4th and 2nd

And here we go again!! The 2016-17 school year has begun. The 1st day was a bit rainy here and there but we got a 5 minute dry window as the bus arrived. We are grateful Ms Laura has returned for her third year as our bus driver - she's delightful & patient and we adore her so much. 

I was trying to get the children to hold up 4 fingers and 2 fingers to indicate their grades, this was the best pic out of 20. Emma-lemma-ding-dong indeed. At least my wingman is still giving me giant smooches and blowing me kisses as the bus pulls away! ❤️

Two weeks in and I think we are going to have a winner winner chicken dinner year. Em is thrilled to be back in class w her BFF (not since K) - it's actually amazing to know these girls are still BFFs after 4+ years. That's true friendship right there. I really like her teacher, she is tough but has a huge sense of humor which is something Em can relate to. Ben's inclusion class teachers are the perfect mix for him. Daddy & I have already met with them for a quickie 25 minute game planning session. They GET him. They LOVE his quirks as much as we do. And we are confident he will thrive under their tutelage. 

Mommy has dove back into running doing 4 and 5 mile courses. I'm scared to death of the 15k I signed up for in October. 9+ miles of hills. I'm confident I'll finish, but will I finish in the allotted time??? That remains to be seen! ...giggle

Winding down

As Summer winds down, we are taking advantage of our Village fun as much as possible. You know, things like eating ice cream on the last Wednesday night of live music at the brewery.

Thank goodness Wendy's serves frosties year round! #happy

We hadn't been out on the pier all Summer! How'd we miss this??? So of course we needed to mark our territory with cart wheels and round offs...

Em busted out her too small roller skates and toured the neighborhood stopping only to teach daddy how to correctly use a bow staff in our backyard. 

We decided this day to tour the neighborhood on scooters! Daddy is an absolute champion riding with the kids - I walked briskly behind. Our neighborhood is all hills, so they got a good lesson in speed and braking! Daddy's gluteus muscles we quick sore the next day - pretty good work out!

Ben has fallen in love with Calvin & Hobbes. We discovered these books after cleaning out the basement one humid & hot Sunday morning - the basement is the coolest place, so we had a good excuse to just get it done finally. 6 boxes of trash later... and our basement is tidy again!

Of course we had to take advantage of the warm waters of the Sound in the end of August. Ben loves to lay at the edge of the water and let the waves plow into him and take him where they may... Sensory much?

Daddy was the hit of the beach party teaching all the kiddos to fish. We caught tons of porgies this day and had the yummiest ceviche for dinner!

Sunset... We are so very blessed!! And Ben is blessed because he got to eat doritos at sunset.

Our tomboy...

Don't goooooooo, Summer! We love being lazy with you!!