Last Day of Summer

 What else can you do on the last day of summer vacation besides the pool and ice cream??  We spent the entire afternoon at the pool and then headed out for surprise ice cream after dinner.  It's a big day tomorrow - 5th grade, 3rd grade and 1st grade!!!  Everyone is so excited!!!

A Family Sunday

   We got up on Sunday hoping to go to Mt. Vernon but were pretty slow in getting ready to get out of the house so by the time everyone was fed and dressed it was 10:30.  Brendan and I made the decision to wait a bit longer, have lunch and them go.  By the time we got to Mt. Vernon it was close to noon and there was not a parking space in sight - bad news for parking AND for how crowded it probably was inside!!  We decided to go over to George Washington's Distillery and Gristmill instead - it's only a few miles down the road and it was practically empty!  We got a great tour - the tour guides are very knowledgeable and so interesting.  During the tour they even start up the gristmill and grind cornmeal right in front of you using water power.  It doesn't sound too interesting but it's incredible to witness - even the kids were very impressed.

Once we were done buying cornmeal, we headed over to Ft. Belvoir.  I hadn't been there since we moved away when Aoife was 2 months old and it has changed A LOT.  For an Army that is supposed to be cutting back, there is an awful lot of building an imporvement going on!  We went to the PX - the biggest one I've ever been to  - and got a haircut for Aidan, some new sneakers for Declan and little lego packs for the girls.  

Since it was getting toward midafternoon and everyone was a little hungry, we stopped for frozen yogurt at Sweet Frog on the way home.  Everyone loves the places where you can dump a bunch of candy on your ice cream!  All in all - a very fun day - the only problem was that my point and shoot camera ran out of batteries after one picture so I had to shoot the entire day on my phone!!!

 

The House of the Seven Gables and Richardsons Ice Cream

 We took a quick morning trip over to Salem and went to the House of the Seven Gables. It was pretty cool - the house was amazing!  The kids had a good time and even listened to the tour guide!!  They have a kids area to play in that kept us busy before the tour started - everyone loved steering the ship.  That evening we went over to Richardsons with my parents to get ice cream.  They have cows and chickens to look at too so everyone was happy!  Ice cream AND farm animals!!  Could there be a better combination??

Ice Cream Party

Aidan's class had an ice cream party last week at Will's house to welcome us all back to school. It was really fun - and the last really HOT day of summer. Aidan was really good about sharing his ice cream with Emmy - even though she just used her hands!What a good big brother!Apparently, sand is just as good as ice cream.Will's awesome "tree" house