Daycare Trip to the Zoo (part 1)

Benji's first week of summer camp ("Classical Kids" music camp at Music On The Hill)

Benji's first summer camp was a music camp called "Classical Kids," which he attended with one of his best friends, Jacob.  He spent time working on his piano skills and also got some violin lessons!  At the end of the week, the kids did a short concert.  I was on a daycare trip with Tamar and Daniel but Aaron amusedly reported that "it sounded exactly like what you'd expect from a bunch of eight-year-olds who had five days of piano and violin lessons." 

 

The camp was held at a local, family-owned music store called Music on the Hill that is two blocks from our house.  The store is on the ground floor and lessons for Benji's camp were held upstairs on the second floor.  The first two pictures below are of the individual practice rooms (not where the kids got their camp lessons, which they did in a group).  The second two pictures are of the downstairs (the main store) -- in the final photo, you can see that they were getting ready to hold a group music lesson for older kids.  It's an amazing resource to have so close to us and I anticipate that we'll be going there often!  They even have music classes for very young children, so Tamar and Daniel will undoubtedly be there at some point in the next year or so.

 

Here's a video from Tuesday of Benji's first day playing the violin!

 

--Victoria

 

 

Comparative sleeping positions

Benji finished second grade!

How ON EARTH did that happen so fast?  He's doing a great job, academically, as you can see by the awards he received.  --Victoria

Grocery store in the rain

When we came out of the store, it was absolutely POURING.  Fortunately, I had our large umbrella with us (we always keep in in the car) and I tasked Benji with holding it over the kids and the groceries while I made a run for the car (pushing the cart).  I hopped into the car from the side, transferred the twins and the groceries inside while Benji still held the umbrella, and then brought him in as well -- safe and dry!  I was proud of him for being such a great helper.
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--Victoria
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Evening at the Park

Tamar asked whether we could go to the park after dinner.  Aaron was working so I took the kids and discovered that they really are getting old enough to entertain themselves!  Benji did an amazing job of organizing the three of them into "races" -- he and Tamar were on scooters and Daniel was on foot.  After numerous races and laps around the playground, they were pretty tired and settled into quieter play.
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--Victoria
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Last Saturday, part 2 (the zoo)

We walked across the bridge over Rock Creek Park and spent about an hour at the zoo.  Aaron got a great workout giving each of the kids rides on his shoulders!  Tamar and Daniel were both so tired that they fell asleep on the way home.  I call that a win.
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--Victoria
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 Benji decided he wanted to "ride" on one of the bronze river otters.

Tamar is dubious.  I'm not sure why.

While the twins were sleeping on the ride home, we had some cool conversations with Benji.  I can't remember what he was asking Aaron about, but I was impressed at the time.

Last Saturday, part 1 (pool + lunch)

Last Saturday, we had a fun and busy day that started with a trip to a local pool that we had heard was fun but had never visited.  It had a graduated entry so that the little ones could just walk right in an splash and play comfortably.  Daniel, however, decided that he wanted no part of it and sat by the wall on a towel for the entire hour or so that the rest of us enjoyed the water!  No amount of coaxing could convince him that he should join us.  Happily, he was quite content to just sit and watch the action.


After the pool, we were heading home for lunch when Aaron realized that we were really close to the zoo, so we got a quick (but delicious!) lunch at a Mexican place and then headed over to see the animals.


--Victoria
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Getting ready for the trip to the pool.

Lunch time!