Goose, it's time to buzz the tower.

We've seen lots of masking tape and duct tape raceway pics floating around bloglandia, but since I'm still flying high on our recent trip to SC, we decided to make a paint tape airport the other day.  We have a ridiculous amount of green paint tape lying around -- apparently 4 or 5 years ago daddy attempted to paint a small wall in our house and mom, always the overpurchaser of items needed for home improvement, thought he'd need 500 yards of paint tape.  The wall has since been repainted by "professionals," but we were left with enough paint tape to map out a football field.  Our airport construction was quick and dirty and consists of our parking garage (refurbished into the "control tower") and two main runways (one for the "jumbo jets" and one for the "regular jets"), but we've been playing with it for hours and hours and hours.

Bling Bling

Mom has been jonesin' to make these sweet little gems (the glam jelly shots recipes - pic of mag page below) she saw in Rachael Ray (she loves to hate her and her incessant abbreviations ... drat, we can't help it either!).  Realizing that jello shots were probably not in anyone's best interest, and given our general refusal to eat fruit and our love of popsicles, mom picked up these great ring-pop popsicle molds.  She is addicted to Tovolo (and Amazon.com, although we did find the rocket pop molds at Marshalls for less than 1/2 the price).  We've made several different batches of popsicles this summer so far using different Tovolo molds (including these).  This time, we made strawberry and mango pops (mom loved using up those pre-pureed mango packs from TJ's that have been sitting in the freezer for a while -- we just added a little bit of sugar).  The smaller size was better for Cami, but I needed to eat three of them to get my popsicle fix.  And while these won't last quite as long in the freezer as the bigger sizes, they were a cinch to get out of the molds and were super fun to put on your finger and eat like a ring-pop.  Fruit?  What fruit?

From Every Day with Rachael Ray, June/July 2011, p 32

Park It: Walter Pierce Park

It has been so hot and sticky in DC that we decided to head to the Shore earlier than planned for the holiday weekend.  We are hittin' the road this morning sans daddy and we'll see how far we make it.  It's very possible we'll be placing a call from Maryland House after mom takes off and Kane and I spend all our dough at Bob's Big Boy - so keep your phones on.  Because mom still had to finish up the laundry from our last week away before we could pack for the Shore, we stayed pretty local yesterday.  We hit up one of our of favorite playgrounds -- Walter Pierce Park.  We hadn't been in a while -- it's all wood chips which didn't work out so well when I was still getting my walking legs.  But its one of Kane's favorites because it has a play fire truck.  While Kane and some local kids chased fires, fought off dragons, and fixed sirens, I showed off my slide skillz.  I can now climb up the stairs, walk to the slide, SIT DOWN on my bottom (a key step that I have been developing) and go right on down.  I do prefer to climb up the slide, but apparently that's not kosher playground behavior.  I'm still learning.  Walter Pierce is also one of mommy's faves because it's pretty close to a Starbucks (which is now also one of my favorites since I learned to use a straw and mommy let me have vanilla milk).  Here's to a smooth(ish) ride and cooler temps!

Some of our other favorites in the area of WP, include: Tryst (which we've blogged about as we are getting to be regulars on Sat/Sun mornings), The Diner (which is always open -- really it's open 24/7 -- and always loud), and there are a few nights left in Adam's Morgan free summer concert series that we are hoping to make.

(We know the Hipstamatic prints aren't always the best.  Mom was successful in getting a new battery charger for her camera, but has now broken and lost the battery door.  We're workin' on it!)

To Market, To Market: Columbia Heights Farmer's Market

We've been so busy and out of town most weekends recently that we haven't had much of a chance to hit up the local farmer's markets this summer.  So Saturday morning we went to our neighborhood market for our favorites -- Pleasant Pops, goat cheese, and berries berries berries.  YUM - I see some new popsicles in the making super soon.  We stuck around for a little music and I attempted to hit on the guitar player (but I wanted mom to go with me).  After a quick lunch across the street at The Heights (by quick, I mean mom whisked us out of there when Cami started painting the table with BBQ sauce using a Splenda packet as her brush), we headed back to the market square for a refreshing (and convenient showering off of BBQ sauce) run through the "sprayground" (technically DPR lists this as a "sprayground," but it's really just a fountain that everyone lets their kids run around in).

Welcome to CH.  Don't worry about your bike - it's Hipster enough that no one will touch it.  But your Yuppie jogging stroller?  We'll strip that thing like nobody's business.

"What do you think about this sausage, Cam?"  "Hmmm ... not sausagey enough."

Patience Patients

Yesterday, to finally round out my "1 year appointment," which mom eventually took me to at almost 14 months, my doctor succeeded in hounding my mom to take me in for my blood work.  With Kane strapped tightly down in the stroller, I eyed up the phlebotomist as highly suspect.  I was right to -- on the first stick I let out a bloodcurdling scream and did not let up until we jammed out of there.  And then I was fine.  Like it never happened.  Total recovery.

Today Kane had his very first dentist appointment and mom had been talking it up literally for months (which is apparently how long it takes to get an appointment with a pediatric dentist in D.C.).  He was promised a new construction set and, GASP, "Old MacDonalds" for lunch if he cooperated.  I got to take a nap at Aunt Carrie's house this a.m., so I didn't get to witness the events firsthand, but from what mom said, it mostly went like this:

Kane and Robbie sat in the chair.  The dental assistant said "That's a really cute 

squirrel."  Kane said "Lady, this is a meerkat."  The doctor came in and said "Hey, look at that cool river otter."  Kane said "Dentist, this is a meerkat."  The dentist said "Wow, you're really tall for your age."  Kane said "Well, just a little bit.  I am a farmer.  I drove my tractor here today."  The dentist said "Oh really?  What kind of farmer are you?  Are you a sugar farmer?"  Kane said "No!  Sugar is not good for you.  You are the dentist?  That doesn't make any sense."  

Mom just smirked and told him to open up.  The rest went perfectly fine.

So it seemed like Kane handled it like a total champ.  That is until we got to go to one of his favorite parks once mommy picked me up -- Guy Mason -- and he lasted about 10 minutes before throwing his most outrageous tantrum yet.  He was not in the sharing mood -- and the other kids in the sandbox were not about to let the new arrival hijack all of the construction vehicles (which I totally get and mom did, too).  He got several chances and then mom said we had to leave, which did not really go over well with him.  Needless to say, we did not get to go to "Old MacDonalds" for lunch.  And we didn't get to spend hardly any time at the playground, which we love because (a) it's next to mom's old Whole Foods, which is gigantic compared to our local one; (b) it has a large sandbox (with the aforementioned construction vehicles); (c) it's across from Surfside  - one of our favorites; and (d) right by our Cousin Jack's house so he usually meets up with us.  But it just wasn't happening for us today.  Mom is losing patience with her patients.  

The good patient.

Pre-tantrum.  At least I got to eat my snack (sort of).

Ridin' That Train: Cabin John Miniature Train and Park

At the suggestion of one of our playgroup mommies (seeing that I never looked up from the serious train table at playgroup yesterday), we took a trip up to Cabin John Miniature Train and Park today.  Now, mommy generally refuses to do anything that takes us on I-495 or involves going to Rockville (the suburbia starts to suffocate her quickly and just generally reminds her of being pregnant and going to Buy Buy Baby -- the first time she went when she was pregnant with me she started crying hysterically -- "we can't actually NEED all this *bleepin'* *bleep*, can we?"  oh yes, you do), but word was that this train was worth it.  And it was.

We headed straight to the train when we got there because it looked like rain.  You can actually check the Train's FB page (of course you can) to see how it's operating that day -- and even though it said it was full-steam ahead, the clouds said otherwise.  The apathetic 17-year old conductor "yelled" "All Aboard," (more like, "um, yeah, i guess all aboard or something."  I told him "you are wearing a baseball hat.  you're not a conductor.") and we took a really sweet little ride through the woods.  The "conductor" even tooted the horn a few times.  It was a pretty good ride for $1.75 (2 and under are free -- so only mom had to pay) and we lucked out -- ours was the last ride of the day - it started to drizzle.

After we fed "Porky the Litter Eater" trash from mom's bag (there was A LOT of it in there -- see, dad, that's why mom never cleans out her bag - she KNOWS we'll need all that junk for something), we hit up the playground.  Shaded by lots of trees in the woods (but filled with mosquitos), we found play trains, tractors, a treehouse, and some "pretty serious" slides.  Cam proved herself to be quite the daredevil - launching herself down slides (and was also somehow able to climb right back up them -- between the humidity and her persistence she hauled herself up some doozies), stairs, and whatever else got in her way.  Seeing as there are no real qualifications to be a "conductor," I took it upon myself to conduct the play train and all activity surrounding it.

There were plenty of bathrooms, a pretty dirty but workable water fountain, and tons and tons of picnic tables.  Next time we'll bring our lunch since we barely made it home on the leftover snacks in the bottom of mom's bag.

(Fortunately, since mom was beat after the train and playground, 

my meerkat Robbie was on hand to drive us home)