The Sum of the Parts

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= a long V.A.C.A.T.I.O.N.

A day in the life of a pilot - Part II

TWIN engines

Dan's Aunt Karen is a master semstress.  She can make ANYTHING and she is so fast too!  Aunt Karen and Uncle Lee came to DC to visit a few months ago.  William and Dan went to dinner with them and Uncle Lee wore a homemade  shirt with airplanes all over it.  William stared at it the entire dinner.   Totally. Impressed.

A week later, William got a package in the mail. 

A pint size airplane shirt from Aunt Karen!

I quickly took some pictures of William modeling the shirt (which I erased from the camera, but will retake soon) and sent Aunt Karen a few copies along with a thank you note for her loving handy work.  I told her how excited William was when he opened his package to find "a shirt just like Uncle Lee!"  I even mentioned that Dan was a little jealous! 

What do you suppose showed up in the mail 3 weeks later?

Yep, matching airplane shirts for my boys!  William laughed and smiled when he noticed they matched.  Each shirt has snaps up the front instead of buttons and the pockets are even a PERFECT size for his toy airplanes. 

William and Dada even wore their matching shirts to the Air and Space Museum.   They got many, many complements and even enjoyed the IMAX movie, Fighter Pilot.

THANK YOU AUNT KAREN!  The Barron Boys love their new shirts!  What a labor of love and thoughtfulness.   I plan on keeping William's shirts in his keepsake box once he outgrows them. 

Sunday Skuut to the School Bus

Sunday was a BEAUTIFUL day!  William announced that he wanted to "ride his Skuut bike to Shirlington" so our little family headed out on an impromptu evening stroll to where else......Shirlington. 

We took the bike trail and William wanted to stop and check out the school buses at the Arlington County school bus yard.  It just happens to be on the way to Shirlington as well the site of our school bus tour when William turned 2 (you might remember the blog post about that?).   I thought it might be locked up on a Sunday, but it wasn't!  William had a super time walking around and studying all the different buses.  He even remembered our tour and the sweet bus driver, Sarah, who gave William a tiny school bus toy.  What a sharp memory!

We moved along to Shirlington and William asked if he could stop in Harris Teeter "to pick up something."  He combed the aisles carefully and settled on a box of granola bars.  We sat on a park bench to people watch while he munched on his treat and then we headed home.

Trip to the Spray Park

Today William and I made a trip to the spray park.  There are two spray parks in North Arlington.  One is geared for toddlers and includes just water spraying up from the ground.   The other one caters to older kids because there's a wheel that spins, a bucket that dumps water and various waterfalls.  We opted for the "older kid" park this go round.

We got there around 10am and stayed a few hours.  The weather was great - high of 87 with a breeze.  William played a little bit in the water, but spent quite a bit of his time on the playground.  We really only visit this particular park in the summertime, so the slides and climbing toys are very fresh and new in William's eyes. 

He also liked the swings but I think I let him stay in the swing too long.  He quietly asked to get out and wanted me to hold him.  His face was green!  I quickly gave him a snack and my water bottle because he was telling me how hot he was and I DID NOT want him to faint!  I think the swings and the sun made him really dizzy!  By this time it was close to noon, so we headed to the car to cool off.  Once he was out of the sun, he was a new man.

All in all, we had fun and I am sure we'll be back!

Wii One

William discovered the Wii balance board that sits under the tv cabinet.  He was so curious about it that Dan fired up a few games on Saturday night.  William picked soccer as his first game and he'd bust out laughing every time he missed the ball.  

He moved on to running races.  He LOVES to run so this was a perfect choice AND to top it off, the characters run past waterfalls....yet another WBB favorite!  Here he is running in place!  Note the game remote stuffed down in the back of his pants.

Lastly, he got a real kick out of the marble balance game.  You have to move your body around in order to move the marbles around on the table.  The object is to get the marbles into the hole without dropping them.  William was so good at it that he moved to level 2 three times!  Here he is assuming the marble game stance.

Summertime Swimmer

Our pool is officially open for business and this little fellow is fired up!  We've already logged some serious hours playing in the water and it's only been 1 week.  William really enjoys throwing the dive sticks into the water and jumping in to grab them before they sink.  This game really wears him out too!  

There are tons of kids in our community now, so trips to the pool are always entertaining.  We never know who we'll see, but there have usually been 3 or 4 kids there each time.  It's fun to watch William interact with the older children, and they never seem to mind including him in their games.   

I have included the picture I took on "opening day" of the pool.  I am sure I will snap many more as the months roll on.