More books and a quick trip

Four more books by RT have arrived at our house over the past week. "Colrs", which includes such entries as "GRA" and "BLOWE"; "Dots", which goes from one to five; "Pekshrs" (with the s's backwards), with a drawing of a stick figure, a traffic light, and left and right hands; and "Peses frum 1 to 10", which I think is "Pieces" and has drawings of upside down triangles. I don't get the things from his bookbag every day, so I'm not sure in what order these were created. They are being stored in a safe place, and I might even have to put them all together into one big book when he's through with this phase.

On a completely separate topic, guess where we were last weekend?

Dan's closest friends from high school had a sort-of impromptu reunion at one of their houses in Arlington, VA, so the boys and I decided to tag along and spend time with my close friend, Bernadette, and her husband who do not live very far from Dan's friend. We are all smiling in the picture, but most of the rest of that day was spend whining (Greyson) and snipping (me) at the whiner. Fun times! There was a great science and technology fair going on (you can see the tents in the background) but we only did a few genetics exhibits before we all died from the complaining. I did ask someone from the NIH if they were also handing out grants, but the answer was no. At least I got a laugh. We had a surprisingly good lunch at the Museum of American History, and we got to park in the parking garage of the Department of Energy and get special visitor tags and get scanned multiple times, so the kids got a good idea of what it's like to work for the government these days. We also stopped at Antietam on our way to DC, but I haven't downloaded those pictures yet. And that's where the whining started, so I'm not even sure if there is a good one in there anyway!

The kids are getting quite excited for Trick or Treating tonight, but I haven't let anyone open the candy bags yet. Mostly because I know then I'd be digging in. Reece already got to wear his costume yesterday for his school parade, so you can at least get a first glimpse of the cuteness that a five-year old at Halloween still is. Just be sure you tell him you think he's scary.