Birthday Party...

We went to a kid's birthday party Sunday afternoon (after the kiddos took a much needed nap in our bed!).  It was outside at a park and the weather was gorgeous!  Lots of sports equipment to play with...  And there was a lady there doing glitter tattoos and making balloon animals.  Charlotte, in all her girly-ness, insisted on a shark tattoo...  It took me an hour to convince Lucas to get one.  He chose a scorpion, and was none too pleased that many kids at school thought it was a lobster.  Much fun was had by all playing balloon swords!

BMX Winnings

Just a few shots of little man with his prized trophy:

Labor Day at Lake Anna

We spent Labor Day weekend with Matt and Jameson at Lake Anna.  Got there Friday evening and planned to stay until Monday morning.  But, they were calling for bad storms Sunday afternoon/night, so we packed up in the morning...  spent half the day on the water, and headed home in the early evening.  It poured on us our last 20 minutes on the water, but that was ok :)

Whoa, baby!

We figured out that if you wear a lifevest like a diaper, you can float effortlessly around, but not look like a geek wearing the vest!  Until you get out anyway...

Piratefest

Tony and I spent our 11th anniversary across the bay at Rock Hall for our 4th Piratefest.  Mike's boat was on the fritz, so we weren't sure we were actually going to be able to go, but it all worked out in the end...  Like last year, we headed over Friday night...  Had dinner and wandered the town to get the layout for Saturday...

Saturday morning we slept in more than usual, got dressed in our finest pirate garb, and headed into town.  We had lunch, watched a pirate band, wandered through the street vendors, saw a guy perform that we'd also see in the Inner Harbor, and went to the beach to see the dinghys...

 By mid-afternoon, it was HOT!  So, we got our bathing suits on and headed to a neighboring marina to use their pool for a few hours...  Felt great!  Then, we got dressed in regular clothes...  Headed to dinner, then watched a reenactment of a war of 1812 battle with boats/cannons.  Then, some rain started so we headed back to the boat...

Will we be back next year with 3 little pirates in tow???

First BMX Race

We've been taking Lucas to the BMX track since mid-April... so for about 5 months now.  He has gone on summer mornings and weekday afternoons, and usually has the track pretty much to himself.  He talks a lot about racing for real, and has gone many times to the open practice sessions on Wednesday nights (which only really means that there are a bunch more people there and volunteers are working the start gates).  The real races are Friday nights and Sunday afternoon, and we are usually busy people :)  So, we haven't made it to any of those...  Until last night. 

There were about 100 registered racers there that were divided up into groups called "motos", based on age and expertise.  Lucas was in the novice group.  It's the only group where boys and girls race together, and had 2 four and 2 five year olds.  Everyone gets to do 2 rounds of the race, and the best make it to the 3rd and final round.  So, for Lucas' group, all 4 raced in the 6th moto. 

Round 1...  Lucas got off to a great start, but on the first big turn, he was peddling so fast that his feet flew off the pedals.  We couldn't believe he didn't fall... He slowed down BIG time, but got his feet back on and kept going.  I think he came in 3rd.  So, the winner of that heat automatically made it through to the final round. 

Round 2...  The 3 that weren't first last round raced again.  Lucas looked strong and came in 1st!  There is someone doing commentary/announcing each race, and Lucas LOVED hearing his name on the speakers.  The last kid from this race was eliminated.

Final round...  3 kids left...  Lucas and another racer almost collided going down the first hill...  Ah!  Scary...  Somehow, after much wobbling, they both kept it together.  It was a pretty close race the whole time, and Lucas ended up with 2nd place (behind a girl!). 

Afterwards, 1st and 2nd places get trophies.  Lucas was over the moon excited about his, and Lottie was pissed she didn't get anything.  Since then, he has been holding it almost non-stop.  It was the first thing he grabbed when he got up this morning too!  He was back at the track practicing before lunch today again...  Of course, Tony got him some new pedals and a different sprocket in hopes of giving him more edge next week :)

There's a guy who takes pictures at each race and posts them on facebook... Here are the ones of us:

Seafood Festival

Last Sunday, we went with Mommom & Pop on a little boat ride out of Annapolis to the Maryland Seafood Festival at Sandy Point State Park.  I was mega sad that the crab soup taste off only happened Saturday, but it ended up being a great day anyway!  The weather was beautiful...  The kids got to play tennis, and go on various super slides and bounce house obstacle courses.  There were free slurpees, and we got kettle corn and lobster bisque.  All the adults except me got to do some beer tasting.  There was live music...  I'm sure Lucas would tell you his favorite thing was the BMX exhibition.  King BMX group was there (from NC)...  We'd never heard of them, but they're good enough to do halftime shows at big events/games...  like the Carolina Panthers football games!  Lucas was amazed by all their tricks, and got a poster and T-shirt signed by them all :)  Here are just some random pics of the day (taken by Pop, as I forgot my camera)...