First Mini Golf

A couple weekends ago the boys attended a birthday party for a neighborhood friend at Woody's, a nearby driving range that also has an award-winning mini golf course themed "Perils of the Jungle".  The boys loved the "scary" golf as they putted their way through the jungle, jumping and squealing at all of the little noises and animated attractions.  Oliver was a little too concerned about the moving mummy's tomb and other scary surprises to really focus on his game, while Owen made it clear that he knew the scary things were just pretend and that he needed to work on getting the ball in the hole!  He loved mini golf and worked so hard at each hole.  When we were home later that night he kept asking if we could go back.  He knew Oliver was a little scared of that course and would come up and whisper that he wanted to go back by himself...without Oliver!  The rest of the party was a blast - the boys enjoyed some moon bouncing, pizza and cake, and were introduced to Disney's Frozen sensation for the first time (the theme of the party). 

Heritage Farm Museum Visit

Wednesday morning Spencer and I explored the Heritage Farm Museum while the big boys were in preschool.  The museum is close by (right next to the Claude Moore Rec Center) and has been on my to-do list for a very long time.  Now that school has started back up, my luxury of crowd-free weekday morning outings are back, and we practically had the place to ourselves!  The museum had a small, intimate setup with plenty of kid friendly exhibits.  There was a general store, stocked with shelves and crates of pretend food, brooms, and a big antique cash register.  Spencie was very busy either riding a pedal tractor up to the store or pushing a miniature wheel barrow over to stock up on food for the horses.  He delivered and fed them loaves of bread, carrots, and apples, and then gave them some special treatment by brushing their manes after the meal.  I told him that bread was probably not their favorite food, but he insisted on carting over the big loaves.  There was also a big cow to milk (water came out into a bucket) and a chicken coop for collecting eggs.  Spencie gathered the eggs in a basket and then pretended to feed them to the chickens.  He didn't agree with me that chickens don't eat their own eggs, and was pretty cute making his lip smacking sounds as he continued to feed them anyway.

Hike to the Potomac

Last weekend we had beautiful weather - perfect for hiking with friends!  The boys' friends J&J came over for lunch, playing, and hiking.  We started out with our familiar hike to "base", and then kept going for an even longer adventure down to the Potomac.  It was so cute - Spencer and Joslyn held hands almost the entire way.  This past year, Joslyn has taken on the role of helping and taking care of Spencer since he's the youngest of the group (and because she's the responsible girl)!  When we made it to our destination, everyone had fun navigating the rocks and throwing pebbles into the calm and shallow area of the river.

Fireman Costume

The boys mentioned playing dress up at preschool early this week, so Tuesday night I took out a fireman costume I bought at the twins club consignment sale.  Oliver and Spencer really battled over who would get to wear it longest before bath time.  Oliver went first and had a long turn, and eventually we had to convince him to take it off and give Spencer a turn.  He didn't throw a huge fit at first, only after he saw Spencer completely dressed up and realized he wanted it back!  At bath time and we had to wrestle Spencer kicking and screaming out of the costume to join the other two in the tub.  Needless to say, the costume was a huge hit with Oliver and Spencer.  Owen hasn't shown much interest, but likes to put the hat on for a few minutes here or there.  I think he's waiting for all the hype to settle :)  Oliver was so upset about not getting a second turn that night; we had to agree that he could have it first after preschool on Wednesday.  He did not forget about this plan for a minute!  As soon as we were back home he went digging in the closet, asking me to help him get into the costume, then ran upstairs to admire himself in the full length mirror.  Boy was he a happy fireman!