A Visit From Aunt Lucy

The weekend started out with a visit from Aunt Lucy from Amherst. She arrived Friday night on the train when Mom and Maurice were over for dinner. Cassius and I made flatbread pizza--one with a white sauce and pancetta and one with pesto and potatoes--and I also made stuffed peppers. Maceo and Maurice spent an inordinate amount of time throwing the football in the front yard while we waited for dinner and then for Aunt Lucy. Cassius told Mamy knock knock jokes that don't quiiiiitttteee make sense.

On Saturday, Maceo had a soccer game. Aunt Lucy tagged along, and I spent an inordinate amount of time throwing the football with Cassius and his friend Dominic. Maceo's team won, 2-0, and the two goals were scored by Christopher (with an assist from Maceo) and Maceo (with an assist from Christopher)! We went home for lunch and quiet time, and then the boys walked over to Grandpa's and Grandma Sue's while I prepared another dinner party (I know!). They all trooped back over from the other house for burgers, asparagus, and dulce de leche cookies that Aunt Lucy and the boys prepared!

"So to make the leche dulce, you need to add some sweet, sweet amor!"

Dad and Susan referee the baking and keep an eye on the wine.

Cassius and Maceo are perhaps overly focused on cars and license plates recently, so I bought them a couple of used books to feed their mania. Here, Cassius and Mace show Grandpa their book of vanity plates that they have to decode.

The dentist's license plate "NODK4U" was ambiguous
and gave the adults pause.

On Sunday, the boys and I let Aunt Lucy go off and do her own thing while we went to a fall festival at a nearby farm. Most of the day was spent with me sitting in the shade while the boys spent an inordinate amount of time pedalling around a track in these little child powered tractors. There were plenty of other activities (In fact, Cassius told me his favorite activity of the whole weekend was the corn maze!) including an air bounce, bowling, basketball, water pump competitions, feeding goats, and more. But most of the day was spent pedalling small tractors.

Old style fun with rubber duckies and hand pumps.

Maceo was strong enough to pedal his freeloading passenger around the track several times.

Reminiscing about pedalling tractors.

We came home and I fell asleep HARD. When I woke up, we all went over to Mamy's and Maurice's for another dinner party, made our way home, took baths, and fell right asleep. Weekends are exhausting!

Science Expo

We decided to go to a free science expo in downtown Silver Spring. I had mentioned a county fair, but luckily, the boys forgot about that one (It costed money!), and we were off with little fanfare. We stopped, of course, for sustenance.

Maceo was stunned when Cassius ordered the same donut as he did.

From there, we drove on to downtown. There was a lot to do. At first, both boys were reticent to take part in anything and preferred to hide behind my skirt, as it were. We finally sat down and had a talk about it, as I was frustrated. From there, they were more involved. It helped that the next thing we went to was a fun making activity.

Building with Smart Blocks

We met some impressive Middle Schoolers who made their own robots for competitions.

And inside, we learned about a Japanese train that runs on supercooled magnets so it levitates 4 inches above the ground. That might have been the boys' favorite demonstration. It involved liquid nitrogen and actual levitating magnets! And a toy train to push around.

They also got a chance to make their own cars and run them down race tracks, marking mistakes and redesigning to try to complete the run.

Designing the cars. Eventually, they both had multiple successful runs.

There were other hands-on exhibits, too. Cassius made a pinwheel (though it blew out the window on North Capitol Street on the way home, sniff), and they also got to try to Virtual Reality headsets to explore under the sea.

Cassius makes photosensitive wheels spin with just a flashlight!

And then, surprisingly, another favorite was the hall of rainbows which was just multi-colored strips of plastic hanging down in a 10 foot by 10 foot shed. Maceo made a video of going through it.

Once we got home, we did a lot of football in the field across the street from our house, came in for dinner, and bathed and got ready for bed. As I came into the bathroom to brush Cassius's hair, he told me seriously, "Don't touch the hair!"

Ahh, my little fashion-conscious monster!

Genetics

Maceo has the genes from the Italian and Greek side of the family, and he turns a delicious golden color during the summer. Cassius, on the other hand...
The other day, while he was pooping, Cassius asked me, "Daddy, does your face turn red when you do stuff?"
Yes, son. Yes, it does.

Biscuits and Big Cats

Mom and Maurice treated Maceo, Cassius, and me to a program at the zoo where we got to have breakfast at the Lion and Tiger Hill and then got early entrance to some of the exhibits to see feedings and to meet animals. It was quite lovely and the muggy summer weather of earlier in the week dissipated, so Maceo in fact asked me to switch shirts with him so he'd be warmer. I did not switch shirts with him.

Here are the first two animals we met.

A typical mammal display of aggression.

Maceo, unfortunately, almost stole a vehicle, but we talked him into coming to see the prairie dogs get fed.

Quick! It's the coppers!

Lions are known for their roars of "Is it time for Dippin' Dots yet?"
Also, lions whine and can be a little annoying about Dippin' Dots.

Here, we met Sherman the Screaming Hairy Armadillo, distant relation to Screamin' Jay Hawkins. But cuter.