Birthday at the Fair

As usual we celebrated M--'s birthday by going to NY to spend time with Grandma, Grandpa and Uncle M--. On the way there A-- was actually awake when we drove through Greenwhich and saw the annual fair that takes place on their birthday weekend. Saturday Morning she insisted that we go there to celebrate their birthdays. Overall it was a mixed first experience for her. She enjoyed the couple of rides she got to go on. R-- was still too young for most of them. I think overall they probably enjoyed the animals the most. Because we spent most of the time chasing after the kids I didn't get a whole lot of pictures and A-- was a lot easier to get to stand still so most of the ones I have are of her.

On the 1st day of 1st Grade...

Well, I guess I could begin by saying that at least this year, I didn't set the fire alarms off in a chorus of annoying shrieks making the pancakes and bacon that A-- requested again. Of course she only actually ate the bacon part of it anyways. (I really should have guessed). We even managed to make it to school on time. She's been pretty nervous about this year. Most of her close friends are in the other class and some of the first graders last year gave the impression that 1st grade was really hard and boring.

Since it's been a while since then I'll give a quick update. She's still putting a lot of pressure on herself. Math seems to be going well for her but reading has been a lot more of a challenge. She really likes her teacher though and it helps that the classes seemt to do a lot more together than last year so she still gets to see some of those friends.

R-- of course really wants to be able to go to school too. He hates having to watch her leave on the bus in the morning and if we're actually dropping her off at school it's even worse. I think he's realized that sissy is still a much better playmate than Momma can hope to be.

Camping at Harvey's Lake

Thanks to the persistence of one group of friends who convinced us that coming along on their family camping trip this year was going to be fun and another who graciously lent us their tent - we had our first family camping trip this past summer. It was just a quick overnight but we all had lots of fun. It felt so good to be with friends and just relax a bit and enjoy nature. I even got my first time to paddle a kayak all by myself! The kids were begging to stay longer and definitely want at least a two night trip when the weather warms up again. It's really been crazy while we were there even at the beginning of August it would be up in the 80's and 90's during the two days but dropped down to somewhere in the 40's during the night.

We were greeted when we woke up the first morning by these funny early risers. It reminded me of being back home in FL at the beaches and at Disney where all of the birds have just gotten used to people feeding them. There were lots of these little guys and they were all hungry as could be. Some of them even got a little nasty about it - thankfully towards each other and not to any of the kids. But the kids had a great time giving them breakfast.

Shortly after breakfast the kayaks were out. Alicia got the first turn with our friend Wendi and even got to paddle by herself for a little while.

Ryan waited not so patiently on the dock.
At last Daddy got set up and took Ry out. They were greeted by some of their morning friends.
Later that day we went to a nearby playground. Most of the grown-ups played Ultimate Frisbee while the kids enjoyed the swings, jungle gym and this great slide.

So sad to have to say goodbye to everyone that night after dinner!

Swimming Lessons

For at least the past year Alicia's narrowed down her goal in life to one very specific thing - she wants to be a simming teacher when she grows up. All else is secondary. Finally this summer we got everything together to actually enroll her in two sessions of swimming lessons at the local town pool. We still decided not to torture the instructors yet with Ryan. He's still got that bit of attitude where I could see him trying to prove himself by just jumping in over his head when no one was looking. Overall he seemed to accept his fate pretty well as long as I kept him supplied with snacks and toys for the half hour.


This was just after one of her first days of lessons. She was so happy. It was even more special because one of her friends from Kindergarten and her little sister were the other two kids in her group. The three of them had a blast together.


Getting ready for swimming on another day. She actually informed me that having the swim lessons made her summer so much happier. I think it really helped her to have something to look forward to every day.

At first the girls were all pretty scared of the diving board. They would cautiously tiptoe out to the end and then hurry off of it as quickly as they could, all the time trying not to look down. After a couple of days though they finally got up the courage to let one of their instructors drop them down to the other. By the end of the two sessions Alicia was jumping off the side of the back wall to them.

I have to give her credit for courage. She really isn't a natural swimmer and she's terrified of the water. It's probably one of the greatest challenges that I've seen her try to take up for herself. She even stuck by it when her friend moved up to the next level after the first session and she was the oldest of her new group that had her, 1-5 year old, 1-4 year old, and two little girls who were probably Ryan's age. At the end of the two weeks she still couldn't swim by herself (I think at that point it was mostly her water fear holding her back) but she did lap around the shallow end section twice with just the kickboard and once with the noodle.

I still wonder how she decided so intently on becoming a swimming teacher but even after the challenges of the lessons it's still what she says she wants to do. She's anxiously awaiting next summer when she gets to go for it again. Maybe next year Ryan will be ready for some too.

It is time...

Okay, so I figure it's about time I get off my bum and actually update this thing. Since there are so many posts to catch up on I'm going for at least 1 update a day until we get caught up. I know this doesn't sound like much. Unfortunatly nearly every moment of computer time that I have to check my e-mail, update and see whateveryone's doing on Facebook, look up stuff, or try to work on Primary stuff or pretty much anything else, comes as the result of a battle between Ryan and I for it. He's pretty much addicted to PBSkids.org I'm working on breaking him of it. I'm still torn though because it does keep him nicely occupied and he's learned quite a bit from it. They really have some terriffic games. Anyways, so I am hoping to actually catch up soon!