1st Day of School

First Grade and Kindergarten! A successful start back to school for both H and P! With a wonderful, full summer behind us, we're now back in school mode...a 7 pm bedtime made for an easygoing morning and timely departure this morning. Drop off for Hugo is at 8:10; we then calmly can make our way across the field to Peanut's new school. So sweet, the first thing Portia asked when we entered her classroom was, "Where's the window where I can see Hugo's school?" Her new school overlooks his. She then happily announced that her "best friend in the galaxy" is at her new school. 1st grade indeed feels more like 'school' than kindergarten did, but Hugo's ready and excited for the new chapter. He said first thing this morning coming into our room, "First day of school, Mama" and seemed sweetly ready for the day to start. Portia was thankfully up by 7:30 unlike her typical 8:30-9:00 rise. She chose her dress, ate a quick breakfast and off we four were on our bikes. (Portia made it all the way up the Highland St hill, without a push and without gears!) Mercifully kindergarten pick up is at 12:30 to ease ME into this whole new routine of childlessness. I don't get to see my Chach until 3. 3 hours and 14 minutes to go.

Yesterday's 1 hour orientation...peeking in to the new space


New classmates and a bucket of Legos...off to a good start


Morning of the First Day back






No push!


New friends

Best Pals

A Day with Connie

How glad we were to have Auntie Connie visiting from distant Singapore for the day! We enjoyed her visit so much and just wish it could have been a bit longer. Thank you for making the trip! Portia, in particular, ate up every minute of the fancy tea party. And what a fun boat trip, despite the overcast skies. Until next time in Singapore!

Watch Hill

What a beach day! Amazing surf, finest sand beaches- all within an hour's drive. Such a fun day filled with crashing waves, sand castles, ice cream and togetherness. With the impending onset of school, today felt like an especially enormous treat.

Fishin'

6 weeks later and now finally back in blog swing. Germany pix forthcoming. Procrastination was supposed to leave this house along with the bats...(yeah, bats. "They're baaaack." Or were, I should say. We are now 'post-exclusion' and, we are told, bat free. Nighmare. But thankfully OVER.) In the meanwhile, 2 weeks since our return, H and P have continued with an awesome camp experience, perfecting swimming, diving and tennis skills- and just generally having a lot of fun. And it somehow got to be Aug 15, putting us 2 weeks away from the start of another school year. Time for Mama to gear up.

Boppy had the swell (to borrow from Uncle Teddy) idea to introduce the children to fishing. No fisher(wo)men in this family to date. And, as of today, thanks to a Walmart fishing rod, some cooperative fish & a nice cool afternoon, we have two gung-ho newcomers to the 'sport.' Each victim was spared a sad fate and tossed back into the lake making the whole experience just a fun game. Thank you, Boppa, for a great idea and a great day!!

Checking out the biting scene. Not sure about this whole fishing thing yet.


A little skittish. Hooking the worm seems so...brutal.




Meanwhile, 10 feet away, easing her way into the whole ordeal








Surfing could totally be next




First catch of the day


Mimi's first catch!


Chachi's first catch!