Mmmmmm...Tasty!!

Hannah requested a cheese and peanut butter sandwich. We decided to also include honey, lettuce, and licorice. It's really good dipped in beef broth like a po boy. And drizzled with chocolate syrup.

I just want everyone to know that the sandwich was Richard's idea.

behind the blinds

The blinds ate Hannah. I had to choose between trying to pull her out at the last minute and save her, or getting a really cool picture by which to remember her. Enjoy the picture everyone!

face, er, body painting

Night Vision Labs (Richard's work) had a picnic today! We all got to go onto the compound and see where Richard works and meet a bunch of his colleagues. That was exciting for me, since I hadn't been allowed to get past security before. Just as I expected, it looked like a place where a bunch of engineers work- effective, efficient, and a bit disorganized.. He fits right in.
They had face painting at the picnic, and Hannah really liked that. She got a rainbow on her leg and a star rainbow in her arm. She had a green butterfly on her cheek, but she cried it off.

Booster seat

If you're asking yourself "what is he doing?" then know that you are not the first one. This is sam, and his booster seat, standing on the couch. He was once content to simply eat in his seat, but before long he was scooting along the kitchen floor, accompanied by a herrung, herrung, herrung. That's how I would know he was done with his hot dog.
But now, when he's done eating he just gets up, seat and all. And he can run, jump, climb onto the couch and even onto our bed. And since we all laugh (uncontrollably; this is really funny in action) he runs around saying "funny! funny! funny!"

a few moore cute stories

We have started reading the Book of Mormon stories with the kids. Sam participates because afterwards, if you pay attention, you get a scripture treat (a skittle). Anyway, I jokingly asked Sam to pick the story tonight and he started singing (and dancing) chop, chop, chop arms; chop, chop, choooop aaarms!

Hide-and-go-seek is a regular game here. There has been one very serious and necessary change to the rules, though, when playing with Hannah. Instead of yelling "ready or not, here I come!", it is wise to just ask "Are you ready?"

And I have quit cleaning. This is really due to our own safely, actually. Recently the carpet in our apartment has taken to suddenly bursting into flames of molten lava. Or torrents of rushing white-water rapids. Or, rarely, but very scary (try saying that fast) colonies of very tiny belly-tickling monsters. So you never know when you are going to need a couple shirts, a few pillows, some scraps of paper and a couple blankets to get you safely from one room to the next.

swimmin' in the sun

It's all in her head

The results are in, and the verdict: She's faking it. All. We had quiche for dinner tonight, and Hannah loved it. She ate it all, and got Sam to eat his. that's right, Quiche, involving spinach and broccoli. Hannah usually picks the oregano out of her spaghetti, gets distressed if her hot dog touches the ketchup before she is ready, and gags herself on an assortment of other veggie-laden dinners. But, tonight, when she saw the amount of cheddar cheese that goes into a quiche, she decided that she simply loves it.

Haircut

Sam does not, not, not, not, not like getting his hair cut at all! As soon as he saw the clippers he backed away saying nooooo n no no noowwaaa! But I prevailed.
Poor boy, I don't think he is ever going to grow out of that swirlee at his front hairline.

A minor modification

Sarah didn't believe I could make this work without wrecking her laptop, but sure enough, the back can be pulled off the laptop cover to expose whatever is behind it. The LCD screen is just a transparent array of liquid crystal cells that can block light by rotating light polarization with respect to a polarizing filter. I wonder why they don't sell laptops like this? Maybe people find it too distracting.

The Nanny

When Sarah and I need a break, we go out and leave the kids in the care of the trusty old acoustic guitar case. As can be seen in the photo Sammy has grown quite fond of his 'uh-tar' nanny. There are some other shots of the guitar case with Sammy at the park and playing in the tub, but Hannah took them and they are badly focused, so we won't post them.

More fire!!!!!!!

Because fire is fun! One shot is of me writing our last name with a sparkler (hey, nice penmanship!). The other is one that I took as I was being attacked by a Roman candle - I will put myself in great peril to obtain good images for the blog.

Bye to Lala

Laura left us this morning at 4am and we are all sad and missing her. The kids love aunt Lala and I really enjoyed her company. But I think they miss Jason more- he would play with them and throw them around more! Yesterday Laura and I went to colonial beach, (the camera batteries were dead, sorry, no pictures). It was part of the Potomac, not the Atlantic, so the waves were mild and the sand was rocky, but that was perfect, really, because what more could a kid want than sand and rocks and small waves? After a while even sam would get into the water up to his waist by himself. When we got home I asked hannah "That was fun, huh? Am I the best mom ever or what?" Hannah, saucy little cheek, replied "what!!"

Happy 4th!

Happy 4th of July!
We all (richard, me, Hannah, sam, laura and jason) went to visit Sam and Tom for the 4th. baby Gaetano is just as cute a baby as you could want. He's also a nice, even-tempered baby, which made richard and I inwardly VERY jealous. We had a cookout, and played an Eighties trivia game (Tom spanked us all). We had plans to go down to the potomac and watch the fire works, but we were all tired and Jason had to leave early in the morning, so we did sparklers instead. It was a blast! Sam was a bit scared of all the booming from surrounding fireworks, but he was happy if someone would just hold him. Richard had the bright idea to take some sparklers pictures with a slow shutter speed- so we could see what we were drawing in the air.
Sam (Samantha) was, by far, the most talented. Here's her shining star.

Penalty

We knew it was tough trying to make it out here in Virginia, but we had no idea just how tough until we visited the historic site of Woodchase, once a part of George Washington's estate. Apparently, being handicapped is offensive enough to people around here that not only will they impose a heavy fine, but they are going to tow away anyone audacious enough to roll onto the historic lawns.
I mean, really.
If you're going to make such a sign, at least do it right. Here's how it should look:

goldfish anyone?

Goldfish anyone!!??

We made it!

WE MADE IT TO JULY!!!!!
WE MADE IT TO JULY!!!!!
HUZZAH! HUZZAH! HUZZAH!!!!