First Day of School

Today began a new school year. I can't believe that Katelyn is in SECOND GRADE!!! She has grown up so much since her first day of Kindergarten, yet it seems like it could've been last week. Long gone is the anxiety about riding the bus. Now it's replaced with "which of my friends will be in my class" and "how cool - I heard my teacher EXPLODES something in science class!"

Here she is in the "front-step" pose:

And a shot of her boarding the bus (notice, she didn't even look back to wave this year, sniff, sniff):

Of course, I can't leave out Lindsay's first day of preschool. Her daycare is switching to a school calendar schedule, so she started out in a new room today. When I asked her new teachers how this room differed from the last, I was told that their focus on early reading and math skills was more intense in this room - I should've asked for more clarification -- maybe they are going to practice counting louder now :) Needless to say, Lindsay loves any chance to act "big". So, here she is with her big red backpack ... filled with the very heavy purple bear which causing her to double-over!

Go Panthers!

Saturday night was Lindsay's first Panthers game. Mike and I go to every home game and last year she started asking when she would get to go. So we decided pre-season would be the perfect time to take the girls with us. It turns out that pre-season games are very popular with families. Friends of ours took their kids too. Here are some tailgating pics:

Both girls were very interested in what was going on and asked LOTS of questions. We had our fill of popcorn, peanuts, soda and even milkshakes! I'm sure the sugar helped, but we stayed until the end of the third quarter - longer than I anticipated with Linds!

Lindsay's favorite was "Mini Meow" a miniature version of the Panthers mascot Sir Purr. So much so that she was sad when we got home that she didn't get to say goodbye to Mini Meow and that she wanted him to come to her house! I'd say Katelyn likes the song they play when the Panthers score the best - and lucky for us they did plenty of scoring! She was up on her feet cheering and dancing every time.

What a fun way to spend some family time!

Spotty

Nearly a year ago, Spotty and Goldie joined our family after several successful winning at the "throw the ping pong ball into the fish bowl" game at the Cabarrus County fair.

Knowing that fish won at these types of fairs typically don't last too long we spent lots of time preparing the kids that the fish probably wouldn't live more than a few days, weeks if they were lucky. Well we almost made it to the 1 year mark--- until Tuesday night when we had to say goodbye to Spotty. Spotty has had several close calls over this past year. It was not unusual to find him floating upside down in the tank, struggling to right himself again. Or other times finding him swimming on his side. Google to the rescue and we were able to learn that peas are the magical food for fancy goldfish. After a few days he would be back to normal. Not so this week. I felt like I had stepped into a Cosby show episode as we had our goodbye ceremony before sending Spotty on to fish heaven.

Katelyn was pretty upset about losing her fish, so we decided to take her to the pet store to get a new fish. As we were getting ready to go Lindsay asks if she can flush Goldie too? Katelyn was mortified that Lindsay was so willing to get rid of Goldie -- Lindsay just wanted the opportunity to pick out a new fish. At the pet store Lindsay looks at me with a little gleam in her eye and says, "Mommy, I don't think my fish is swimming anymore we better get a new one." Two very different children I have!

Somehow we managed to come home from the pet store with 2 new fish. Meet the Goldie's new roommates....Sunkist and Elmo :)

8472

Give or take one or two and that's the number of times I heard "Mom, are we almost there?" on our recent road trip home from New York!

We just got back from our annual August trip to Endicott. We had a great time visiting family. Mike and Jeff finished first in their flight at the Binghamton Country Club member guest. I was able to work in a visit to my corporate office and I survived driving all the way home with the girls. I'd say the trip was a success!

Blueberry picking has definitely become a favorite tradition. I think Lindsay may have eaten her weight in berries!

We spent a day at the cottage, where the girls had fun fishing in the row boat, swimming, hunting for berries, and making "fern flowers". We managed to catch just a few fish and had to call it quits after Lindsay ate most of the bait. Yes, she ate the bait...luckily we were using canned corn!

We made several trips to Syracuse to visit Dziadzi (my grandfather) who is recovering from a stroke in early July. Seeing his face light up when he saw Katelyn and Lindsay was so special. I'm so glad we were able to see him and help brighten his day.

While I was away at work, the girls kept my parents and aunts busy with a trip to the midway at Sylvan Beach, countless trips to the park - in fact they completed the Broome County Carousel circuit, school shopping, visits to the book store, the zoo, the Discovery Center, and more.

Unfortunately, Nick's/Tony's was closed, but we managed to get our fill of Nirchi's and Roma's pizza, Consol's, Joey's Italian ice, Lupo's and even squeezed in a trip to the Cider Mill Saturday morning before we left. (I had no idea how many memories of childhood were centered around food until I moved away!)

Since Mike was already back home, the girls and I set out on our 2 day trek home on Saturday. With the benefits of modern technology - namely the dual-screen dvd player that strapped to the car headrests - we set off around 12:30. Before we could make it to PA, we made our first stop at Wendy's. 2 more stops followed in the next 2 hours and I began to wonder if we were going to make it to our hotel stopping point in daylight. We managed to make it to the hotel where Lindsay enjoyed yet another playground and tried to convince Katelyn and I that the pool was really warm enough to swim in --- it wasn't. Either VA has been getting some REALLY cold nights lately or we're truly becoming southerners! We set out the next morning, managed to find a McDonald's playland along the way and finally made it home around 3:00. Long gone are the days where Mike and I could make the trip in 10 hours with a single stop!