school

How could I forget to mention my kids started school?! Both of them!! 

Abby is at a waldorf kindergarten in our neighborhood. She goes 4xs a week and is absolutely in love with the whole experience. She cannot wait for school days. They are divided up into Bread Day, Handcraft Day, Soup Day, and Painting Day. I'll have to post pictures of school. For now, suffice to say she loves it so much. Oh, and when I got home from Colorado, Abby informed me she learned how to read. Which she sort of did.

Matthias... poor boy, does not have a first day of school picture. What sort of mother am I?! He goes 2xs a week to the YMCA and is equally in love with his school experience. His class has 8 two year old boys in it and 1 girl. It is exactly what Tai tai needs seeing that he only ever hangs out with older girls (besides his cousins). They go to the gym every day and get sweaty and it couldn't be more perfect. He is also coming with me to "Bible School" which is a community Bible Study in a nearby church. We are memorizing bible verses together, and he loves that too.

I also started school (also no picture, sorry :). So far so good. Right now we are on the track to send our kids to public schools and hoping I might be able to teach.   Next year we will have to choose between River North again and kindergarten.  Either way, we hope eventually that they might get into the bilingual school in our neighborhood so I've started talking in spanish at home a lot more!!

For now, we are enjoying every minute we have with together and we are doing everything like long picnic lunches, afternoons at the parks, play dates with friends, museum trips, etc.... and still getting to bed by 7:30!

September!

Never a dull moment... heres to the end of August and September...

 Tai tai and I went on a trip to coloado. We got to visit all our old friends out there and also be with our family!  We stayed with mom and jamie and chris and got to spend lots of time with the Cornells too. 

Our old chickens! Still clucking!

 The Denver Zoo, still awesome as ever!

 Stapleton pools, so good! It was fall here in NY when I left. It was still 90-100 in Denver when I arrived!

 Hike with the family during labor day... rattle snake!!  We saw two on the hike, but this was the big one.

 I love hanging out by water with my kids. 

 No one out east believes me when I tell them you are allowed to play in the fountains in Denver. It's inconcievable to north easteners that there are people that laid back in the world. 

Mom gave Tai tai the best little party ever. This was his pinata. So awesome! 

 Back at home, our free stored opened! Abby decided to sell free lemonade. After Tai tai knocked the first pitcher over, the second pitcher sold out quickly!

 These are the shelves some men from another church built for us. They are awesome! We cover them with sheets during the week when the store is not open.

 We got our own little blast of summer back and pulled out the slip and slide one last time. Abby had a great summer with this gang of girls to hang out with!

 Tai tai turned 2 duing a trip to Pittsburgh for a family wedding. We used the wedding cupcakes to be his birthday cake and had a little celebration that morning in the hotel lobby.

 Unicorn Tai tai. Awesome.

Back at home Matthew and I are getting ready for the long winter indoors. We have been stripping wall paper in the dining room and just recently took the doors off to the butler pantry and kitchen. We're taking suggestions for light colors to put above the green. The tan currently there is just the wall behind the wallpaper. Thanks!!

All Summer In A Day..

 Apparently I've neglected maintaining a blog this summer. Fair trade for keeping a garden? Or hosting and playing with wonderful family and friends for months at a time?!  

A brief update:

 Rochester's big Lilac festival was fun in a consumer-sort-of-way. We actually enjoyed the lilacs much better without the crowds and wafting fried smells and venders all over them. 

 The Strong Museum of Play was an air-conditioned summer wonder.  Especially with friends like Olivia, an out-of-this-world display of fairy houses, and an updated Wegmans for kids.

 We ended Lilac Children's Garden, aka, abby's hippy parent/child school. We continued to have occasional summer gatherings though! And, we finished up our time watching our small charge, Maddie.

 Abby was in a family friend's wedding!  She loved dressing up and did great.

 We made a number of trips to Barker. A small amusement park with 25cent rides was a favorite mini trip while at the camp.  We went once with Matt and Jess and once with the Denver Cornells!

 Tea Party to celebrate Abby and Lori's birthday's... a day apart!

And then we actually celebrated Abby with a big butterfly birthday party! She may not be getting another one of those for a loooong time. 

 G-pa's artistic touch!

 Next, a trip to see old coworker and great friend Carrie, Clyde and their daughter Zawadi! We miss our friends from all over map so very much.

 Abby got her hair African braided by our old friends the Kelleh's!!  It was ssoo great to see everyone in North Carolina again!

Abby was so happy to go on her own special trip... and also so happy to come home to her Tai tai and Daddy! 

Joel Bri and Kids came to NY for a week... from which i have not one single picture since my camera was out of comission. Since there were always photos being taken, i assumed i would end up with some. Incorrect as of this posting.

Next we spent a week at our Lake Ontario Cottage (Barker) for Family Camp which was so lovely. Better than I had imagined it would be for our hearts, souls, bodies. Abby rode her bike like crazy, made new friends and LOVED sunday school (which was good since it was 2xs a day!!)

 The day after we got home, Grunerts arrived and stayed a few weeks to celebrate Miles, play, and live every day life with us! Happy, happy, joy, joy!

 All the time, the garden is blooming! We got dozens of zuchinni, endless cherry and roma tomatoes, cucumbers, chard, lettuce, one crop of string beans, many pickings of snow peas, and now we are starting on the eggplant and compost plants of butternut squash!  Our CSA has been great fun and deliciousness too. 

 Mom came a week after Grunerts to celebrate her Grandma's 100th birthday! Here are the generations! She stayed 2 weeks and we had many adventures in there, including her watching both kids for 4 days so I could tag along with matthew on a work conference in Baltimore (and visit Chris and his new boat!!)

 We fit in some baseball games. Tai tai is screaming for fear of the mascot here. Classic.

 Abby's super into Little House on the Prarie. Super times!! We visited Genesee country museum which was also stellar. Making corn flour, cheese, butter, quilts, old time baseball. Awesome.

 Our last hurrah as a whole family was a trip to Vermont with Matthew's family to Smuggler's Notch. We took a ferry across lake Champlain. Next, we fell in love with Vermont. 

 The place couldn't have been better, we horseback rode, swam lots, hiked, played in rivers, played putt putt golf, ping ponged, bouncy housed, and more. But the best part was all being able to stay in the same place and just being with family for 4 days.  

 Tai tai is petitioning to be a big brother! (here seen with the newest cousin, Eliza Mae). He's obsessed with babies and how they come out of tummies. He keeps pointing to mine and informing me there is a baby inside. (there is not and i refuse to take it personally)

 river walks! dam building and carin making included...

 and our little water fairy in her workshop

 one of the crazy great pools!

and then we came home! to harvest!  Abby is now finishing up her summer swimming lessons, did a week of VBS and Tai tai and I are headed out to Colorado next week. After that school begins for everyone in our family except Matthew! (wow, that's a first!) More to come later!

may photo essay

 We got to celebrate mother's day with old Grandma and Grandpa cornell as well as Gma and Gpa!

 Abby's self portrait. These shoes are her most beloved posession. Thanks to mom and all the attention she gets when wearing them!

 My portrait of abby :)

 and tai tai, who recently decided he was done being a passive observer of the verbal world and began talking. 

 the lilac festival happened!!! 2 blocks away from me! for 10 days straight!!! We went many times and they were all awesome.

 Our year of 2xs weekly visits from uncle aaron are over now that spring is here. But they were one of the best parts of our first year here in NY.

 Abby saw the "meet olivia" poster at the museum and made me put it on the calendar and take her. She was so cute as we looked around for her, abby was reflecting how she was both nervous and excited. Funny to see her reflect on her self like that. 

 Del and Mark have monday night pot lucks that we get to now and then. It is always a joy for abby and matthias when we do. They are bawking like chickens here. As loud as possible.  

 Abby's Lilac Garden school ended but we continued the next week at our house! 

 Abby was in a family friend's wedding! She did a great job, maybe thanks to big cousin Nathan holding her hand down the aisle!

 but kisses? no way!

 After the wedding, the kids and I went to Barker while matthew stayed home, worked and relaxed.

 The highlight of Barker for the kids was probably going to Olcott where there were tons of perfect kiddie rides for 25 cents each! They did such a good job!!! Especially Tai tai, who i was pretty worried would get a little nervous and try to exit early. Nope, he enjoyed himself like all the rest of the kids!

 even up high!

especially in the cars!  Lucky little kids. Thanks for the rides and snacks Gpa!