We had a busy weekend! We drove up to the Philly area to visit with some old friends at a pool party on Saturday. The kids had a blast, and it was so much fun to see everyone again. I got to hold a baby for the first time really in 4 years. Sam was too preoccupied with swimming to care much--usually, he'll have nothing to do with me holding another baby.
 
Sunday, we hung out around the house. We were hoping to go climbing, but I ripped a good chunk of my thumbnail off housecleaning and was pretty much out of climbing commission. I caught up on a bunch of paperwork and basic garden work that needed to get done.
 
Emily and Julia spent some time doing more experiments--this time with rocks and water. They were dipping the different kinds of rocks, fossils, polished rocks, etc. that we have in the water, cleaning and observing them. Emily was wondering what seashells were doing in the woods where we found our fossil--a very good question! We talked about where we live and what might have happened over the last several million years. She came up with some really good ideas, and we decided that flooding and storms could have brought the shells up or that maybe this was all originally underwater. I found a neat book at the library last week on Maryland Geology, which should be great fun for our 4-H Rock Hounds club.
 
The kids also watched several of their Blockbuster movies. Julia and Jim played around a bit on the climbing wall, since we could't go to the crags. It's great to watch the two of them together--what wonderful bonding!