Weekend adventures

Every weekend, we try and get out and about at least one of the days on an "ubbenture" with the kids. Some days our adventures are a little more adventuresome than others. Last Saturday was rainy so we spent the morning at the College Park Aviation Museum (who knew that College Park had such an important place in aviation history?!) and then went to Ikea for lunch and playtime (yes, we take our kids to Ikea to play. Don't judge.) I forgot my phone so excuse the lack of pictures of Maya and Ben pretending to fly a plane and playing with Swedish toys. We spent the rest of that rainy day at home. Maya took care of Sleeping Baby (named that because her eyes close) who apparently suffered from quite the head trauma.

She also helped Larkin put together a new mirror by helpfully reading him the directions.

The next day, we were much more adventuresome. We rented bikes and a trailer and attempted to ride at least part of the way from Old Town Alexandria to Mount Vernon.
Maya enjoyed the helmet.


Ben... not so much. (What does it say about our parenting that we thought his attempts to take it off were hilarious?)
Of course, Ben had a reason to hate the helmet. Poor little man couldn't see a thing (so the helmet got ditched pretty quickly - I pretended not to notice when Larkin took it off.)

The kids did great in the trailer - except Ben didn't like it anytime Larkin went over a bump, hit a stick, went over a crack in the sidewalk, or hit an acorn. By the end of the adventure, Larkin estimated that Ben cried for only 50% of the time so it wasn't a complete disaster!
It was a beautiful day, and so nice to see the new spring growth along the parkway.
Most of the path looked like this (above.) Unfortunately, some of the path looked like this (below).
The large puddles covering the path caused us to have to ride a significant portion of the ride on the muddy grass (Ben didn't care for that part that much - neither did I.)
We found a great place to sit and soak up the sun (you can tell how high the Potomac is as the benches are in the water.)
Maya enjoyed throwing sticks, flowers, and rocks in the Potomac to see if they floated (for the record, rocks don't float.)
Ben just enjoyed being out of the trailer.


However, after a stop at our friend Allison's house, everyone was much happier.
We celebrated by going out for burgers afterward (Maya took this picture - in case you couldn't tell. I wanted to showcase her skills AND prove that I was here!)

Grandma comes to visit!

We had a great visit with my mom last weekend - Eastern Market in 50 degree weather, soccer practice in 68 degree weather, and the zoo in 85 degree weather! The kids (and Larkin and me) loved having my mom here. My dad came for about 7 hours (long story), but it was a wonderful 7 hours...
Maya continues to have an opinion about what she wear. My mom, of course, just wore black and white. Maya correctly noticed that the two of them were opposites.
Ben is now the finger food eating pro...
Maya and Larkin worked in the garden. They've planted strawberries, basil, squash, watermelon, carrots, cilantro, arugula, cucumber, spinach, and lavender. The tomatoes will be planted in a couple of weeks.
Maya started soccer a couple of weeks ago, and she loves it.

Ben enjoys going as well.
Maya and some of her teammates... a tough looking group, I know.
Soccer practice is the only time we can convince her not to wear a dress (it isn't part of her soccer costume.) She wore this dress to the playground this morning...
My mom, the kids, and I made it to the zoo last Monday. Monday mornings are great for going to the zoo in terms of crowds. Lots of field trips, but much better than a weekend!
The orangutan seemed to enjoy the warm spring weather.


Maya got as close as she has ever been to the panda!


Of course, walking on the "tightrope" was probably her favorite thing about the zoo.
The gorillas also enjoyed the break from cold and rain - notice the precious little baby gorilla coming out of the tunnel. Too cute!



I hadn't realized how many collared shirts Ben has until this post... he's getting ready for his undergrad days at UVA, I guess.
One of my new favorite pics... you can't really tell in this picture, but the little man is all Klingler. He even has a gap in between his two front teeth!

Thanks for a great visit, Mom and Dad!

two videos

Wendy's visit - March 2011

Wendy came to visit us for a long weekend in March. She didn't let the last bits of winter damper a single moment of her trip.

She took the kids to Maya's dance class on Friday with Miss Davis.
Maya loves going to dance class (getting to wear the outfit is a big plus), and she gets very excited when Friday rolls around.
Mae (the other little girl in our nanny share and therefore Maya's best friend) is also in the dance class.

In fact, the dance class is just Mae and Maya. Miss Davis has been teaching dance in the community for decades and is great with the girls. She can be stern and is a definite departure from the sweet 19 year old that taught Maya's first ballet class. But Miss Davis loves Mae and Maya - and we all could use a little Miss Davis in our lives to tell us when to stop messing around.

Ben also enjoys going to see Miss Davis.
We took a lot of walks during Shu shu's visit.
And one day it warmed up enough to head to the park.
Notice the ponytail!
Wendy accompanied the 3 Tacketts on their weekly early Sunday morning grocery trip (while I - thankfully - get to sleep in).
Dressing up is becoming a daily ritual for Maya....
and, therefore, for Ben as well. At least he enjoys it because I have the feeling that he will be forced to wear "costooms" on a fairly frequent basis in the very near future.

Wendy managed to get Maya's hair into pigtails for the first time. I love that the bug finally has enough hair to do something with! Now if only she'd let me do it...
Wendy took Ben to yoga on Sunday and came with Maya and me on Monday. Maya has mastered the tree pose.
Ben is going to continue trying to become a zen master; Maya is taking a break from yoga as she has started soccer this past week. We haven't gotten any pictures yet... but we will. Wendy - thanks for a wonderful visit!