out with the old...

Since the year is coming to an end and everything...I figured now was as good a time as any to talk about the stuff we did at the end of this year.

October

 The Pups started tennis lessons. The Elder loved it. The younger, not so much.

 We did our annual trip to Holmberg's Orchards to pick apples.

We also went to Rhinebeck, New York for the Sheep and Wool Festival.  Good times.

They both started piano lessons with a musician who plays violin and viola for the local orchestra.  They like it lots.

The kids were ghosts for Halloween.  Pup 1.0 didn't want to dress up at all until he realized that no costumery meant no trick-or-treating.  Then he co-opted 2.0's great plan.  A ghost. 

Yeah, I don't know either.  Turns out, it didn't matter because hurrican Sandy canceled Halloween in our town and we had no power for a few days. 

We lost two trees, but ultimately, we didn't have much to complain about.

Soccer.

 

November

 I had a rare books conference to attend in Philadelphia so the whole family went down for a few days. Fun times.

 Thanksgiving was quiet. Just us at home.

 

December

 Seal Pup the younger had a birthday.

We got a Christmas tree.

The kids had deep discussion with Santa Claus about Star Wars Lego toys and airplanes.

And we celebrated Christmas with gifts and such; but there was also church and the singing.

Oh, and there was a snow storm two days ago.  There's still a bunch of snow on the ground.

 

There.  All caught up.  See you next year!

labors of a weekend

How did you celebrate the unofficial end of summer?  Our Labor Day Weekend, this year, was spent building a playyard/playscape.  My mom got this thing for the kids and it sat in the garage for a while after we realized that there were 999 bajillion pieces.  Papa made it a goal to finish this thing by the end of the weekend.  And he did!

Obviously, the kids are big fans.  As our some of the other kids int he neighborhood.  It was a slowgoing process, should you want a glimpse of it, Papa put together this video for your viewing entertainment.  To see it bigger, go to flickr.

we're going back, back, back to school

Guess who's in first grade now!

Yep, that guy!

The first week of school is done.  "First grade is going to be great!" Pup, the Elder has decided that he "would like to work on improving reading and writing skills this year, you know, since the maths and science skills are all good right now."  Yeah.  Pup, the Younger, he's still in Pre-K, he did start a new class though, and he's pretty excited about it.  They have been doing a camping unit.  He is all about campfires, tents and smores right now.  Pretty funny, considering he has never actually been camping.

summer wind down

After our trip to California we were busy doing all sorts of things.

We picked plums from our plum tree and canned it (because that's the kind of people we are...the throw it in a jar and see how it tastes, kind).

There were lots of trips to the playground.

My mom bought the boys a playground set thing.  Papa thought it could be built in a day; much like Rome, that was not the case.

We are still working on it.  It might get built by the middle of fall?  Maybe?

 We went to Lake Compounce to celebrate Coast Guard Day (annual tradition!).

 The kids were occupied with preschoold (the Seal Pup 2.0) and various camps.  Seal Pup 1.0's favorite was Arts Camp.  There was drawing, circus and theater arts.  There was performance at the end of the week.  Pretty good stuff.

Child the Elder and I went to an art museum before braving the Outlets shopping crowd for school clothes during Connecticut tax free week (a big deal).

And the biggest news of all?  Seal Pup 1.0, learned how to ride his bicycle without training wheels.  To quote Papa: "so it takes approximately 2 to 3 hours to teach your kid to ride a bicycle without traning wheels.  I Googled it.  There's a You Tube video."  Of course you did.  Of course there is.

It was a good summer.

 

california dreamin' (2012)

I dropped the ball again.  My busy-ness aside, I wanted to share some California happiness while it's still summer.  We made our annual trek to southern California last month and as always, we had a blast.

The kids had fun with their cousins, which is awesome.

More pictures in flickr.

a really big deal

So we are taking off on our big summer adventure today (to California).  While we generate stuff to share, chew on this: Seal Pup 2.0's new car throne is a booster.  "It's not a car seat, it's a big kid's seat!"  Sure. 

See you in a week!

early summer ketchup

Since everything we did in June can be summed up in one post.  I will do that.  So June... we watched some sunsets. 

Seal Pup 1.0 finished kindergarten.  We celebrated Father's Day.  We went strawberry picking.  I went to San Diego by myself for a conference.

We went to Lake Compounce (to take advantage of a few free passes we received last year). 

memorial day 2012

Normally, we don't do terribly much for Memorial Day.  This year we went to our local/town parade, mostly because SP 1.0 was marching in it.  His little league baseball team was one of many that marched their little hearts out.

There were other people marching, too.

More pictures in flickr.

we did that sheep thing in may, too

I dropped the ball here, again.  Since we have our big family trip coming up, I figured I could spend a few days getting things squared away here.

Back in May (before my birthday) we went to the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival (as we usually do).  We saw sheep.  We pet them.  We ate them. 

And then we bought some of their wool.  Pretty exciting stuff, really.

More pictures in flickr.

just another birthday...

I celebrated another birthday today.  We did it with style and panache (and presents!!), and a fair amount of nerdification, because that, my friends, it how we roll.

After gifts and singing, we went to a library book sale in New London, Connecticut.  I am not going to lie, finding a pickling book for $1 pretty much made it worth the trip there for me, it was like the New London Public Library gave me a birthday gift (with a minimal service charge).

And then we went to the circus.  This wasn't necessarily my original plan, it just happened to be when we were all available to go.  And Papa figured if he had to suffer through it, I should have the privilege as well.  The Pups loved it though, so there's that.

And then Papa and the pups gave me the gift of time.  I dyed a bunch of wool and took a bunch of pictures, effectively knocking out requirements for two classes.  While I was being productive and academic they made me a birthday cake.

It was a great day.

second verse, same as the first

We all trekked to Providence, Rhode Island last weekend for one more studio shoot in RISD's photo lab.  It was a good time.

 A few more studio shots in flickr.