Mosquito Hope Funny

Now that we've moved to VA, we've newly experienced the armies of mosquitoes that attack us every night.

Today, Hope said: Mom, maybe if we spray the mosquitoes with repelllent, they will repel themselves and then just die.

Another observation that she noticed was that they only go after Mom and daughter. She believes this is because women are sweeter and that there just ain't enough meat on Josiah for them to bother.

Kindergarten and Chocolate

Today, Hope officially started Kindergarten. We are using My Father's World curriculum, supplemented with Singapore Math and Explode the Code Phonics. The girl has been counting the days before school started, so when mom was tempted to not start, there really was no choice. We pulled down the books, sharpened the pencils, and started. Hope soaked up everything like a sponge and was so excited to learn learn learn. We even had time in the afternoon to learn some Chinese.


A while back, Hope was asking mom to tell her a long long story, so mom tried to remember Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by memory. Hope was so fascinated by the entire story that she made mom tell it again. Mom decided to instead read the book to her, but she had to translate it into Chinese for her. What we do for our kids!!!

This afternoon, on our way back from the library, Hope said she is now ready for us to read "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe" to her. Maybe Paxton will translate that one for her...

3 Birthdays in one week!

To celebrate Paxton and Lisa and Kent G's birthday, our friends, the Kators invited us to join them at Nags Head, North Carolina for the weekend. We introduced them to "Settlers of Catan" and now, we are all addicts of the game. Thanks a lot, Matt and Arlene!!!

Hope, flying a garbage bag kite at the Wright Brothers Memorial. This was the same spot the brothers flew an engine plane for the first time in history.

Making sand castles at Nags Head Beach. Perfect weather, perfect water. Perfect day.

Cape Hatteras lighthouse. We didn't want to climb this lighthouse, since it was already 91 F outside, and none of us wanted to get heat exhaustion climbing the 200+ steps

It was near this spot that Blackbeard made his living as a pirate. He lost his head being a pirate, so don't teach your children to go stealing other peoples' booty

The children pose with Mrs. Sue and her homemade coconut pecan cake. It was the first of three bday cakes that we snarfed down. The kids really loved that we celebrated all these birthdays. Not sure why...
Not sure why big people like celebrating so many birthdays either...
Here is the second of three cakes. Mr. Kent just had to have his ice cream cake, so we just had to suffer with him by snarfing this one down as well.

Josiah, seeing the ocean for the very first time. At first he was scared of the waves, but by the end of our time, he was really enjoying the wet sand in his pants.

We went home to celebrate Lisa's bday, and we just HAD to have another ice cream cake to prove the dad could write with icing. Notice that the cake only says HAPPY LISA. Paxton said it was too hard to write birthday on such a small cake. None of us really minded.

Josiah, snarfing down mom's bday cake. Three cakes isn't too bad of a deal after all.

Out and About the DC Area

Why we normally don't ask strangers to take our family pic. We expressly asked that he NOT put the monument over someone's head.

The Marine Corps War Memorial: From Iwo Jima, a very touching reminder of sacrifice and honor. The kids preferred the grassy area around the memorial for running around or having tantrums.

Arlington National Cemetery's Tomb of the Unknown soldier: A soldier stands guard over this tomb 24/7. Each soldier volunteers his time to guard this tomb as it is a great honor to guard this tomb.

President William Howard Taft's tomb. Did you know that he was the only president of the USA that retired to become a supreme court judge? Guess he had too much time on his hands after being a president.

Hope writing herself a reminder at the Women's Memorial at Arlington National Cemetery.

What Hope wrote...

Mom and daughter found the Hope diamond at the Smithsonian. Hope just had to see her diamond.

Smithsonian's Butterfly garden. It was a fun time but we kept thinking that we'd accidentally smack one while it was flying by.