Making candles

C7 got a candle-making kit for Christmas, and Q6 just got one for her birthday, so they decided to make candles. This is the greatest kit ever, because it took virtually no work on my part. The girls did it on their own and came out with cute candles ... and both of them brought candles into their teachers. C7 of course has food on her face.

Slip & SLIDE!

In the 1970s or 1980s, they had advertisements for Slip -n- Slide. And it looked AWESOME. I always wanted one. And I always thought that a hill would make a slip & slide even more awwwwwwesome. And a little bit dangerous. And I knew that Q would love it.

As it turns out, hills are good for the slip -n- slide, but you have to be careful. The water must be dribbling ONTO the slide. And it helps to have the water pooling a bit onto the slide, so it is slippery.

Problems aside, it worked out well. Best gift ever for a really hot April.

Mt. Vernon

K8 really wanted to visit Mt. Vernon while she was here visiting. Q6 made a little fuss about it being HER birthday and HER day and SHE should get to choose. But ... we still went to Mt. Vernon and everybody had a great time. We didn't stay too long, and we went early. We were there by 8:00 for an 8:20 tour. We had bought an extra ticket thinking that MM was coming, but he didn't. We missed him, but we sold his ticket to a lovely stranger who bought it from me after I asked the ticket office if they'd take a return.

We brought Flat Stanley along for the girls' cousins in Georgia.

Flat Stanley at Mt. Vernon




Flat Stanley with sheep




After going through the house (no photos, please) we sat outside and looked in the little out buildings here and there.




The girls love the necessary. I love the necessary.




We headed down to the Potomac, visited the 16-sided barn, and a little slave house. We stayed at the slave house a long time. The girls pounded corn, threw the corn to the chickens, and told the interpreters that there were squirrels in the chicken house. They knew. They didn't care. I'm betting every single guest tells them there are chickens in the hen house!

C7 and chickens




And we saw and smelled a lot of animals. I think they had 80+ lambs.




Good times.

Q6's birthday

Not only was April 15, 2012 Q6's 6th birthday, but it was also the day that the RMS Titanic sank.

I've been asking Q over the last few weeks what she wanted to do for her birthday, and although she first thought birthday party, she ended up deciding she wished to take a friend to the Land of Little Horses in Gettysburg, PA. Here's the real link. We haven't done this yet because it isn't open until May. So ... Land of Little Horses in the future!

Nevertheless, she still had a birthday at home to deal with. Q had cookies at school on Friday (really cute ones! I made big circles on lollipop sticks, frosted them white, and frosted each child's initial on them in the color of the table they were sitting at. They were cute), but she refused a cake on her actual birthday. No cake, no cupcakes, no cookies. Nothing. All she asked for was strawberry ice cream, so I didn't make anything.

On the way to Mt. Vernon with her sister and cousin on her birthday morning, however, she and C7 and K8 were discussing the RMS Titanic, and making an iceberg and a Titanic cake and smashing them into each other.

So ... while I wasn't up to making a Titanic cake at the last minute, we came up with a compromise ... ice cream iceberg and a Titanic cookie -- I had leftover dough from Friday's cookies, so it was easy!

So, we sang Happy Birthday and smashed an unsinkable ship into an iceberg. And then ate it.
















Tasty disaster.

Service to the community

Way back in the fall the Hyattsville Elementary School PTA hosted a book sale. C7 at that time sold tickets for free lemonade, redeemable April 14, 2012. She gave the money to the HES PTA in November, but as the date came due ... certain of our friends reminded us that TODAY was THE DAY.

Since there was a parade anyway, we decided to honor our commitments with a lemonade stand, but this time the money would go to the Greenbelt animal shelter.

Here is the stand set up, and Q5 ready to provide drinks. Yes, that is $.25 purrrrr cup. Nice pun, right?





And here is C7 with a service dog in training ... he's young, but already REALLY well behaved!! He could sit already, he was calm and easy going.





The girls earned $16.65 for the Greenbelt Animal Shelter. We'll be going to donate the money sometime soon! At $.25/cup (dixie cup) they did a nice job.

easter

This year we found out that the Easter bunny can change regular beans into jelly beans -- provided you've collected them when you've done good deeds (helping out, being polite, eating with your mouth shut, etc.). So during Lent we collected good deeds as pinto beans and this is what we found Easter morning ...





The bunny also brought treats (dog stuffie and horse stuffie and candy) but the Easter bucket also makes a nice hat





We spent a lot of time outside, weeding, working on the soon-to-be-ours side yard, and the girls found some special places.




The dogwood and lilac are in bloom (C7 took these pictures).








This last image is of the fairy house, which C7 and Q5 shod with a fairy rug. Sweet.

Assateague and Chincoteague Day 3

Our last day, and we started early, of course, as C7 woke early (having fallen asleep like a reasonable child) and Q5 slept in a tiny bit (having not fallen asleep like a reasonable child). Breakfast at the breakfast buffet, and then ... the pool. The girls spent two whole hours in the pool, and I even swam for an hour (wow).







We left the islands and headed north to the Maryland national seashore. The ponies are not fenced in here, and one of the first things we saw was this:





The ponies in Maryland aren't penned as they are in Virginia. The authorities in Maryland use a chemical birth control to control the population rather than herding and selling them as they do in Virgina. But they roam free, over the parking lots, on the grass, around. So people do get bit and kicked, although thanks to Q5 The Cautious we didn't. When we saw ponies from the car she demanded we roll up our windows.

So, we spent some time on the glorious beach, where we saw about five surfers and two swimmers (they stayed in the water about 2 minutes), a few dogs,and more people than you'd think looking at this photo.





The kids enjoyed the sand.















And me with kissy lips and my awesome wavy-curly hair!




We went out and took a mini-hike on the dune trail in the national park. On the way there we went by this bunch of ponies ... they just jumped out of the woods along side us and started walking!! And yes, Q5 demanded that I roll up my window, you can hear her in the video.






Q5 was a little nervous because of the ponies and did NOT want to go on the walk, as you can see from this photo. She is walking along a road that was built in anticipation of subdividing the whole island and filling it with resorts and houses. Luckily, this was right before a hurricane blew in on Ash Wednesday, 1962, and resulted in the creation of the national seashore. Thank goodness.




C42 brought her back, though.




And I think that is it! Glad to be home!