Reptiles and Bees

In the last couple of weeks we've had a couple of really neat experiences. 

Yucky long snake that Mommy wouldn't touch.

The first was at our nearest library. I just happened to see they had something going on at the library we were planning on taking our books back to one day and just barely got the boys signed up before we left for the morning.

Baby crocodile

We learned all sorts of things about spiders and snakes and mice and crocodiles. My personal favorite also happened to be the least threatening... the tortoise.

Then last weekend I heard about an even with the Beekeepers Guild of Southeastern Virginia. They were uncapping their hives to extract the honey. 

One way to uncap the honey.

Ever since Joshua was stung back in Illinois he has been extremely afraid of bees. To try and help with that this year we studied about bees. 

Another way is to use a pick from 1990, apparently.

We read several books on the subject and now Joshua is extremely interested in bees (mostly of the honey variety... as apparently all the other ones are just mean).

Hives full of honey.

The entire process was really interesting and the boys even got to try a couple of different types of honey. The volunteers there were more than willing to answer the questions the boys had about the hives, bees and honey. 

Empty after all the honey has been taken out.

I love it when the boys show interest in learning things on their own. I can't help but look forward to all the other things they'll want to learn as they get older.

The Aquarium

We headed to the Aquarium today for the last time for a while. Our membership there expires tomorrow and since we don't know what'll be happening in 3 months... let alone an entire year from now, it doesn't make sense to renew it.

We had fun anyway. We've been able to go many times this year. A lot more than if we didn't have the membership, which was the idea.

Can you see Jeremiah teeny face trying to peep over? You couldn't see Jeremiah at all the first time we went to this Aquarium and Joshua was about Jeremiah's height. They've gotten so much bigger since we got here! 

This would be the boys perspective of the world if they were blue crabs. I'm kinda glad they're not, though. :)

So now we officially don't have a museum membership for the first time since right after we moved here. It's kinda sad but how life is these days. Glad there are a few free museums we can go to this summer to make up for it!

2 Boys, a Camera and a Summer Afternoon

Peaches and Changes

Things have been brewing on the employment front. I briefly mentioned it here. The program I mentioned is called PTS and Phil was denied for the last time this month. We knew there was a good chance of his being denied. There is one more chance that we will be able to stay int he military- if Phil advances to Chief later this Summer. This is not a guaranteed advancement by any means. It's been an incredibly nerve-wracking time for us not knowing what to prepare for. We'll finally have a definite answer as to our possible future in the military by the end of the Summer. Until then we wait. It's difficult, to say the least.

Trying not to focus on those things coming up, we have been trying to find some fun things to do around. This weekend was a pretty nice one on that front. I found out there was a peach festival going on not too far away.

We headed there after church on Sunday. We stopped to pick some of our own peaches first. Phil had the best luck at finding the really ripe ones. I think he used his height as and advantage.

Joshua tried to do the same... but ended up with other problems as a result...

We tightened his belt a little after this. Funny boy.
I love taking the boys the find out where food comes from.

Joshua's latest enjoyment is finding all the bugs he can when we go. He's also found a few problems with eating while missing his front 2 teeth.

He's found ways around it for the most part, but watching him eat corn off the cob was hillarious!

Can you believe they didn't coordinate their shirts in the morning? They look like M&M's!

Joshua worked on his bravery a bit with Daddy's help.

Spent some time at a small town Peach festival. It was pretty cute.
We stopped on the way home to pick some very early blueberries. What did Joshua find? Bugs.

Homemade Sidewalk Paint

Recently I started using a website called pinterest.com. The more I use it, the more I love it!

That is where I found the idea to make homemade sidewalk paint.

It was super hot this morning already so the boys didn't last very long before we had to come inside for water and shade.

I used our cupcake tin and put in 1 tablespoon of cornstarch and a smidge of gel food coloring then filled it with water. Mix and voila! Sidewalk paint!

Pungo Strawberry Festival

This has been a harder than average separation for us for some reason. Could be that it's the first since the deployment. Could be because Phil is getting to go somewhere fun without us. Regardless, it's been a struggle.

We're getting through it one day at a time. Today I forced the boys out of the house (they are content to stay inside and play with toys and what not all day right now) and we headed to the Pungo Strawberry Festival.

They had rides and 4-H animals and all sorts of different fair foods to choose from. We had a strawberry taco and ended up spending most of our time in the military display section.

(look for the little face in the window missing a front tooth)

One might think this is because of being a military family, but my guess is it was more because the boys were allowed to get into a crawl all around these vehicles and ask questions until they were blue in the face.

They had such a great time doing this that they forgot that they would much rather be at home! It was hot and we were all sweaty but they would still wait a half hour just to get to stand on the top of one of the tall armored vehicles.

It was a pretty cool thing to be able to do so close to Memorial Day. We've started talking about the meaning of it already. The boys are a little older now and can understand some of these things better

We eventually headed out and came back home. It was nice to get out for a bit, even if it would have been nicer if Phil had been able to come with us.

The boys did get to see quite a few guys who were wearing the same uniforms as Daddy... so that's something. They also saw an ambulance (or "ambu-lance" according to Jeremiah) and a fire truck!

Joshua also ended up with his face painted (Jeremiah is not a fan of paint on his face) which is pretty funny since we have a picture of Phil in his younger years with his face painted as well. If I had the slightest clue where it was right now I'd put it up here for you, but you'll have to settle for your imagination for now.

Grilling and Leaving

It doesn't get much better than this right here:

Today Phil left for the first time since he returned from deployment. Not so fun.
He'll be back in a couple weeks but it's still sad to have to go back to getting by without him.