Picture People

We’ve been having our pictures taken at Picture People for years. The photographers there do a good job of getting the kids to smile, so we have the boys photographed at least once a year. The boys were dressed up, so we brought them to Columbia Mall to have their picture taken. The boys played around while waiting for their turn. At first, Brian just watches his brothers, then joins in with them.











After the picture-taking, we met some friends for lunch then went to the mall courtyard to let the boys play. The boys have fun climbing up and playing on the rocks.











Brian asks Daddy to put him up in the air over and over











While still waiting to for our picture to be developed, Daddy treats the boys to a carousel ride

Pizza Hut Book It!

Both Kevin and Justin’s schools take part in a program called Book It! This program is a reading program sponsored by Pizza Hut, which rewards students with a small personal pan pizza when they meet a monthly reading goal.

Today after school, both boys wanted to redeem their monthly pizza rewards. Here they are waiting at the Pizza Hut counter for their personal pizzas.

Kevin and Justin with their personal pan cheese pizzas

Kevin Goes To A Sleepover Birthday Party

All day yesterday, Kevin was looking forward to going to his buddy’s house for a birthday party. This was his second time to be a part of a sleepover, and he was so excited. Here he is, ready to leave - sleeping bag, toiletries, and clothes on his back, and birthday gift in hand.

The sleepover lasted into the afternoon of the next day. Here, Kevin, two buddies and their sisters play on a tree rope-swing in the birthday boy’s backyard.

48th Annual Sakura Matsuri Japanese Street Festival

We attended the Sakura Matsuri (Cherry Blossom) Japanese Street Festival, which was sponsored by the Japan-America Society of Washington, DC. It is the largest one-day exhibition of Japanese culture in the U.S. There were four main areas – arts and crafts, the Ginza Marketplace, Taste of Japan, and J-POP Land (Japanese pop culture). Also, several stages had live traditional Japanese performances.

Justin was able to meet the beautiful 2008 Japanese Cherry Blossom Queen, along with the 2008 U.S. Cherry Blossom Queen. After taking his picture with both Cherry Blossom Queens, they gave him a large booklet about past and present Cherry Blossom queens. We watched several martial arts groups perform – aikido, jujitsu, karate, kendo, etc.









This person dressed up in a sumo wrestler costume made us laugh. He was there to help generate interest in an impromptu female sumo wrestling contest, which was held during a break between martial arts performances. Pairs of female volunteer wrestlers came forward from the audience – good, clean fun!


The most interesting part for me was watching the Tamagawa University performers. The drummers’ choreography and the rhythms of the taiko drums were fun to watch. The women dancers fused traditional dances and music with a touch of modern moves and rhythms - very lively and engaging. Brian was able to meet the Tamagawa dancers, but acted very shy while with them.
What an enjoyable way to spend the afternoon with the family – good food, warm weather, unique and interesting performances.

Mama and Justin Are TV Reporters

Justin and I become TV reporters. Check us out on the 'news,' and read about our experience at our 'Newseum Opening Day blog.'

Newseum Opening Day

Justin and I attended the opening of the newest museum in DC, the Newseum. The Newseum is dedicated to the history of news reporting and journalism, and is the world’s most interactive museum. The huge headlines 'Newseum Opens' cover the building front.

Justin at the entrance of the Newseum At the front of the building is a 74-foot high marble tablet with the words of the First Amendment engraved on it. More than 450 daily newspaper front pages from all around the world are displayed in glass cases.











After waiting in line for an hour and a half (the line was over three blocks long), we finally were able to enter the building. Once inside, we walked into the huge 90-foot tall atrium, called the Great Hall of News, where there is a 40’x22’ foot high-definition screen, a satellite replica and a helicopter - icons of modern news gathering and transmission. At the exhibit, ‘Be A TV Reporter,’ Justin and I stand in one of eight booths with a large blank screen behind us. In front of us is a video camera with a teleprompter. We choose the breaking story that we want to cover - the opening of the Newseum - are given a practice run reading the fast-moving words from the teleprompter, and then videoed live. Afterwards, we were able to watch ourselves shown on one of many screens showing everyone’s recordings. (See our news clip in our next blog entry). It was a fun experience!

Justin enjoys the NBC News Interactive Newsroom, where 48 touch-screen stations allow you to play the role of a reporter, photojournalist, editor, or anchor. Here, Justin is interviewing people at a circus to try and figure out who released the circus animals.











At an interactive table, Justin grabs a digital reporter with his finger and is asked a question in regards to the best way of reporting a story. If he answers correctly, he gets a story published. People on one half of the table compete with people on the other half to complete a front page first. Then, Justin answers questions on an interactive news story.











In the Berlin Wall Gallery, Justin poses in front of sections of the original Berlin wall that stood outside of Germany. There are eight 12-foot-high concrete sections displayed. Near the Berlin Wall Gallery is an exhibit with a section of Stalin’s statue. Behind it is a picture taken while the statue was being taken down. The information section is titled, ‘Icons Fall.’











We waited in line for almost two hours to have a caricature artist draw Justin’s picture - part of the Newseum’s grand opening program events. There were kind people in line behind and in front of us that held our place while we went to eat lunch, use the bathroom, walk around, etc. It was a long day, but worth all the waiting in lines. We didn’t even cover half of the museum, so will have to come back in the future to see all the other exhibits and galleries. Definitely very interesting and educational! Turned out to be a great Justin and Mama day.

Playground At Kevin’s School

The weather was very warm, so I decided to let Justin and Brian play at Kevin’s school, where aftercare was held on the playground. The boys played for over an hour.

Justin says 'I can swing by myself' Brian has fun on the tire swing with Kevin’s classmates Justin enjoys the tire swing too Kevin and his buddies play follow the leader - Brian is the leader All three boys play in the sandbox It’s time to go home, so the boys empty their shoes of sand At home, the boys offer to wash the van for their house chore Brian uses his sponge to ‘water’ the flowers

First Week of April

Kevin’s buddies had their weekly playdate today. Justin was upset and told me that the ‘big boys’ wouldn’t play with him. He tells me that they are in the activity room. I go to speak to the ‘big boys,’ and find them hiding from Justin in the closet. Of course, I ask them to stay there for another minute so I can grab my camera and take a picture. Justin’s class has been studying the letter J. Here are several items that he has done in class – paper Jellybean Jar, a Jellyfish, and Jewels (sequins) on J. In speech class, Miss Brooke had Justin ‘fishing’ for pictures of items that began with the letter ‘k.’ With each fish that he ‘caught,’ he was asked to say the name of the picture on it – a fun way of practicing his ‘k’ words.