Gold Medal Winners

We had an eventful week this past week. Mark and I took Dan and Sophia to Maymont park -- a beautiful large park in downtown Richmond with animals and a petting zoo and botanical gardens and a bear... yes, a bear. On our visit though, the bear was sleeping. So, Dan and Sophia had their pictures taken with the only bear around. Notice how Our Bear resembles the Maymont bear. they have the same glint in their eyes.

Woobie came to see us all this week too for a few days. He is having a great time going to the movies, making model cars, and visiting with Dan and Fi. Woob and Daddy even took Dan to a fancy schmancy car dealership to drool over the 80K cars. Then they found Daniel piling dirt on the bumper of the 80,000 dollar car so they left quickly!

The kids' daycare had their OLYMPIC GAMES today. One of the dad's is the head of the audio/visual section of William & Mary, so he borrowed international flags from the international studies department to line up and down the sunken gardens (a W&M landmark based on the Chelsea Gardens in London). Then he set up a speaker system and had the Olympic theme playing as the children entered the gardens. I have no mad skills like this, so I did ask him if he will be sticking around the daycare at least until Sophia can appreciate all of this. He assured me that his child is only one year ahead of Soph, so he'll be around!

Here is a picture of the sunken gardens normally:

Here is the stadium as the kids are coming in. Notice that Dan not only got to carry the backpack (which he was thrilled about!), but he also got to carry the sign into the stadium announcing his class.

Here is the Fi making her grand entrance into the "stadium." (In the Lime Green hat on the left).

Not only did the dad have the Olympic theme, he had dance music. Here is Daniel getting his groove on and dancing. He got his rhythm from his daddy. Those of you who have seen him dance at weddings after a beer know what I am talking about :-)

Here is Dan giving Eric his gold medal for being the best big brother ever.

In other news, Sophia is REALLY SMART! I mean, not just smarter than your average bear (no reference to THE Bear here) but REALLY SMART. She turned 7 months old today and this past week she has already started using sign language to communicate with us. She told me that she wanted a bottle by making the hand sign. Then the next day she did the same thing to Mark. Then today, as I was picking her up from school, her teacher started talking about her bottles and Sophia started doing the hand sign. I do not have a video of it yet, but watch for it.

Last but not least, a BIG happy birthday to Grammy and Uncle Ken (and yes, mine was today. Mark's is next Sunday, Aunt Lynne's is next Tuesday... shoo. I think that does it for August!)

Visiting Candyland

After work and dinner we have been spending quality time outside with the kids. Bear loves to pull his little sister around like the Queen of Sheba in their wagon. And Sophia thinks it is pretty cool too!

It has been a long time since Mark and I have played Candyland. Like when Eric was four! So, we had to pop the directions out of the box to remember how to get started. We have only played twice (and Sophia has won both times!)

Soph is still a little confused about what exactly is candy in this game and what is not...



Dan is a little confused about what it means to stick with your choices...



Dan and Sophia have the best time when Eric is around!

Here are Pop and Soph and Eric. Daniel was not a willing participant in this photo shoot as you can tell.

We took the kids to the children's museum. Here are Dan and Daddy and Pooh Bear (cheesy knock-off costume!)

And Daniel driving Mommy and Fi around the museum:

Soph is in the big girl bathtub now! She loves it when the duck quacks and likes to splash in the water.

I took three days of "vacation" this week to do things around the house that needed to be done with no kids around. The garage was first on the list and it was cleaned and sorted out. The next day Mark took some time too and we tore up the front flowerbeds, put landscaping fabric down and laid fresh mulch. The last day Mark and I built the new swingset together.

The kids (and us) have loved the swingset! We've been on it every morning this weekend and every night before and after dinner.

Pics of the garage and front yard the next time around!