Visiting Italian, Danish and British Embassies

We decided to spend the day touring Europe, without leaving the area.  We visited three foreign territories: Italy, Denmark, and the UK. To celebrate Europe Day, each of the embassies in Washington DC representing countries in the EU hold an Open House.  The city fills with people, excited to share

DC Motorcade

In DC, you get used to motorcades of dignitary's heading to and from the White House.  I figured I would take a quick video and share it.

Carson's Boy Scout Court of Honor

Carson has really been working hard on his Boy Scout work.  At the Court of Honor, he received an astounding 12 merit badges and two rank advancements.  Congratulations Carson! Pinning on the Mother's pin:

Driveway Fishing

Savannah asked, "Can I use the sled?"  I got it for her and a few minutes later she was in the drive way "fishing" in her "boat".  A few minutes later Tucker joined her. They probably spent 15-20 minutes fishing.

Celebrating Birthdays

Angela and I celebrated our birthdays recently.  Angela had a turtle frozen custard cake (carmel, chocolate, nuts) on top of layers of frozen custard and vanilla cake.  It was delicious. Angela made me a Lemon Jello cake that tasted so good!  We also went out to dinner at a nice

Building Robots

The boys have been fascinated with robots recently, so they have checked our every relevant book from the library, studied, designed, saved up money, purchased parts, and have begun building their robots. It amazes me how much they have learned about electronics and the role of each component.  They are

Take our Daughters and Sons to Work Day

It was 'Take our Daughters and Sons to Work Day' a couple of weeks ago, so all three kids went with me.  We took the subway into the city, then walked a few blocks to my office. The office had pizza, chips, soda and juice, candy, and cupcakes

Angela's birthday surprises

We went out for a Thai food lunch, yum! Tucker gave me an Almond Joy candy bar with this sweet card Savannah added a '3' to this figure 8 to celebrate my new age Savannah was eating chips and came up to me to give me this heart

Smithsonians, Natural and American History

We went to a 'Special Collection' exhibit at the Museum of Natural History; they have lots of cool stuff and they can't display all of it I guess, so this exhibit allows them to display some of the cool things that are in their storage room.

2017 Class Pictures

While our homeschool class may be smaller than a typical class, class pictures are just as important. I love that you can find beautiful settings like these so close to our house.  These pictures were taken in our driveway with a cellphone.  While we were taking the pictures, Carson ran

2017 National Math Festival

Living in the DC area, there is no shortage of fun and educational opportunities.  This weekend was the National Math Festival, so the kids and I took the subway into the city. I've never seen anyone team kids math balloon creations.  A girl asked Savannah what shape balloon

Easter Egg Hunt

We try to separate the secular from religious aspects to holidays, so we did an Easter Egg Hunt the Saturday before Easter.  Then on Easter, we talked about Christ and focused on the true purpose of the holiday.

Backyard Camping

The weather was beautiful Easter weekend.  So we decided to enjoy it with some backyard camping, complete with 'smores.

Duluth Trading Store

We've ordered some things from Duluth Trading over the last several years, so when we found out that they had a store nearby, we had to go.  They had some fun things for the kids to explore.

Homemade Candy

The kids learned that you can melt hard candies, so they invented their own candy creations.

Knight Family Art Gallery

As I returned from work, I was greeted at the door with tickets to the Knight Family Art Gallery.   The kids prepare an exhibit of the artwork they had been working on for the last few weeks. As I approached the improvised gallery, Carson, the door man, checked Angela'

National Archives

We finally made it to the national archives.  On our walk from the subway station, through the National Mall towards the archives, we saw a bald eagle flying overhead towards the Capitol.  It's so impressive to see a bald eagle flying in such a regal place. We saw

Kids' show and tell displays

Tucker's stuff, minus his coin collection. Books Tucker has been reading. Savannah's display. Carson's stuff. Painting by Tucker, from a Bob Ross episode.

The Creek

Carson took these pictures during the recent walk to the creek The lean-to the kids put together the bridge

Homeschool Testing

Every state has different laws regarding homeschooling. Virginia requires homeschooled students to take a standardized test at the end of the school year to prove progress. We ordered ours online and they came in the mail. The boys will complete their tests next week and I'll mail the

Bob Ross painting class

The kids have done two Bob Ross 'classes' so far. We have this craft table in the basement, so the kids watched a Bob Ross episode and painted along with him.

Hidden Oaks Nature Center

We go to the Nature Center (about 5 minutes away) every week. Carson is working on his Reptile Merit Badge, and one of the requirements is to observe a reptile once a week for 3 months. It has all kinds of hands-on exhibits about local nature and animals there'

Museum of Natural History

We went to the Museum of Natural History again, and this time we walked through the entire museum and saw it all. There were lots of school groups there, it was very busy. We first looked at the ocean exhibit and looked at fossils Great White Shark teeth There is

City of Fairfax Regional Library

We go to the library almost every week. It's only about a 10 minute drive. It has mostly self-checkout and is really neat and organized. You can see the children's section in the background in the above picture. Lots of good books to choose from for

Planetarium Movie

We went to the Air and Space Museum on Tuesday and Keith met up with us to go see another Planetarium movie called "Journey to the Stars". It was very good, of course. Then, the kids and I spent the rest of the afternoon exploring the exhibits we