Recently in Kids Category

Many in the family have heard the story, but I now have a little time (ahem!) to tell it in video and pictures. Will has actually never been on an airplane, and back in June, he got an impromptu introduction to flying. It wasn’t a standard commercial airplane. No — he was in the passenger seat in a two-seater flown out of the local Hanover County Airport.

The Cub Scout pack was down for a visit with someone who has an airplane at the airport, so they could see the inside of the plane, the hanger where it was stored, and a little about the airport. See the picture below for the pilot and airplane we visited (as we got published in the local town paper). But no flights were planned.

But before we got that tour, we discovered that the Young Eagles program was at the airport, offering free, short flights for kids older than 6 (sorry, Sean and Daniel — and they really wanted to go, too). After checking with Will if he wanted to do it, we signed the waivers and got him in line for a flight. And what a flight it was — wind direction made takeoffs to the north the right thing to do, so the flight plan was to head north toward Kings Dominion (about 10 miles away), then turn around and come land from the south. So Will, having been to Kings Dominion just 2 weeks earlier (and his first time there, too), was able to see the park from the air. Of course, he definitely liked seeing the Eiffel Tower.

This is the part where I get mad at myself. We had the camera with us, but I forgot to check battery strength. Oops! We got 1 picture on it before it completely died, so I went to my handy, much-lower-res cameraphone. Oh well, at least we have some pictures and videos. Which unfortunately means I get mad about something else — namely, I accidentally deleted (instead of saved) the video of Will’s plane landing. It was a very smooth landing (pilot was excellent) and I was next to the taxiway, so I was right there. But I messed up in clicking and buttons, and the video was gone. So, instead you just get the takeoff and the taxiing for final park.

So, Will got to be the co-pilot of the plane (he had to sit up front), and he got to see Kings Dominion from the air. That’s really cool. Here are some more pictures from the event at the airport. Sean and Daniel did get to sit in a parked airplane and check things out, so that definitely made them a little happier.

Hey, I know it’s been a while. Work and life in general has been a bit crazy. I may be able to post a few things as I have time. This one was fairly easy to do, so I hope you enjoy it.

This past weekend, Will and I went to a family celebration up in Old Town Alexandria. Before returning home, we took a quick ride up the GW Parkway to get a closer look at the river, and I was able to get into Gravelly Point just north of Reagan National Airport around sunset. The cool thing was not the sunset itself (hidden by the buildings in Crystal City to the west), but with the planes landing right overhead.

Here are a couple of the planes that landed overtop of us. And no Wayne’s World scenes here.

OK, I can say for certain that these are not my genes he has inherited. Maybe I’ll get a picture of some drawing my Mom has kept — or possibly a picture of my sewing ability from middle school. (Yikes!)

What isn’t shockingly bad is Will’s art work. This past weekend, one of his pieces from this year was selected to be shown at the Hanover County Art and Science exhibit. It’s pretty cool to consider that his work was selected out of probably about 10 total pieces from second graders (including other classroom projects, too).

You may remember that Will also had a piece of art from first grade selected for public display. So, keep at it, Will. You’re doing great stuff, and who knows where this will lead you.

Oh, and are you wondering where I’ve been for the past 2 months? Well, that’s for another blog entry — time permitting. But it wasn’t just a lack of time keeping me offline.

There are definitely lots more stories to tell.

Well, the snowfall ended about dinnertime last night, though the wind continued to blow. What was the final snowfall? Hard to say, as I didn’t measure last night. But when I went this morning to start shoveling things off, we had over 12 inches on the ground. That’s about the same as the snowstorm in December.

The boys still had some fun stomping through the deeper snow this morning, though it was a bit intimidating at times for Sean and Daniel. It was deep enough to definitely drop some snow down into my boots when I had to wander out into it. The boys and Kellie helped with some of the snow shoveling, though help may be a bit strong of a word for what the twins did. A video in the picture album below shows you how they helped there.

(I’m trying out a new photo album style. This one allows YouTube videos to be played within the slide show. Let me know what you think.)

The sun continues to shine today, even if the temperature is barely above freezing. The driveway, cars, and sidewalk are nicely cleared and melted, but the neighborhood roads still await a plowing. School for tomorrow has already been canceled. This is actually the first canceled school day of the year, as the last snowfall arrived after winter break started. I’m guessing Kellie and I won’t get canceled work days, however.

Yup, we’re getting socked by another snowstorm this winter. This is our third significant snow, though only the second one I’d call major. But having two major snowfalls in Richmond in one winter is out of the ordinary. The snow started overnight, but was relatively light. However, shortly after 8am, the intensity kicked up, and it has not let up since. In fact, it may be snowing even harder now, with more wind, too.

We ventured out into the snow around 10am this morning, and we already had 5 inches of snow at that point. The kids had fun stomping around in the snow — even Sean and Daniel stepped right into it. I shoveled the driveway off for a first cut, knowing more would come later, and the kids had fun wiping snow off the cars. They had fun catching snowflakes on the tongue. Unfortunately, this snow is fine and powdery, not good enough for snowballs or snowmen. But the kids were out in the snow for almost 45 minutes, enough to get just wet enough.

As I write this entry, not quite 4 hours after coming inside, I can barely see any evidence of what I shoveled on the front walkway. We’ve had that much more snow fall and get blown around. We also cannot see any tracks in the yard where Kellie and the kids walked around. And this storm isn’t over yet. Total snowfall could be interesting for this one.

Yes, we did wind up with a White Christmas. OK, technically it’s not snowing now, and the snow on the ground is almost a week old. But there is snow still there, so I think it counts.

The kids were wild this morning, tearing into their presents. They were really happy to see what Santa and family gave them. But things have now settled down a bit, though you certainly wouldn’t know it by looking at the floor.

But let’s also remember what this season is all about. And Linus and Charlie Brown really seem to have it down. (Yes, this is a repeat from last year. It’s still as relevant.)

Yup, the kids are really feeling it, too. Even Sean and Daniel are antsy about when Santa is going to get here. They really are itching to know that Santa will be here, even if they really don’t know what to expect. All three of them cannot wait for Christmas to be here.

That’s not to say that they don’t get the religious significance of tomorrow, either. We’ve been reading lots of Christmas story related books, and they know that we are celebrating Jesus’s birthday. (Will’s understanding is a bit deeper, as it should be with an older kid.)

But in honor of their antsyness, I give you this little Sesame Street ditty. Kinda cute, if you can stand Elmo and Cheryl Crow. (And yes, Sesame Street has lots of official short videos on YouTube now. Plenty to distract kids with, if they want to sit in your lap and share some computer time with you.)

I finally got the video and pictures straight from last weekend. After a heavy snowfall on Friday night, we awoke to more snow throughout the morning. But it stopped right before lunchtime, with only scattered snow that afternoon. Sunday morning was brisk, but clear in the sky. And by the afternoon, we started to get some melt on the parts of the road/driveway/sidewalk that had been cleared off.

The pictures cover the full range of the snow. All 3 kids got out on Saturday before lunchtime, but Sean and Daniel napped later in the afternoon when Will and Kellie went out to finish the snowman. Will spent Sunday with Gwama, so our time outside later that afternoon was spent with Sean and Daniel.

As you can see from the pictures above and video below, Sean and Daniel largely confined themselves to the sidewalk. They just didn’t like walking in the deep and uneven snow underfoot. But this afternoon, we got them home before sunset and spent some time outside, and they finally started wandering around in the snow on their own. Sean, in particular, was making fresh snow tracks. And we finally got a toboggan track going that all 3 kids went down a few times. We’ll see if the snow can last until Friday, for a white Christmas.

Yes, it’s a bit odd to think that the winter solstice isn’t here yet, but we already had a significant snow. (Okay, not really, but it’s interesting to think that we still have 2 or 3 more months of cold weather to come, where we might get yet another snowstorm.)

The snow essentially ended around lunchtime, though there was a brief dusting around sundown. I measured around 11 inches at lunchtime, so figure it was a bit more than that. I couldn’t get a good reading this morning, as the top layer had largely frozen over and been compacted a bit.

The kids had a blast, though Sean and Daniel were too spooked to actually walk very far in the snow. The footing was just too unstable for their preferences, and they just wanted to be carried in it. That make it tough for actually doing anything with them, like building a snowman or riding on the sled. But they made the most of grabbing chunks of snow and throwing snowballs while walking along the cleared sidewalk.

The snowman was eventually finished by Kellie and Will late Saturday afternoon (I had rolled the base earlier). He did survive the sun on Sunday, though it’s clear the headshrinkers were at work on him today. That is a photo of him this morning, before the sun got to work on him.

The snowplow (or farm tractor with a snowplow blade, as is done in our neighborhood) came by around lunchtime today. And with the temps slightly above freezing and a bright sun, the roads in the neighborhood are already starting to melt away. The main roads just outside our neighborhood were already well-plowed this morning. I went to church this morning for lectoring duty, and Mass was done in double-time — about 50 in attendance, and we were done in 35 minutes (whereas our priest normally has Mass last about 70 minutes).

Time permitting, I will post a bunch more pictures and video of the kids (and adults) playing and having fun. This was definitely the most snow we’ve had since I moved down here almost 10 years ago, but actually not much more than what we got last spring.

Yes, it’s that time of year again. I hope she had a good birthday, although probably not as relaxing as she would have liked. Daniel had to see the doctor this morning about a cough. We seem to have caught it in time. There went much of her free time she had planned on today.

(The photo is one from October, when we visited Aunt Iris and Debbie at their farm. Yes, from an event I haven’t written about.)

Then, it was off to see Legendary Santa. All 3 boys actually sat still (no crying or shyness) for Santa — a first as a group. (There has always been at least one before this time.) More on that later. After all, this is about Kellie’s birthday.

Which meant a birthday dinner out — at O’Toole’s. This one was kind of cool, in that her brother Tim was also in town, so they got to celebrate their birthday together for once. (I guess I should wish him a happy birthday, too.) Of course, 3 kids don’t last forever in a restaurant, so we were the first to leave, while the rest of the Padgett clan stayed behind.

I know she’s tired, but I hope she still enjoyed her birthday. Now, for that backrub she was asking for…