Lia shot a quick video the other day that was begging for the Benny Hill treatment.

In the first (maybe only?) entry in our On Location series, Joe visits the historic Battersea home in Petersburg for the annual Revolutionary War reenactment.

Don’t forget, all our videos are on our YouTube channel.

If you live in Virginia and have a  child with a developmental disability, read on. (If not, we’ll return to our regularly scheduled Joe stuff in the next post!)

Next month, I’ll graduate from a program called Partners in Policymaking, which is sponsored by the Virginia Board for People with Disabilities. From September to May, it involves spending two days each month learning from national experts on a variety of topics. I’ve learned so much about things to do for Joe, and ways to help other families get what they need for their own kids.

Here are some of the topics covered:

History of Disability Movements
Self-Advocacy
Independent Living
Inclusive Education
Supported Employment
Personal Futures Planning
Building Inclusive Communities
Natural Supports
Assistive Technology
Communication & Team Building
Legislative Process and Strategies

The class is made entirely of two groups: 1) parents of children with developmental disabilities, and 2) adults with developmental disabilities of their own. It’s been especially nice getting to know the latter group, because it gives me a glimpse of what life might be like for Joe when he’s an adult — and it looks pretty good!

Each monthly session includes an overnight hotel stay where you  bond with your classmates, eat amazing food and sometimes stay up too late.

And it’s FREE.

They are recruiting for their 2013-2014 class, and the deadline to apply is April 30. So get to it!

We had a terrific meeting today with some of Joe’s teaching team. Colonial Heights’ school system has been great for Joe, and we all marveled at how far he’s come in the past year or two.

Big thanks to everyone who spends part of their day making sure Joe ends up an educated, gracious young man.

Bench at school.

Getting off the bus.

Joe loves his bus team.

One of Joe and my favorite places to go is the Petersburg National Battlefield. There’s a bunch of Civil War history of course, but best of all is the quiet, rolling road through the middle of it all. We ran there together on Saturday, and on Sunday went back to play in the grass.

There was a small spring fair in the parking lot at our local shopping mall, so we checked it out.

My wife is stunning.

Joe had fun, though it was very hot for early April.

Not a bad Wednesday afternoon.

Joe had a great time hanging out with his cousins on Easter. The whole set of pictures is on Flickr – here are some of the highlights.

Staying warm with Dixon.

Learning from the master.

An impromptu meeting of the Khaki Pants Club.

Lia, her sister and dad passing on the fine art of egg salad preparation to the next generation.

The big slinky was a big hit.

A few photos from our date at a local arcade.