The Scrappers: Our 2013 Spring Baseball Season

My hubby usually signs up as assistant coach for Charlie's sports teams. I love this. Since my hubby puts in lots of work hours, it gives Mike and Chuck specific, set aside, and special time together -- and it means I don't have to go to all of the practices and games. :) Which are long. And often.

This spring was cold. And I hate the cold. So, I ended up pawning an unusually large sum of the sports-related parenting to Mike, and didn't catch as many of the games as I normally do. Towards the end of the season, I realized if I didn't get my butt in gear, I'd have no pictures!!

One of the first games I made it to (aside from Charlie's pitching game) was a make-up game against the only undeafeated team in the league. AND WE BEAT THEM! Which gave us a chance to make it into the playoffs! All of a sudden I was kicking myself for slacking in my attendance. The games were fun! And Charlie was playing so well! And Henry wasn't nearly as hard to watch as he was last year! SCORE!!!


Trucks, dirt and watching big bro at bat! The life of a toddler at big brother's baseball games!

He also picked up ticks at every.single.game. this year. Which, of course, made me insane. I hate ticks. And they love the flippin' baseball fields. And chomping on Henry's itty bitty toddler parts. So gross.



Last year's spring season, we had to tempt Charlie with promises of a Dairy Queen ice cream cone if he'd get just one hit during a game. This year, that kid was getting himself a hit practically every time he got up to bat. Friggin' Dairy Queen, man. That's some seriously powerful motivation.

I was so proud, and quite surprised, by how much he had improved since this same time last year. As much as I jokingly say that DQ is the reason, I think it really has so much to do with his Dad's presence as a coach. They have such a bond over baseball. This is something a mom, at least ME as a mom, cannot give to Charlie. Mostly because they still make fun of me for not having a clue what is going on during the games. I have to ask a lot of questions. But I'm so glad it's something they share. And something Mike excels at as a Dad. Sports is so his thing. And now it's their thing. Adorable.



And then, all too quickly, we had finished out the regular season and were playing our first playoff game.

By this point, I was SO into it! I was so pumped up! So excited! I wanted them to win!! I wanted it for Mike. I wanted it for Charlie. I wanted it for all those kids who were playing their best. I wanted them to win just one playoff game. Just one.

That first playoff game was intense. For most of the game, we were winning. EVERY parent was standing up, pacing. Cheering. Clenching teeth. Leaning against the fence. We ALL wanted it for our kids.

And somewhere in the 4th, the other team caught up to our lead. Then in the 5th, we didn't score any runs. And they took it in the 6th. {Charlie read this over my shoulder and wanted me to make sure that I wrote that he got a double during this game, hee hee}

It. Was. Heartbreaking.

But I couldn't stop myself from photographing that last team talk from the coaches. Those Dads were truly upset. They wanted it too. They had worked hard along side those kids all season. I just think it's unbelievably amazing that these men take so much time out of their own lives - leaving work early several nights a week, dedicating Saturdays and sometimes Sundays, too - to support, teach and coach other people's kids. It's guys like these that make a difference in children's lives. It is so generous. And for that, it was hard to watch them have to close out the season on a loss.

And one last "hands in" cheer for the Scrappers. Who played their hearts out.

And that's the true measure of winners.

Also, guys. The light. Swoon.

Arbonne Product Giveaway

A few weeks ago, I instagrammed a picture of my hair all wrapped up on the top of my head as I tried out my new Arbonne hair mask for the first time. I have very long hair, the bottom of which is covered in split ends. I needed some repair. Not to mention, a hair mask is a perfect excuse to lock myself in the bathroom, ALONE, which is a whole other kind of repair in itself. As with all my Arbonne products, this one did not disappoint. Once rinsed and dried, my hair felt as soft and healthy as if it'd just been cut.

Bonus - I was so excited to see that one of my favorite blogs - How to be a Redhead - re-grammed & facebooked the photo.  My forehead is famous!!

I first learned about Arbonne products last Thanksgiving while on vacation back home in Michigan. My girlfriend, Melissa, asked if I was interested in some girl time away from our kids to try some of the Arbonne products for which she is a consultant. I said, "Oh, Meliss, that sounds so lovely, but I'm the kind of girl who washes her face with a Dove bar -- when I remember to wash my face at all -- and then I just slap on some wrinkle lotion I found at Target."

"Oh, no! Jenn, you don't!?" she said. "One night of skipping a face wash ages your skin 14 days. And these products are all natural and free of chemicals. Do you know if the lotion you're using is paraben-free?"

Shut up. FOURTEEN DAYS for one itty-bitty, teeny-tiny night of skipping? I had turned thirty-one just a few months before this and the lines that I had never seen under my eyes before had suddenly emerged, clear as day. I had stopped purposely trying to tan my skin to keep it healthy. So why hadn't I stopped my bad habit of sleeping in my makeup? I'd also given up using all the acne products that said not to use when "pregnant or trying to become pregnant" -- because if they could harm a fetus, how could they possibly be alright for my regular non-pregnant body?? I wasn't even considering all the "regular" chemicals that don't come with warnings on the boxes.

"Ok, Meliss. You're right. It's time I stop treating my skin like I'm still in college. Let's do this."

Now I'm hooked. My skin, my hair, my body are all feeling pampered, youthful and beautiful. And I feel relaxed and healthy knowing I'm gross-stuff-free when I get ready for the day.

I really wanted to spread the word - not only about my love of the hair mask & subsequent famous forehead - but my love for all of my Arbonne products so I asked Melissa if she'd be interested in blogging a little bit about Arbonne's commitment to safe and natural beauty products -- and maybe even hook everyone up with a giveaway!

She was! So here it is!

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26 seconds is all it takes for the chemicals in your personal products to enter your bloodstream. Your skin is your largest organ in your body. What is in your products? Have you ever really thought about it? Well, now is the time! 

As a consultant for a Health & Wellness company,  I am dedicated to providing you with all natural products. Whatever your health & wellness needs are, Arbonne offers an array of Pure, Safe, & Beneficial products - men & women’s anti-aging skin care, sensitive skin care, detox/spa, skin & body care, baby care, cosmetics, nutritional supplements & much more! - to cover you for life...from Diapers to Depends! 


Our products are all: 

You will never have to worry that you're using something on your skin that's toxic or could harm your health.  

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Please enter our giveaway to win an Arbonne Hair mask + a bonus of Arbonne's Baby Care Sunscreen for your little one (or for a friend's little one!) by simply liking Melissa's Arbonne page & my photography page on Facebook! Bonus entries for twitter love! :)

BTW, I never pay full price for my Arbonne products and Melissa can tell you how to get 20% or more off your Arbonnes purchase, plus cash rewards to use towards future purchases, as well! Contact Melissa for more information at melissa.meglio@gmail.com

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My Brain vs. My Brain

There was a time, back in 2004, when I did this parenting thing completely on my own terms. I was the only one I knew with a baby. Sometime after I gave birth to Charlie, I remember a friend convincing me to join MySpace. {Ha ha. MySpace.} So, this was even before I had entered the world of social media. God, that makes it seem like 2004 was eons ago! But once I was on MySpace, I found no other mothers there. Oddly, those "loner" years, I remember as some of my easiest of parenting. The years when there was no one else showing me what to do -- and no one else to compare myself to.

Except for the moms at the park. I'd compare myself to them - but in a way where I did not at all feel inferior. They were all 10-15 years older than me and constantly saying things like, "Use you words." in soft voices while their kids continued to throw sand in their faces. I found those moms incredibly obnoxious and would roll my eyes. Ugh. "Moms in their thirties," I'd think. "How sad. They're WAY too into their parenting. They probably read all the books and get very worried over what they say in them."

Oh, how I long for those years of 23 year old parenting back. It was so carefree. All I ever thought about was how much I adored Charlie. That was all that mattered and all I needed to know. It led the way for us.

Now I find that so many times, I fail - in my mind - as a parent. But why??? Why am i constantly disappointed in myself? I adore my children. Like, well-up-with-tears adore them. That was enough in 2004. Why is it leaving me feeling like such a failure in 2013??

I think we, as moms, and as women, are plagued with this onslaught of social media where our parenting, and our lives,  are put out in front of the world and we compare and compare and compare ourselves to determine where we fit. Do we fit? Are we doing it "right"? I think that social media has made parenting SO. MUCH. HARDER.

A few weeks ago,  I was over my children. Over. Them. I needed to work. Hub was out of town on business so I knew there was no relief in sight. And everytime I'd sit down to work, someone needed a snack or a drink or to go potty or to just tell me the same thing over and over again and to remind me that I had promised to take them to the park and hadn't done that yet and then, holy crap, it was the middle of the afternoon and I'd started 15 separate tasks but finished nothing! And those are the times when "it" happens. My kids broke into that "omg, you're driving me nuts, get out of my face!" space in my brain -- which all moms know, sits in a very sad corner of the "GUILT GUILT GUILT!!!" part of the brain. Which, when the two mix, that is when the pressure of being a "bad mom" creeps in and overtakes it all.

So, you go on Facebook to find a friend, to release the built up pressure, to relate. But instead, the first thing you see in your feed is Supermom. You know her. She's the one who is homeschooling and today, they're baking cookies while discussing Mozart while an organic, GMO-free dinner with VEGETABLES bakes in the oven. Oh, bad words. Damn you, Supermom. Damn you, Facebook. Damn you, wonderful, amazing, awful Facebook. And Supermom.

Forget the cookies, I'm supposed to make dinner too!?!? Even though dinner is something that happens EVERYDAY, I always forget about it. But Supermom doesn't. Nooooooo. She remembers dinner. And her children actually eat it without being threatened that they have to go to bed if they don't. Bad words, bad words, bad words!!!! I suck. I suck. I SUCK!!!!!!

I am ripped of all the memories of all the wonderful things I have ever done with my kids. My brain fills with thoughts of my suckiness. I suddenly can't remember to give myself a break because I run a business in addition to my mommy duties. I can't remember that yesterday I took them to a museum or that I orchestrated a fabulous birthday party a week ago because all I see is that today, they watched a lot of TV when they should have had all my attention and we should've made cookies!!! Supermom made cookies!!! And I didn't!!!! Ten years ago, on the rare occasion I'd be in the same space as her, Supermom made me feel badly for her and all her unnecessary overparenting and worry. Now, Supermom makes me insane. Supermom makes me feel like SuperSuck.

It was on that day, those few weeks back, where all of this happened exactly as I've described and I was spiraling downwards. So much to do. No time. Work deadlines approaching. My brain was consumed with stress and thoughts of unfinished laundry. And the kids wanted to eat, again. And that was annoying me. Why do they always want to eat?? And play outside? And fight over the same stupid piece of plastic? I remember this day as horrible. I remember being a terrible mom that day who scary-screamed more than I'd like to admit and said "Go play! Go find something else to do!" all too many times. If you asked me about this day, I'd have told you that I was a failure on that day. It was a "bad mom" kind of day. It was a day when a Supermom, I was not.

And then I found these photos in Lightroom. All from that day.

The evidence of my motherhood from that day looks like this.


Henry is a stage five clinger. He wants to be on top of me or directly next to me at all times. Annoyed that he was following me from room to room, I started a game of throwing the laundry from the upstairs balcony down to him below to de-pressure the battle between task vs. attention. We now do it every time I have laundry and it's one of our favorite things.

And he loves to be independent and do things by himself. This has always caused a battle between us because he will flip out if he cannot figure out how to do something. So, that day, I started letting him dump the baskets of clothes into the machine. And he loves it. And I love the tippy toes.


And when their Daddy is away on business, they sleep in my bed with me. It's a tradition that they love. And clearly, even on this crazy day when I felt so down on myself, here I was photographing them in the dark instead of tucking myself in for much needed sleep because they are just so cute and wonderful. And because I love them to death.


If this is what that day actually looked like, then I am struck with the realization that Supermom is all in my head. It's not Supermom or Facebook's fault. Or Pinterest's. {let's just lump that asshole of a "you-don't-measure-up" webpage in there with them all, too}. It's mine. It's MY decision to feel like I am doing it wrong. It's my decision to freak out. It's my decision to focus on the parts that aren't pretty and taunting me and robbing me instead of cherishing and rising up to all the good times and the BEAUTY that is in our lives.

If this is what my motherhood looks like, then I'm clearly doing something right. Those two boys - well, sometimes they will have to watch a lot of TV. And sometimes I won't be able to finish the laundry. And sometimes I will shout "STOP IT!" many, many times during a day. And sometimes I will feed them pizza a few days in a row. And sometimes, this sort of day will repeat itself and I will lack patience and feel defeated, But, ALWAYS, I will love them and being their mom. So much. And that really is what makes a super mom.  

Deep breaths. They are ok. I am ok. 

Charlie's "Science Is Awesome" 9th Birthday Party

Don't all things begin with a desperate need to buy themed vintage stamps from an etsy shop???? How could I ever resist? :)


It's taken a while to blog Charlie's ninth birthday party because I was waiting until it was featured on Hostess with the Mostess which finally posted on the same day I flew to Boston WITHOUT my laptop! They had told me it would feature at the end of the month so I was not ready or prepared at all for a mid-June feature! And of course, I had to wait an additional five days to get home from B-town to even access my images! Crazy times! :)

I started planning Charlie's party back in November. The second Henry's Monster Party wrapped, my talented party-styling girlfriend, Rachel, wanted to know what was next. We asked Charlie to give us a theme to start working on -- and he said "LEGOS!!". That didn't really work for us. There are too many lego parties already out there. It might've taken a little persuasion to get him to decide that what he reeeally wanted was a chemistry party. :)

Rachel runs RV Parties with her BFF and partner, Victoria. They design the most adorable printables for pretty much any party theme. You can buy the science printables from this party as well the monster printables from Henry's party -- or a variety of many other themes - HERE at their etsy shop! You'll also see lots of my photography there. I'm their favorite professional photographer.

I was seriously & intensely proud of the large chalkboard that we used for our backdrop at the dessert table. I knew two things: 1., there was NO WAY that I could handwrite anything on any chalkboard and have it look adorable - not to mention, I'm way to OCD to have the font on a backdrop not completely match with the party design/font, and 2., I did NOT want to buy a new, giant chalkboard and then have no idea what to do with it when the party wrapped.

But, thats why engineering prints from Staples are the greatest thing in the whole wide world. Yes. You heard me. The greatest.

If you need something printed in a very large size (this one was 36x48) but don't want to pay your child's college tuition for it - and it happens to be a black and white image - then head to Staples. I had Rachel design a large print to look like a fake chalkboard and had it printed for $6. Then I tacked it to a corkboard that I already had hanging over my desk in my office. Perfect.

We had so many amazing treats on our dessert table!

Miss Lulu's Sweet Treats sent us the cake pops atoms on a stick. They are the best cake pops I've ever had in my entire life. No joke. I *might* have lied to a couple of the children who asked if they could have one and said they were for display only so there'd be a few leftover. And the chocolate-dipped Oreo Molecules were her idea and I looove how creative and perfectly themed they are!

And the amazing Jessica of J&J Bakeshop - local here in VA - provided us with the perfect cookies decorated to look like the element of Charlie!! She is so talented, y'all. I ordered specialty cookies from her for Christmas gifts last year and I encourage you all to find a reason to need cookies just to see what she can do!

And I made the cupcakes because I'm a cupcake snob now and can only eat the cake that my BFF, Mandie, makes or the cake my BFF, Mandie, taught me how to make.

I was also really proud of my party favor idea! Last summer, I taught Charlie the Mentos + Diet Soda reaction - read about it here - (so many links in this post!!). He loved it so much that I figured it should either be an experiment at the party or the favor! Since it's pretty messy and doesn't take very long to react, I figured, favor it is! I think it's always best to send the messy stuff home to the parents. Just like it's always best to serve the guests all the sugar RIGHT before the end of the party. :)

Did you know that lab coats are RIDICULOUSLY expensive?? And that even the costume ones for kids to play doctor and dress up with on Halloween don't even dip below $10 each?? As much as I wanted real lab coats that I'd have embroidered with guest names for the party, that's just plain insane and I could not encourage the market to continue to charge those prices! Harumph!!

Instead, I bought the 5-pack of two-sizes-too-large white undershirt tees from Target and cut them up the middle! Voila! Lab coats on the cheap!

I did splurge on party color lab goggles for about $3 each. Totally worth it. So cute.

And Charlie's adorable science shirt was a custom design by Ella Mella who rocks my world with their awesome kid's fashions.

And Henry's shirt was sent to us from Periodically Inspired! I just love how she smooshed periodic table elements together to form geeky-chic words. Henry's my precious little GeNiUS!! And a bit of a camera ham, too!

Once the house was decorated and the kids dressed, it was time to paaaaartay!

An amazing woman, Calsin, runs a business of bringing science, technology, engineering and mathemathics to parties and playdates and schools, oh my! She. Is. Awesome. She told me that if she didn't have her business, she'd set up a lab in her garage and experiment anyway! I loved it. That's how I feel about my photography. If there wasn't work, there'd STILL be pictures. Her business, STEM-KIDS, is such a great concept. Learning can be a BLAST (literally!) and parties don't have to lack brain power, either! Calsin can tailor the experiments for any party. I didn't want the party to cross sciences (OCD, much?) so everything had to stay in a "chemistry" theme. Duh. And, the experiments also needed to entertain eight very active nine year olds.  Calsin knew just what to do -- MESSY, hands-on chemical reactions that would result in slime, exploding "elephant toothpaste" and a giant bowl full of smoky, bubbly dry ice!

EXPERIMENT #1: SLIME

The kids loved this. Calsin set up a table full of the necessary ingredients and as the kids started to mix everything together, it started forming ooey-gooey slime! After they finished squishing it in their fingers, we packed up their custom-colored slime in take home bags!



EXPERIMENT #2: ELEPHANT TOOTHPASTE

Whats better than seeing foamy goo grow and grow and grow, so much so that it spills up and out of a bottle and into a tray for you to play with it!? NOTHING!

Birthday boy was the first one to pour in the special ingredient to make the chemical reaction activate! He was SO excited!! And, um, he's also incredibly cute.




EXPERIMENT #3: SUBLIMATION DEMONSTRATION

I'm a creative. I photograph things. I can write fairly well. And I daydream great things. I enjoy and am awed by science but, I am no scientist. So, I have to admit that when Calsin said we'd do a "sublimation demonstration", I just blindly nodded my head like I had a clue what she was talking about.

Google and Wikipedia say that sublimation is "the transition of a substance directly from the solid to the gas phase without passing through an intermediate liquid phase." So, why the dry ice turned into a smoky gas without any water sneaking in between those phases, all makes sense now. (Can you tell I was concentrating on proper exposure and focus while she was explaining all of this to the kiddos???) Oy.

Adding in some dish washing liquid will create a giant bubble that will enclose the smoke inside of it and when it pops, the smoke explodes out! It's really fun and the kids obviously LOVED getting the chance to be the one to pop the bubble!


And then it was time to blow out the candles and for me to cry the weepy mama-cry because my baaaaaaby is NINE!!!


See the party with all our vendor info plus more of my wit and charm in describing the details (and more pictures!!) on the fabulous and well-followed Hostess with the Mostess blog HERE.

Lessons Learned: Thoughts on Sand & Water Tables

I caved. I've gone NINE years without a sandbox. And then, a few weeks ago while in Charlotte, my BFF, Mandie, convinced me I needed a sand/water table. I pushed back saying that they always looked like muddy, dirty messes...

"Just put sand in it," she said.

"Don't add any water," she said.

"It'll stay clean that way," she said.

"My girls play in it for hours," she said.

Hours of outdoor entertainment so I could feel less guilty about my time on the computer sounded like a good deal to me... and no mess? I could probably get on board. Just don't add the water to the sand and water table. Brilliant. I could handle that.

To Amazon Prime I went. Two days later, I had a brand new sand and water table delivered to my door. Just in time for my nephew's visit, too! Woot woot!

Olly and Hank LOVED it. Chuck rather liked it too. They played and played... pushing cars through it, filling tiny buckets and dumping them into "mountains", and burying their hands.

And then it happened. Exactly what I knew would happen. The tiny buckets of sand started being dumped on the porch. And then down over the deck. And then it became VERY funny when we told them no and they did it more sneakily (which, then, we found hilarious - stinkers). And then it started tracking inside the house on the bottoms of little feet...

I'm not a total neat freak so everything seemed alright at this point. A round of sweeping was well worth their happiness. We were outside after all. And they're boys. Boys need messes.

"I'm a good mom," I told myself. "If cleaning up is all I have to do, then let them make a little bit of a mess. No worries here." Can't you just hear all the other mom voices in my head giving me a golf clap for this thought?? Awesome mom dot com right here, y'all.

And then...

"Can we please have water too?" Charlie begged. "We won't make a mess. I promise."

Liar.

So I added water. Because they're cute. And it couldn't be that messy, right? Maybe a little muddy in the water side, I figured. Mandie is usually right about stuff but she can't ALWAYS be right. Maybe my kids would just keep the sand and the water sides separate...? And they're really cute. Caving was kind of my thing with this stupid sand & water table already. It was a theme. And I'm a good mom with my own cheering section in my head for times just like this when I let go of things... I had to go all in.

Y'all...

I'm.an.Idiot.and.a.Sucker.

Sand Mud was everywhere. Faces. Hands. Clothes. Deck. Ground. And when Henry took a handful and threw it in the house... they were D-O-N-E.

Lesson learned. Never add water to the sand & water table. Mandie is always right. 

Air & Space Museum with a Canon

I had never been to the Air & Space Museum before this weekend! Can you believe it? I feel like one of those regular DC people who have lived here forever but have never done the DC stuff because "that's just for tourists"!!  I'm one of those people that tourists stop to ask for directions, then scoff and say "you've never been!?" Ha ha ha. Not really. I've been to literally everything else, including the Dulles Air & Space museum, but I'm letting this little slice of DC virginity soak in and make me feel more like an assimilated citizen instead of the giddy girl who is overly enthusiastic about being out of Texas!

While my brother was visiting this past weekend, we took all of our boys down into the city to explore the museum. A fun fact about our visit? Ok, well a fun fact for ME... is that I shot the day on my brother's Canon instead of my Nikon. I ALWAYS play with my brother's Canon whenever he is with me because I like to know the differences between the two brands. It was A LOT of fun to play with.

One thing I noticed at the DC Air & Space verse the Dulles one was all the hands on exhibits. We live right near Dulles airport so we have been to the museum out by us many times. It is HUGE with an awesome control tower that overlooks the runways of Dulles and, of course, the space shuttle is pretty danged amazeballs... but we've said a million times as we are walking out how disappointing it is that we cannot go inside ANY of the planes. Not even a guarded sheet-of-plastic barrier peek. I mean, they have the flippin' Concord just chillin' right in the middle of the place and we can't even look inside!? I find that terribly annoying. I really want to look inside that Concord!!

But down in DC, where there is much less space, my kids climbed in a Cessna (to be fair, they have one at Dulles too but there are only certain times that it's available for play), they walked through a DC-7, we walked into the top story of a full sized 747 and could check out the huge cockpit, and there was another rocket-like thing that you could walk through as well but we forgot to go in it.

It just seemed sort of odd to me that the giant and NEW Dulles museum doesn't have anything like that!

I am a huge aviation nerd. That's something I'm pretty sure I've picked up from my engineer big brother because it certainly doesn't come from me naturally. I hate flying. But I loooove airplanes. I am a complicated and complex human being who very often makes no sense whatsoever.

I wanted to read ALL the stuff. Do you know how hard it is to read all the explanation plaques in a museum when you have a 5 month old, 2, 3 and 8 year old to keep your eyes on?? Impossible. It's 100% completely impossible. I told the hubs as we were leaving that it is a total shame that we never went to a single museum before Charlie was born. To be fair, we were really too busy sleeping until 1pm on weekends back in those days...

Henry spent the weekend professing his love for Oliver. Very often, Henry would tell him that they were best friends and encourage his cousin to follow him everywhere. "Come ON, Oliver!!!" It. Was. So. Cute.

Toddlerhood is so exhausting.

This is the point of my blog post that I gush over how amazing my big brother is. I adore him. This is nothing new, I've always thought he was amazing (aside for a few years in high school when I was way too cool for him) -- but watching him be a dad and an uncle makes my heart explode. He will play and play and play with our kids. Past the point where, as a mom, I'd be done. He's funny with them in a way that I have never been able to be myself... and he's always genuinely interested in them. And they ADORE him because of it.

Mikey and I frequented the Charlotte Discovery Place all the time when we were kids. My mom would give us some money for food (you know, back in the 90s when it was safe/safer... to just drop your kids there for a day...?) and we would ALWAYS save that money to buy astronaut ice cream. It became a tradition over our childhood that we cherished. I can even remember our little conversations about how we couldn't buy too much lunch so we would have enough leftover for our ice cream. :)

Now, whenever we go to science museums (which we do a lot when we're together because we are a nerdy-chic family), my big brother buys astronaut ice cream for Charlie (insert a big, fat, giant, heart-melty "awwwwwww" here). We realized on this particular trip that we will need to amend this passing-on of tradition to include buying a few more packages of ice cream because Henry and Olly definitely noticed they were left out on this and FREAKED. Ok, just Henry freaked.

Side note: It was $3 back then. It costs $7 now. Since it was my brother's birthday, I paid for this round. $14 for two packages of 3 inch squares! How is this even possible? We don't even have a space shuttle program anymore! I'm not even supporting dudes going up in space with that additional $4. Rip off.

After the museum, we walked outside and played goofed off on the mall for a bit. We took the obligatory family photos in front of the Capitol. Some of which were photo bombed. And children, or my big brother, convinced us that we should take nose-picking shots...

The little guys were super interested in the dirt path. And my big brother was interested in being awesome with the kids.

And little man H fell asleep on the way home and snoozed on the couch for much of the afternoon. Being a toddler is really exhausting.