Laundry, Tourist Attractions, Tents, and Pop Rocks

I've neglected the blog because of this:


Of course, if that were completely true, the pile of laundry wouldn't be there; all of the items would be neatly folded and put away. But certainly between roadtrips, camp-outs, outside play, and sports camp, the washing machine has been running almost non-stop.

We had a big roadtrip last week, an unplanned one, but one that was a whole lot of fun. Simel had some issues with his visa to take care of and a friend in DC who could help him, so last Wednesday we made the 5 1/2 hour trip down to our nation's capital.


Wednesday night I dropped Simel off at this friend's house, and we met back up on Thursday. We had a wonderful time seeing the sites, but the best part of all for me was that some friends from Atlanta happened to be in the area on the same day, so we got to see the sites together.








There was one shot I was SO excited to capture...yes, the one that EVERYONE captures. But, alas, it was definitely not meant to be:


I did get a little bit of the monument in the reflecting pool. Of course it was a mud puddle that captured the reflection, but anyway...










Remember that 5 1/2 hour drive down to DC? Well, it took us 9 1/2 hours to get home! I can't stress enough how nice it was to be home. Since we've gotten home, the kids have enjoyed a night camping in our backyard, and they have also been participating in sports camp at church.

We also had an outing of sorts yesterday. I saw Fizziwigs Candy Factory pinpointed on a map of Connecticut and thought it sounded like a fun place to visit. I assumed it was going to be a bit like Dylan's Candy Bar in NYC. Not really. We could have just gone down to the local drugstore for the same sugared assortment, but the experience gave me a good picture anyway:

A note to Simel's mom: No, I did not buy that giant lollipop for him; it just served as a great prop for the photo.

AND...the experience also afforded me an opportunity to give Simel a new experience: Pop Rocks. A must-do for any visitor to America! The jury's still out on whether or not he enjoyed the fizzy candy.


So the pile of laundry grows higher...it's been busy around here, that's for sure. Someday I will see the bottom of that mountain of clothing!

Playground Fun

I've been feeling a little under the weather the last few days, and today was definitely the worst, which hopefully means I'll be good as new tomorrow. So we didn't have any really extraordinary plans today, but we had fun anyway. We went to a park this morning where the kids played on the equipment while I sat in the shade and rested (and chatted with a friend).

Favorite Part of the Day?

I'm pretty sure our day only got better as it went on. I know this because we started the day with a short summer school session. Undoubtedly, this was not the kids' favorite part of the day.

We spent a few hours this afternoon at the pool. That's a no-brainer; the kids always love pooltime.

So maybe the pool was the kids' favorite. I'm not sure, but my favorite part of today might have been watching Simel watch his first episode of Wipeout. He was positively tickled by it.

Our Special Guest

We are so excited about our very special guest! Simel is an 11-year-old young man visiting us for 3 weeks from Senegal, West Africa. We picked him up in Boston yesterday.




Poor guy was exhausted and slept all the way home. Then went immediately to bed. We didn't learn a whole lot about our guest last night, but today he has come out of his shell! He is here to be immersed in English, and I am so impressed with him. He has done great all day keeping up with the boys' endless chatter, and they have all played so well together.

We stuck around home most of the day so he could get acclimated to a different continent and get to know us a bit. We let the kids take our two room tent out this afternoon. It didn't take them long to construct it in our backyard.










Of course we had s'mores once the tent was all set up. Have you ever seen such giant marshmallows?


After some playtime in the tent, the kids busied themselves for a couple of hours catching tadpoles in the water that has collected on the pool cover. And after dinner, playtime continued with a few nerf gun and light saber fights.

The night concluded with a wonderful magic show by our new guest, a show which had my boys giggling like little girls. He is a sweet, funny young man, and the kids really like him. We're looking forward to the next couple of weeks as we get to know him better!