Summer Fun

Not to be outdone with the summer fun, Marin spent the day with Nona at her friend Mickey's pool. Swimming and a nap....seems like the perfect day to me.

Off to camp!

 

Today is Katie's first official day at camp. She seemed cautious but excited to go, which is how I would be so I guess the apple doesn't fall far from this tree. My coworker's daughter is a camp veteran and starting her third year so she took Katie under her 7-year-old wing.  I can't wait until she gets home to see if she liked it. I think I'm projecting onto her because camp looks so fun that I want to go, too!

 

 

Go Navy! Beat Army!

Chad spoke at Katie's school for "A Veteran in The Classroom" Day. It's their yearly program honoring Veterans Day. He spoke to all four Pre-K classrooms and brought in photos of him in his uniform and various ships from the Navy. He went so far as to special order stickers that said "USS Clinton PreK" with the Navy symbol. He taught the kids how to salute and, in return, they received a sticker. It was a huge hit and Katie was proud to have Chad there.

Aim, Shoot, Score. It's Soccer Season.

Katie asked all summer if she could play soccer so when Fall rolled around we signed her up. My friend Jim was coaching so I requested that she be on his team. I figured if we were going to soccer every Saturday morning, we'd double up and see a few friends. They practiced for a half hour and then had a half hour game. All-in-all they did really well. And Jim may be one of the most patient guys I know. Corraling a bunch of 4 and 5 year olds is not easy.

Look at those happy faces!

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Halloween 2012

My Amazon Princess and Penguin (aka Happy Feet) had a great Halloween.  About a month before the big day, I emailed a penguin costume from Pintrest to my stepmom and said, "On a scale of 1-10 how hard would this be?" She said we could do it. No sweat. I divulged later on that there wasn't a pattern. Eek. We spent a few Sunday afternoon maneuvering through Penguin Costume 101 with great results.

Katie envisioned an Amazon Fairy for her costume. So what is an Amazon Fairy you ask? It doesn't really exist outside of Katie's mind. And two of her friends from daycare wanted to be Amazon Fairies as well. That lead to alot of texts to me asking what is an Amazon Fairy? Katie said it was a beautiful blue fairy and we improvised from there. She was the picture of sparkling happiness.

We went to the town's Halloween Walk with their friends Cullen (Batman) and Brendan (Robin).

The happiest Penguin...

About to head out trick or treating....

Our neighbor Buddy came over asking why Abby wasn't in her costume yet. I was going to spare the dog this year but I went up to the attic and Wonder Dog is back by popular demand!

Preschool Apple Picking

I chaperoned Katie's first school field trip and we went apple picking at Berlin Orchards. The kids had a great time and it was fun to see Katie with her school friends and teachers. When I walked into the classroom, Katie yelled "Mom!" The teacher then said "Katie, Is that your mom? You call her 'Mom'. What does your dad call her?" She said "Hon."



Dam Day

We went to Dam Day where they open the causeway of the Dam one day out of the entire year. My childhood is full of memories of the Reservoir and Dam. Many Sunday evenings would be spent walking there after eating dinner at Nana and Grampa's house. The moments are ingrained in our family history. I wanted to give the girls a little piece of it even for one day.

They seem to love it as much as I did when I was a kid. There were so many people there with the same stories and it was really exciting to be there. It was a great day despite some looming clouds.  

The girls started to run which immediately gave me a heart attack.

We're on it. We're on the causeway.

There was a lot of running room.

We went down the steps to the see the bottom of the Dam and the fountain. Marin is fading...

Sitting on the Dam, which is not allowed, we learned after the fact. I have so many photos of Marin facing the opposite direction!

Snack time.

Here are the girls after they made a wish and threw a penny in the fountain.