27 January 2012 Playdate à trois

January 27th, 2012

Playdate for three

26 January 2012 44 3/4 inches

January 26th, 2012

44 3/4

at 6 1/4 years old.

25 January 2012 Rocking the Boat

January 25th, 2012

Rocking the boat

24 January 2012 Under the Table and Scheming

January 24th, 2012

Under the table at McIntire

I wanted to post a picture of the back of Sam’s skirt after her long play with friends at the park today, but she didn’t want anyone else to see it. Suffice to say that after the recent ice, snow and rain, today’s weather featured mud.

23 January 2012 Rainy Downtown

January 23rd, 2012

Rainy Downtown

22 January 2012 Snowy

January 22nd, 2012

A little snow on the deck

21 January 2012 Icy

January 21st, 2012

Icy deck

20 January 2012 Loto!

January 20th, 2012

Loto
Sam and Lydia learned to play Loto today, aka French bingo.

19 January 2012 Resting on her Laurels

January 19th, 2012

Molly Bear winner of Olympic Games

We are fully immersed in Ancient Greece these days and today Sam staged Bearlandic Olympic games for her bears. Molly Bear, ever the favorite, won the olive wreath after competing in Sam’s version of the pentathlon: foot race, high jump, discus throw, ski slide down the ladder back chair, and trampoline.

I suspect that the judge cheated a little in Molly’s favor, but don’t tell Sam.

18 January 2012 Giant Heart at Giant

January 18th, 2012

Giant Heart at Giant

17 January 2012 Winter at Explorations

January 17th, 2012

Winter at Explorations

16 January 2012 Pop-Pop and Sammy

January 16th, 2012

Pop-Pop and Sammy

15 January 2012 1401

January 16th, 2012

1401

To celebrate his birthday, Pop-Pop wanted to visit the Smithsonian American History Museum and put his hand on the locomotive that his grandfather, Charles Field Capehart, helped build. So we took the train to Washington, DC and walked over to the National Mall.

This was Sam’s first trip to DC and in addition to the American History museum, we toured the sculpture gardens and saw the Egypt exhibit at the Natural History museum.

But the main focus was locomotive 1401. Built in 1926, this was the flagship locomotive of Southern Railway from the mid 1920s to the 1950s. It ran primarily in North Carolina, and in 1945 pulled FDR’s funeral train part of the way to DC.

Charles Field Capehart was a pipe-fitter. Goodness knows how many pipes he fit on it, because this machine is huge. Just to get the front of it in the picture I had to stand so far away that you can hardly see the three generations of Capeharts standing next to their grandfather, great-grandfather and great-great grandfather’s work. We tried to impress upon Sam how cool it is that she can visit a national museum and touch something that her great-great grandfather worked on. Too many greats for her to grasp, although she did notice that the wheels of 1401 are about two feet taller than she is. Now, that made an impression!

14 January 2012 Happy Birthday, Pop-Pop

January 16th, 2012

Happy Birthday dinner for Pop-Pop

13 January 2012 Getting Ready for a Big Weekend

January 13th, 2012

Shopping

12 January 2012 Stick Hut

January 12th, 2012

Stick Hut

Benjamin and Sam, and several other children at the park, spent hours building this hut. And knocking it down. And building it, and… you get the idea.

11 January 2012 Midterm Showcase at the Little Gym

January 11th, 2012

Little Gym midterm show

10 January 2012 Mountain Trip

January 10th, 2012

Mountain Trip

AC and his mom left today for a trip to mountains, solitude, and mostly likely snow at The Shack.

9 January 2012 Ice Academy

January 9th, 2012

Ice Academy day 1

Sam’s first time on the ice (and it felt like my first time too, that’s how long it’s been since I’ve skated). Parents got to free skate while kids learned the basics at our local rink’s Homeschool Academy. It won’t be long before she’s speeding past me graceful as a swan. My skating style is more … elephantine.

8 January 2012 The Latest Obsession

January 8th, 2012

Monopoly