May 2014

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May was a fun and busy month!

We finished our second round of Pee Wee Paddler I swim classes, and were proud of some of the increased independence we have in learning to use our arms and legs to float and move in the water.  One more round, and we may really be swimming!  In the meantime, we’re gaining confidence and having lots of fun!

We were proud to march in this year’s March For Babies, and were SO grateful for the donations made by family and friends to support our contributions to the cause.  It was a beautiful day for a hike/walk.  And after we finished the last few blocks on our own, we had so much fun listening to music, having a picnic, and trying out the Fun Bus!

The first Monday of the month, Mommy came to school with us for our class’ Mother’s Day celebration.  We made bracelets, shared snack, and shared things we love about our Mom.  And then we took Mommy out to brunch for our family Mothers’ Day at Willow Creek Farm, where we enjoyed the beautiful day with a nice walk and playing.

The beginning of beautiful weather found us outside a lot more, playing with bubbles and chalk, riding our bikes, and even hiking with our friend Zach!  We got explored Riverbend Park together and learned a lot about how to follow trail markers, which was SO fun!  We also proudly helped Mommy plant the flowers she received during teacher appreciation week, and added to the row of ferns we started when we were 1½!

We had so many special celebrations at the end of our school year at HCEP, from our class picnic to the closing ceremonies and picnic.  We started our last week of school with our “summer birthday” celebration, and we were so excited that we got to pick out our favorite treats to bring for snack – cupcakes and goldfish!   And we had lots of fun at our school picnic, playing on the playground, the bounce houses, and even getting our faces painted!

After school was over, we had a great Memorial Day weekend at home with Mama and Daddy.  We went to the farmers market, saw concerts and rode rides at the Viva Vienna festival, played at the park, ate out on the porch, and tried out new bikes and helmets at the bike store.  The best part of the weekend was camping outside in our family sized tent!  How fun it was to snuggle into our tents with our flashlights, and wake up to the sounds of the birds!

We also had an exciting visitor at our house!  The night we went out to the tent, we also discovered a little bat hanging upside down inside one of our windows!  He crawled in between the screen and partially open storm window, and was hanging there by one leg. In the night he left, and then had returned to almost exactly the same spot the next morning.  The next night, we waited for him to take his nightly trip out, and then we closed the window.  We named him “Butterfly”, but we are happy for his stay at our house to be a short one. 

A cute note from Mom – We are loving the way the kids care for one another (although typical sibling behavior is regularly expected as well).  One of our favorite things lately is Katharine’s new nickname for Christopher. “Brother” has shortened to “Brov”.  So lots of sentences now begin with “Hey Brov…..” 

Love,

Christopher and Katharine

April 2014

What a fun April we had!

From swimming to seeing the baby panda BaoBao at the zoo, we had a fun-filled April!  Over Spring Break, we enjoyed time with Mommy, checking out the new T Rex at the Natural History Museum, just before they closed the exhibit.  When we see the new one re-open, it will be 2019! And we got to meet Daddy for a fun lunch at Firefly, where we decorated our own cookies!

Over Easter, we enjoyed visiting with Grandma and Grandpa Sturgeon, hunted for eggs, and even had a fun kids event for Easter at church!

Those are the highlights of our month!  We hope you enjoy the photos by pasting the link below into your browser!

https://www.flickr.com/photos/alkdlk/sets/72157644195127130/

ALSO – Make sure to check out our video updates below (featuring NEW videos for January - April 2014!!)

Love,

Katharine and Christopher

January - April 2014

March 2014

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March was a continuance of the Winter that would NEVER end!  Although, we must admit, we were sort of glad to celebrate each snow day as if it were our last; we were definitely getting ready to let go of the snow in favor of Spring buds

So, again, the snow gave us lots of opportunities to be together at home this month!  We shoveled and sledded.  We fed the birds.  We painted inside, AND OUT!!

It snowed on St. Patrick’s Day, which gave us lots of time to experiment with how many things we could make that were green (green eggs, green milk, green mac and cheese, kiwi, grapes, and avocado dip with broccoli, and rainbow-colored ice cubes for our water!)

We made birthday treats and cards for Alex and Emmie, whose birthdays were this month. And Ooooohhhhh, what a month for birthdays!  We celebrated birthdays for our friends from school, Sloane, Arya, and Vivienne at children’s gyms, with some fun “Frozen” and superhero themes.  And we made our very own special friends to take home with us with Emmie at Build-A-Bear for her birthday.  It was an exciting month, and now we wait for the last birthday in our class – OURS!!

And we enjoyed church on Saturdays, and swim classes on Saturdays, playing on the playground there when it was warm enough to.  We are getting really independent and more confident in the water; learning how to float, trying our faces in the water, jumping in to deeper water, practicing flutter kicks and scooping with our arms.  We even got to try a neat water train with our class by holding onto each other’s noodles and floating all the way into the deep end! 

That’s the story of our month!

Love,

Katharine and Christopher

February 2014

February was a month of indoor fun!

The snow gave us lots of opportunities to be together at home this month!

We had a puzzle day one morning, helping put together ALL of our puzzles. 

For Valentine’s Day we helped make chocolate covered strawberry hearts and pretzels, for our teachers and for Kristy’s family.

We had fun preparing and exchanging Valentines at school, and playing with our friends at church, and at swim class. 

We played outside in the snow together, helped shovel the driveway and sidewalk, fed the birds, and then enjoyed some well-earned hot chocolate and pumpkin pancake hearts inside!  J

One day was nice enough to head into DC to the Air and Space Museum to explore. We tried lots of experiments, listened to story time, and tried a new craft, and saw lots of really neat airplanes and space ships.

At the end of the month, we became enchanted with Mommy’s childhood teddy bear, who plays “Rockabye Baby”, and the story about how he lost one of his eyes.  We were so sad for him that he was missing an eye, that we helped mommy look for new bear eyes online.  We assisted in Teddy’s surgery, and decided it would be best to leave his existing eye in place, so as not to cause him additional distress.  We even made get well cards for him and made sure he was comfortable in his recovery.

That’s the story of our month!  We hope you enjoy the photos below!

Love

Christopher and Katharine

February 2014

February 2014, a set on Flickr.

January 2014

January has come and gone!  Here is an overview!

Christopher and Katharine are loving their big-kid bed setups, and are doing a great job.  They’re also enjoying their first big-kid swim class, where they get to swim without Mommy and Daddy. 

On a healthy weekend, we enjoyed going in to the Museum of Natural History to explore, and had a great time eating lunch out and riding the train.

Christopher’s constipation issues did find us indoors for several weekends, pursuing cleanout treatments. In the end, we finally received a fully successful result, and are now working with the GI specialist to get back on the road to consistently happy and healthy.  While it could take many months, he is back on the road to normal, and we are so grateful for this.  And both kids are happy that he’s back at school on a regular basis!

While health and weather caused several interruptions to our regular schedule and events, we enjoyed lots of extra family time together, either indoors or out.  We watched a lot of DVD’s on sick days, enjoyed playing together, working on Valentines surprises, and yes – playing in the snow!  And all this together time has resulted in lots of silly fun, and even stronger friendships between the best of buds.  So thankful for the way Mother Nature provides us time together! 

We hope you had a wonderful start to 2014, and can’t wait to share our February adventures.  Here are our photos from this month!

Love,

Christopher and Katharine