Days Are Long

The days are long, and sometimes opening your email can be the worst part of your day.

Then again, sometimes you open your email and find pictures of your daughter happily playing, having lunch with "the big girls," painting, and learning to write her name at school. Those are the emails that you are happy to open:

Reading

There have been times that Lucy has grown frustrated with attempts to sound out words or to find the letters that spell a particular word she is trying to write.

Those frustrations seem to have dissipated since beginning kindergarten at my school. She has "homework" each night (a concept that I will admit that I do have issues with) but this homework has proven to be a positive experience each night as she shows us what she has learned that day about math and phonics.

Most recently, Lucy read me her first book by herself. While this is a big occurrence anyway, it was especially sweet because she has been so upset in the past with attempts to read.

Here she is alone and with her sister:

Not shockingly, Lucy goes to a great school with amazing teachers that encourage her to enjoy learning. I am so in awe of those teachers, and that smile on Lucy's face can easily be attributed to their care and encouragement.

Cookie

Cookie visited last weekend. I totally dropped the ball in terms of taking pictures, but I did manage to snap this one on Sunday night.

No one is happier than Lucy when she is snuggled with one of her grandparents:

Bikes

When we bought our house we were well aware that it was on a busy street. We have a big fenced in backyard, and so we felt okay about the girls not being able to play out in front of the house much. They haven't noticed at all with the exception of the fact that they can't ride their bikes at home. (Our old house had zero yard but had a completely paved "backyard" that could accommodate a lot of bike riding.)

Lucy got a new helmet today (because she has a massive head) and so we took the opportunity to bring the girls to a local school to ride in the empty parking lot. Caroline inherited Cousin Cooper's shark helmet, and so everyone was excited to enjoy the beautiful evening and sport some new accessories.

Near collision

The collisions happened because this is how Caroline
rides her bike at all times: staring at the pedals.

Time to rehydrate

A dad with his ladies

Focus

Here is a picture from last year that I just found of Lucy in school.

Now that is some focus:

Nana Visit - Revisited

When Nana visited about a month ago, we did some really fun things. We made apple crisp and visited an awesome orchard. We also took some time to visit Plymouth, MA and see the (really unimpressive) Plymouth Rock while trying to kill some time to allow Nana to visit with Great Aunt Lois.

It ended with a trip to the candy store, so no one in the family was really complaining.

Steve trying to explain the significance of the rock

Candy!

Summer Revisted - Part 1

I must admit that I was neglecting the blog a bit as I tried to soak in the last few weeks of summer before things got crazy with classes, Lucy's soccer, Steve's football, etc.

While I was away we did some fun things including going to an orchard in Massachusetts. There was a train to ride around with the kids, a playground, a small petting zoo, a bouncy house, a snack bar, and a boatload of apples, peaches, and other fruit. The pictures are below. It was a fun trip, and I bet it's a great (and incredibly) busy place to be in the fall.