Gnome Homes, Belle Isle

'It's a lock-in!' Thankfully not quite but a picnic at dusk beside a magical gnome home or two on Belle Isle did almost end up being an overnight event. The bridge-gate is high above the river and has a padlock and climb-proofing for those wandering after 9.30pm - YIKES.

We got a chance to revisit some of the gnome structures build by school buddies and their impressively engaged parents on Saturday. Ours had not survived the wildlife and weather...

R & R, at home

Some serious emergent writing and reading going on at the 'home-school' on Floyd. Amidst the church baking (!) were Nigella's cookie cutters in correct order, though not necessarily orientation. Whilst J penned a tale of tragic fairytale proportions.

Fresh Beat Band LIVE, Carpenter Theatre

In the words of Kiki, Marina, Twist and Shout aka The Fresh Beat Band, we did, 'Get up and go go!!!; then 'Just put your rock star jacket on' and head to the impressive 1930s Carpenter Theatre in Downtown Richmond for some bouncy, smily, low budget rock c/o Nick Junior.

'We had a great day. It was  super way to spend some time together'.

PS: M tells me the song beneath the rainbow is, 'It's blue skies true... I've been looking for a friend like you!'

Gym Quest, Richmond

The next Gabby Douglas limbers up for her first gymnastics session at Gym Quest - to be found at the back of an industrial estate, along the Amtrak line, between random businesses units.

Densely packed with 1970s gym equipment and immensely kind/gruff instructors and a dedicated group of home schoolers... what a gem!

PS: J bouncing at Gym Quest; M soaring at Gym Quest

More Yorktown, Chesapeake Bay

'Oh I do like to be beside the seaside!' The Brits got to hit the beach midweek with enough clobber to set up shop - Barbies and buckets being essentials, of course.

Yorktown, Chesapeake Bay

On days when childcare looks like this... life doesn't feel too bad. I got to float in the  water looking up at the clouds and J secured a bucket and made beach friends. It was utterly blissful.

The bridge opened too for the numerous coastguards on exercise.

First day, First Grade

Having heard an adult describe First Grade as 'all about learning to read', M went to bed concerned that she needed to master this art on Day 1. P reassured her that it could be by Day 2, however the best response was from the new teacher, who just grinned and said, 'by lunchtime!'.

Lovely classroom, lovely teacher, lovely fellow pupils and still lovely music, PE and Spanish teachers - so perhaps we can endure the 1984-style lunchtimes a bit longer... First Grade looks promising!

Downtown canal tour

The plan was to go downtown and get a cup of coffee. We parked at the familiar Tredegar but walked towards downtown, across Brown's Island and discovered not-only a restored canal towpath walk, but a boat trip!

So we glided through business and ex-industrial areas with active rail and road fly-over-intersections and culminating in a disused 1930s see-saw rail-drawbridge.

We also tried and liked a new cafe; The Urban Farmhouse where M had minestrone soup and I had a cheese and tomato toasted sandwich.

It felt like a whole other town.

Rain

We noticed it was raining so I took a couple of photos. We didn't scientifically measure but there were a couple of inches (or approximately twice that in centimetres) that fell in just a few minutes meaning we were late for neighbour Ameigh's porch party. Unfortunately we left the washing out.

In the Garden

The neighbours seem to think C is over-doing it with the worrying about the black widow spiders. This big lady was under weeds on the front garden path. Later we found three more in the kids' sand-pit (!). She was independently verified to have a bright red hour-glass on her belly. And subsequently squashed (RIP).