No training wheels!

I have to report, our experience post-balance bike, is that balance was much much better on the bike with pedals. He was very insecure at first, and we wondered, but given a gentle slope and the encouragement of older brother on his bike, we think we've clicked, just in time for our trip to Cape Cod where we're staying near the big long bike path. It felt a lot shorter learning time than for big brother, who didn't have the balance bike.

Re-learning the buses

We had quite an intimate relationship with the buses, when we first arrived here, before school and work started. They have cut 'our' bus route to one every 2 hours, which makes them considerably less useful, but today we took a bus into town, because I realised, I need to relearn the buses...
Very different without a pram! We made our first foray into the boys sharing a light backpack between them and taking it in turns to carry.
There are a few tweaks required (ie, don't sit at bus stop for 30 mins, pack more food, think up somewhere to hang while we wait for the next bus, take bread for ducks at dock, take passports to enter statehouse), but it is a start. It was lovely to be in town again, but a little frustrating, as the boys don't do browsing in shops so well just yet. So close but so far!!
Watch this space for the attempt at the library next week.

More boxes...

This is our lounge room at the moment, in the thick of the Summer holidays/vacation. All empty boxes (and there were a few lying around!) have been pressed into service to make a sort of very organic cubby house. As I took this photo, there was a small boy rooting through his car collection inside. The plan is to recycle as boxes get destroyed, but because we're coming up to another birthday, there are boxes arriving most days, as we work out birthday presents. Another one was added this morning, I can't tell where. But it was very exciting.
Before it was a cubby house, these were all the wall of a fort, that gradually moved until most of the loungeroom was fort. But the cubby house involves the kitchen, dragged up from the basement, the new coffee table, and a dark spot where the torches are used, as well as a container of cars and two steps that used to be used in the bathrooms, so I think it is going to last longer than the wall of the fort.

The White House

The front lobby with piano

The lovely paintings in the red room

The dining room

Hubby did research and discovered we could apply to visit the White House! Not all, just the ground floor with the official rooms. We applied three months ahead,  It was quite a stretch, security wise, no bags, waterbottles, toilets, anything - we decided to drive and pay for parking so we'd have food and water for before and after! We were able to take photos though, as of 2015.
We're glad we did it, but maybe not again? It felt good to have made the effort, but at the same time, it was an empty, beautiful, sterile set of rooms. Vaguely familiar because we've seen various photos in the media of official meetings and functions.
Mr 4's favourite bit was apparently the bit where we stood on the mat and the dog sniffed us...(before going in, everyone passes through a room where a dog sniffs you, not sure what for)
Mr 6 wobbles between the chandeliers in general, and the blue room.
My favourite bit was all the beautiful paintings on the walls - there were some really nice landscapes of different bits of America.

Egyptian Art

Soo... pre-lunch, when I am having my hangry session in the kitchen, trying to put together sandwiches for everyone without losing my cool, Mr 6 decides he needs to do Art.
I made many many speeches about what I was doing, and why I was doing it, and why it was unreasonable to expect me to drop everything and help with something that he had started on his own, and now expected me to drop everything and help with, and how I was hungry, and needed to eat [very badly], and we could look at it after lunch. And eventually got through, probably because I said I'd look after lunch.
And after lunch we had a very constructive half and hour, and succeeded in making a poster of an Egyptian person as per the picture in the book, for dad to be surprised by when he came home. I am particularly proud of the head, that I drew freestyle. (while looking at the picture in the book).

Australian Liquorice

Hooray! Darrell Lea Liquorice has made it to America, even better, to Trader Joes!! It is a bit chunkier and softer than the stuff I remember in the brown paper bags, but it is made in Australia, and tastes great. I think I'm banned from doing the grocery shop for a while, because I came home with that, as well as 500g of chocolate from Belgium.

Things I will miss about America

I wrote this in September last year. But most of it still stands.

Here is a mid term list of things I will miss when we go home:
Maple syrup (real and cheap)
Bagels
Berries (and pick your own farms)
Farm peaches
Access to Smithsonian Museums
Snow (in the street! outside your front door! Making summer worthwhile!)
Easy access to Ikea
LLBean
Free/cheap parking (even at the airport)
College sport
So much to see, without travelling very far! And the country isn't trying to kill you!
Competition in the supermarket industry
Clear delineated seasons, and activities
The space (in this particular area...)

Things I won't miss
Having to sign my life away every time we see a certain medical professional - two pages, initial every paragraph, sign at the bottom...all just to acknowledge that I'm going to pay them.
The underlying tension of existence - having to have enough healthcare, having to save for kids college, school not being the simple, put them in the primary school down the road choice. The pressure to get ahead because the future seems uncertain. Combined with a huge consumer culture that sells you everything and anything. Except contentment, it seems.
Having to pay employer taxes for employing a babysitter (and get an employer number, and withhold federal taxes... all complicated.)
Pavements being intermittent and optional. So you can walk some places, but other places you can walk halfway there and then the pavement runs out.

Things in Australia that I miss
Being able to walk up the road to a friends house (several friends houses, actually). Mostly here, we have to drive.
Understanding the contents of an ingredients list
Understanding all the cultural references that pop up (I have to take notes then walk away and Google some things sometimes)
The smell of eucalyptus trees
Good beaches within driving distance
Proper bread (not soft, not sweet, not with molasses in it...)

Hottest weekend of summer?

We had organised to go to the zoo in Washington today, but postponed seeing as it was forecast to be 100F (38C, which isn't that bad until you add in humidity...). But because we wanted to get out and do something, we went to Quiet Waters, and hired a canoe. 

This canoe seemed smaller than the one at Martinak State Park, so I felt like I was going to end up overboard every time the canoe rocked (ie, every time the 4 year old decided to change positions...) But I even rowed some when I had been there a bit. The kids trailed their oars in the water, and argued over who was steering, Egyptian reed boat style.
We proceeded up and down the creek, travelling roughly forward, and saw a heron, and some sort of bird of prey, who caught a fish and fed it to the babies in the nest. As well as a steady drip of boats and houses.
By the end of the hour, I was exhausted and we definitely needed to get inside out of the sun. We thought we'd do it again, some time before the end of the summer.

Hubby and the boys using up the last 15 mins of the hour while I collapsed in the shade.

Children's lists

Things Mr 6.5 likes about America:
No school uniforms
Lemonade
Bagels
Snow, skiing and ice hockey
Chick Fila (takeaway food outlet)

Things that are cool in Australia:
Trampolines
Fenced backyards (no, really... I think because you can put trampolines in them)
The beach and surfing and body boards etc

Things they are checking if it exists in Australia:
Icecream
Pancakes
Chocolate
Bowling
The English language (the exact sentence from a very worried 4 year old, was, can he say American words in Australia)

Ice Towers

This is an activity that takes a bit of preparation, but apparently is worth it (in terms of catching the children's attention for a bit!). Freeze layers of water in an open necked container, and freeze 'treasures' in each layer. Then give children spoons and sit them outside to chip away at the iceblock and find the treasures. Best in hot weather.
Treasure ideas:
pegs, buttons, mini dinosaurs, soldiers, bead necklaces, mini pom poms, small coins (1c, 5c), middle of sticky tape rolls.

Popsicles

This is something I thought of, anticipating summer would be difficult, and because I'm getting a bit sick of driving to Wholefoods especially (and only) for the yoghurt icypoles that are our icepole of choice. We finally just bought them online, given the usual problem that although there is heaps of shopping available in America, the time involved to get to all the shops and find what you're looking for is daunting.
These are a bit bigger than I anticipated and take quite a serving of yoghurt, but this mornings effort was chocolate (greek plus choc topping), berry (greek plus frozen raspberries), and our normal greek with honey. The boys had the chocolate this afternoon, and said it was tasty. I'm looking forward to trying a raspberry one.

Local Wine!

Some friends came to dinner and brought some local wine! Apparently the area isn't really a wine growing area, but obviously someone had to try. This was very drinkable.

Theodore Roosevelt Island

Today we visited Theodore Roosevelt Island, located at the opposite end of the Mall to the Capitol Building. It is a small island that was used for various purposes - but eventually was relandscaped in the 1930's into a memorial to Theodore Roosevelt (Theodore Roosevelt was the 26th president, and presumably related to Franklin D Roosevelt, who has a memorial on the Tidal Basin).
It has a memorial in the middle (statue, pools, fountains etc, very beautiful) and paths around the outside to walk around and appreciate the forest that was grown (to resemble the one here before it all got chopped down), and now, because this is now, jog around, which is what Washingtonians seem to use it for. Thankfully they have barred the bikes (which are very dominant on the nearby Mount Vernon Trail).
I found the formal bit of the island very beautiful. The walk around the perimeter of the island was a good length for our kids, and it was good to be outside.

We also visited the Iwo Jima memorial (memorial to the Marine Corps) and the Netherlands Carillion nearby. Then we made the mistake of trying to quickly drop into Arlington to get the NPS stamps for those places, and go to the bathroom before going home. Lesson learned, visit Arlington in Winter, when it will hopefully be quieter. We did get the bathroom and the stamps though.

Brownies

I may have done it - found a recipe to duplicate those brownies that the bakery sells mixes of...These are Quick and Easy Fudge Brownies, from the King Arthur (flour) website.

We used all our sugar, which ended up being a bit awkward when we wanted to make waffles a couple of days later, but they were awesome brownies. I will double the recipe next time!

Our Australian church

I love going back to our church in our community back home. We try to get there every time we travel back home. It is a pathetically small amount of time to spend trying to maintain links with all our friends from church.
It is at times like these I feel like I am definitely spread too thin. We could have just moved to Western Australia? or somewhere in Asia? but no, we have now created a community 2 days travel away, even in the age of aeroplanes.

Beach Views

This is the beach I went to for five years while at University. They have prettied it up now, so it is $6 for a piece of banana bread, and $5 for a measly small cup of chips, but thankfully they can't charge for sitting and looking at the view.
There were still people swimming at this time of year - not the tourists, but the hardy morning swimmers and the surfers. Forgot to note who the statue is of, presumably someone connected with the Surf Life Saving Association. New since my time.

More food (and tea)

The mainly black tea section in a typical supermarket (from L to the trolley at the R). Herbal selections definitely in the minority, about 20%? 

This is a lamington (although I have  had better). sponge cake squares with chocolate icing and desiccated coconut stuck to the outside. Used to be a classic food drive for fundraising in schools. Largely died out now, I think.