Last meet of the Summer Swim Season!

AH, the Lancer's summer swim season drew to a close today. I will *not* miss getting up at 5 am, and sitting out by the pool in the 1 million degree humidity. But I *will* miss watching Gryphon swim! She did really, really well this season. For those that didn't get to catch a meet (everyone but Mom, I guess!) here is the photo play-by-play of the 100 metre IM (individual medley) race today.

IM is all 4 strokes, 25 metres (one length of the pool) each. It starts off with butterfly, in my opinion the hardest stroke. Also, I can't do it, so I think its pretty cool Gryphon could at 7! Off the wall the girls (Gryphon is the 9-10 age group) are all pretty much together. Because Gryphon had the fastest seed time (time in the event from the last race) she is in the middle lane.Next comes backstroke- switching from butterfly to backstroke while still legally touching the wall, etc is tough and its easy to get disqualified here! As they move into the backstroke, Gryphon pulls into the lead.They touch the wall, flip over and its onto the breaststroke- another stroke it is easy to get disqualified in! No DQ's here, and Gryphon increases her lead! Go Gryphon!One more touch and turn, and its into the race for the home stretch with freestyle. Gryphon pours it on, and wins by a lot! Yeah Gryphon!A thing the kids do on the summer swim team is draw on their backs- ostensibly for the other swimmers behind them to see as they pull away. ;) Gryphon's says "Eat my bubbles!".

We're a little sad to see our last season of summer swim end, but...excited to sleep in! Summer swim is *so* intense- practice every morning, a meet each Saturday. But its lots of fun, too, with spirit weeks and cheers, Lancer Buddies and silly games. We'll miss the Lancers!

Scrapbook pages

Jackie (http://explorecreatelearn.typepad.com/) often posts her scrapbook pages after we scrap together via webcam using Skype. I never do, but I *do* scrapbook when we Skype, so I thought for once I'd post some of my recent Skypey-scrapping pages.

If you haven't heard of Skype, its awesome and *free*. And when we move halfway around the world next year (knock on wood) its a great way to keep on touch. Just don't set your Skype settings to run your video automatically, because once a friend (hi Erin!) Skyped me and poor Mark was in front of the computer in his bathrobe. He answered, not realizing the webcam would automatically start up, too. (I'll bet he'll be thrilled to read this!)

And the big news is...

...we aren't in England!

We aren't going to England after all, and will be staying right here until May. The girls were thrilled with the extension to their lives in our great neighborhood; Mark and I are disappointed. But, not totally, because when we *do* get to move, we pick up and move to:

Guess we'll be dropping Spanish class this year!

So you can find us at our old address, same phone number, the works. Sorry to take SO long to let anyone know where were moving or when, but we were clueless ourselves. And given the experience we had with the UK move, I won't believe it until we step foot on Kimpo airport, myself.

So stay tuned, but for now, the plan is Seoul in the spring!

Bhutan and Grandma

Grandma is here visiting from Seattle, and we headed downtown to the Folklife Festival today. They have presentations from different cultures, and the one I most wanted to see was Bhutan.

I heard they had yak butter tea somewhere, but we didn't find it. Instead, the rest of the family had hot dogs and I had Bhutan's national dish of cheese, rice and chillies. It was really yummy!

Then we saw some of the exhibits, and since of none of us had the faintest clue about Bhutanese culture, it was all new and exciting! Gryphon talked the ear off of everyone, of course. Above are some beautiful paints in the art tent.
The girls had their names written in the calligraphy of Bhutan- looks sort of like Sanskrit. Or not.

Then we took grandma to the National Gallery for some nice air conditioning. Are these Little Dancer's cute or what??

Stay tuned for some big news...

Fun with Sharp Objects and Dead Animals

Rowan somehow heard about dissecting a frog online, and we searched for it one night. She *loved* it, so when I looked online at dissection kits and found an affordable one, I decided that would be our summer science project! The kit we got came with a book on how to dissect a lot of different things, a tray, all the instruments needed (pins, scalpels, super sharp scissors) and best of all...a frog, a crayfish, a perch, an earthworm, a grasshopper, a sea sponge, and the super-cute and creepy fetal pig.
I thought the girls might be a little put off by the fetal pig, being a cuddly mammal and all, but not really. They named it Wilbur and are more than ready to cut it up!

We began with the earthworm, and had a whole lot of fun pulling its digestive system and heart out, and exploring the interior of a simple organism. Next up was the crayfish and its cool gills and exoskeleton- we went to a park and caught some live ones in a stream to compare our dead crayfish to. I don't know that we'll be memorizing the systems of these different animals or learning everything in the book, but we are certainly enjoying playing around with dissection this summer!

Memorial Day and the President

We went up to Arlington National Cemetery for Memorial day, in hopes of catching the President lay the wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Unfortunately, you have to be there really early to get into that, but we did spend a nice day touring Robert E. Lee's house, visiting the historic graves, and in general remembering our fallen heroes of the past.

Here are the girls and I at the Women's Memorial.

AND- we got to see the President after all! He drove by in his limo with the First Lady on the way to the Tomb of the Unknowns. They waved at the girls, who were right next to the road and quite noticeable in their big Williamsburg sun hats. All this time in DC, but that was our first President sighting!

Colonial Williamsburg

Colonial Williamsburg had free admission for military families on Memorial Day weekend, so headed down there on Friday. Because we studied American history this year, it was on the "list" of must-do field trips we hadn't ever gotten to. The weather has been so cold and wet we haven't gone much of anywhere this spring, but Friday was lovely and in the 70's.
The girls got straw hats, and we started our tour at the Colonial Palace, home of the Royal Governor of Virginia. The gardens were beautiful! Gryphon was so much fun to watch all day- on every tour she went right to the front and asked questions and commented to the tour guide. She is your typical home school kid, alright!I just love her confidence and curiosity.
Here is Gryphon playing a colonial game with some interpreters on the steps of a building.
Here is Gryphon talking to a wigmaker about what they make wigs out of (yak, goat, dog and human hair, by the way).
Rowan enjoyed her slate and slate pencil, and the jail. Mark liked listening to the reading of the Declaration the best, while liked the slave cabin and interpreter most. It was little too "theme park" for me, not really any hands on of anything, but still an educational experience.

Sorry I've been so neglectful of the blog lately, with everything going on its tough to keep up with!

Finally spring!

Spring is finally here in Washington! We've had fabulous 70-80 degree weather all week, and decided to get out and enjoy it.Letterboxing is our favorite outdoor activity, and there were some new boxes to find near Pohick Bay. Even Cleo got to come, and do her favorite thing ever- swim. Ah, nothing says spring like the smell of a wet dog!

I've created a monster!!

I have been making an effort to teach the girls some bare bones domestic skills lately. They are 6 and 9, and well old enough to help with some of this stuff! The problem is...they LOVE it! They jump up and race each other to the laundry room when I announce it is time for "laundry lessons". They wax poetic about learning to do laundry to the pediatrician when asked about home schooling. (That's actually not so funny- could they not mention the ACADEMIC things we do??!!!) And they love, love, love to make meals.
Gryphon can make a few basic things- rice, frozen pizza, salads. So they opened up a restaurant (Restarante de Alaska) and made aprons out of towels. They rolled the napkins into fancy shapes, and laid out every salad dressing we own. They had a *blast*.

Now, of course, they want to cook every night, but...I am getting tired of rice and frozen pizza! I guess its time to teach them how to make something else!

More Regional's fun

After the meet last Sunday, we decided to see some of the sights of southern Virginia on the way home. The girls picked Natural Bridge, fro ma brochure in our hotel lobby.The Natural Bridge is neat, but...not if you've ever been to Utah or Arizona. ; ) Also in the area was a cave, with neat rock formations. We did Geology this year, so I was excited to see the cave with the girls. It had a cool underground lake, which Mark and the girls are standing over in the photo.

George Washington's initials are carved into the rock on the side of the Natural Bridge. You can't see them in this picture, though!

Rowan really, really, really, REALLY wanted to see the Monster Wax Museum also at this tourist trap...um..I mean scenic stop. It was unfortunately closed, and she was crushed. We may have to make a trip back to cheesyville to see it this summer.

Region 5 Championships

Rowan's hoop and rope routines from regionals!

We had the Region 5 USAG rhythmic gymnastics championships this weekend, in Princeton, WV. (Why there, I have no idea- sort of an odd choice, I think!) Rowan did GREAT! She got a trophy, and came in 4th for her level and age group. She got her best scores ever (by a lot!) on her hoop and rope routine.

For the first time, she was nervous. I almost told her to just sit it out- just watch this meet and cheer on her friends. I felt so bad that she was so nervous, because she is really little after all. But she did it, and did great.

Here are some photos taken at the gym a while ago. I waited to post them until I got prints mailed out. They went out today, so I am safe from harassment from relatives (cough cough mom and Ann cough cough).

A year and a month ago, Rowan started taking a rhythmic gymnastics class for 1 hour a week with a coach we knicknamed "Ivanka the Terrible". I was sure she'd never go back after that first class- the lady is TOUGH. All they did was an hour of painful stretching.

One year ago, the gym asked Rowan to join their pre-team for artistic gymnastics (regular gymnastics is artistic gymnastics- beam, bars, etc). Rowan asked if there was a rhythmic team, because she really wanted to do rhythmic. They said there was, but it was up to the coach. Rowan kept plugging away at her 1 hour a week class with "Ivanka", serious as all get out. In early summer, she was asked to join the Level 4 girls team- which would mean quitting rhythmic altogether.(I thought it was pretty dumb she couldn't do both- at the time she was 5, do you really have to plan out your athletic career at 5??!!) She promptly quit the team- to the immense surprise of the coach, her team mates, and her parents. Rowan just wanted to do rhythmic.

All summer long, she kept up her 1 hour a week class. Finally when her rhythmic coach (who we by now called by her name, Konstantza, and realized she isn't very terrible) opened her own gym in November, Rowan got her wish. She got to practice with the team.

At first she learned only the floor routine, with a possibility of doing 1 local meet. Then in January, she started learning hoop. And in mid February she learned rope. And now, one year later from that initial class I thought for sure she'd hate, she was competing all around at regionals!

Rowan made up her mind, and she did what she set out to do. One thing about Rowan- she is determined when she wants to be! Rhythmic gymnastics is obscure, there is no glory and fame. None of her friends even know what it is.The practices are long and intense, but she never goofs off and she never complains. We are so stinking proud of our determined little girl, and sad to see the season end.

Happy Birthday to Yobo!

Mark's birthday was today, so went to his favorite Japanese place and ate at the hibachi. They do a little routine where they throw the knives and light things on fire (if you've been to Benihana then you get the idea) and the kids love it. Then we all saw Spiderwick, which Gryphon said was not nearly as good as the books- I wouldn't know, myself. Happy Birthday to Yobo!

Surprise Field Trip Day!!

Friday I got the girls up and dressed, and just as Gryphon was resigning herself to math announced it was"surprise field trip day"! The Insect Zoo at the Natural History Museum has re-opened, so we headed down to DC to see it. Gryphon was less than thrilled by the giant spiders, so we watched tarantula feeding from a distance. Rowan did pet a horned caterpillar, though, and we discovered that the Insect Zoo is sponsored by Orkin, of all people.

Also new to the museum is a Butterfly Habitat, which we went through. It was a sticky 88 degrees inside, and the butterflies were just gorgeous.

Last we hit the National Archives to see the Constitution, which we have seen a few times but are studying right now. Gryphon bought herself a copy, because every 9 year old girl needs her own, you know!

A Gorgeous Smile!!!

Gryphon got her braces off today! Its wild to think that at 9, she's had them on and off already- its a big change from when I was a kid! We celebrated with some Butterfingers she has been saving in the freezer since Halloween. Next week she gets her retainer, she got to pick the colors so it is tiger striped.

A Trip to the Basement of Mt Vernon

Because of the new National Treasure movie, Mt. Vernon had the basement open, for just 10 days. Having seen the 3rd floor (a rare treat) we certainly wanted to see this! I'm sure its no surprise that there is no secret passage, though the cornerstone of the house is there.(The cornerstone is the thing he turns to get in to the tunnel when he kidnaps the President, for those who have seen the movie!) It isn't even the original, though- its a copy. The original is in the museum next door.

Because photos aren't allowed inside Mt. Vernon (even in the basement) all I have are these- a shot looking down the stairs from outside.

And the cutest kids and Dad ever outside it.

We've been reading a ton on George Washington (Gryphon really likes him) so we hit the museum and saw the exhibits on his time in the French and Indian war, the Revolution, and as our first President.

Here are the girls swearing themselves in as President of the United States- a glimpse of the future, maybe?

Sorry about the blog neglect lately, we've been super busy. I'm trying to make this a priority!