KINDERGARTEN

Today we went to the elementary school for their open house. With two entering Kindergarten, we were loaded down with pencils, supplies and sleeping mats.

Both boys were very excited. Even though this is Matthew's second time around, we are going to a new school so it was a new place for all of us.

The place was packed and of course, the door we went into was in direct opposition to the K classes...but ultimately we made it to Rm 4 - Riley's classroom. He was very excited to find all of his places from his table, to his mailbox, to his cubby. After we separated all of the supplies, we made our way to the teacher. At first, he wanted to explore the room so I gave him a few minutes, but Matthew was getting anxious and so I started to talk to the teacher and Riley came up and grabbed my leg. When I asked him to say hello to his teacher...amazingly, he looked right at her, stuck out his hand, shook her hand and said..."it's nice to meet you"!!!!

Maybe he has picked up something over the last few years!

Glasses...

Friday we went to Walmart to pick up ANOTHER pair of glasses for Matthew. We have gone thru 3 pairs since March. I initially bought a pair at the ophthalmologists office. These broke within a month. Before I found out they had a replacement policy for a year, I went to a local "4 Eyes" and bought him 2 more pairs (they also have a replacement policy - for everything except them being completely lost!). So for a "brief" time we had 3 pairs.

Then at the beginning of the summer, I picked him up from daycare and a pair had been taken off of him for swimming and were no where to be found! When we left for our vacation in early July, another pair were lost at daycare (they were found while we were on vacation!).

The last day of our vacation, we lost a pair at Water Country USA...UGH. But at least we had the pair the daycare had found!

Right before our most recent vacation, the remaining pair were broken so I had to call to get a replacement frame. They (of course) weren't ready by the time we left so he went without them for nearly 2 weeks. Friday when we got back, I picked up the replacement frames and ordered a new pair from Walmart.

By Wednesday, he couldn't find the one pair that we had (fixed and picked up the friday before!).

This thursday when I went to pick him up at daycare, he had the pair that were lost in June on his head...and no idea where they came from!!!! His teacher is leaving at the end of the summer and I suspect they have been cleaning the room and found them.

Saturday while cleaning I found the original pair...So now we have 3 pairs again!

Anyone have any ideas of how to superglue glasses to behind someones ears??????

Vacation (Part 3)

Storyland with Denise, Nina and Elena

On Saturday we left Maine for a 2 hour drive to North Conway NH. It was a 2 hour drive to an amusement park called "StoryLand". StoryLand is a child's amusement park with rides that kids (and their parents) can ride as well as themed areas for play around children's stories. They have a deal that if you get there after 3, you can stay for the rest of the day and the whole next day for the price of one day admission. We had reserved a room in a quaint NH Inn for the night and arrived a little before 3.

Our first experiences were in the story section and the kids enjoyed seeing the fairy tales come to life:




There was a great big Humpty Dumpty at the entrance that the kids loved and so we took a picture of all of them by him. Riley was a little embarassed and so just kept pushing the button which recited the tale.
There was a great big "TreeHouse" with multiple slides and the kids loved it. It was right next to the Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe (I guess for all of her kids to play near!).

Next we took a pumpkin ride (a favorite of the girls') to Cinderella's castle. We even got to meet Cinderella and take a turn on her throne.

Unfortunately, Riley was still afraid of the characters and besides, he isn't into Cinderella. He wouldn't even sit on the throne!

Later that night we rode on a big boat shaped like a swan to help Prince Charming save Cinderella's butterflies whose color was removed by an evil witch. Luckily all of the butterflies were able to get their color back (and we avoided the buckaneer ship on the river!).

That was the end of the first night. We went to a local Friendly's for dinner (and had our first major melt down as Riley decided he didn't need to listen to me and could tell Logan not to listen to me!)...we left the waiting area to go out to the car...amidst wailing and screaming and whining (not me but them) that they would be good. After about 5 minutes in the car they settled down and we were able to have a nice dinner. The funniest thing was that as we were walking to the car I saw another family dragging their kids out and they sounded exactly like my kids! It made me feel sooooooo much less like the mean and horrible mother.

Day 2 dawned on a beautiful (but hot) summer day in the mountains. The NH mountains were the backdrop for this park and it was gorgeous. This day we started in the opposite direction from the nursery rhyme area. This was the amusement park area which we had perused on the train ride we had taken around the park at the end of the previous day.

The kids headed for this ride which was old fashioned cars that they got to actually drive around a track...there was a huge rail that prevented them from going off of the track but it was a little scary for me with Matthew st-t-t-r-r-r-e-e-t-c-c-h-h-i-n-g for the gas pedal and the steering wheel at the same time. Riley was in seventh heaven because they let him go on his own!

We essentially spent the rest of the day on their rides. Denise was chicken and wouldn't let her kids on the roller coaster. I screwed up all of my intestinal fortitude and did it - it really wasn't bad...not too many downhills which are my real downfall! I also took all of the older kids on the turtle twirl (their version of the tilt a whirl)...Okay this was a mistake and it took me about 15 minutes sitting next to it to stop the feeling that I was going to hurl! I also took Matthew on this flying fish ride (also a mistake for mom! but not as bad as the turtle twirl!).

Here is a picture of Denise and Nina and the two boys in the cage to protect us during the "safari" ride...good thing we were behind bars or those plastic animals might have gotten to us...One thing I did learn is that flamingoes get their color from what they eat...there were some bright blue ones there - I don't know what they were eating but it was beautiful.

They have a very special carosel that is only one of two functioning in the world. It goes clockwise instead of counter-clockwise and instead of going up and down, the horses go back and forth on springs (you have to propel them). It was pretty cool!

The kids even felt brave enough to hold hands and get their picture with some of the storybook characters. Humpty Dumpty was a favorite ...and Riley got into it at the last minute and was so proud that he had held Humpty's hand...of course, the two hugs he gave Humpty beforehand almost knocked him over and I bet the actor was ready for us to leave! (and scared for his life!)

We also saw Mother Goose and all of the kids got to pet her goose.

Denise left around 2 pm but we stayed until almost 4 finishing up all of the rides (finally got to ride the buckaneer boat which had individual rowing rods which we were soooooo excited to do - unfortunately, this boat captain told jokes instead of signing "row,row, row your boat" and there was a little gnashing of teeth about that.

We finished with some soft-serve ice cream and the ride home. This was definately worth the price of admission and a fun place for kids under the age of 10!

Maine Vacation (Part 2)

Beaching it with Jean

We arrived in Maine on Thursday afternoon and spent the rest of the afternoon riding the Trolley around Ogunquit and shopping in the downtown. I got some really good swim shoes for Matthew - he lost his other ones at Water Country and their aren't any more around here.

Friday and Saturday we went to the beach - I had forgotten what a beautiful beach it is in Ogunquit. It has the widest swath of sand and beach and such a gradual drop - off into the water! Such a child friendly beach...the kids all sat down to play in the sand and mud and to build sand castles...

Here are some pictures of the beach and the kids...

Maine Vacation (part 1)

Well, we are finally home from the longest vacation I have taken in over 15 years. By the time I go back to work on Monday, we will have been away for 13 days and nights. It was alot of together time for me and the kids and overall, we had a blast and made some great memories.

Part 1: Aunt Jean's House on Long Island...

We left at 4:00 in the morning on Tuesday and headed up to NY. The kids were excited and didn't go back to sleep immediately but we had everything packed to make the trip smooth and the early morning departure cleared the way for almost no traffic.

After two stops for breakfast and potty, we made it there just at noon. The rest of the day was spent resting and playing outside in her back yard. She has a nice swimming pool and we all got to cool off in it. Jean is babysitting at another house while she is pursuing licensure for her babysitting business so we had the house and yard to ourselves (with occasional visits from her 3 oldest kids).

There is definately some hero-worship going on between the boys and Jean's oldest Tom. He was nice enough to take them into the pool and play with them and then to let them use his Nintendo (and to pleasantly listen to their constant harping about wanting to play with the Nintendo)!

Instead of driving to Maine the next night, we had to stay at Jean's as my dad was not going to be at the house in Maine on Wednesday and didn't want to leave the key for us. On Wednesday Jean left her two younger kids with us instead of taking them to her babysitting job. Joey is one month younger than Riley so the boys are all very much into the same things. Delaney is 3 so a year older than Logan but they played really well together.

Thursday we left Jean's in a caravan (her family and ours) to Maine. The highlight of the trip was the ride on the Cross Sound Ferry (which took 2 hours off of the trip and gave the kids some time to run around instead of being cramped in the car. I don't know why I never did it before, it was great!