Boston Public Garden, a set on Flickr.

Great family & friends outing!

:)

So, the boys were wonderful for the 8+ hour drive to DC this morning. We checked in at the B&B, and headed right out to the zoo (walking distance!).

At first, our luck was not looking good. Particularly at Jake's height, he sees a lot of backsides in any given day, so is pretty used to it.

Unfortunately, the backsides we saw (in addition to HUGE crowds of people) for the first hour of the visit also looked like this:



and this:


and a Panda who wanted to stay in her private little box.

Luckily, things turned around!

Favorites were:




Can you look at this guy without thinking Alan! Alan! Alan!


Two other nice animals:


Dinner at a hole in the wall Mexican place that was just great. Now bed. :)

We had a great time making Easter egg bread today. The boys ground the cardamom in grammies mortar, measured ingredients, kneaded the dough and shaped the bread. Of course their favorite part was sprinkling (err, sampling) the sugar on top. Well, possibly sampling the rolls over a hot chocolate this afternoon was pretty good too.

When I tucked him in tonight, Jake said "I can't wait until tomorrow!" When I asked why, he said "we can eat the Easter egg bread!" :)

Here's a brief retrospective of Easter egg bread through the years.

And a few from today:

So, both boys are enrolled in Pool School, and have been since January. Jake is approaching his goals of 1) being comforatable putting his face in the water (check!) and 2) being able to swim, face in, and "pop up" for air. After our Florida trip, he could swim for one breath, but couldn't pop up to get a new breath. You can imagine that is a bit problematic.

In any case, he's getting better - and even moved up a level in class:


Toby has also moved up a level, and is making progress on duration and form....and pool school has a knack for keeping the classes fun.

As you may know, though I've been able to swim since childhood, I didn't get comfortable with my face in the water until a few years ago. I took a class and worked hard to get better so as to be a better example for the kids. (oh, and we have a LOT more fun now too!) I am really thrilled that both boys are already at this level of comfort in the water. Not only will it keep them safer near water, but hopefully it will lead to years of good summer fun!

Well, *almost* great news. We were SO sure that we were going to catch the leprechaun this year!

We followed his trail as quickly as we could!





We had two traps ready and he triggered them both. In fact, there was a brief, shining minute where we thought he was *in* the trap!!



Look at Jake's face: he really, really thinks there is a leprechaun under that box!



But he got away somehow, I'm afraid. The kids claim that they saw a green flash as we lifted the box up so maybe he was under there after all?

It's possible that our dog was asleep on the job, or else the leprechaun bribed her in some way because she, our early detection system for trap #1, failed to bark. We're already working on ways we'll try next year, and enjoying the candy the leprechaun left behind.

An overdue post that Toby has earned his yellow belt in Tae Kwon Do!

I'm told it is a real yellow belt (versus a "junior" one where he'd have to re-test when he's older, should he continue). When he is focused, it is fun to watch! (plus the converse, alas)

So SO much to update about our wonderful vacation! A week in Venice, FL with family (great Aunts and Uncles, and my parents) followed by two days at Disney (Magic Kingdom, Hollywood Studios - Star Wars) and one day at Universal's Island of Advendure (Wizarding World of HARRY POTTER!!).

BUT - I'll start with this: Jake tends to provide an ongoing soundtrack to our days - singing lots of songs, both made up and familiar, and it keeps us laughing (and *occasionally* asking for a pause).

Here are the three main songs from this trip (note, that the kids did not know about the Orlando part until after we'd arrived there - hilarious)

Jake cantina by peacefulmayhem

Jake harry potter by peacefulmayhem

Jake star wars by peacefulmayhem

In the airport on the way home, I passed a family with kids our age. The younger was skipping around and singing. LOVE IT! I wanted to give them a big high five. :)

As you may remember, Toby had pretty lofty goals for the Science and Inventor's fair.

As we tried to come up with a concrete invention idea, we assessed his ideas, weighing them against my ability to build (nonexistent) and the tight timeline. Toby noted things like 'future' or 'later' on most of them, because we needed more time...not because, say, these things are not yet possible in our universe. I love his notes:



As a result we shifted to conducting an experiment rather than making an invention, and ended up working with flowers and food coloring. Tobias was diligent in his note taking, and I was proud of the care with which he approached creating the poster for the fair. It was really cool to work with him on it.



The fair was today, and Toby presented his material well!