Soccer

We are a few weeks into soccer season for Allison. She seems to like it pretty well. Their team got assigned the brightest color...


Allison is #6. This was this past week's game. Brian took Allison to the game and said she got her foot on the ball quite a few times. Jacob and I actually went to walk a 5K (Jacob strollered) with a few friends and then Jacob did a kids fun run.

The game, I guess, went better than the first game where she picked a dandelion for the ref and managed to get tangled in the net. She did fall and twist her ankle at the end of the game this week, but it's better now. Tonight she was practicing her kicks in the front yard.

Here is her team. It's a mix of kindergarteners and 1st graders. The two girls in the back row on the left are in Allison's class. The girl sitting in front of Allison is our neighbor. Most of the girls are from either Allison's elementary school or the school from the next neighborhood over.

Back to School

We've gone back to school! Allison started back on Sept 2nd. I think she likes her teacher. Her class is big (30 students!). There were three small (18 students) kindergarten classes last year that they consolidated into two 1st grades (referendum didn't pass in Feb).

She was excited to be back with her friends, though. And so far, the reports coming home have been pretty good.



Jacob is excited to be back to school too. Fortunately, his friend Dominic is back two days a week, and he gets to see Matt in the afternoons. Menasha has 4-K, and so many of his friends are not at Children's Center this year. He did get to play with his much-missed friend Kaden over Labor Day weekend.

Disney

It's not possible to post all 300 pictures that we took - but here are some highlights.



Kids and the castle. I think that was actually one of our last days.


Here we are with Goofy in our Goofy t-shirts. There was also a picture from the back to see the "I'm with Goofy," but I was wearing the backpack and had backpack sweat lines. It was hot most of the time we were there - but only a few days were super hot.



Jacob at the Star Wars ride at Hollywood Studios. Jacob loved the roller coasters. Allison loved the carousel and many of the "dark" rides (It's a Small World, Winnie the Pooh, Peter Pan's Flight, Nemo).


Here are the kids at Hollywood Studios.


Spaceship Earth! Epcot was actually a little disappointing, especially since we were looking forward to it. The lines were long and the attractions were so-so. The food was good, though.



Meeting Mickey Mouse!


Jacob loved the Nemo fish sculpture.


Allison loved the princess breakfast at Cinderella's castle. We went the first morning. The breakfast was huge. Allison loved meeting all the princesses.



Brian and the kids in one of the 3D movies. We saw several, some much better than others. Jacob loved them, Allison had mixed feelings.

Bye-bye Tuesday

I think of all the parts of summer, I will miss Tuesdays. Since June, the kids and I have had the same Tuesday morning routine - swimming lessons, coffee/snack downtown, followed by a trip to the library. Sometimes we'll top it off with lunch at Bela's infinite cereal bar, and on really great days we have to swing by the bank which lands the kids a dumdum sucker.

I remember when Allison was a baby I used to scoff at routines. Perhaps it was the barrage of parenting magazine articles about parent-directed scheduling and baby routines which seemed destined to turn you into one of those cookie-cutter, dull, "my Susie is already playing Chopin" parents. Even now, though the YMCA program guide looks so appealing, I hesitate to enroll the kids in more than swimming + one other weekly commitment.

But I think perhaps I was confusing 'routines' with 'schedules.' 'Schedules' are full of stress and now require the computing power of google for me to keep track of what they all entail. Routines, on the other hand, are the neat little predictable things that you learn when you repeat something on a regular basis. For example, my former student works at Brewed Awakenings every other Tuesday. The guy who works every Tuesday now gives the kids a little extra gelato because one day I bought coffee for a women who forgot her wallet. There is a group of older women who have also made Tuesday mornings a coffee/snack time. We run into school friends at the library, and we relish the opportunity to refill the "quiet time" DVD coffers for the week. The kids know what's coming and instantly head off to the "yellow sign" when we come out of the Y. The kids are also usually on good behavior because they know treats, books, and computer time comes when things go well.

When Mom visited in June, she called our Tuesday "very busy." Perhaps it is. Perhaps it's even "scheduled." But I love our Tuesdays. I love our routine. And I will miss it until next summer.

Paddling around

Had a great day today - took the boats over to Hartman Creek for some kayaking. We paddled back to Marl Lake and went swimming with the kids and packed a picnic lunch. The promised 94 degree heat didn't quite show up - which was ok except that the spring-fed lake seemed kindof cold.

Jacob tried out his remote control fishin buddy boat. He launched it for a while from the dock and later he and Allison were running it from the kayaks. He liked it - but we did not tie the fishing hooks to it so I don't know what'll happen if/when it catches a fish.

Two kids were sleeping in the car on the way home. We decided to keep the boats down out of the rafters in the hopes that we'll get in again later this week. It's so nice to paddle along and listen to birds and watch the turtles, geese, fish, and dragonflies.

Back to School, Already?

We went school supply shopping yesterday. I think Allison was excited, and the kids were notably well-behaved in Target. We still need to get gym shoes (which must be left at school) and black expo markers and a 12x18 inch drawing pad. I found 12x16 inch and wondered if that was acceptable - but figured I could try another store before going "non-standard." Last year, the big search was for "bingo-dobbers."

It's weird that next year I'll be buying supplies for two. Fortunately, we don't need to do a lot of clothes shopping this year. I will probably look for some clothes for Allison, but Jacob moved up a size late winter / early spring, most of which still fit.

It still seems early to be school shopping, but next Friday we leave for Disney and then when we come back, Jacob and I go back to school.

Maine

Brian and I managed a get-away sans kids (thanks to Grandma Sue) to Bar Harbor / Acadia National Park in Maine. We packed a lot into our few days there. We had a great time, and maybe in a few years we'll return and bring the kids with us.

We rented bikes one day and rode along the carriage trails in the park to a place called Jordon Pond, which is famous for it's pop-overs. They had very good and exceptionally fresh food - as I got a free meal due to the caterpillar that I found wandering through my salad.

Here's us at the pond with the mountains in the background:


That night we also made reservations to take a sunset sea kayak tour of the harbor. Unfortunately, it rained, so we were very wet.



The next day we explored the some parts of the island recommended by the B&B innkeepers. We found this "you may enter cautiously at low tide" sea cave, which we entered at low tide and both managed to slip and fall in.



Then, not realizing we were choosing the "adventure" parts of the recommended stops, we climbed the Beehive. Here it is from the bottom:


Here it is mid-way up. This was a "ladder" climb, which meant they had graciously anchored metal rungs and ladders along parts of the trail. We still found ourselves clinging to the side in a few places - as you can see the "ladder" in the image. (Erica - I do not know how you rock climb).



Here is us celebrating at the top - where we dined on wild blueberries. Yum.