Second Grade Update

The verdict is in, and second grade is GREAT. She really likes her teacher a lot. There are kids in her class that she knows. One boy in particular has been in the same class with her for 3 years in a row now- she thinks that is funny. The best thing about second grade is that you get to choose to sit anywhere you want during lunch, she sits with her best friend Sara every day so far. They are given 15 minutes for lunch and then a 15 minute recess. Isn't that crazy?

Jessica's teacher called tonight to introduce herself and to check in and see if we have any questions or anything- very nice. There was an incident today at school and we talked about that too, Jessica had already told me about it. It seems when she was in the bathroom a third grader was rattling the door to her stall and laughing and saying, "I think I see a kindergartener". Jessica was pretty upset and immediately told her teacher when she returned to the class and cried. Jessica told me that she soon forgot about it and went on to have a good time. The teacher told me that she, the teacher, immediately contacted the Principal and the Principal intervened immediately with the culprit and then went to Jessica in gym class to let her know that they had spoken with that child. They tried to put a positive spin on it and had the girls shake hands and introduce themselves and Jessica says they are supposed to wave when they see each other in the hall. I think the schools try to be right on top of bullying of any kind. Since Jessica is satisfied with the outcome we aren't harping on it and these things happen. I am just glad that Jessica knows to tell the teacher rather than keep it inside and get all upset. This way they were able to respond immediately.

Second Grader!

Jessica started second grade today. She goes to a different school this year and she is a little nervous. I know she will be fine, but it is a little scary. She was quite happy to see her friend Sara waving from the bus window. Kathy and Bec, recognize the outfit? I got in at Hartstrings on our outlet shopping day. For the record I didn't tell her to pose this way- Marc can back me up.

Actually as I took this picture I thought- oh Richard is going to just hate this. So Richard, Sheri outed you as a blog reader over in the UK, what do you think?

Splash Park

Yesterday was our last day of summer vacation- well for Jessica anyway. I had visions of them playing together and enjoying each other's company while I unpacked, did laundry and tidied up- maybe we would all be singing in harmony together too. Well alas things did not go that. From the moment they woke up it was clear all they wanted to do was fight with one another and annoy me to death. By the afternoon, my dreams of the day dashed, we needed to get out so we headed to the splash park. Jessica hadn't been all summer. So she was a little timid at first... (look Bec she is on her tip toes)

But she soon got into the swing of things

And with some help from her little brother much fun was had- yeah they played great together at the park- didn't get my unpacking done though.

Oh, and EVERY boy does this at some point when they visit.

Next post- first day of school.

Day At Mystic Aquarium

All summer I have been saying, "I want to go on day trips with the kids" and "I want to take them to Mystic". Well with our crazy summer schedule day trips were actually hard to pull off. So we get back from vacation late on Saturday night. On Sunday Jessica says, "I wish we could go to just one more place before school starts". At the last minute I decided to get up and go to Mystic Aquarium with them. They were so pumped. I haven't been in 17 years and I have to say, was it always this small? It was great for a one day trip but I don't see spending more than one day at the Aquarium. Anyhoo... Jessica was very excited to see the Belugas.

One of the coolest things was the Outback bird experience. You go into a big cage filled with birds. They give you a feed stick to bring in with you and if you are lucky you can hold a bird on your stick. Here is Jessica holding her bird [um yeah that is her brother's hand trying to sneak in and "steal" her bird].
Here is Justin holding a bird that some nice man gave to him [there is a good chance he said something like, "will you give that one to me?" when I had my back turned]. Soon after I had mastered getting the birds on the sticks they all got spoooked and took off for the ceiling. Oh well, we got out of there without any poop on us so I consider it a success.

Then we went inside to look at some fish.

We enjoyed touching all the sea life- they said we could.

After the Sea Lion show it was 1:00 and boy were we hungry. But, here's a surprise, the line was out of control at the cafe. So we decided to have our Penquin Ice Cream Pops first- how cool am I? That way at 2:00 the line was much shorter for lunch.

So we went on to touch some more things- ewww a lizard.

One more, of Jessica amusing us at lunch.

This was our official last hurrah of the summer!

In case you don't know...

Bec and Kelly have been updating their blogs with pics of our vacation too. Since I am trying to catch up on some proofing that I neglected before the vacation, their pics will have to tide you over. Check them out Bec's Blog and Hartzog Happenings.

Ahhhhhh

Just uploading my pics from the laptop to my "real" computer and, yes Bec, burning discs for the other families. Had to share this one. I think this might be one of my favorite couple shots- and of one of my favorite couples! Of course afterwards Kelly mentioned that she doesn't like angley pictures, too bad, I love this one!

Family Picture Night!

Annual Family Picture Night tradition. How do you think we did? Aren't we gorgeous?

Turtle Pond and Water Camera

Last night after dinner we headed out to the turtle pond to see the turtles. The girls wore their matchy matchy dresses because that makes Becky happy.


Kelly, wore her shirt that was matchy to the girls...

One of our favorite things to do on the beach is to dig a hole. The daddy's spend 15 minutes digging a big hole in front of our chairs and the kids spend hours playing in it and waiting for the tide to come crashing in. I don't have any good pics of the hole with the whole group in it- truth be told I have taken very few pics and these are from mostly Becky's camera. This was Justin's favorite passtime in the hole yesterday.

Becky has a way cool water camera. It is a digital camera that you can bring into the water. She reports it is hard to get the timing right on the pictures not only is there a delay but apparently when the photographer is nailed by a wave it can affect the composition of the picture. We uploaded the pics from this camera and the kids laughed hysterically looking at them tonight. Ok, the adults did too. Here are a few of my favorites.

Justin is FEARLESS in the waves. He jumps over them, he dives under them and sometimes he just throws himself into them to go through them. He does not care if he is tossed about, he does not care if he swallows gallons of sea water, he just comes up smiling every time.

The weather is not as hot as in the past. The waves are not as crazy, which is good since all 6 kids LOVE to go out as far as they can to jump them. We are hoping to be at the beach around high tide tomorrow so hopefully we will get some big waves. The women are winning just as many pitch/ set back games as the men. Matt will never get over losing his 4 bid when he had AKQJ of a suit. The kids are all WIPED out at the end of the day. Neil makes a mean margarita. Everyone is having a great time.

OBX 08

I have a few pictures from our visit with Gma and Gpa in Va but I haven't uploaded those yet. So instead we are jumping right into our vacation in the Outer Banks. It is only day 2 and we feel like we have been here for days, in a good way. In the past Jessica has been a little hesitant about going in the water, never going too far and certainly not without a parent nearby. Justin has had NO interest whatsoever in the water in the past. Well all that has changed. Justin charged right in and we haven't had much luck getting him out. They both go in so far and jump the waves, dive under the waves, and ride the waves to the shore- with glee. Very fun, but a little nerve racking for us! Here are just a couple from the today and last night.


This year the Hartzogs came with us and they are having a blast!

Becky took this picture last night of Jessica and Julia in their matchy matchy suits, aren't they too cute?
That's all for now. Off to the turtle pond after dinner and Becky told me I have to bring my camera...

I found a new muse

This is Miss Rupali. She is my childhood friend Manjula's daughter. We went down to Wethersfield, CT for the day to visit with them. Since they came all the way from Germany we figured we could go to CT to see them. The kids had a fun time all playing their imaginary games together. Miss Rupali, who will be turning 5 in a few months, was very cooperative for pictures. Um, just don't tell her Grandma that we kept picking her flowers for our pictures.


(and yes Manj, I can hear you now wishing you had fixed her hair first, but I love the natural tossled look) Here is Kiran. He is a bit of a goofball, so this is the best I got from him- I have quite a few of crazy faces Kiran though.

The best of the two of them together.

It was great seeing you all on Monday!

One more

Forgot this one. It is not quite in focus, but it makes me smile. Jessica had just tackled Jack in the sand and they both thought that was so funny.

Cape Cod!

We spent a wonderful relaxing week in Cape Cod with good friends this week. The kids are a wonderful age that requiring very little from us. So Bec and I got to sit in our beach chairs, read our books, watch the kids and talk for hours- soooo nice. I only pulled out my camera when we went to the Brewster Flats, so check in to Bec's blog in a few days for some pics of the kids at Sheep Pond. These pictures are in no particular order other than the order I took them. I love this first picture of all 4 children running at full speed to an island they discovered.


Just to be clear, Jack was not mad at me in this picture. I asked him not to smile because when he was smiling it was... well... a bit goofy.

Could not get Jessica to look up at me for ANYTHING. Finally I told her I would give her $10- ha ha ha, joke's on her.
The only picture of all 4 of the kids- almost all of them are looking.

Emma, beginning to look way more than her 9 years of age.

Ok, here is a picture of Justin and a lady that he met on the beach. Justin spent most of his week talking to strangers rather than us. We decided not to take it personally. This relationship started when he walked across the beach to her when he saw her looking in her bag, he wanted to know what she had in her bag. Then for about 15+ minutes she proceded to walk around with him and take his picture. At this point Bec got a close up of her face, in case we needed it for the Amber alert. I was not that concerned, that was until the crazy lady told me she always wanted children and never had them and she could just "take him home with me". Well thanks for the head's up! Honestly more amusing than harmful.
Look! Jessica can stand on water!

As good as I got of Justin this week. I won't share the picture where I asked him to smile like he was happy- he did not look happy.

and what kind of a vacation would it be if it didn't end with a visit from this guy!
um, yeah, that is the AAA guy breaking into my car which is running with the keys in the ignition. Thank you AAA!

All in all a wonderful week. The kids are so comfortable in the Senior Odells Cape home now. They just walk right in and make themselves at home. He is not sure what to call them, but he figures if Grandma and Grandpa is what Jack and Emma call them, then that works for him too. Jessica tells everyone that every summer we go to Cape Cod and North Carolina. Well one down, one to go! North Carolina in two weeks!

Justin's 5th Birthday

Justin's birthday party was last Saturday. We really lucked out with the weather, rain on either side of his birthday and beautiful weather on the day- woo hoo! We rented one of these....

It is an inflatable obstacle course and it was a blast. The highlight of my day though was when Matt and Marc raced through it against one another before the party began- thanks for the laughs guys.
We did our annual water balloon toss...

Then we tried to break the water balloons between our bodies...
Then we decided to change the game to throw water balloons at Justin's daddy...
Time for cake! Not my best work but you get the idea.

Uh oh, the candles blew out and someone was not impressed.
Got them re-lit and all is well.

My other cutie
As I put Justin to bed I asked him what was his favorite part of the day. He said he couldn't decide on a favorite but he knew the part he didn't like. Very curious I asked what part that could be? "When everyone went home". A good day had by all.