Pictures

 A few pictures of things we've done in the last few months. Above and below--a trip to the Norfolk Zoo over spring break in early March. It was cold and not many of the animals were out, but the kids had a ton of fun, we got some exercise, and we got to see a baby monkey on the back of his Mama for quite a while. The monkeys were indoors and hugely interactive through the glass with the kids.

Below are pictures of little miss. First is from our trip to the Chesapeake Bay over spring break while Jason's Dad and Step mom were in town. Rachel found herself a little ladybug to take care of for awhile.

I think the below picture is so cute. Alden loves watching Jason shave and so Jase often lets him "practice" with a comb or something else. He wants so much to be like his Daddy. Alden also has recently become obsessed with Jason's leather wallet, always taking out the cards, etc. He kept finding it no matter where Jase put it, so we bought Alden his own little cheap leather wallet. He feels so grown up with his little Martin's grocery card in there, tucked in his back pocket just like Daddy.

A picture of Jase on his 28th birthday. We had his favorite cake--German chocolate with coconut pecan frosting. He says he feels much older than before, being "almost 30." Jase thinks it's crazy that he can remember when his own Dad turned 30, so it's crazy to him that he's closer to being there. For his birthday we went to bowl as a family. The kids had a blast and looked so cute in their little bowling shoes.


I don't know if I had before said anything about Rachel taking ballet lessons, but she had a blast with them for the last few months. The local community center had a great deal with a wonderful teacher, Miss Tessa. Miss Tessa is an undergrad nursing student and dancer who just loves to teach. The class had about 5-10 little girls in it each week, for just about a half hour. Rachel learned a few things about ballet, but I think mostly just had fun dancing, listening to and getting to know Miss Tessa, and learning to make new friends. The first day we went to class Rachel was so nervous because she didn't know anyone there. We talked about how you make new friends and how it's important to say hi and smile and help other people not to feel nervous, and then you forget that you are nervous yourself. We talked about how to ask other people questions about themselves and listen and learn and be a friend. She timidly walked up to a cute little girl who also was there for her first time and found she really liked her. When we left she said she was glad to have some ballet friends but that she liked her "real" friends better (she was referring to the friend group she's had since she was a baby), which made me laugh. We talked about how they are all "real," but some we know better than others. It was a fun experience for her, and I think she loved ballet.

Here's Alden-boy reading his most favorite book, "Trains" by Byron Barton.


More to come...