Wednesday, August 31, 2011

2nd Grade

WARNING: gratuitous "first day of 2nd Grade picture of Elena" for her grandparents ahead. Her mama thinks she is quite adorable and that she got all her beauty directly from her mama :-P




Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Summertime, summertime, sum, sum...

This morning, I saw my first red tree. A sign of autumn. A little over a month away, but the nights are cool and the trees are starting to think about changing.

So I figured I better blog something about summer then, eh?

When we last met, Dave was celebrating his birthday, yet again. He likes to do this every year. Only this year, he got to go to Las Vegas for the first time. To keep him out of trouble, I sent him with his 70 year old mama. They had a great time and came home with a chunk of change. Unfortunately, now Dave thinks it’s easy to make money in Las Vegas and wants to go back. Soon, honey, soon…!!



Upon his return, we went camping for our inaugural trip this summer to Connecticut. Can’t find one single picture…

Other May highlights included my 7 year old’s first dance. The school calls it the Spring Fling Dance and traditionally the girls invite their daddies. Dave got Elena her first corsage. *Sniff* It was so sweet and they were so adorable. Got their picture in the paper too!





Also in May, the groundbreaking for the new high school took place (inside due to rain). My five year old was chosen to represent the Class of 2024. She attended preschool for the last two years in the existing high school, so the committee included her and another little girl from the Class of 2025. Rachel was a superstar. And she got to keep the golden shovel. She was a bit concerned how she was going to build the whole school however and was quite relieved to find out she didn’t have to. Side story…at dance class, I heard some other parents mocking the groundbreaking and people pulling their kids out to go to it like it was no big deal. Clearly they don’t live in this town, because it is a big deal. This is the school where my children will spend some of their most formative years, not to mention the increase in taxes to pay for it. So, yeah… it IS a big deal, thankyouverymuch!





In June, we had the long awaited dance recital! It was the first recital for both the girls. They were both fabulous and adorable, of course. (Sorry for the blurry, horrid pics.)





In July, we celebrated our country’s birthday by making our annual excursion to Cape Cod, where we stayed with Dave’s sister and her husband. We ate, drank and were generally merry! The weather was perfect at the beach and the company (and the food and the wine!) quite enjoyable. And they let me drive their Jeep around all weekend. Almost made me buy one.





In July, I did have to buy a new car. However, due to the poor mpg of the Jeep, I chose a VW Passat instead. I traded in my 11 year old 2-door Honda Civic (who failed her emissions test) and bought the Passat after much agonizing and debating. Before you go thinking I am a Rockafeller, Otto Von Schnell (his name… what??) is a 2008 with 26,000 miles. However, Otto has more bells and whistles than I thought possible. I am still finding new things and it’s been a month!!

And now it’s August. We did squeeze in a camping trip with another family at the beginning of the month, which was quite a good time!!! I hope they think so too.



We also went to the Bolton Fair and although we did not get to see one oversized vegetable (sorry, Dave), we did enjoy watching the girls have fun on all the rides and spending more money than I thought possible at a small fair…







Now we are getting ready for back to school and Rachel’s first time on the school bus as she starts Kindergarten. It should be quite interesting. I am looking forward to jeans and turtlenecks and maybe a campfire on a chilly night. And a bit of routine again in Laurieville. We’ve been quite lax in that department.

So, cheerio… Will I see you in September or lose you to a summer love? Or should I wake you up when September ends?

Smooches,
Laurie