Played hooky and went to the beach today!

We went to the beach today, trying to capture the last of the warm sunny days. This time we went to Calvert Cliffs beach, in search of fossils.

To get to the water, you have to do a 1.8 mile hike through some really beautiful wetlands.

I need to find out what kind of snake this was- the picture doesn't do it justice. It was a lovely red!
We found several fossils, one of which we *think* is some sort of bone.Gryphon suggested taking it up to Natural History and asking them, which is a great idea. I hope it isn't just a bumpy rock!

We also found several shark's teeth, and another home schooled family with a girl Gryphon's age. The girls had a blast making things out of the clay found on the beach (the reason for the great fossils!) After a day at the beach and almost 4 miles of hiking, we were all tired! Love the beach.

First Day of School

Hard to believe I have a 2nd grader and a 5th grader this year!

Highlight of the day was Mark joining us for Korean. He sat at the table and took notes and everything.

Yes, I am on my way to becoming a Crazy Cat Lady

Meet Groucho!

He was a worm, flea and tick ridden feral kitten who wound up under my neighbor's porch for 2 days. Mark helped me lure him out (it took hours!) and now, well, he's ours!

Rocko is none to pleased about this, of course. Cleo thinks he's sort of cute. Groucho, who weighs in at a whopping 1 pound, does not seem to get the message that Cleo outweighs him by 73 pounds, and often attacks Cleo's tail. He has even jumped on Cleo's back. They sleep on the couch together- so cute!!

So here is Groucho, the newest Beaudry-Stauffer member.

Rhythmic Gymnastics Camp!

The girls-yes, both- went to rhythmic camp this week. Poor Gryphon- she was *so* sore. I asked her if she wanted to go back to swimming, but she said no. Looks like she may be as crazy as her little sister. Rowan still had regular practice after all day of camp, so today she had 12 hours of gymnastics. You'd think she would be tired, but....well, no.

They learned a routine at camp that will be the Level 4 floor routine this year. I need to be banned from videotaping, because I stink at it. Its crooked for the first bit of Gryphon's routine- you have to turn your head!!!! She still wanted me to post it though, so here she is, making her RG debut....Gryphon!!

Stay tuned to meet the newest member of the Beaudry-Stauffer family...!

ElastiGirl

A fun picture to share of our circus freak.

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.