The Boswell crest: a hooded hawk, with the motto Vraye Foy

HoodedHawk

Category Family

Easter 2011

·Family, Kids·3 comments


Easter pictures of the littlest siblings. Let’s just say that this image took fewer tries than the Christmas portrait. Barely. But ain’t they just the cutest? Olivia likes to smile for the camera (daddy?) more than her brother, so there are more in-focus shots of her this time. :)

Click any picture for a larger view/slideshow.




One way I was able to get them to pose (a bit) was to let them know that if they let dad take some pictures out front they could go change clothes and go on an Easter Egg hunt in the backyard. That seemed to do the trick.
Olivia decided to open, explore, and play with the first egg she found. Intrepid Egg hunter Preston just zipped all over the backyard filling his basket with eggs. I think the final count was Preston: 21, Olivia: 3. Having mom stand in front of a couple and maneuver Olivia into place was instrumental in bringing Olivia’s egg count to more than 1. A good time was had by all.


Happy Siblings

·Family, Kids

Preston and Olivia
Every once in a while both Olivia and Preston are smiling at the same time. Nice to see!

But it doesn’t always last. Olivia tends to like to “poke the Tiger”. Sometimes the Tiger pokes back, other times he’s stoic.


Preston and Olivia
Preston and Olivia

A Day at the Natural History Museum

·Family, History, Science·2 comments

A couple of weekends ago Preston and I spent a nice Saturday (March 12) at the Natural History Museum, in Washington, DC. This was the first time I had been since the new “Hall of Human Origins” was opened, and we spent a good bit of time in there. Preston loved all the skeletons/skulls. And of course, he loved the dinosaur exhibits – which hadn’t changed much since last time we were there (~2 years ago). He kept going from exhibit to exhibit: “what is this one? And this one?…” until it felt like I had read every caption in the museum. But he was very happy. Naturally, we had to stop and watch every video/movie presented in the various exhibits.

Natural History Museum

I did like the Hall of Human Origins; they have a neat entrance tunnel that portrays in a repeating video-mural the evolution of Homo Sapiens from earlier hominids. And the models of the various species of hominids are very life-like. I especially liked seeing a model of Lucy (Australopithecus afarensis) as I had only previously seen (castings) of the (partial) skeleton. And I swear I’ve seen some specimens of Homo neanderthalensis walking among us; that model was particularly enlightening. Pictures of both are below.

This museum isn’t as hands-on as, say, the Baltimore Science Museum, but it still has enough to keep the interest of a 4-year old for most of a Saturday! Afterward we had a bite to eat at the restaurant out by the (temporary during winter) skating rink in the Sculpture gardens. Great way to end the day!

Click any of the images for a larger-size and slideshow. Enjoy!


Entrance to Hall of Human Origins at Natural History Museum
Lucy model in Hall of Human Origins at Natural History Museum
Hall of Human Origins at Natural History Museum
Hall of Human Origins at Natural History Museum
Hall of Human Origins at Natural History Museum
Homo neanderthalensis in Hall of Human Origins at Natural History Museum
Hall of Human Origins at Natural History Museum
Hall of Human Origins at Natural History Museum
Natural History Museum
Great way to relax after a Day at the Museum
Watching the ice skaters at the Sculpture Garden

Christmas Portrait 2010

·Family, Kids·1 comment



Yearly Christmas portrait (click on any pix for larger version/slideshow). Only took 61 shots to get this one. Amazing how hard it is to get three kids to look at the camera and smile. Or at least look near the camera. Big brother Dylan gets the prize for being the most patient of all four of us.

For example:


     

The $250.00 Altoids tin

·Family, General, Kids

The $250.00 Altoids tin

The downstairs toilet has been either blocked or *very* slow flushing for the past few weeks: Preston flushed “a box” down it. Hmm.

I’ve been using a plunger periodically, but mostly we haven’t used it much. We figured it would eventually disintegrate. It wasn’t improving so the plumber came by today and had to remove the toilet to get to the blockage.

The Altoids tin was definitely not going to disintegrate (soon).