Victoria Gets Pounded for Her Birthday!

At the end of practice, the coach hangs the birthday girl upside down and the rest of the gymnasts pound her with the foam blocks from the pit.

Victoria's Birthday! October 1st, 2008

Victoria's 5th Birthday! Her class has a sspecial T-shirt for the birthday kids. Victoria was looking forward to her turn, and she was so proud to wear the "Birthday Shirt" all day long at school. We brought in some homemade chocolate chip cookies for her to share with her classmates in celebration .

We are having a joint birthday party for Lilly and Victoria on the day after Halloween. A great big spooky party!

Grandparent's Day at St. Andrew's September 27th 2008

Nana & Pappy enjoyed their luncheon with Victoria.

This is what Victoria had to say about why she loves her grandparents.

The children put on a little production for the grandparents. It was all very cute!

Our Trip to Washington, D.C.

First we went to the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. Here are the girls in front of the big elephant that has been in the main hall of the museum for over 30 years. I think my dad has a picture of me in front of it from when I was their age!

No trip to this museum would be complete without paying homage to The Hope Diamond!

All Victoria kept talking about before our trip to the Smithsonian was that she needed to see some dinosaur bones. So here she is, with Lilly, in front of some dinosaur bones.

Also, Victoria had a strange fascination with this stuffed giraffe and wanted to have her picture taken in front of it. Go figure.

OK, so here is were the space geek in me comes out. This is Gene Cernan's space suit. This suit, and Gene, flew on Apollo 17, the first night launch ever, the 11th Apollo mission, the 6th lunar landing mission, and Gene was the last human ever to walk on the surface of the moon, December 7-December 19, 1972. Gene, and this suit, lived on the moon for 3 whole days!

Here is Darrin boarding a plane...the only plane you are likely to ever see Darrin boarding...bolted to the ground...in the Smithsonian's Air and Space Museum.

Here is Darrin being helped off the same plane by Victoria.

Here are lots of planes hanging from the ceiling.

This is the Apollo 11 space capsule that orbitted the moon with Michael Collins inside while Armstrong and Aldrin landed on the moon.

This is the "Castle", the original Smithsonian Museum. Darrin loves the architecture in D.C.

A panoramic shot of D.C. with the Capitol in the distance.

This is the atrium of the Hirschhorn Gallery.

On the mall.

The White House. Ready for a new tenant I hope.

The Jefferson Monument.

It was a wonderful trip t D.C., hopefully not our last.

The Zoo in Salisbury

Whenever we come to visit Mumsey, we always try to get to the zoo and the wonderful playground they have there. Here are some snapshots of our visit this time.

Ocean City

Here are the girls in front of the sand scultptures on the boardwalk.

Lilly and Victoria are in the stockades at The Revere House

Happy to be in O.C.! We all love coming back to the best beach in the world!

Myrtle Beach just can't compare.

Here's little Victoria on the tiny ferris wheel inside Trimper's. Lilly was actually told she was too big to get on the ride with her sister. She was kinda upset by that, but then it occurred to her that it just meant she was getting to be a "big girl" and then she was ok.

The bumper cars were fun, once they learned how to steer the darn cars.

Then the ride was over!

Merry-go-round.

Here they are in front of that funky little museum on boardwalk and 2nd St.

Here's Darrin with the girls playing on the swings behind him.

First Day of School

Lilly and Victoria started school today! It was big excitement around our house this morning, since Victoria started Kindergarten today. Lilly said her day was "AWESOME"!!! Victoria felt like a big girl, she made a new friend named Emma, and she learned the proper way to hold scissors!