Some people like the feeling of sand beneath their toes.  I must say I do enjoy the squish of wet sand beneath my feet as the waves lap at my ankles. 

My children, however, have a whole different kind of love of sand.

One which truly baffles my mind.

EVERY SINGLE TIME we visit our community beach, it’s the same routine.  We drop our stuff in the sand and they make a mad dash for the water, they splash and play and swim and then, inevitably, they decide it’s time to hit the sand.

As in lay down with their wet selves on the sand and make “sand angels”

Being sure, of course, to flip and get both of their sides equally covered in sand

And to make sure they are fully, fully caked in the sand, they will pour handful upon hand full on top of themselves,

until they are covered in at least a solid inch or two of sand

And when they feel they’ve got it on them thoroughly, they’ll stand up, run into the water, and wash it off

Only, to run back out and repeat

Perhaps it’s their own version of a spa treatment with a little exfoliating scrub…or perhaps it’s just an excuse to get dirty, all I know is, it keeps them entertained for QUITE awhile and it typically results in a sandy bathtub when we get home. 

They couldn’t figure out why I didn’t want to join them.  While I was happy to sit in the sand with my feet in the water, I was not so eager to roll around caking my body in dirty sand.  Am I alone on this?  Is it a kid thing?  Thoughts?

Round these parts the current show which they all can agree on when they are given the chance to pick something is Woody Woodpecker. 

What’s at the top of your queue these days?

She pretty much whips me at this every Monday and Wednesday… and I wouldn’t trade the sweet memories we’re making for anything in the world.

I really wanted to take the kids in to DC this spring to see the Cherry Blossoms.  It’s not something we do every year, in fact, I think I’ve been only a handful of times in the 27 years I’ve lived in Maryland.   But, this year, I thought it’d be fun to go and was thinking we might even have a free weekend during their peak blooms. 

But, thanks to the warm winter we had, they peaked early and there was NO chance of going during their peak week as it just didn’t fit with our schedules.  We hoped to try this weekend, but the cold and rain didn’t make it seem worthwhile.

So, today Scott called me at 11:30 and said, “What are we doing tonight?  Wanna go to DC?”   I had an hour and a half to pack up some dinner, gather stuff together, (shower) and pick him up at work and the oldest 2 from tutorial.  I was so excited, b/c I had given up on seeing the blossoms this year and while we knew it wouldn’t be peak, we figured we could hopefully still see some. 

Once we arrived in the city we realized there really weren’t many blooms left, so we decided to make a bee line for the Natural History museum b/c I’ve been wanting to take the kids this year to see the mummies, dinosaurs, and butterflies (all things we studied in school this year).  We had a little over an hour before it closed and were able to see all three exhibits!  (wahoo, 2 trips taken care of in one spontaneous outing)

Since Scott’s dad works in the city, he met us and we enjoyed a picnic dinner on the mall looking at the Capital and Washington Monument.  (can you tell we had them looking into the sun for this picture?)

The big 3 actually enjoyed sitting on a steam vent for the metro.  It was nice and warm as the cool evening air blew in. 

I tried not to think too hard about the smog and pollution that was blowing up on them and their food. 

Like I said, most of the blossoms were off, but we did enjoy walking around the tidal basin at sunset and we did see some blossoms.  It was also peak season for the tulip garden which was beautiful!

We were so excited to find a tree in bloom.  Daddy and Pop hoisted the girls up on their shoulders so they could get a picture with the blossoms. 

What a wonderful way to start the week… with a spontaneous afternoon in the nation’s capital with the family. 

Truthfully, the circus family doesn’t spend much time on bikes.  We do a lot of fun things here, don’t get me wrong, but there are only so many hours in a day, and teaching our kids to ride bikes has not been where we’ve spent ours.

But, today the sun was shining, the weather was unseasonably warm here in MD again, and as the kids played in the backyard while Scott did yard work, our oldest daughter decided that today she wanted to ride her bike without training wheels. 

And I just had a feeling that she was going to do it.  You know, how sometimes you just know? 

They set off around 4:15pm.  At 4:20, Scott sent me this text.

“Great strategy.  Let’s not ride for 6 mths then go for it.”

I began to doubt that feeling I had earlier,  But…

at 4:39pm he texted me a picture of her riding off into the distance.

That’s right!!  She did it!!!  My girl’s on two wheels!!!

My Happy 2 Wheeler!

Nothing like a surprise package of clothes in the mail to bring smiles to the girls faces and provide an impromptu photo opp. 

(the boys appreciated it too, but not to the same extent)

Thanks cousins Ben and Eli!

This afternoon my smiley, mild mannered, easy going baby suddenly channeled his inner Dennis the Menace and went all toddler boy on me for 30 minutes. 

First I looked over and found him standing on his tool bench (oops look who forgot to put away the advent calendar with her Christmas decorations)

I got him down and shortly after realized things had been mighty quiet for awhile and went searching for him.  Found him in the master bathroom STANDING on the toilet. 

After shutting all the doors in the hallway we headed back out to the kitchen/living room.  He attempted to get water from the fridge dispenser but thankfully it was locked.   So, instead he opted for emptying my clean dishes from the dish washer into the dog bowl. 

I didn’t get them out right away b/c I figured the harm had already been done, and I would go ahead and finish emptying the dishwasher before he got into more mischief. 

But, that plan was thwarted when he then decided to DRINK FROM THE DOG BOWL!    While I moved the bowl onto the counter and the dirty cups into the sink, I turn around to find him standing in the dishwasher reaching for my leftover pizza from lunch.

At this point, I decide that this has TRULY BEEN THE CRAZIEST HALF HOUR OF HIS LIFE and strap him into his booster seat with my pizza in hopes of keeping him safe and me sane! 

We had some trees and branches cut down in our yard yesterday.  Thus far I think it was worth every penny as I love the new look of our yard, the feeling of safety knowing those dead branches aren’t going to come down in the next storm, AND the free babysitting it provided yesterday afternoon.

The tree in front of our living room window provided the most excitement.  Even my 18 mth old was so intrigued, he kept looking out the window and then he’d yell, “Hey Mama”  and a whole bunch of gibberish followed by “Hey Mama”…  I swear with that gibberish, he was telling me “there’s a man flying outside our window!”

I didn’t get quite as much done as I would have liked b/c the kids kept calling me into the room, “Mom… quick, you gotta see this, Mom look, take a picture for Dad.”

After cutting off all the branches, he then cut the trunk into four chunks and pushed them over.   The kids were concerned that Dad would be upset about the holes they left in the yard when they hit the ground, but they went back and filled them in with dirt. 

The kids wondered if perhaps Brett Keisel cut down trees when he wasn’t playing football.  Notice the resemblance?

While watching them climb around in the trees using ropes and pulleys, my son remarked, “This is like the original Cut the Rope.”

He also told me, “You’d never let Dad up that high!”  Followed by, “Are you holding the phone dialing the 9 and the 1?”  (Ahem..This MIGHT be b/c whenever Scott goes on the roof to hang or take down Christmas lights, I am always out side holding the phone ready to dial 911 in case he falls).  When I explained that I wasn’t holding the phone b/c these guys know what they are doing he responded with, “Well Dad knows what he’s doing and you still do it for him.”    

We really did have a great time watching the men work in our yard.  There was a never ending amount of excitement to watch, between the bucket truck, men swinging from trees, branches the size of trees swinging out the kitchen window, fork lifts carrying trunks from the back to the front, stump grinders and wood chippers…. we most definitely did not get through all of our homeschool assignments and are pulling double duty today. 

The most favorite Christmas cookie for the circus fam to make is sugar cookies.    Messiness + sugar = pure bliss for the circus crew!!

This year we enjoyed rolling and cutting the cookies with our cousin Eli. 

It was also the first year that the youngest circus crew member got to participate in the cooking making fun.  And by participate, I of course mean, eating. 

Since it took most of the morning to roll out and cut our our cookies, we saved the decorating for later that day.  Eli wasn’t with us for this part.  But, we still managed to make quite a mess with just 5 of us…

want a little cookie with your sprinkles?

I think this last one sums up the resulting sugar coma quite well.