We're FOUR! August 2014

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We had a great August!

With the school year around the corner, we made the most of every moment together this month. We continued to enjoy our soccer and ballet classes, and had fun working on projects at home too!

We saw ballet and concerts, visited the farm at Frying Pan Park, and learned about puppets at Wolf Trap Theater in the Woods.

We practiced riding our bikes, and even got to watch the new Metro rail in action, running right under us on the footbridge!

We got to see and explore in all kinds of service vehicles at the Reston Public Works Day, and enjoyed an up-close tour at the Vienna Fire Station!

We played with friends at a Sprinklers and Snow Cones event in the Vienna Town Green, and enjoyed a late summer trip to ride the Carousel and explore the playground at Clemyjontri Park.

And WE TURNED FOUR!  The week of our fourth birthday featured many fun celebrations, beginning on our actual birthday.  After opening some presents, we met Daddy for lunch in DC at Founding Farmers, where we enjoyed our 2^nd annual tradition of blowing candles out on our big bowl of ice cream, with warm homemade cookies.  After lunch, we had a great time running our fingers through the fountain that runs down the side of the IMF building next door. Once we were soaking wet, it was time to go home for nap.  After nap, our singing balloon and another birthday package arrived in the mail, much to our delight!  It was all birthday, all day!

Later that week, we were SO brave in getting our four-year old-shots, and made a well-earned stop at Starbucks with Mommy for treats of our choice. We even got to take some favorite stuffed friends with us!

And then we had a wonderfully fun Dinosaur Dig themed birthday party at Riverbend Park Nature center.  Friends from school and playgroup joined us for a dinosaur talk, a nature discovery walk, a mini-dino dig, and then a turtle feeding and petting demonstration.  We loved sharing treats and camouflage dinosaur cupcakes and balloons with our friends!

When Mom started back to work, we enjoyed some adventures with Kristy, Emmie, Alex, and Jordan, playing at playgrounds, a water park, and PB & Jack.

We rounded out the month, and the summer, with a very exciting trip over Labor Day Weekend – our first official camping trip in Shenandoah!  We spent two nights in our tent at Big Meadows campground.  We cooked and made S’mores over a really legitimate campfire two nights in a row.  We even got to roast our own hot dogs and marshmallows!  We visited the visitor’s center for bear and tool-related presentations, and even decorated our very own keepsake for the 50^th Anniversary of the Wilderness Act!  We hiked to Dark Hollow Falls and saw a really pretty waterfall.  Hiking back out, Daddy even saw a bear running through the woods!  But we didn’t get a picture of him. We also got to see a beautiful view of the valley below hiking just behind Big Meadows Lodge.   Our trip ended a little short because Katharine had a really rough wheezing cough on our last morning, and we thought it best to head home.  But we made the most of being at home on Labor Day by exploring the National Harbor (which will be featured in the September blog and album!).

We are so excited for the school year, and can’t wait to share all of our new four-year-old adventures with you!

We hope you enjoy our favorite photos from our August! 

Love,

Katharine and Christopher

July 2014

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WOW!  July FLEW by!

Once we got home from our exciting Ohio and Michigan trip, July was well underway, so this month’s update is a quick one!

We sprang right into our first soccer and ballet classes, playgroup play dates and playing with our Holy Comforter friends!  We played in the fountains, and saw concerts and puppet shows.   And we tried one more night camping in the backyard before our Labor Day weekend camping trip – it was so fun sleeping under the stars!

AND, we got to play with Grandma Sturgeon for a whole week, while Mommy was taking her guitar class.  We played in the water and sand together, painted, made crafts and puzzles, read stories, went out to dinner, and saw a concert and a really cool puppet show at Wolf Trap together.

We are almost four, and SO looking forward to our birthday!  We can’t wait to share about our Dinosaur Dig birthday party next month!

Love,

Katharine and Christopher

Summer 2014 Trip To Ohio And Michigan

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Our summer trip to Ohio and Michigan was wonderful! 

We had a wonderful visit at Grandma and Grandpa Keller’s house in Wadsworth for Grandpa Keller’s 75^th Birthday!  Our Aunt Linda and Uncle Matt were there too, with our cousins, Clara and Joseph!  We had so much fun spending several days playing together, riding bikes, fishing, going to church and out for brunch and lunch together, sharing some lovely family meals at their home, and celebrating together at Grandpa’s birthday party!  How we miss spending time together, on opposite sides of the country – time together is always a blessing!

Then we headed even further north into Michigan, where Daddy (as well as Grandma Keller) remember having fun family summer vacations as children.  We visited the Harbor Springs Pier, Stafford’s Pier Restaurant, Mackinac Island, The Cherry Hut, and The Sleeping Bear Dunes.  We rode in cars, shuttles, ferries, bikes, horse and carriage, and saw the Blue Angels jets.  We stayed at hotels, the Great Wolf Lodge, and drove our car past the 100,000-mile mark!  What an exciting trip! 

And then we had a fun week visiting at Grandma and Grandpa Sturgeon’s house in Kenton, where we biked, scooted, played in the sand and in the pond, rode the golf cart, fed the fish, swung on the swings, played with bubbles, and made pies!  The best parts of our visit were sharing time with our Grandma and Grandpa and playing with our Uncle Mike and Aunt Robyn, our cousins Katie and Sam, and playing with our Anderson friends-like-family, Chloe, Issac, and Luke.  How we miss being together – not across the country, but feeling like it with a daylong drive between us.  Time together is always a blessing.

Thank you to family and friends for a wonderful visit!  We can’t wait to see you again soon!

With all our love,

 

Christopher and Katharine

June 2014

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June meant the beginning of summer for us, and the end of the school year for our Mom!  And lots of fun adventures for our whole family!

During the week, Kristy took us on lots of fun outings!  We played at spray parks, saw concerts and magic shows, went to the library and playgrounds, painted our own art, and played on the new playground equipment at school.

We played together on the weekends.  We went to the farmer’s market and Saturday morning splash park cartoons.  We played with friends at our church picnic, and had fun being superheroes at our friend Anderson’s birthday party.

And our family explored some fun adventures.  We rode a riverboat on the C & O Canal at Riverbend Park – pulled by mules through the locks, as was originally done!  It was so neat to watch our boat rise and lower in the lock, when the gates were opened and closed!  We celebrated Father’s Day with Daddy by going to the aquarium in Baltimore, and got to visit the dolphins and see the new blacktop reef exhibit!  On the last weekend of the school year, Mommy spent a day with her friend, Carolyn, who is getting married, so we got to go with Daddy to the zoo!

Most of all, we looked forward to our Michigan vacation and our visits in Ohio with Grandmas, Grandpas, Uncles, Aunts, Cousins and friends!  We are SO excited to head for the hotels, go on a trip, and spend time with family! 

Here are our favorite photos from this month!  And keep an eye out for our Ohio and Michigan trip blog post and photos, coming soon!

Love,

 

Katharine and Christopher

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