Flower Girl Reunion

Lucy and co-flower girl, Summer, got to reconnect this past weekend at Butternut:

The girls had a blast on the mountain together, chasing each other down greens and even a couple of blues.  I had to coach them not to ski too close to others or go so fast they couldn't stop safely, which they mostly succeeded at.

It was a great day on the slopes, and fun for the whole group to connect for a day.  We're looking forward to another reunion soon!

Literary Lucy

Lucy has been quite taken with notebooks and notepaper lately. We found these two notes in her room recently:




The note on the left could be the start of an amazing memoir. The one in the right is clearly influenced by the current police/safety unit at school, with "polels" being police.

Ice Cream!

It's a balmy 37 degrees in our neck of the woods, so we decided to get ice cream this afternoon!

Summer Updates

Whew!  What a nice summer we had.  From celebrating the 4th of July in Maine with second cousins:

To flying to Maryland with Uncle Henry, Aunt Tina, and Grammy to visit Grandma and see more second cousins.  

 (Griffin's mischievous side is on display here and has been simultaneously delightful and devilish to deal with)

To time in the Berkshires with Eema and Saba for kayaking and cuddles:

To saying goodbye to lifelong friends:

To a surprise trip to Disney, where Lucy went on ALL the scary rides (and liked some, such as Splash Mountain, more than others):

To some down time in Maine:

And finally back to school (see Griffin's start from yesterday):

Griffin Goes to School!

Griffin started pre-school last week, and the teachers sent us some snapshots of his first few days. Here he is, deep in concentration:




Griffin seems to be coming into his own a lot these days. He's articulating his words (and with them, his opinions!) much more, and we think he's going to really thrive at school.

First Day of Camp

Lucy had her first day of camp today, and said it was a GREAT day.  She took first prize in Jewish culture, got to swim in the lake, and rode a school bus to and from camp.  It's her second summer here, and so far it's looking good!

Griffin, Lucy and I visited yesterday to meet her counselors and drop a few things off in her cubby.  Lucy's former pre-school teacher, Staci, oversees the Pre-K to 1st graders at camp.  She and Lucy exchanged a great big hug since they haven't seen each other since last summer.  Griffin wanted in and raced up to give her a huge hug as well, even though he doesn't really know Staci.  It was pretty cute.

Here's Lucy enjoying some time with a counselor:

The Tooth Fairy Has Landed!

Both Lucy and Griffin were on the later side of normal in getting their baby teeth, but Lucy has already started losing them!  I thought they'd be hanging on for much longer.  

Last week, Eema and Saba took Lucy to Colonial Williamsburg.  She left with all her teeth, though two were pretty wiggly, and one day we got the following photo by text:

The Williamsburg tooth fairy brought Lucy a fabulous pink change purse, and $1.  Lucy used 99 cents of that dollar to buy a pack of buffalo goldfish puffs.  Today, I got the following note via Maily:

From what I understand, Lucy sent similar messages to several folks.  To be clear, she only lost one tooth today, but it was her second one.

Comings & Goings

We've had a very exciting month!  Henry and Tina got married on May 18, and we all joined them at Gedney Farm to celebrate:

Lucy was a flower girl, along with Tina's niece, Summer:

We're all still aglow from what a wonderful wedding it was!

This past weekend, we were back in the Berkshires for Memorial Day weekend.  It was much colder and rainy, but that didn't stop Elliot and me from running a half marathon.  Here we are at mile 11.5, enjoying our cheering squad:

Morning Reading

Griffin has gotten really into books lately. He can't actually read anything, of course, but that doesn't stop him from trying:




According to Griffin, the plot of this book boiled down to: "Lions say roar!" and "Look, Mommy, a snake!!"

Lucy, meanwhile, is reading for real. She's been devouring chapter books such as Junie B. Jones and Ivy and Bean. It's awesome to see her get engrossed in these stories.

Tina's Bridal Shower

Tina's sister-in-law, Eve, and I threw her a surprise bridal shower yesterday.  It seemed like she really was surprised:

And we had a great afternoon.  Of course, this isn't the Tina-and-Henry blog!  Lucy made an appearance at the shower:

And got to enjoy a very fancy glass of water:

At the Gym

Most Saturdays, I take the kids to the gym. They have fun playing in the nursery, and I get a good workout in. Here they are on our way out yesterday:




Recently, I've been letting them ride the elevator alone together. It only goes one floor and they're always on it alone, but they feel really independent.

Uncle Henry!

Henry and Tina can over for dinner tonight. Their fan club was very excited, as you can see:

Aquarium

Two posts in one day!  You're not going to know what hit you...

Elliot was working today, so the kids and I had lots of adventures.  The park was great in the afternoon, and we spent the morning at the aquarium:

The main tank is being rehabbed right now, so the aquarium wasn't at its best, but we still had fun touching sting-rays, watching fur seals be trained, and unexpectedly running into Nick, Heidi and Jack.

At the Park

The kids and I took advantage of the less frigid temperatures to spend an hour at the playground this afternoon. Lucy's working on the bars:




Griffin is loving the slide:




And the journey home is adorable too:

As you can see, Griffin still enjoys dogs!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Do you believe in Leprechauns? We hadn't really addressed the question as a family until last night when we had a family sleepover with the Ruters on St. Patrick's Day Eve.

Their son, Eddie, set up an elaborate trap for the leprechaun, and look what happened to it overnight:



"You tried to catch me! But I loved your trap- it was tasty. Hee-hee! I have to pee..."

After a little thinking, the kids found this:




Which was promptly flushed away by Joe, who quite rightly declared it "disgusting!"

The green pee actually convinced Lucy that leprechauns are real, though she later told us that the leprechaun must have dyed his pee green. Apparently green pee defies all belief.

Lucy's working theory is that, since he's so wee, the leprechaun had to get a ladder to reach the food coloring. It's a little unclear why he went to such lengths but we didn't probe too deeply.

And in case you're wondering, Griffin enthusiastically followed all the bigger kids around, but had absolutely no idea what was happening.

Haircuts

Remember us? We've been busy doing all sorts of things since July! Apologies for the lack of blogging. We'll try to get a few more pictures up every now and then.

For instance, today is haircut day:








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Deer!

Griffin and I stumbled upon some deer this evening:




Griffin was a big fan, and the deer were totally fearless.

A Great Time in Maryland

The kids and I went to Maryland to visit Grandma this weekend, along with our indispensable entourage of Grammy, Uncle Henry and (official-next-spring) Aunt Tina. Lucy spent three hours in the pool with Aunt Pam, and was very sad when pool time finally ended.

Of course, there were some other pleasant-enough times:



Including a tasty pizza party:



Griffin and his second-cousin, Hannah, weren't too pleased when their moms ditched them on the porch:




"Griffin, if we stand here by the door and ignore the other grown-ups, do you think our mommies will come back sooner??"

"I dunno, Hannah, but let's not take any chances!"

All-in-all, we had a wonderful time:




Thanks to Tina and Henry for the photos, and to Tina for being so comfy.

Lounging Around

Griffin is all about doing what all the big people around him do:




I'll try to grab some video of his walking skills soon: he's a speed demon these days!

In other news, Lucy has started camp for the first time this summer. The long days are wiping her out, but she loves all the fun things they do, as well as getting to ride the bus. What a big kid she is!!

School's Out

Actually, school's been out for a week.  Lucy has two weeks between the end of pre-school and the beginning of camp, with a few free weeks sprinkled throughout the summer.  Our nanny, Lisa, took the kids to a friend's house today - with a trampoline!  Sure looks fun to me: