Friday we picked the corn that was ready before all the worms ate it.

We went crabbing Saturday afternoon.

Our prize crab! This guy was none so happy to be caught. Everytime the kids opened the cooler to look at him, he would jump up and knock his claws together. I’ve never seen a crab jump so high.

Most of what we caught were little guys…too little to keep.

Waiting for the crabs to bite…

Then we went to see a Crystal Palace Baltimore game where we won a signed jersey.  Thanks for the tickets, Uncle!

Which one is your favorite?

I would also recommend visiting on a day that is less than 100 degrees.

Surprisingly, Ty survived the changing of the guard ceremony without getting us kicked out.

Then we moved on to more kid-friendly activities like visiting the giant elephant, dinosaurs, and butterfly garden.

We found a great place to park for the metro and I found out I can survive with the two little kids on the metro during rush hour.  I win!

I wish you could understand just how elusive these guys were.  They seemed to be taunting all of us who just wanted one good shot.  They rarely landed and when they did they usually closed up revealing their boring, brown underside.  I snapped these shots just as we were about to give up and be happy with my blurry attempts to capture them flittering around us.

Gotcha!

At the end of the school year the kids did a project for their teachers that I was super-excited about and wanted to share with you.  Better late than never, right? Right.

So back up a year.  Remember this contraption?

That was the makeshift trellis that supported our bird house gourds.  When we planted them, we had no idea it would take them 9 months to fully dry out and cure.  We had actually given up that they would ever be useful since we cut them off the vine when we should have left them on, many rotted instead of drying, and they got lost under 80-some inches of snow this winter.  But when the snow cleared and the sun emerged, there were 3 survivors that were begging to be turned into birdhouses. 

So, of course, we obliged.

Patrick drilled bird-sized holes into each of the gourds. And two small holes at the top for hanging.

And then we set the kids loose with paint brushes, acrylics, smocks, and their imaginations.

They painted.

Imagined.

And painted some more.

After the paint dried, I coated them with a water-based, waterproof sealant and strung them with twine using a makeshift needle.

Aren’t they “gourd-geous”?

A fishing we will go,

A fishing we will go,

Hi-ho the derrio,

A fly fishing PJ will go for the first time in the pictures below.

playing at a local beach

building sand castles

splashing in the water

pretending to be mermaids

and burying yourself in the sand.