The weekend came  so fast this week that this blog post got left behind!

My older boys were in ROBOT camp this week(dream camp for a little boy, wouldn’t you say?….they wanted to do this one last summer but it filled up too fast).  The camp took place practically in my backyard here in Northern VA, in a town called Vienna.  I did a little research about this place once I saw the various Civil War trail markers.  Would you believe, this town was formerly named Ayr Hill (after Ayr, Scotland), but was renamed in the 1850’s when a doctor agreed to move here if it was renamed after his hometown in NY!  How bold.  Apparently the townspeople were agreeable.  There used to be beautiful Victorian homes and maple trees lining the aptly named major thoroughfare, Maple Ave.

After dropping the boys off, I deciced to stick around and walk around the town with my younger two sons…and brought my camera with me.

The first railroad battle in history took place right here, in 1861.  A Confederate force ambushed a steam engine carrying a Union detachment that was installing telegraph lines along the railroad.

We stopped in a little thrift store and found shelves lined with an amazing owl collection.  The lady who founded the shop collected owls.  None of the figures were for sale sadly.

I had to take a picture of this sign for my brother, his dog’s name is Yoshi!

This shop reminded me a little of downtown Wiesbaden, Germany.  There you can find one of the largest cuckoo clocks in the world.  Wiesbaden is where I lived in my middle school and high school years.

Here are the proud Robot designers at the end of the week…so excited to bring home one of their robot projects!  Not long after this picture was taken, the transmission died in our van (on the way home from camp).  My poor husband had to deal with this situation with all 4 of the kids while I was at the GEM AND JEWELRY SHOW – of all things.  Nothing like a crisis at 5 pm on a Friday!  Luckily he was able to rent a car large enough for all of us, and we still made it to the beach.  We drove down and arrived at 1 am!  It was a very long day.

Hope you’re having a great weekend, and thanks for stopping by!