The Smiths go to Washington

My Dad and Suzanne came to visit last weekend from Florida. Unfortunately, they came during the Nor-Easter that was produced from Hurricane Ida. Sorry Dad. They had 5 days of rain and wind. Sunday was gorgeous but they left at 8am! We still had a great time though. Friday the boys had to go school (with a 2 hour delay for the 6 inches of rain we had) so Dad, Suzanne and I went to St. Mary's City. I think they had fun looking around - even if it was windy and cold. St. Mary's City was the first capital of Maryland back in the 1600s. They have done a great job of recreating the place using archeological digs combined with written history. It was fun to see it in more detail than last year when Max's class went. On Saturday we headed out to DC to visit the Museum of American History. We hadn't been and they just reopened it last Spring so it was fun to see! The boys did pretty well but they weren't as interested as we were. They may have enjoyed the Lincoln stuff - or maybe they will in a few years.

The boys sitting at the end of a section of the first railroad trestle bridge with a steam locomotive behing them. This particular locomotive was brought over from England and had to have a set of wheels added to the front to help it stay on the uneven tracks here in America.

In the first room, Max started reading the information below the display of a ship. He was so cute. He was reading every word and did an awesome job! I had to stop him though. Can you imagine if he tried to read every word in the Museum of American History???

The first room we went into was all about boats and ships. It was displayed in chronological order and detailed how ships have contributed to shaping and building America. It started with ships that the colonists came over on, tobacco trade ships, pirate ships, slave ships, merchant ships, goldrush ships, then moved on to steamships and ocean liners. We even saw the first gold nugget that was found in California that started the California gold rush!

Playing an interactive game with Grandpa. There were a few displays peppered throughout for kids....little games to quiz them or displays to further demonstrate a topic. They were cute and the boys liked them.

They also had a room set up about inventing. It wasn't that impressive but it was nice to have a place that was specifically for kids. I hope DC gets a kid's museum before my kids are too old for it!

Overall we had fun. The kids did a great job walking all over and of course they had fun riding the Metro (so did I). It was a good trip. And I can definitely recomment Priceline as a good place to make hotel reservations! We stayed at the Renaissance Hotel for $80 a night! Woo-hoo!

Leaves, Leaves, and More Leaves

The trees are almost bare (and probably are bare today after the 3 days of wind and rain we've had) but Monday night, the kids played in the leaves while I raked and bagged some more. I think filled 8 bags before it got too dark. There are still more but the giant piles are gone. Of course the kids "helped" and Ed "helped" with his blower. I like to do things the old fashioned way - with a rake. Plus its good exercise! I tried to get some good pictures of the kids but they aren't as good as last week's pictures. They were so funny because they kept hiding under the leaves. You really couldn't tell where they were and at one point I was afraid that Max was going to rake Nolen while he was buried!

This picture isn't very clear, but I love that you can see Max's feet sticking out.


A few times, Edward blew the leaves up all around them and they were completely surrounded. They looked like they were sitting in Big Bird's Nest!

Field Trip, Halloween Party and Halloween

As usual I'm a week behind on the blog. Sorry blog, but my new BFF, Facebook, is taking up a lot of my computer time these days. Anyway, let's play catch up!
Last Friday Nolen's class had a field trip to Bowle's Farm. The kids had a great time and it was very well organized. The kids walked through the shorter corn maze, visited the petting zoo, went for a hayride, and watched a little video about soybeans. I was a chaperone but I was only responsible for Nolen and his friend Jacob.

Here are the pigs eating a pumpkin that the farmer threw on the ground for them.


This is Nolen's friend Jacob. Its pretty funny that both of the boys were wearing camoflauge that day.

The kids got to feed corn to the goats!

Hugging the goats.

That same day was the Halloween Party at school. We all rushed back to the school and most of the chaperones stayed to watch the Safety Walk (costume parade) and help with the party. I got some pictures of the safety walk but I didn't take any of the party in the classroom. The kids made really cute monster hands out of plastic gloves filled with hot tamales for fingernails and popcorn!

Here is Hannah the flapper.

Our next door neighbor Sarah was dressed as a diva.

Hey look its one of the Smith Brothers...I mean, one of the Mario Brothers!

And there is Max, I mean, Luigi!

Getting ready to go trick-or-treating! The boys had to take turns being Mario. We alternated back and forth and they never got upset about it!

Mario and George!

Since I convinced the boys to be Mario and Luigi, I made myself a Princess Peach costume! I used a pattern for a Cinderella dress and I think it turned out pretty good. It took me the better part of a day and in the end it probably wasn't any cheaper than buying a costume would have been but I guess it was fun!

Jazzy Girl

LES Fall Carnival

Last week was the Fall Carnival at the boys' school. I spent the entire two and a half hours doing line dances with the kids for three tickets, so Edward took the boys and hung out with them. Leonardtown is such a great school. The PTA puts on an awesome carnival and its so fun to get out and see the parents of the kids and the teachers. I think the boys skipped the haunted house this year (bummer) and spent most of their time playing the games in the gym. I'm sure Nolen's favorite was the rock wall. I'll have to upload the video of that. The kid is an absolute monkey! I love it!

Farm Life Festival

On Sunday I took the boys to the Farm Life Festival. It wasn't quite what I expected but it was a nice time and a beautiful day so we certainly enjoyed ourselves. Nolen was most interested in how much money the cotton candy cost. One vendor was selling it for $4 and another for $2. He was quick to point that out to me so we could buy the $2 cotton candy! Ha! How can you pass up cotton candy for the bargain aware 6 year old?

There was a lot of old farm equipment on display although I had to make up most of what I told the boys about it. It would have been nice to have descriptions posted or pictures of it being used or something. In the Trades building there were displays of tools used in 26 different trades from leathersmithing and blacksmithing to broom making and barn building. I don't know what all was in there. A man who worked there stopped and said he hoped the boys were finding something that they were interested in. "There are 26 different trades in here. There has to be something in here they'd like. What are those boys interested in?" I thought I was making a joke when I said, "sadly, they're interested in video games." He did not think that was funny at all and then I felt bad. Sorry random volunteer at the farm festival! I know remembering these trades is important and I would love it if my boys were interested in something there but it was a don't touch kind of place with no explanations about what the tools were for. It was hard to spark a boy's interest when all I can tell them about an random iron bar is that was probably used to bang on something else made of wood...or thereabouts.

Max liked the chicks and the chicken. I'm surprised he didn't get pecked!

The boys fed this goat grass. It was really cute.

Always have to get a picture on the tractor.




This contraption had a sign on it that said "Two horse power treadmill". I'm guessing that means that two horses can be hitched up to turn the track and drive the belt that does something on the other end. See how informative the "mommy tour" was for the kids. No wonder it wasn't all that interesting for them! ha!


Any event is a success when there is cotton candy!

Catching Up....again

Well, I haven't posted in awhile...(that should be the new blogger's motto!) so I'll hit the highlights today. It seems like I keep track of people on Facebook so much that I forget to blog lately!

I'll start with our most recent (and cutest) development...we have a dog that seems to think we are his family. Don't worry, we are not taking in another dog. A few nights ago, after dark, I looked out the window and saw Jasmine playing chase with a fluffy collie-type dog. It was surprising because she can be a real bully to other dogs. She doesn't really socialize well and has nipped at about every dog on this street at one time another...sorry to Indie, Daisy, Bugsy and the yellow lab. But there they were, playing happily for about 30 minutes before I finally got her to come inside. Well, her boyfriend came back the next night and the next night! On the third night, he got close enough for us to get a good look at him. He had been pretty skittish before that and would run away from us. He came up on the deck and let us pet him which was when Ed realized he is pretty skinny. You know where this is going right? Yes, we fed the stray dog. He must have appreciated it because he showed us how grateful he was by crying at the backdoor for awhile and then spending the whole night on our deck. I have made flyers to hang up around town and hopefully someone will claim him. I hate to call animal control because I don't think he would have much of a chance there. He seems really sweet. The boys were running around with him before school today. He isn't around today. He has probably gone into the woods behind our neighborhood to hang out but I do secretly hope he comes back tonight.