Goofing Off at Mount Vernon

We’re still slowly working our way through our Great American History Expedition Checklist.  Seven down.  Thirty or so to go.

Eat the Kid Instead!

From last week, on the way home from the wedding, we met animatronic dinosaurs who tried to eat the Husband.  He fed them Mushroom instead while BalletBoy looked on in horror.

 

 

Colonial Williamsburg

Colonial Williamsburg is all about being punished in various ways.

Mushroom in the gallows:

BalletBoy in gaol:

And, of course, wigs.  That’s a punishment, right?  BalletBoy and his friend listened to the wigmakers for practically half an hour.

It’s also about waterslides…  but those don’t photograph as well.

First Week Moments

I saved up all the various things I bought for the kids so they could all come out at the same time in one box-curricula-esque extravaganza.  Of course, the first thing BalletBoy and Mushroom did was accidentally dump out their entire rock set, so we spent the first morning reorganizing it.

Most of our week was spent out and about with our co-op.  We did a trip with them every single day.  Here we are on the first day, in our traditional first day in the tree pose.  We have new members, which is exciting but also an adjustment for everyone.

Playing around on the boardwalk during our hike.

Appreciating the lotuses at the aquatic gardens.

The best part of the county fair was riding the school bus to get there!

Or possibly swimming in soybeans.

Here’s Great Falls, scampering over the rocks along the towpath.

And now…  whew, I’m tired.  But it was so good to be out and about all week, mostly outside, where the weather was hot, but not oppressive, and the rain held off for us.

Brickfair!

Did you know we live not far from the biggest Lego festival in the whole country?!?  Okay, I’ve known for a little while, actually.  But this year, we finally managed to not be out of town so we could go and totally geek out with friends.

We saw awesome stuff like this, a freakishly accurate depiction of the Renaissance Fair:

 

And this:

And this, which looks like Anakin from one direction and Darth Vader from the other (!):

And there was a giant ball moving contraption, an entire scene from Ghostbusters, a Lego violin made to scale, and about a million other things.  As we left, BalletBoy said, “That really inspired me to build something cool out of Legos.”  No wonder!

Till Next Year, Actors

I promised that I would give just one more little look at The Tempest with better photos.  These are stolen from friends with better cameras who actually got to sit in the audience.

Fish or Fowl?  Smells like a fish!  You can see that every moment Mushroom was on stage, he was just brilliantly into it.

Work not so hard, sir.  I’ll bear your logs awhile!  BalletBoy and the girl playing Miranda had such a cute chemistry together.

A most high miracle!  BalletBoy really does look like he’s found his long lost father.  They had a pretty hilarious hug next.

The kids are keen to do something else next year, so I’m already bracing myself, though I suspect this might be an every other year undertaking for me, especially since we have a big trip in the planning stages for spring next year.  But the pull of the bard is strong!

Back to School

With all that’s been going on, “bed school” and “sofa school” has been the best we’ve been able to manage lately.

But, hey, look, we’re back at the table this week!

‘Ban ‘Ban Caliban!

Sorry for the lack of postings this week.  I am swamped with a million things, included a visit from my father, a night at the Shakespeare Theater (Wilde’s An Ideal Husband – it was pretty good) a million other things to get ready for The Tempest which will have its opening night (and only night!) this weekend.

Anyway, I got it together for an almost Wordless Wednesday.  Here’s Mushroom getting his face painted for Caliban.  Erica, homeschool mom and face painter extraordinaire, did this and showed me how.  Now, if I can copy it and do even half as good a job as she did, then I’ll be pleased.

Take Our Picture!

I have a boggling number of photos of the boys on this statue of two bears wrestling at the zoo.  I don’t think I’ve posed them there once.  It’s outside the bathrooms and they inevitably pose themselves whenever I’m using the facilities.  We hadn’t been to the zoo in a couple of months and I forget how with all the construction it changes so quickly.  This is the time of year when we all emerge from our cocoons and see the bits of the world we’ve forgotten about.  Hello, zoo.  Hello, parks.  Hello, city.  Nice to see you again.

Our Island

We went to “our island” with our co-op group last week.  We try to go once every season, so this was our winter hike.  The kids know the place well.  It was the site of their first solo hike and they have special places picked out that they like to return to.  Every kid brought a camera to take pictures this time and a few of the pictures will be exhibited in a local cafe for a few days, thanks to a connection one of the other moms has with the owners.

Here’s BalletBoy’s pictures:

And here are Mushroom’s: