs & Brent! We are all super excited for one last get away before school starts. I'm sure I'll have a million pictures upon our return. 

Till Next Time, 
Mamma, Frog & Toad

Memorial Day Marathon

Please note the boys faaaavorite shirts! 

We had a fun filled Memorial Day weekend with good friends, too much food & drink and enough running around to wear out both Frog and Toad... for at least one morning. 

As this is the third year in a row that we took the boys out to Burke Lake Park, I guess we can start calling it a tradition. Each year the kids appreciate it just a little more. I appreciate it because I remember a time before kids or marriage that Jim and I walked the park's lake side trail. We might have even held hands, well no, probably not but I've digressed. 

 

Now we pass that same trail yelling "choo choo" as we whoosh by on a child sized train. Afterwards we climbed aboard the carrousel on horses the boys named, "Snuggles" for Toad (Colin) and "Daddy" for Frog (Will). 

Then it was on to the playground followed by an intense round of mini-golf. We were situated after a family of nine... that's right, nine kids, adults and grandparents playing each hole together. After a lot of "not yet" and "you need to wait" we skipped past the family and a few holes, probably negating the score card we never actually started. Colin did a great job and even managed to hold his club the right way. He keeps asking if he can "play golf" we shall see about that. Will however was resistant to any help or advice. *sigh* 

Colin says his favorite part of the park was "everything" but when pressed it was "going down the slide millions and millions times". I swear if the kids went down once they went down fifty times. Who knew that with all the park has to offer that a typical playground slide would be that much fun. 

Will tells me he liked "all of them best but the train was the bestest" and I'll skip what he "didn't like best" as noone wants me to share all of his potty training details. Lets just say some days are better than others. 

After a much too short nap we freshened up and headed out to a friend's house in Del Ray for grilling and cocktailing while the ten little ones ran around in the backyard. Colin attempted rollerskating {insert gulp} and the adults enjoyed some delicious food and libation until late in the night. I couldn't believe how well the kids did and even slept in till 9am the next morning. That is a first!

Clearly my favorite forced family picture of the weekend!

Sunday was a blur with church, hosting the first summer welcome "coffee" and Jim's various responsibilities then off to the Nat's game with one of Colin's friends and his dad. We had amazing seats along first base, on the third row. Though to be honest I like the accessibility of Jim's seats better than the proximity when you have to run for popcorn, cotton candy, hot dogs, peanuts, water and thats just for the kids! Needless to say we over ate and I had to take the kids out around the 7th inning to burn off some energy on the playscape so we missed all five runs but we had a blast anyway. 

Afterwards we had another late (to families with small children) night at friends house with fried chicken and biscuits... yum! We were still home before the sun set so I guess, "late night" is all relative. 

Monday we stayed closer to home with a scooter trip to the nearest park with neighbor friends and a grill out at home. Jim tried out some new brats shipped from Wisconsin which I must say I loved more than he did. 

Pheeew! That was quite a long post. Hoping everyone had a wonderful weekend. 

Till next time, 
Mamma, Frog & Toad