First Day Of School

We're both in Big Kid School now!

Ryan got his first pictures with the dolphin.

We like our awesome teachers. 

And we lucked out with good friends in our classes.

First day of school dropoff was pretty easy, since we had come to meet the teacher the day before:

Third grade was a smooth transition for me.

It was a big first week- new school, new teachers, new martial arts aftershool.

By the end of the week, one of us was very tired.

There were a couple of mornings where one of us didn't want to go to school.

The Kindergarten Clap In parade was cool- the whole school and all our parents line up to clap for us. The Fifth Grade Clap Out parade is another sweet tradition.

Kindergarten was trickier than expected, it seemed like it should be fun, but mostly it's an exercise in self control.

Six hours of sitting still, being quiet, and doing district-mandated curriculum with only 30 minutes on the playground is kind of a bummer. 

But this is the world we live in, and the school we take tests in, so we settled into a morning routine, having breakfast in the cafeteria,

 

and adjusted to the new expectations. 

We've grown so much since my first day of Kindergarten!

Summer

It's been a busy summer, in the best way. We settled into our new house, 

and said goodbye to our school/afterschool of the last 4 years.

It definitely feels like one of those major life transitions.

We did fun stuff, too, like a Tampa Yankees game for our friends' birthday party.

We welcomed the new delicious cupcake bakery.

Toured the tourist favorite sponge docks.

And enjoyed being back in our old neighborhood with our favorite old friends. 

Mom called this the summer of hospitality. She is so happy to have a place where all of our friends can come have fun!

Happy Summer!

AMI Amateur Photography Night

We dragged Catherine out at sunset for our tradition of Trying To Capture the Christmas Card Picture.

This could be the one.

Kalyn got the best pictures of this little runner on her cell phone. Catherine was too fast for Mom and Papa's old fashioned cameras!

We managed to get a couple of great cousin shots.

With some secret help from Aunt Joy!

This sweet little girl was patient with us, and let us know when she was all done.

She never even saw the master photo bomber.

This nut job got special time with Nana, having a luxurious bubble bath in the master bath.

Because he wants to do everything exactly the same way Kelsey gets to do it.

One day he'll be big enough to spend a morning with the old boys playing golf, talking about the Patriots and Red Sox.

Lucky for him, he comes from a long line of excellent Dads.

Including the excellent Dads who married into the family.

And excellent Aunties. Aunt Julie and Aunt Christina are best of the best, beloved by all.

Because they buy games like Jelly Belly Bean Boozled- a jelly bean game where you try a jelly bean, and you don't know if it will taste like lemons or boogers, berries or skunks, popcorn or sweaty shoes. 

And they know how to do wicked awesome French braids.

It's difficult to leave the rental house and say goodbye to vacation. But it's easier when Nana provides comic relief on the caravan drive home. Like when she gets out of the car to say hi in the Dunkin Donuts drive through.

This year they were all able to stay one night in our new house and our NEW AWESOME GUEST ROOM before flying back to Boston the next day.

I hope they come down to our new guest room a million times a year.