Road Trip: DC

Our family is a little scattered for the next week and a half or so, and Elizabeth, Finn and I took this opportunity to take a little road trip to see family and friends up the eastern seaboard.

Our first stop was DC to see some good friends who live in the area and work on Capitol Hill. Since they won't be in the area much longer, we decided to take a morning to visit the Capitol while we have easy access and a personalized tour guide.

Originally we thought we might walk around the National Mall for a while and take in the sights, but this extraordinary heat spell sent us running for the AC.

4 little ones + a 9 month pregnant mama + 100° heat = an inside tour instead of an outside walk ;)

And what could go wrong with 4 kids loose in the Capitol building?!

While in the Capitol crypt, we found the geographic center of 4 quadrants of DC.

We admired the gorgeous paintings, sculptures, and architecture in the rotunda.

I love this shot of our group resting by the Suffragate women.

We spotted the Wright Brothers on the history timeline, which had extra significance because Kitty Hawk is in our homestate and we saw their memorial last year.

As we were leaving, I even spotted a statue of President Ford, who has some special significance to our neighbor so I snapped a shot for her.

We made our way from the rotunda to the Old House Chamber where we spotted Lady Liberty,

another amazing ceiling,

and one of the 4 fireplaces used to heat that room when the House was in session.

Then we moved on to the Old Senate Chamber. It's amazing how tiny, yet intricately designed, these old rooms are.

The chambers look so regal and relevant, yet they're probably smaller than most of the Representatives offices are now.

The Old Supreme Court Chamber was fascinating as well. The lamps lit in the chamber provide roughly the same amount of lighting they would have had during court when this room was used. It's a wonder they weren't all falling asleep!

Random cool painting on a hallway ceiling...

As we were eating lunch in one of the House cafeterias, we spotted a dog cooling off in the fountain. The kids were well entertained watching him romp through the fountain, and I can't say that I blamed him for escaping the heat!

Einstein and Blackbeard

(Otherwise known as, there's a title I never thought I'd use.)

The last few days of school have brought some fun and interesting projects for the older kids. Paulie and Elizabeth each had to research a famous public figure, and Elizabeth's was required to be a famous NC figure.

Paulie's project required him to not only research a famous figure, but become that person for a "wax museum". During the wax museum, he would look like a wax figure of the person and have a button on his hand for people to push to hear him quote a short biography of his choice. He chose to research and become a wax figure of Albert Einstein.

Didn't he do a great job becoming Einstein?

Elizabeth, on the other hand, didn't become Blackbeard, but she had to research his life, particularly centered around NC, and choose 3 creative ways to tell his story. She decided to create a WANTED poster, paint his pirate flag, and write a short biography, as well as show a few maps she found online.

I think the funniest part of her project was when she was rehearsing the biography she wrote, and in order to avoid scaring Finn, she would substitute various words in parts of the sentence about Lt. Robert Maynard hanging Blackbeard's head on the end of his sloop as a warning to other pirates.

What fun we had with these last couple of projects for the school year! But I have to say that I'm glad summer is here. :)

in celebration

I firmly believe in celebrating life's smaller events along with the major milestones, and although graduating from elementary school may not be a huge life event, Paulie is the first of our children to foray into middle school which makes the perfect reason to celebrate at our house.

We spent most of our weekend building fires, roasting marshmallows, playing in sprinklers, and just generally enjoying each other's company.

Even the blackberries cooperated and the first few sparkled from burgundy to black, marking the true beginning of summer and joining our celebration.

Paul hatched a plan to hang the sprinkler from the top of the play structure.

Everyone in the house was thoroughly drenched,

even mama and daddy who couldn't resist the fun.

As much as I enjoy all the various seasons, there is something about the freedom of outdoors, the hushed conspiring in various parts of the yard, blackbery-stained faces, late evening fires, and fireflies that flicker through the twilight that makes me so grateful for the hastening of summer.

And did I mention the wet little bodies slipping and sliding all over the yard? I just want to pinch them and squeeze them and drink the syrupy sweetness of them.

After exhausting ourselves with waterplay, we had our final celebratory dinner of grilled veggies, homemade croissants (Paulie's choice) and homemade strawberry ice cream.

I can't think of many sweeter things than little summery bodies draped over the table eating fresh seasonal veggies.

Happy end-of-elementary-school, Paulie! We are so proud of the great job you've done!

Saturday lunch and a new toy

Today's Saturday Lunch centerpiece had to be the beautiful fruit we found at the market this morning, so I'm obligated to lead with it's vibrant array of colors. Peaches, blueberries, and raspberries are all in full swing now, and we are enjoying the gorging while it lasts.

Along with the delicious fruit, our Saturday lunch (well, really our dinner) today included farm fresh eggs, cucumbers in red wine vinegar and olive oil, and rosemary flatbread.

Summer is already hitting it's peak at the market, and I hope it continues for many months. (So send some rain our way!)

I think June might be my favorite month at the market, because along with the tail end of the strawberries, we have blueberries, peaches and raspberries, greenhouse tomatoes, and the squashes, green onions, and cucumbers begin to pile up.

About the new toy...

A new camera (this one if you're interested) arrived on my doorstep yesterday, with a new lens to boot.

After dragging all the boys with me to the farmer's market this morning, we then wandered through a local botanical garden for a few minutes so I could give my new toy a whirl.

I spent some time playing around with the lens, trying out different settings and aperture.

So here you have a blogpost chock-full of photos.

And flowers...

And bees...

But how awesome is that fuzzy little bee with his rapid-fire wings!

And the sun beating down on the slightly shriveled petals: it's all so much more vibrant, and I love it!

Then when the boys wanted to romp around in the sprinklers in this 90° heat.

Well, I was happy to oblige them.

And even more happy to practice with my camera again.

And I only directed a few of the jumps, rolls and running directions.

Mostly they were just their usual crazy little boy selves:

running around,

squirting each other,

and looking beautiful.

{this moment} - a pair of fungi

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. See Soulemama to play along.

Yarn Along and a car roll

Joining Ginny's Yarn Along this week with Stern Men by Elizabeth Gilbert (of Eat, Pray, Love fame), a novel about a determined girl from a Maine island lobstering community. It's not my typical reading fare, but well-written and engrossing so I'm happy to deviate from the usual right now. I'm still working on Elizabeth's Clementine and Sassafras socks. One sock down, left sock to go. :)

Ribbed socks photograph terribly when they aren't on feet, but I want these socks to be a surprise so you'll just have to imagine them on a skinny-legged, 10 year old girl. I think they are a bit long in the foot too, so she may be wearing them a while.

I also finished a quicky project for Finn based on this sweet car roll of Zach's.

With some leftover blue and brownish felted sweaters from another project, I stitched some little pockets for all of Finn's little cars that he's been obsessed with since babyhood. With this car roll, we'll be able to take cars with us wherever we go and possibly have distractions for a bored little boy during travel this summer.

The dark blue and brown felt was certainly on the dull side, so I thought that appliqueing a couple of fabric cars to the inside might spice things up a bit.

Finn loved that the cars from his quilt adorned his car roll.

And of course, I couldn't make a car roll without using some of Finn's beloved car buttons. (I think another car button etsy order is needed. I'm running out of car buttons, and Finn is starting to expect them on everything I make!)