TALES OF THE STAY-AT-SOMEBODY-ELSES-HOME MOM

When you're staying at someone elses house, especially when it is a house without any children, you realize how much havoc can be wreaked by four boys. It's amazing how little I care about the wanton destruction of my own home. Anyway, in order to prevent the roof falling in, I have to find daily activities outside my brother and sister-in-law's house. Today, while Andy was invited to check out a Steinway grand (and what 6-year-old wouldn't want to do that?) I needed an activity for the three younger boys. Ian is completely taken with dinosaurs right now, so I googled dinosaur exhibits here in Virginia. The top result was Dinosaur Land near Winchester, VA. I've driven past Dinosaur Land many times, as I went to grad school out in Winchester, and it always struck me as a tacky, redneck tourist site, but I didn't have Ian back then. So, the three younger ones and I paid a visit. No, it's not Universal Studios, but I think it may have been a whole lot better. It's really a very nice Shenandoah Valley forest, with models of dinosaurs scattered throughout. No rides, noise, or lines. Just dinosaurs, dinosaurs and nothing but dinosaurs. It was Ian's dream come true.

Catching up

My goodness, it's been a while!! We do have a good excuse though. Our camera decided to die, and we only replaced a couple of weeks ago. So, just to update everyone on a few minor details in the lives of the Browns.....Matthew Alasdair celebrated his first birthday, Tom graduated from law school, and the Navy ordered us to Bremerton, WA. Currently, Tom is in Newport, RI attending Naval Justice School, and he'll be there until mid-October. I'm with the kids at my brother's house in VA, and we'll begin the drive to WA in 2 weeks.

For those of you on Facebook, you can see the pictures of the more pivotal events, because other wonderful people took pictures for us. Now that I've got digital photography back in my hands though, I can get this blog back on track.

Peter's Birthday

Happy Birthday Peter! Peter is a big 3-years-old today, and we had an opportunity to party on Friday. We first took a trip to Annapolis to watch Navy play Princeton in baseball, but the weather wasn't quite as lovely as the forcast had predicted. The sky became totally overcast, and a tremendous wind was whipping off the water. The boys toughed out 3 innings in the cold before retreating to the van.

We celebrated when we got home with a giant cookie cake, and Peter's new Bounce Around. Unfortunately, the craziness of life right now prevented me from organizing a "real" party where we could invite lots of kids, but thank goodness we have four boys--it's a party everyday in this house.

This is the beginning of birthday season in the Brown house, with Tom's birthday coming up on the 25th, and Matthew Alasdair's first birthday on 4/2. Come by and visit any time in the next two weeks, and you're certain to be served somebody's birthday cake.

Ian's Award

I'll take back everything I've said about people with those "My child is an honor student at...." bumper stickers on the backs of their cars. Ian was the recipient of the much-coveted Principal's Award at St. Paul's Lutheran School. I might be making up the much-coveted part--maybe they give them out like candy--but what can I say. It's cool to have an award winning child. Ian received this honor for the encouragement and help he gives his classmates, especially when doing puzzles. Go Ian!

A new way of getting around

As with all our children, our little Matthew Alasdair has to have his own way of doing things. Instead of traditional crawling, he prefers to scoot. Many of you will recall our Peter's method of scooting before he could walk. This is a little different as you can see. His brothers like to call him "monkey boy."

March Weather

While we enjoy 75 degree weather today, let's not forget that less than a week ago, we had the biggest snow of the season. The snow was up to Peter's knees (as you can see in the second picture) and it was still falling when we went out to play. Tom used our slide as a launching pad for the improvised sled (a plastic storage tub). The snow was very powdery, so it didn't make great snowballs at all, but we had a good time anyway.

An Andy Cantata

In this particular picture, Andy has constructed a performance of a cantata. The Lincoln Logs are organ pipes, the trains on the piano are the chamber choir, and the trains on the bench are the small orchestra (he really did specify "small" orchestra). Typical 6-year-old behavior, right?