Chess

Last summer as we were settling into VA I bought no stress chess to help the kids learn to play.  They found it the other day and have been playing and learning all the ways the pieces move again.  Once they remembered we even had a family tournament.  I lost all games so they don't like to play me because I am too easy to beat.  They are getting harder and harder for Brian to beat too.  It is fun to see their mind figure out strategies.

Golf Lessons

I bought a Groupon for 6 golf lessons at the golf course in the neighborhood because Piper is in love with playing golf and now our house almost backs up to the golf course.  She has been doing really good and wants to play more.  We need to get out there and hit some more balls this summer.  Every time I go with her I remember all the great times that my best friend in high school, Kira Treffer, and I had on the golf course especially the summer of 92.  Hopefully, we can make some memories as a family on the golf course.

She also got to get a toy or something for memorizing all of her multiplication facts and she chose a putting green to practice putting.

 She misses the first time, but hits it good the next

Let's go fly a kite

We bought kites one day at the dollar store to try and fly them, but it was not windy enough.  One Sunday afternoon we decided to try and fly our kites.  One we got them up they stayed up for a really long time almost 30 or more minutes.  The kids had a great time!

New Shoes

I noticed one day that my kids had completely worn out their shoes that we bought last summer so with about a month left of school we got new colorful shoes.  Now we have to teach Christian to tie his shoes!

Boy scout field trip to Police Station

We have had a lot of fun this year with our little Boy Scout troop.  We have an amazing leader that sets up all sorts of little outings for us to do.  We went to the police station to learn about safety for the summer.  The boys had a lot of fun seeing the jail and getting to sit in a police car.

 Lifting a bullet proof shield

 Looking in the cells

 Turning on the lights in the car

Christian's field trip

I got to be a chaperon for Christian's field trip.  We went to Bull Run Park and visited different shows about Indians, Africa, animal adaptation, and farm animal.  They have units of all of these things in 2nd grade.  I had a great group of kids and got to have a lot of fun and it was a beautiful day.  He also go to be Star of the Week that week too!

 His friend Jaylan and him on the bus

 Kevin and Christian

 Africa dance and party

 Learning about the falcons

Christian's music Program

Christian had his second grade music program in May and they did Tales of Temples and Tombs.  They were studying about Egypt in class.  If the kids wanted they could dress up like someone from Egypt, Indiana Jones, or a Mummy.  Christian wanted a mummy so I took an old pair of PJ and turned them inside out and ripped up an old shirt of Brian's and hot glued strips of t-shirt on the PJs.  It turned out pretty good!
The program was good as second grade programs go!  He was being a ham the whole time.

Capitol Tour

The capitol gives free tours to the public and Christian's boy scout troop went, but we couldn't go due to basketball games so I scheduled one for just our family.  We went on a Saturday that was a beautiful day and had a picnic and went on the tour.  It was a good tour, but I wanted to stay in the rooms longer to look at everything.  The flowers were gorgeous around the capitol so we took a lot of pictures.  It is so fun to go into DC for a little trip and not have to try and do everything in one or two days.  It was a fun time.  We have really learned our way around DC and I even feel a little more confident about it.