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First Day of School
We now live with a fourth grader and a kindergartener.
Jude’s description of his first day at school:
“First we readed some books then we standed in line. Then we marchded and they showed us the red cones. You can’t go past the red cones. If you do then they will blow the whistle. Then I played. Then we standed in line again and marchded back to my classroom. Then we sitted and she started the timer. We had to eat it all before the bell. Then we standed in line then we marchded outside and I saw my mama and daddy and I went and got my sister and we went home!”
He loved it, even though it consisted largely of sitting, standing in line and marching, according to him. There was also something about learning rules. Lots and lots of rules!
For her part, Gigi seems to have hit the jackpot again. Se has a seasoned teacher who seems really together and enthusiastic about teaching. She is an artist so Gigi already feels at home with her. It’s looking like a pretty good year for both!
When at last he spied us he made this face. Love that little squirrel!
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Little Si
09.01.13 | Permalink | | 2 Comments
To celebrate our last official day of summer today we hiked, ate ice cream for dinner and sang around the campfire. In that order.
Oh, there was lots of wrestling, giggling and storytelling too. A perfect end to a marvelous season in the sun.
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Back to Vancouver
We had such a fabulous time last weekend in Vancouver that we essentially, did a u-turn as soon as we got cozy with our kids again. This time we were intent on hot dogs and playtime at Stanley Park.
Obviously, we found our hot dog vendor. See, for us veggie types, finding a hot dog on the street corner is quite unusual. To have hot dogs readily available to us puts us into a frenzy. You have no idea how long and hard we searched for this guy!
Once our hot dogs were consumed we were free to play. We explored the beaches, the playgrounds and wandered hand in hand through the trees. It was a beautiful day! Vancouver is rapidly becoming one of my favorite cities.
I love my family so much at this time of year. Transitions provide opportunity to reflect and realize the fleeting nature of life. Our boy will be a kindergartener in another week. Our girl will begin fourth grade. I wouldn’t think it would affect me so, but goodness, I’m not ready for him to grow up… For her grasshopper legs to stretch any longer.
I want a hundred more days like this Vancouver day, so I can hang on a little longer and tighter to that little boy, to that big girl.
I’m lucky I got this one, though. 🙂
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Vancouver Getaway
08.18.13 | Permalink | | Comments Off on Vancouver GetawayBradley and I made a grande ES-CAP-E (to be read like Dory from Finding Nemo- ES-cop-ay) to Vancouver this past weekend. We love our kids like crazy cakes, but sometimes mama and papa need to get away too. This is only the second time Bradley and I have ever gone away together since becoming a family (it should be noted that it is partially due to our ridiculous attachment to these wunderkind). Usually our kids leave and we just mope around the house missing them, but it’s not every year that two people in our house turn 40, and we are celebrating all year long!
As soon as we dropped the kids off, we raced up to the border and found ourselves in our hotel. I was super excited about staying at The Sutton Place for a few reasons. One, according to whomever decides such things, this was supposed to be a five star hotel. And not just any five star hotel, this hotel caters to celebrities who regularly inhabit ‘Hollywood North’. Celebrities?! Whoa. Furthermore, said ‘celebrities’ regularly party it up in their lounge. Sign me up, right? How fun! Whether or not we saw celebrities, just their scent in the air would be fun. I’m sure you’re surprised to hear that we spied no celebrities, and our five star treatment looked a lot like our three star treatment that we regularly get in California, but less clean.
I’m super happy to note, however, that this is my first hotel with a mini bar AND room robe. The room robe fit so I jumped on the bed in a show of excitement then wore it all night.
We headed downtown to find some food around 11:PM. A little late, but this is an international city, right? We walked many blocks and found a crepe place with yummy sweet and savory crepes. I think I blew my entire caloric allowance on those two crepes. While out and about I started noticing that everyone on the street was either in the 19-24 young person age category or the 30-99street person age category. People our age were not so plentiful. I felt slightly pathetic but still cool for being out past bedtime!
Our last big adventure was at a beach right off the University of British Columbia campus. It had a crazy staircase leading down, but the beach was totally worth it. It’s hard to find authentically sandy beaches in the Pacific Northwest, so you can bet your bippy that this is not our last visit! The sun shone, we read, chatted and people watched for several hours before we headed home to a waiting puppy, our own bed and Thai food. It was a fabulous weekend!
