Udvar-Hazy Center

Nic & I went with Tim & Owen Quigg for a guy afternoon at the Udvar-Hazy Center of the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. Katie and Shannon decided they'd rather go with Debby to work and play with dogs.

At the museum, we came across the model used as the mothership in Close Encounters of the Third Kind. If you look closely at the right side of the mothership photo, you can see R2D2 onboard. Also look for Darth Vader's TIE-fighter slightly left of center. They are just a couple of many little in-jokes the model-makers included.

Rock On!

Our friend Amber took this picture at the Fort McHenry Flag Day celebration. It's my new favorite picture of Katie.

Longfellow 4th Quarter Awards assembly

Today was the 4th Quarter Awards Assembly at Longfellow. Nic and Katie both received Perfect Attendance Awards; Nic also got a Character Trait Award for courtesy, made the Principal's Honor Roll, and was one of only three 4th graders to be picked for the "Expectations" Award. Ms. Nah praised him for always being where he is supposed to be, and always doing what he is supposed to do. She said he makes a good role model for everyone else. (I missed recording her comments--I didn't realize they were doing that award.) Lots of other 4th graders started predicting it was Nic right before she announced his name.

Here's some rather unexciting video:

Perfect Attendance--you can see Katie behind another kid on the right.

Character Trait--I like Nic's little victory pose at the end.

Expectations--I like the people my kids are turning out to be.

End of Season Soccer Party

Saturday we went to Coach Hyiwot's house for a party to celebrate the boys' winning season. Alex's mom made a great soccer-ball cake. Everybody had fun, even Katie, who was the only girl in attendance.

Flag Day at Fort McHenry

A big group of us--Quiggs, Hagemasters, four-fifths of the McCanns, three-quarters of the Nemecs, and half of the Petersons--met at Fort McHenry for a Flag Day celebration this evening. We brought a picnic dinner, listened to patriotic music, played frisbee, and after dark watched fireworks. Tait met another superhero. It got pretty crowded (the panorama picture was taken earlier in the evening.) The whole evening was fun, but we didn't get home until almost 10:30. It'll be interesting getting the kids up for school in the morning!

Dinner with Anthony & Phuong

The kids and I went out to dinner with a friend of mine from my Monterey job, Anthony. We met his girlfriend Phuong for the first time, and we all really like her.

Last Soccer Game

Nic's last Spring soccer game was today. Unfortunately, they lost 2-0, but it was only their second loss in 8 games.

Spring Concert (post 3)

More of "Miniature Symphony" by Richard Meyer

2. Little Largo

3. Minute Minuet

4. Kleine Kanon

Spring Concert (post 2)

The Intermediate Strings did the 4-part "Miniature Symphony" written by Richard Meyer. Although you can clearly see Nic in these videos, you can barely see Katie. She was mostly hidden by Mrs. Williams and a music stand. And sorry about the sound quality--it was the only way I could get these small enough to post. 

"Miniature Symphony" by Richard Meyer

1. Modest March

Spring Concert (post 1)

Longfellow Elementary had a Spring Concert tonight. Nic & Katie got all dressed up and performed in Intermediate Strings, Chorus, and Recorders. Also on the program were Beginning Strings, Advanced Strings, three different levels of Band, and a Handchime Choir. I took movies of lots of the concert. By far the most enjoyable part that the kids were in was Intermediate Strings. They sounded great after the--how should I say this politely?--atonal Beginning Strings. 

At any rate, here are a couple movies of the kids right before the string performance. I'll post more movies of the actual performance once I figure out how to reduce the size enough to meet Blogger's criteria.

Waiting to Go On...

Enter, Stage Left