We started this Saturday as all Saturdays began in the home of my youth: with some yard work. It was time to prune some bushes growing too close to the house, and one sneaky tree had grown up right near the foundation, so a very pleased Spencer got to cut down his first tree. Are you proud, Papa?
After that, it was off to Spencer's basketball class at the local community center. He's having a great time learning some basic skills and prepping for when his class will scrimmage. This 7 year old has got a pretty great shot. You can see that he made this one during a pass/pivot/dribble/shoot drill. Go Spence!
Emma and John were champs on the sideline. They had fun cheering on their big brother, although it did help that I had packed some fruit snacks to help them through the 50 minute practice. That always makes for happy kids.
We let John sneak in a quick nap while Spencer and Emma did some art projects. (Our kitchen table is in constant disarray, covered with paper, markers, scissors, and scraps - sure signs of creative minds at work and play). After that, we picked up our good friend Cole and headed to the Dulles Plane Pull. Cole is our good friend from when his family lived in Leesburg 3 years ago; his mom and I served in a Relief Society presidency together, and we spent a lot of time at Cole's house for presidency meetings. Now, Cole lives across the street from us! Spencer loves having a best buddy so close, and John loves it too. John claims all the Gardner boys as his pals.
We had a great time investigating the different planes that are on display as we made our way back to watch a team pull the Fed Ex plane at the back of the event. The kids had a great time asking questions of the military personnel who were manning some of the planes. They loved the cargo plane (no picture of that one...oops) but were especially excited to find some Navy planes. Spencer has a thing for aircraft carriers right now, and Cole's dad is a Navy guy.
This kind serviceman helped lift the kids up so they could see inside the cockpit of a second Navy plane. Emma spotted a parachute, which she thought was super cool. Spencer's favorite thing about the plane was the hook on the back that catches the wire, allowing it to land on aircraft carriers.
Here are Spencer, Emma, Cole, and John perched in a Fairfax Police helicopter. They were making up stories of what situation might call for use of the stretcher they spotted in the back of the helicopter. Emma thought it would have something to do with robbers.
After we scoped out the aircraft, it was off to the moon bounces. The kids opted not to pull the truck (the kid version of the "plane pull") because they were too excited for some inflatable fun. Here we are in line for the Jurassic Adventure. I love that this event has so much variety and is FREE!
We woke John from his nap so we could make it to Dulles Days, so he was not quite in the right mood for jumping in the moon bounce, but he had a great time sitting on the side and high fiving Cole and Spencer through the netting.
Our last inflatable for the day was this surfboard. An operator controls it and tries to throw the surfer off the board. I was proud of Emma for trying it, and she did quite well in keeping her balance.
Spencer announced that he did better. Ah, sibling rivalry. There's a lot of that going on right now, but for the most part I feel very lucky that these two get along quite well for the majority of the time.
Tender mercies of the day: Remembering to bring pretzels and water so the kids had something to snack on while we waited in line, picking up an umbrella out of the car at the last minute thinking we would use it for shade and needing it for the abrupt rain shower that occurred on our walk back to the car, getting GREAT parking, following my intuition to take an alternative exit out of the parking lot which meant that we didn't get stuck in traffic and then not taking any wrong turns in figuring out how to get back on 28.
Post plane pull, we did a grocery store run, welcomed Adam home from a Nats game (bachelor party for Jith, a friend from the Deloitte days) and then the kids played outside with some neighbors and Adam while I made a quick dinner. Spencer and Emma snuck a piano practice in, and I think we are all glad that this great but BUSY Saturday has come to a close.
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