Playtime at home: June edition

I finally dumped some videos and pics off of my cameras that were taken throughout the month and thought I'd throw them up there before we head off to vacation. Yes, there may be a bit of a lull in posts as we're heading down to the Outer Banks for 10 days this Friday. We're staying with my parents for a night before heading to a rental house for the week (June 30 - July 7) with a group of friends. There will be 10 adults and 7 kids in a 7 bedroom house with a pool, hot tub...should be TONS of fun! Then we're back to my parents' house for 2 nights before coming home. The final exciting part is that my parents will be keeping the kids for an additional 3 days after we return home - 3 nights without kids! Evan and I have already made a no-cooking pact for those nights :)

Anyway, back to the fun we had this past month. I made a new purchase for my photography (a tripod), and Henry was absolutely fascinated by it when I set it up in the living room.

Henry has also figured out how to walk around in Natalie's heeled princess shoes. It's pretty darn cute.

Here they are serenading us with the ABCs. Ridiculously, adorably cute, even if a bit quiet.

And finally, some quiet time before bed enjoying new books. Love how much these kids like to read!

Dinosaur park 2012

The first Saturday in June was absolutely beautiful. We'd gotten past almost a week straight of rain and woke up to a gorgeous morning that was just begging to be spent outside. Evan had an all-day political even that day, so I decided to take the kids over to the Dinosaur Park in Ashburn. We were there for about 3 hours and had an absolutely blast!

The first thing the kids wanted to do was swing. We thought no one could be as into swings as Natalie was; we were wrong. It's by far Henry's favorite thing to do, and he would swing all day long if we'd let him.

Can you tell which of the above photos I took with my phone versus camera? :)

Natalie has finally learned to pump on the swings. She needs a couple of pushes to get started but can then keep herself going pretty well. It makes pushing Henry a lot easier when I'm by myself.

It was then time to climb on the equipment and enjoy the slides...

Do a little balancing...

Play in the fire truck...

Bounce on the...whatever you call these...

Is his face not to die for in this photo?!

And finish with some climbing (yes, she climbed all the way up there by herself and was very proud!)

We then took a walk through the wooded area next to the playground. I've got photos of our "discovery walk" (as the kids like to call it) on the photography blog, so check out the beauty that we saw over there. The kids really liked looking down at the rushing water in the creek...the original plan was to allow them to take off their shoes and walk in the creek (Natalie was very excited to do this), but with the rains we'd had the week before, the water level was really high and moving very quickly. So, no walking in the water this time, but I've promised them we'll head back and do it again soon.

We did find a fallen tree over one of the creeks (one of my favorite photos of the day is of this tree), and I helped the kids up and onto the log. They thought that was SUPER cool. Sometimes it's nice to have kids who are just the right amount of adventurous: they want to get up onto the log, but have no desire to continue out over the creek.


All in all, a fantastic day! Can't wait to get back there again soon.

Just like a rockstar!

This week Natalie attended dance camp at Tiny Toes Dance Academy. The theme was Rockstar/Musical Theater - I was really glad we were able to do that instead of Prince & Princess week, as Natalie gets enough of that in general!

Each day they had a dance lesson, made a craft (bracelets, picture frame, tote bag, and the tank top you'll see below), had snack, and played dress up. Today on the last day was a performance for the parents - and it was GREAT! Evan took these videos on his phone; I got some pictures as well, but haven't had a chance to get them off of my camera yet. I'll share those soon!

Part 1 of their "rockstar" dance to Kesha's TikTok (which, despite her craziness, is a pretty cute song).

Part 2:

The "musical theater" portion was from Annie:
The girls didn't sing their part too loudly while the song was playing, so their teacher had them do that part again without the music - unfortunately, we were so entranced that we didn't get a video! But it was even more adorable, if possible :)

Finally, the kids danced to "Freeze Dance". We have no idea why Natalie was getting so cracked up, but she was making EVERYONE else laugh. Too cute!

I'm so glad we did this dance camp. Natalie and her friend Ruth (the shortest, adorable little blonde girl) had a blast together all week. I think Ruth came out of her shell a little bit, and Natalie learned some dance that wasn't ballet/princess, which makes me happy. Another great experience at Tiny Toes!

Natalie's dance recital Part 2

Since we're almost 3 weeks past Natalie's dance recital, I figured it was time to finally get the rest of the photos I have up here! I previously posted photos from the tap dance her class did, as well as the video of her ballet routine. However, I have before and after photos, as well as some from during her ballet performance.

We arrived at the Franklin Park Performing Arts Center in Purcellville a bit early to get Natalie settled. We took that opportunity to take some nice family photos!

Natalie's first routine (tap) was the fourth performance of the recital. Like I said, I already posted a bunch of photos from that, but I found this additional one that I really liked and wanted to include here.

 There were of course a number of other dances - i tried to take photos of each dance cause the kids were just so cute! I don't want to post them all up here, but I do have to share one - the "tippie toes" class (18 months to 2.5 years, I believe) did their dance with a parent (all dads and one mom). It was adorable and enough to bring tears to your eyes.

 After intermission was Natalie's ballet performance. Evan recorded while I took some photos - here are my favorite shots.

 At the end of the recital, they had each class come out so the parents could come pick up our little dancers. We had this bouquet ready and waiting for Natalie, but it was a complete surprise - she had no idea!

Henry was so excited to see his sister dance. Every time a new class came out, he started asking for her, and was disappointed when she wasn't there. So he was so excited to see her at the end!

 I love, love, love this photo of Natalie and Evan

 And Carrie took this one of the 4 of us.

 Even with the craziness I was able to get this photo of Natalie with her teacher, Ms. Amber.

It was a fantastic recital - I told Ms. Helen I really liked this recital. She had ironed out the "kinks" compared with last year (which was the first one!), and they had some new and interesting things happen at the recital (some of her older students sang, there was a tumbling class, and more). We're so happy with Tiny Toes - so glad Natalie has been able to grow up dancing there!

Visiting cousins

After our day in NYC, we headed home on Sunday to be able to enjoy Memorial Day here at home. Also, we knew that Evan's cousin Charlotte was having a party at her house to celebrate her daughters' graduations (one from college, one from high school), and he really wanted to stop by. Since they live in PA, basically on our way home, we were able to go for a couple of hours. It was a blast! They live in this AMAZINGLY beautiful old farm house. Since they have 6 kids, they need that much space!

Natalie immediately latched onto Charlotte & Kevin's youngest daughter, Elizabeth - she basically shadowed her the whole time. Luckily Elizabeth (who is 9, I think), was a fantastic sport about the whole thing and showed Natalie around quite well - even with her sprained ankle!

 Henry also enjoyed the space, running around the yard and generally being the most adorable little guy at the party!

The highlight of the party was a concert by the graduates, Meg (left) and Laura (right). Meg is a fantastic singer (she's released a small EP), and the two girls together have beautiful voices.

Here's a full family photo:

Here we are with Charlotte (third from the right), her husband Kevin (far right), Charlotte's brother, and all of the kids (excluding their son David who is in China). They are the absolute loveliest people, and live very close to a number of my customers, so I'm hoping we'll be able to go back and visit again when they're not having a big party so we can really get to know each other better (and Evan can reconnect with his cousin).

NYC, baby!

On Saturday of Memorial Day weekend we gathered all of our gear and took the kids into NYC. Evan's parents are only a little over an hour away by train, so we thought that would be the easiest way to go. No driving, no parking, and the kids can get up and walk around some on the train. Perfect! Plus, we were pretty sure the train would be a hit in and of itself - we were right! I absolutely adore this shot I took of Natalie looking out of the window of the train. I was trying really hard to get her reflection in the window - this was the best I could do. I love it!

We got to Penn Station and took the blue line down to the WTC site. We really wanted to see the nearly-completed Freedom Tower and the memorial fountains. I took quite a few photos; my favorite color shots are here, while my favorite black and whites are on the photography blog. Getting into the memorial is still a bit of an effort; construction isn't completed, so while they're finishing you have to get tickets, go through some crazy lines (including security that rivals the airports), wait some more, walk through some more lines...and then finally you're in the memorial park!

In case you don't know, they turned the base of the two original towers into very large fountains, with the names of those who died in the attacks etched into the wall around the fountains. It's absolutely beautiful.

The building behind the fountain is the new Path train station that has been built, coming in from NJ.

And here's the tower itself, as viewed from within the memorial park.

Kids in front of the Freedom Tower

We then headed over to Wall Street to see our old building (63 Wall Street - The Crest). On the walk I snapped this fantastic shot of Evan and Henry.

And here we are in the lobby of the building. I think it's a pretty good photo of the 4 of us! I only wish I'd taken off the camera bag so it's a little bit better. I have to admit, it was a little surreal to be back in that building, but this time with kids! Not only that, but the people walking in and out all looked SO young to me! I guess we seemed that young 8 years ago when we moved in...

And yes, those are moths behind us. It was a joke for everyone who lived in the building that the entire lobby and common areas were wall papered with these giant moths. We all originally thought that it was temporary...8 years later it's still there. So, yeah - not sure what the deal is, but it sure makes the building stand out!

We then headed up to Lincoln Center to meet up with 2 friends from college. Ed currently is a chef at a cafe in Lincoln Center, so he hooked us up with a FANTASTIC lunch. Our friend Amy met us there as well - she lives about 1.5 hours north of the city and took the train down to meet us. I'm so glad she was able to come and it all worked out! While lunch was cooking we got a special behind-the-scenes tour of part of Lincoln Center - here's the Alice Tully theater where they hold super fancy events. Very cool.

We then headed across Central Park. TONS of people were out (I guess because of the holiday weekend), but I'm not entirely certain why - it was the warmest day in weeks, muggy and hazy as well. But I guess there you take what you can get!

I love Central Park - you see all kinds of great stuff. One of Natalie's favorites were the horse-drawn carriages. We're not sure what Henry's favorite thing was because he was asleep for this part of our journey!

I did not get a photo of one of the cutest things to happen in our walk across the Park. We saw at least 3 bridal parties getting photos taken, and Natalie absolutely loved the dress of the first one that we saw. She then went up to the bride and told her how much she loved her dress - it was absolutely adorable. The bride was completely charmed - as we were we!

Our original plan was to spend some time at the Central Park Zoo However, we should have known it would be (no pun intended) a complete zoo. And it was. The line to get in was insanely long, and with the heat we were ready to go inside somewhere. So, we skipped the zoo and headed slightly south to FAO Schwartz. Amy had just been there not too long before, so she had fun showing Natalie some of the fun things to do.

One of my favorites is the new Muppet workshop - for just $100 you can pick out and design your very own muppet. You pick the muppet, facial expressions, clothes, hair, everything, and they make it for you. I was actually tempted...but the line for that was of course a bit long as well. Still pretty cool!

After visiting the princess dress up area, we showed Natalie the giant piano (as featured in the movie Big). There was a bit of a line of people waiting to go on it, but it moved pretty quickly so I figured why not. She loved jumping around on it and making music! Unfortunately Henry did NOT - he refused to go on. But I'm glad one of them enjoyed it!

We then parted ways with Amy and headed back over to Penn Station. We'd walked I don't even know how many miles that day, and were pretty much all exhausted.

The kids were both troopers, but Natalie most of all. She hadn't napped all day and she walked for the vast majority of it (we only carried her once or twice, and I pushed her in the stroller once while we carried Henry). Thus, this was a big part of the train ride home :)

All in all, a fantastic day - I can't wait to do it again with them. Next time: museums!

Friday night at Grandma's house

On the Friday before Memorial Day, I had a couple of visits to do up in Pennsylvania, only about 2 hours from Evan's parents' house. I've really been wanting to take the kids into NYC for a day, so we thought why not combine everything into one trip: I do my visits on Friday while Evan watches the kids, then we all head up to NJ that afternoon and take the kids into NYC on Saturday. We could then hit Evan's cousin's house in PA on the way back home as they were having a graduation party for their kids (college and HS both!), and we'd still have Monday off of work to relax at home. Perfect!

We had lovely weather that afternoon/evening, so we spent some time outside. The kids had fun doing all sorts of things: blowing bubbles

...chatting with great grandma

...and playing in the yard! Look at that "cheese" face!

...and can't forget my beautiful girl :)

I actually got some really great photos of Natalie in the wooded area. She started walking through a "sea" of ferns, and I couldn't resist getting some shots. The light and colors were perfect! If you haven't seen them, I put them HERE on my photography blog.

That night we did the kids favorite thing: a bath in the big jacuzzi tub. Henry is a little freaked out by it, as we didn't warn him the first time we put the jets on and it scared him pretty badly. However, he was willing to get in without the jets on so we could  get him clean.

Natalie, however, has no problem at all with getting right down there into the bubbles!

I snagged this shot of Henry with his grandparents - I like the black and white of it! And I think I see a family resemblance there between Henry and Grandma!

Note: the abundance of black & white shots in this post and in the fern post (4 is more than I normally post, and I have even more on my computer) is due to a photo group that I'm a part of on Facebook. Each week there's a different "challenge" for a type of photo to take, and that week was black & white, which led me to take quite a few black & white photos over Memorial Day weekend. I've got a whole post coming of B&W photos I shot in NYC on the photography blog - hopefully I'll get that up this week!