Katie and Peter's Blog: August 2012

August was a memorable month. It started with watching the Olympics. Katie and Peter both enjoyed it. Katie liked the gymnastics (particularly the rhythmic gymnastics and synchronized swimming). Peter liked the horse jumping. We all got tired of volleyball and water polo pretty quickly. And watching the tape-delayed events while knowing what happened took a lot of the excitement out of it unfortunately. But we enjoyed it and were sorry to see it end.

The beginning of August was full of performances and events. I took Katie to see a whimsical musical performance of Cinderella at Wolf Trap's beautiful Children's Theater in the Woods. The play was very creative and used only 4 performers and minimal sets. We were surprised there were only 4 performers at the end of the play. Afterwards Katie went to her friend Genevieve's birthday party. They met at a baby sign language class 4 years ago and have a lot of the same friends and have kept in touch over the years.

Then we all went to see the Golden Acrobats of China perform at Wolf Trap. It was sort of like Cirque du soleil but without a unifying theme and with no sets. They did have the new-agey music though. The acrobats were amazing and kept us all entertained for a few hours (no easy feat).

After that was the National Night Out. It's basically a big neighborhood cookout. We all walked down to the park and enjoyed hot dogs, water balloon tosses, chatting with neighbors, and getting a tour of a firetruck.

We tried to go to the Arlington County Fair but didn't realize they changed the times this year. We went for lunch one day but it wasn't opened yet. There's nothing more depressing than walking a kid through a carnival that is closed. "Hey, that ride looks like it would have been fun."

Hoping to salvage something from the trip, we grabbed a few sausages from a carnival food vendor that was in the process of opening up. I don't recommend doing that. The sausages were undercooked and each bite was filled with the dreadful feeling of "I'm really going to pay for this later." Luckily we all ended up ok. Later that day Nancy took Katie back to ride some rides.

Katie then started a week-long Kindergarten Preparatory Camp. She got to meet her teachers, her schoolmates, and get comfortable with the classroom and school. She did really well with it and we were very proud. But she kept saying that it was just a camp which foreshadowed problems later on (more on that in another post).

Then the kids and Nancy went to Cape Cod for a week with Grammy Butler, Aunt Sue, Uncle John, Theo, and cousin Matt.

Unfortunately, during this time Katie and Peter lost their Papa Thomason. He had been living with heart disease for years but it finally became too much. He went peacefully while surrounded by his family. We miss him so much.

Afterwards, Nancy and the kids traveled from Cape Cod to Georgia to be with us and help comfort Grandma. While in Georgia, Katie got to play with her cousins and visit an Alpaca farm with Grandma. Then they traveled back to New England to spend a few more days with Grammy Butler.

While in Connecticut they went to a Children's Museum in Hartford, visited the Pez Factory near New Haven, went to the Goshen County Fair, and danced at the Portugese Parade. Then Nancy and the kids drove home on Labor Day Eve to prepare for Katie's first day of kindergarten.

The kids held up really well during everything going on this month. It was hard for everyone but the kids behaved well which made it easier to deal with everything else. It was really nice to have them in Georgia to help remember Papa and to comfort each other. Nancy did a great job keeping everyone together. I'm not sure how they managed so well. They spent the last 2 weeks of summer travelling 3,500 miles up and down the East coast. That'd be enough to drive anyone crazy!

Nancy and the kids' travels went something like this:
Aug 17 - Drive from Virginia to Scranton, PA (250 miles).
Aug 18 - Drive from Scranton to Cape Cod via Naugatuck, CT (360 miles).
Aug 24 - Drive to Providence, RI airport (100 miles), fly to Atlanta (1,100 miles), then drive to Grandma Thomason's house (60 miles).
Aug 28 - Fly back to Providence and then drive to Grandma Butler's house in Connecticut (1,280 miles total).
Sept 2 - Drive from Connecticut to Virginia via Scranton, PA (420 miles).

Three peas in a pod.

Hula hula

Watching the London Olympic opening ceremonies.

Mommy time

There's a new sheriff in town...

...and he likes to carjack.

Katie creates her own Disney castle.

Peter and Katie on a moonbounce during First Thursday in Del Ray.

Katie at the Children's Theater in the Woods at Wolf Trap for a funny musical version of Cinderella.

Katie and Peter at a performance of the Golden Dragon Acrobats at Wolf Trap. They were pretty amazing. Check out a video here.

The crazy acrobat that kept stacking chairs higher and higher.

Peter tries out a stint as a firetruck driver out the National Night Out.

Katie creates some nice artwork with shaving cream and paint...

...and then the kids go outside and get crazy.

Unfortunately the shaving cream was scented and they smelled like after-shave smell for days. But they had fun.

Peter checks his portfolio.

The kids ride a dinosaur at a playground near the Arlington County Fair. We went to the fair for lunch without realizing it opened late that day. Instead we ate undercooked sausages from a carnival food cart that wasn't officially open (not recommended).