Last Saturday we went to the National Book Festival downtown. I was impressed, and I hope that it continues even after Laura Bush is no longer the First Lady. It will be even better once the kids are a few years older. They're not quite at the age of wanting to stand in line to have their picture taken with Clifford (or the characters from a number of PBS kids shows) or to listen to Katherine Paterson speak or wait in line to have David Shannon autograph their books. The weather was quite warm and very humid - it rained most of the 2 previous days - and we got pretty hot walking so much. Luke did very well walking from the Metro station and back. He got really tired by the time we were sitting on the train going home, but he didn't complain.

I didn't have much opportunity to take pictures since it was just me and the kids (Alec was working) but here's one after we walked from the Metro to the Mall. They were having a "tea time" snack before we went into all the festivities.



**********

Here's a fun one. This is what happens when you set the table and then go into the kitchen to finish making supper while your 18 month old stays in the dining room. It only took about 1 minute for her to do this with Alec's napkin.

**********

I finished the book I was making - the one where I try out all my fun new stitches. Here are a few pictures of the finished product, some close-ups of more stitches, and Erin playing with it.

Need to work on getting the strap the right length - it's hard to judge.

**********

Look who's using a fork!


Successfully (most of the time)!

(By the way, she's eating pancakes with sweet potato in them - a DD recipe that was a hit.)
**********

Luke and Erin have been fire and ice lately. Erin has been biting a lot more - Luke has a big welt on his back (of all places) where she actually broke skin and she's bitten him in several other places in the last few days, too. He is in her face a lot and I think that's why she bites him - or pinches.

But then they will play nicely and are more cuddly with each other at the same time. Here is Luke hugging Erin after breakfast yesterday.


And here they are on the couch watching Luke's current favorite movie, Larry Boy and the Bad Apple.
**********

Here's what you get when you clean out a closet you haven't dared to broach in a long time:

That is a grocery bag's worth of train tracks and trains. It was in the closet for at least 2 years.

Luke's favorite has been a ferry boat. It has guard rails on both sides that come up when it pulls into the "dock" pieces.

I keep finding pieces of track that would've been nice to have had all these years. Pieces that make connecting tracks easier and so many more trains to play with.

Here's what it looks like when we combined it with the track we already had. So much track we used the floor instead of the train table. Thankfully, it still all fits in the train table drawers.

**********
And, lastly, heard in the bathtub tonight. Luke likes to play with bouncy balls if he's alone in the tub (Erin tries to eat them if she's there). It's funny to hear a 3-year-old when he's playing with bouncy balls in the bath.

"My balls are clean now, Mom!"

and later,

"Now my balls are dry, too!"