Blocks and Pots

Falling a bit behind. This stuff was all from a couple weekends ago.

We went back to the Virginia Aquarium, and once again while petting the rays and looking at the monstrous sea turtles were both interesting to the kids, the part they probably liked best was the play area.

Elsie concentrated on the Legos for a pretty long time:

Declan advised Amy on his plan for a metropolis:

Then got to work:



He took one last look:

Then destroyed it. Ah, the ephemeral nature of art.

Speaking of art, Elsie wants to become a master chef like mama:

Decland joined in:

And eventually turned it into a music fest:

Patrick, you'd have been proud -- it was a pretty good rhythm they had going.

Logging And Such

Last weekend we took a little hike at the Hoffler Creek Wildlife Preserve. Amy and Declan were, in daycare parlance, the line leaders:

And Elsie was the caboose:

Declan of course had to try his hand at balancing his way across a log:

Which then made Elsie stop at every log she found to try the same:



The next day at the playground I took this of Declan – he looks exactly like Amy when she was a kid:

Unsure if she shared his love of dropping wood chips down the holes in a sewer cap.

Kaleigh and I went to the second show of Phish’s reunion tour.

After five years off they’re still firing on all cylinders. It was a sick, sick, sick show, just amazing. Kaleigh said it was the best concert experience she’s ever had. Here’s one I took with my phone from where we stood/danced, pretty close to the boys:

And here’s Kaleigh in the lot, after buying five-dollar beers off a bearded dude about 4 ½ feet tall, and saying a polite no thanks to a girl selling “shiny rocks” and a guy peddling “shrooms and doses.” She says she wants to write a story about these freakies…

And the best news: we had a weeklong visit with Nana and Papa!

Note Declan's binocs - and the fact we failed to get him to agree to a haircut. Again. ‘Twas great to have so much time with Nana and Papa, and though this picture doesn’t seem to reflect it, they actually got really good weather for most of the time. Hopefully they took some good pics to share because this is all I have…

It also allowed Amy and me to escape to Williamsburg for a couple days of lounging, sleeping late (in my case anyway), reading, eating way too much, strolling and – can you believe it? – having uninterrupted conversations.

Gervais and Elmo

Wanna chuckle?