Falling on His Sword

Following up on yesterday's post, the other night it appeared that Sam fell on his own sword in bed.

Dead or Alive

If you don't watch Pete for a few minutes, he usually shows up dead. First, there was the incident with Kyle at Cub Scout Camp:

But apparently he was just a playing a dead Egyptian preparing to get mummified.

Then last weekend we found him on the ground at Kings Dominion. But he was just tired from riding on Drop Zone and Rebel Yell (forward and backwards).

Red Ranger

In case you were wondering what the Red Ranger likes for breakfast, the answer is Cocoa Puffs.

Cub Scouts First Meeting

Mom and Pete went to the first cub scouts meeting of the year a few nights ago. Pete is a Wolf scout this year. Pete was pleasantly surprised that they gave out awards for the Raingutter Regatta that was held over the summer. Here is Pete with his 3rd place trophy.

First Day of Pre-school

Sam is excited that he is attending pre-school this year for the first time. Here is a picture from the first day of school. You can see that he is wearing his new Power Rangers Operation Overdrive shirt that he got at the mall. He actually wore this on the second and third day of school also. (Note, it was washed and these were not consecutive days because he goes on Monday and Wednesday). We are pleased to note that we finally got him to wear his Spongebob shirt to school one day. So hopefully his teachers know that he has at least two shirts.

His friend Christina is in his class. His teachers are Miss Kay and Miss Patti.

Also, after starting pre-school, for six nights in a row he picked "Blue Goes To School" as his bedtime story.

Mystery Pictures

One day a few weeks ago, Pete decided that he wanted to add some pictures to his blog. So while dad was mowing the lawn, Pete was seen wandering around inside and outside the house with the digital camera. I'm not sure what he was planning to write on his blog, but here is a sampling of some photos that appeared on the camera:

Dinner and a Movie

One evening mom decided to open a restaurant for Pete and Sam. They could order anything from their own special menu with all of their favorites. Then they had to pay with some Monopoly money.

They both enjoyed several courses and drinks. It was a fun idea that we will have to try again sometime.

By the way, Pete and Sam forgot to leave a tip. Also, they were playing outside until bedtime, so we'll have to do the movie another time.

Trip to New York - Museum

No trip to New York would be complete without a visit to the Museum of Digging, Twister, and Etch-a-Sketch.

Trip to New York - An Event in a Park

More mystery photos from the trip to New York. Here it appears that they went to some sort of outdoor concert. Sam is doing break-dancing moves, so they are probably waiting for the show to start.

Trip to New York - Geocaching

Mom took Pete, and cousins Sarah and Joey, on some geocache hikes during their New York trip. Here they are getting ready to embark on a treasure hunt in the woods. Overall, they were successful in finding three out of four caches that they searched for during the week.


Here's a geocache where Ashleigh joined the group. At least I'm guessing that since I see someone wearing a shirt that says "I'd like to help you, but I can't fix stupid".

Something In Common

Dad: Pete, stop banging your head against the window. You're going to crack your skull.

Pete: Well, mom cracked her head three times - once when she was 2, once when she was 10, and once in college. And I'm sad because I don't have anything in common with mom. (Pause) Except we both always yell at Sam.

Trip to New York - Joey's Yard

Pete and Sam had fun running around cousin Joey's yard with Joe and Sarah during their trip to New York.


Meanwhile, Dad worked on many exciting things back home, such as filing, weeding, mounting bikes, and re-painting the front door.

Last Weekend

This past weekend was the "last hurrah" before back to school. The weather was nice, so we got to do some fun stuff.

On Saturday, we went to the National zoo in DC. Dad dropped everyone off near the kids area and then parked the car on the local streets. Not counting gas, the whole trip cost $1.50 (for a pack of sour skittles). We asked Sam later what his favorite part of the zoo was, and he said the sour skittles, so clearly this was money well-spent. For the record, we also took Stripey to see the tigers, Libre to see the lions, and walked through the Kids Farm for the first time. We also saw some other animals on the back side of the zoo that we hadn't seen before, such as Eagles, Wolves, and Prairie Dogs.

Saturday night we dropped mom at Wal-Mart and dad/Sam/Pete went in the woods just before dusk to do a geocache. Pete somehow spotted a letterbox on the way to the cache location also. Then we all had dinner at Ledo Pizza.

Sunday we split up - mom and Pete went to Toys 'R Us and Friendly's, and dad/Sam went to dad's office for lunch, and then Burke Lake Park to find some geocaches and ride the train.

Monday we had some chocolate chip mini-pancakes and then went to the pool for the last day before they closed. Sam got to show dad that he has learned to swim underwater. Then we barbecued some chicken on the grill and Pete played kickball with the kids on the street.

Goodbye Summer of 2007, we will miss you.

Happy Shorts

Sam has a pair of red shorts that he calls his "happy shorts". I overheard this conversation yesterday:

Sam: Look Pete - my happy shorts!
Pete: Cool. But when you pee in them, they're your sad and angry shorts.

Site Update

Our digital camera seems to be broken, so there probably won't be many photos for the next few weeks.