More May photos.

I thought I had all of the May photos up, until I realized I never uploaded one of our camera's pictures from all summer long. I thought I was missing a few things.

Henry took part in his first science fair.  His project was officially entitled "How does a fire extinguisher work?"  The short answer is: by removing one of the three elements of fire- heat, fuel, or oxygen.  

 JoJo's class took a trip to a local nature center.  Anush, Yohansh, Elaine, Georgie, Sabrina, and Madison had a good time in the log canoe.  

 And they really liked seeing the Bald Eagle out in the bird enclosures.

That eagle was so funny!  (Though it did creep me out a little.  I don't think those eagles and vultures were very happy to be tethered in a cage.  But they were injured, so I don't think they could be released.)

 For papa's birthday, we made an almond joy cake.  

 It was delicious!
 
 And apparently, the sugar was enough to induce this dancing.

 We visited the nature center beside our apartment to do some geocaching.  We found the cache, despite the best efforts of two litttle girls who did not want to look for tupperware in the woods.
One afternoon, all of the kids were back in the bedroom when I heard some pretty loud thumping.  They'd constructed a jumping pit where, luckily, no one ended up hurt.  

 This sweet girl was so happy to have "princess hair."

That's unicorn hair that June is dancing with, in case you didn't recognize it.

We headed downtown on Memorial Day Weekend for the parade.  The girls were quickly persuaded to vote Democrat, while Henry and Olivia held out to see which politicians offered the best candy.

 Of course, the Bolivian dance troops were there.  No parade in South Carolina is ever going to compare.

Georgie spent some time dabbling in undressing herself, but not without a fair bit of whining.

Here's the whining.

 She also dabbled in using the potty, though that ultimately didn't happen until August.

May brought nice weather, and those skinny little legs were happy to see the sun. 

The rest of May.

Apparently, we didn't do much that was camera worthy in May.

Papa brought the kids back Belgian chocolate-covered Belgian waffles.  And I got an exceptionally sour liter of beer.

Henry's school had an open house with bounce houses and ice cream.  

The real fun was climbing on the bleachers.

We colored ourselves as potentially embarrassing to our future teenagers by taking our first "selfies."

So embarrassing.

Leah and I and a group of friends rented a limo and went on a tour of wineries.  However, the limo broke down and we got stuck at a winery in the Virginia countryside...  Actually, it turned out to be a really great day.

The complex pool FINALLY opened.  (Don't forget, we're northerners and we like to swim as soon as the temp his 70 degrees.)  As part of the opening weekend celebration, there was a big party and a Zumba demonstration.  See if you can't pick Henry out.  

 Sara brought us egg molds from Japan, which have livened up our hard boiled egg consumption.

Finally, I found an adult sized t-shirt at the thrift store that practically jumped in my arms and screamed to be taken home to June.  I did a little bit of cutting and sewing and came up with this new dress for her.  

Almost Heaven, West Virginia- May 10th.

While we were in West Virginia, we spent a day with Aunt Joann and Unlce Dean down in the holler eating biscuits and gravy and visiting.

Henry took advantage of the big parking lot at the church next door and learned how to ride a bike.  It didn't take long, seeing as how he was already 7 1/2  and is pretty proficient at the scooter.  We pushed him off once and he took off.

Here he is in action.  Jo was freaking out because a neighborhood dog was following her around.

For reference, check out the size of that mean dog at the end of this video.

Back at the house, June and her Dean spent time spitting off the bridge in the driveway and dropping pieces of biscuits down to the minnows.  (What a waste of Joann's perfect biscuits.)  Later, we noticed that we hadn't seen either girl in a while and discovered that Dean was out on the porch feeding the girls granola bars, muffins, and all kinds of other treats.  Uncle Dean in the best.

On Mother's Day, we decided to head to the State Capitol.  

We've driven by the golden dome the many times we drove past Charleston, but never stopped to check it out.

We had a good time exploring the grounds and taking in the beautiful weather.

Grams found a unicorn.  I heard that's good luck.

There's only one thing you can do when you're a Parsons and you find an Abraham Lincoln.  You pose for a picture in front of it.  

This time with parents.

Now with Grams and PawPaw.
 
Who knows what got into June?  I think it had something to do with robots and maybe those inflatable bendy things in front of the check into cash places.  At least she decided against jumping from the top step.

Inside we were all impressed with the big chandeliers and how loud everyone's voices became in a big stone room.

So we headed back outside to ring a bell and make as much noise as possible.

We also visited the West Virginia State Museum, which was awesome!  We had to rush through the last half, but it's on my list of places to visit again the next time we're in Charleston.

GG Boy

We were sad that Brandon had to cut his trip to Europe short after we found out that his grandpa had died just weeks before his 80th birthday.  He came straight home and we packed up and headed to West Virginia for the funeral.  It was a long and sad weekend, but it was also good to be with all of the family to remember and celebrate GG Boy's life.  The kids were surprisingly well-behaved all weekend.  GG Girl had asked for each of the kids to draw a picture to put in the casket with GG Boy.  The kids did that, then during the calling hours, they drew about 100 more.  We sent Grandpa off to heaven with his arms full of pictures and books.  

GG Boy was laid to rest on top of a mountain overlooking beautiful West Virginia.  Not a bad place to spend eternity.

A-RTS Festival- May 4th.

How lucky are we?  To keep us company while Papa was away, Grandma Seibert rode the train out to see us!

I hope she wasn't tired from being on a train all night, because we picked her up and immediately headed to the Town Square for a big Art Festival (after some garage-saleing).

When we needed a break, we snuck into the library to pick out some books.  Our library in Maryland have 5 copies of all of these Rainbow Magic Fairy books June loves.  They haven't seen to have heard of them down here in South Carolina.

Who invited the the goof?

They closed down 5 streets for the festival, but when we weren't walking around, we were hanging out at our favorite (faux) grassy spot playing on the rocks.

Classic Georgie.  We stayed out very late at the festival and someone missed her nap.

But it was too nice to go home.

On the way back, the kids stopped to drop the little plastic pellets that were leaking out of June's beanie baby unicorn (a garage sale find she named Pink Blank) into the fountain.  

It then turned into a rescue mission because those little pellets were actually magical unicorn teeth.

Restored to her full magical abilities and sewn shut, Pink Blank has since taken up residence with our other unicorn, Moonbeam, but does wish for everyone to know that her name is now actually Blank Star.

Henry helped me construct a model palace I brought back from Korea.

And Grams tried out her new coffee maker for one that she bought at the art show.

My major find was a cool plant called "The Moth of 1000 Plants,"  named so because you can see all of it's little shoots growing off the leaves.

We were glad Grandma was in town because that meant I also got to celebrate my birthday with another grown-up.  She even took me out for Korean food for lunch.  Henry and little Brandon "surprised" me with a lego utensil holder that i had asked them to make me. 

Georgie sang me a song.

And Pink Blank also offered her rendition for "everybody in the whole world."

Miss Kerri was in town for a few days that week and came up to Rockville for an evening.  We went to a Body Combat class. 

Then came back for an introductory Korean meal, which included leftovers from the restaurant and gimbap (sushi rolls) that I made myself.  It also included margaritas because Cinco de Mayo was that week and we couldn't resist buying the supplies.