Manassas-JoJo.

Grams and PawPaw came in for Veteran's Day weekend.  We decided to head down to Old Town Manassas because they were holding a big Veteran's Day Parade.  

 It was a great parade with many JROTCs and Veteran's groups, including a LOT of Korean Veterans (Actual Koreans and not just of the Korean War.)  Then afterward, all the humvees and helicopters on trailers that were in the parade were taken to the county museum and you could go tour and climb on them!

 Then we walked through the farmer's market and picked up our share of fresh bread, homemade pickles, and apples.  What a cool town Manassas is!

 June was too cool to be in our cheesy LOVE photo, so she just hung out with PawPaw instead.

 We love a town that has a caboose to play on.

 For lunch, we hit up Five Guys for burgers then finally headed to the main destination.

 The Civil War Battlefield!  Everyone else watched a 45 minute long film chronicling the First and Second Battles of Bull Run, but I was not interested in sitting still that long.   So papa and I headed outside to enjoy the lovely fall day and the beautiful scenery.  

 What a pretty place.

 And what a goofy girl.

 Do these tights make my legs look silly?

 Mom!  Come on!

 Something about Civil War Battlefields screams Christmas cards to us.

 June set up this shot on her own.

Mama tried to get me to pose underneath this very cartoonish statue of Stonewall Jackson.  Sorry, General Jackson.  

The wedding dress- mama.

Aunt Jill is getting married in February and all of the kids are in the wedding.  When Aunt Girl told June, June requested a purple dress with sparkles.  Well, she didn't get purple, but Aunt Girl did pick out a sparkly dress just for June.

 Ever since the dress arrived, June has been really, REALLY into weddings.  She really wanted to wear a veil, but now has lowered her expectations to a sparkly headband.  Mostly, her thoughts have gone into how I'm going to look for the wedding.  I also have a red dress to wear.  June is disappointed that it isn't long, but  talks to me often about wearing "tall  flip-flops" with it.  (She means high heeled shoes.)  She also keeps asking if I'll put earrings in and begs me to please grow my hair very long before February.  

For every very sweet, very happy thing June does, there's usually a very stubborn, over the top mood to match it.  Last week, I sliced her cheese instead of cubing it.  June got so upset that she yelled "I'm never going to have a family again!" and huffed around for the next half hour.  We let the kids watch Home Alone this week and it made a very big impression on her when Kevin wished he didn't have a family.  She kept mumbling to herself "He's going to be so sad when his family is gone."  But she was pleasantly surprised when he celebrated his family's disappearance.  I guess we better go back and watch the second half of the movie so she gets to see he eventually misses them.

Election Day!- Henry.

How lucky that we moved to the heart of the presidential elections on election year!  We've been studying the elections in school and I've been so excited to see how it all turns out!

 Mama and papa let me stay up until 9:30 on election night to watch the returns come in.  We watched it on TV, but I got most of my numbers from the computer.

Are you ready for your civic lesson?  Here's how the elections work, according to a 6 year old.  (Mama says I did a pretty good job explaining it.)  See all those fuse beads beside me?  Those are my flags of the world I've been working on.  So far I've made Greece, India, Germany, Japan, and Vietnam.  

The finished map!  If it looks like there's a little smudge in the middle of the page, it's because I got so excited about the elections that I barfed in the middle of the night.  Watch out ladies, this is one crazy guy.  Congratulations, President Obama.  We'll see you at the inauguration!

(Mostly) No Tears Bath!- JoJo.

It's no secret I hate baths.  Most nights, if the word bath is mentioned, I immediately burst into tears, even if I'm not the one in the bathtub.  But lately, mama's been letting Henry and June play with ice, baking soda and vinegar in the tub.  And I started thinking it might not be so bad to give it a try.

 And it is kind of fun!

But I don't know why mama keeps calling me a skinny little Gollum.   

 I even humored mama by washing my belly off.

It was a pretty good time until it was actually time to wash up.  Why must my parents torture me by washing my hair?  It's so cruel.  But I always get them back by peeing as soon as I get in the water, and eventually pooping too.  On the upside, our tub has rarely been cleaned so often.

More days off school- June.

We missed so much school for the hurricane that our school Halloween parade had to be postponed.  

 Georgie's class had an impromptu parade that mama didn't know about, but she seemed pretty happy to butt into the three year old class picture.  

 You mean I could have dressed up like a princess for Halloween?!?!?

 Here I am with Claire (the witch) and Kiyoma (Little Red Riding Hood).  Also, that sweet little thing is Jasmine, Kiyoma's sister.  I love Kiyoma, but she is very much like me (strong-willed and stubborn).  Last week, I came home from school and announced that Kiyoma won't play with me and we are no longer friends.  Mama proceeded to give me guilt trips about how being friends doesn't always mean getting what you want.  Sometimes it means doing what the other person wants to do.  I surprised everyone by apologizing to Kiyoma a week later and asking to be friends again.  (Yea!)  But now we don't like Gabe.  4-year-old politics are complicated.  

 Henry's reading group read a chapter book about a girl who is left in charge of a lighthouse during a storm.  And Henry made this awesome diorama of the island.

 We had a lot of days off school this fall.  On one Monday, we had a day off so teachers could work on report cards (or something silly).  Luckily, mama found a Jewish school that had a program and invited kids to come watch it.  (Hooray for the internet and I'm not even joking that mama found this online.)  It was a science program perfect for Henry's age, but the presenter was so good, he kept Georgie's attention all the way through.

 I stayed with mama for most of the show.  I worked up the nerve to sit on the floor until he put the dry ice in a bin on the ground and made clouds that scared me.  Georgie didn't mind them, though.  Mama repeated had to pull her back to wait for her turn to go play in the mist.

Back at home, we decided to have a sleepover, complete with train tracks and speakers.  We love days off!

Trick or treating- Henry.

 Here's a few pictures from that Nature Center Halloween party that Miss Leah took.  Olivia is dressed up as Olivia the Pig.  (It's a kids' book series and a last minute idea and Olivia refused to wear the costume her mom made her.)

 Check out June's loose interpretation of a pirate doo rag.

Finally, the big event.  We convened at Olivia's for trick or treating.  

 The big kids lead the way and found all the houses that were giving out the good candy.  We even found a place giving out full size candy bars!

 June and Olivia really get along.  It's funny how June can pick on JoJo nonstop, but is very patient and gentle with Olivia.  At least she's being nice to guests.

One family thought Georgie's unicorn jacket was especially cute.  June took no time telling them it wasn't really a costume, but just a jacket her mom made.  

 The little ones quickly learned a trick for after June and I took off for the next house.  If they lingered and said "More please!" those old people would really load up their bags.  

 Score!  JoJo insisted on holding her candy in her hands.  But after 2 houses, that clearly became a problem. Only after a good fight, did she eventually agree to put it in her bag.  

The night ended when Georgie tried to run away from mama, hit a curb and slid face first across the street.  Such is the life of a two year old on Halloween.  (Don't worry, she only got a scrape.)

 Back at home, we took a shot next to Frankendoor.  Look how happy that little gnome/grumpy German is.

We gorged on candy back inside.  Then mama offed to buy it off us for $1 a pound.  We each got to pick out 10 pieces to save for later before we sold.  But even after about 5 pieces we forgot about it all and mama pitched it.  (Or ate all of it- she'll never tell.)

Catch up

As usual, there are many pictures on other electronic devises that don't make it to the blog on time.  (Now that anything is on the blog on time anymore.)  Here's a few.

 After far too long, we took a trip down to American to see papa's work.  Like many cities, they had statues painted up by artists.  Specifically, they had animals.  The girls loved this bamboo panda.

Papa's office!  It's pretty sparse, but he is down there only a few days a week.  He's got to keep most of his things up here with us so he can work from home the rest of the time.

 The nature center close to our house hosted a holiday party.  But it was very well attended and it rained, so everything had to be moved inside.  So it was packed.  Mama and papa weren't in the mood to stay, so they lured everyone away with promises of ice cream.

 And it worked!

The elephant at the Natural History Museum is named Henry!  

Finally, this little girl insists on wearing only "pretty dresses."  Don't try to sneak pants on her anymore.  Brandon almost lost a tooth when she kicked and screamed after his proposal to wear overalls.  So it's dresses and skirts to go out, and then straight home into a frilly princess costume.