Fall Recap

 We are two weeks away from Christmas so it’s probably fair to say that I can now recap the fall.  Consistent with life of the past 12 years, we were very active.  I would say busy but the word busy is so overused that I’m not sure it really conveys anything.  Luke started modified sports this year which is actually a relief from youth sports.  He played volleyball during the fall season since we wouldn’t allow him to play football.  With lots of grumbling he came around and actually enjoyed the game of volleyball itself.  His team was a bit challenged with a lot of kids who have never played organized sports before but I think all in all, he learned some life lessons.  I’ve even caught him practicing volleyball on his own.   He also had 3D lacrosse all fall - much better with dad coaching his team now!

Adrienne had her first season of club lacrosse with Aces Elite.  I’m in awe of how good her team is!  I honestly can’t imagine what this team will be like in the years to come when they actually grow into their bodies and refine their hand eye coordination.  Adrienne is a transition midfielder - she did very well being a play maker but not necessarily always scoring the goal.  She’s bonded with the girls on the team and if all stays the same, I think she’ll have many exciting years ahead. 

Coco is back to gymnastics where she’s been moved up a few levels.  She still does not enjoy stretching but she loves the “choice” time they give at the end of practice.  Most recently, she’s starting to work on back handsprings.  We even held her 6^th birthday party at gymnastics. 

We had a great 2019 Halloween.  The kids came to visit mom at the office and promptly took over my setup.  The went out with friends in the evening and took in quite the haul of candy.  We did have to remove the candy from the house because it appeared as though it was being used as the breakfast of champions. 

Matt and I took a little trip to Miami just as the snow was starting to fly in NY.  We enjoyed the beach and the warm water as well as all the bars and restaurants.

As for mid-December, we are currently working the party circuit, the musical performance circuit, and of course the holiday shopping circuit. 

Kindergarten

Coco loves Kindergarten!  She finally is of status to be "Pet Helper!" in her Montessori classroom.  The special jobs are reserved for the Kindergarteners and they take them very seriously.  She has also enjoyed being the "Snack Helper," the "Rug and Pencil Helper," and the "Towel Helper."  We get a detailed daily rundown of the what the classroom turtle's diet entails.  Lots of meal worms in case you were interested.

Coco is still not a big fan of circle time, which, by admission of her teachers, is an exercise in sitting still.  Although sitting still is "boring," her date and weather recitation skills are quite on point! Gotta learn something from that circle time.


The other responsibility bestowed only upon the Kindergarteners in her classroom is the "Contract."  Now the contract is really just an outline or checklist of tasks/lessons they must accomplish but it makes me giggle when I hear her talk about her "contract."  Such a serious word for such a small being.

And last but certainly not least, the other momentous change for Coco this year is RIDING THE BUS!  She really, really loves the bus.  There are only three kids on her bus and many times, she's on it alone but she has the nicest bus driver.  She's not aware that she'll start hating it in a few years time so we'll take the bus love while we can get it.

End of Summer 2019

I'm always so internally conflicted during the month of August.  The first half of August feels like a Saturday and the second half of August feels like a Sunday (for obvious reasons).  August is our one month without a lot of commitments and it's the month when we go to our beloved Dewey Beach.  I love the lack of schedule but at the same time, I begin to look forward to structure. 

We had a great time, as always, at the beach.  We had a lot of wild-life run-ins this year.  A giant sting ray jumped out of the water close to Matt. Luke and Tommy caught a shark!  A shark!  A real one - about 5 feet long.  They also caught some baby ones.  There were lots of sand crab collections and jelly fish is small hands (Violet is a friend to dead jelly fish).  There was also a horseshoe crab sighting - gross.      Yahtzie, spikeball, card games and puzzles, and shopping also provided lots of entertainment. 

When we got back from the beach we had some of that weird downtime with nothing to do before schools starts.  Adrienne had tryouts for her new travel team - which she made-yay!  But other than that we spent time school supply shopping, locker organizing, and school lunch strategizing until Labor Day.  We spent Labor Day weekend at Keuka and celebrated Emily and Karis' birthdays and said a silent goodbye to summer. 

We are bow about 2.5 weeks into the school year and the schedule is starting to fall into place.  Luke is playing modified volleyball this year.  Games just started this week so we've been learning a new sport.  It's kind of fun to watch him in a sport where his head or face isn't covered by a helmet or goggles.  He has a very strong hair game when it comes to volleyball. 

The lineup for the fall looks like this:

Luke - volleyball, 3D lacrosse, Roots box lacrosse,piano
Ade - Aces lacrosse, Brighton lacrosse, PACK swimming, piano
Coco - Brighton lacrosse, gymnastics

I'm sure I'll be ready to ditch the schedule and structure shortly :-)

Summer!

With just a few more weeks until school starts, it's hard to believe all that we've done already this summer.  We traveled all over the mid-atlantic states for Luke's lacrosse tournaments, the kids have attended day camps and overnight camp and we've been to the lake.  The month of August seems to be our respite month as travel lacrosse is done, swimming takes a hiatus, and things like piano and gymnastics don't resume until September.  We go to our beloved Dewey Beach  here in about a week and then come back to one more week or so of this amazingly relaxed schedule.

Travel lacrosse is certainly not for the faint of heart and it has its challenges but for the most part we have loads of fun with it.  Luke's team has a great group of kids and parents so while we are essentially nomads from mid June to mid July, we have great people to be nomadic with.   We had tournaments in Philly, Baltimore, Annapolis, and D.C.    I had the experience of taking all 3 kids to the D.C. tournament by myself while Matt coached another own team in Lake Placid - that was quite the adventure for us.  Not sure Luke will ever live down his rogue purchases from Dave and Busters at my credit card's expense but he did work off his debts.  Adrienne and Coco somehow had me riding the duck boats in the middle of a lagoon at 9:30 at night in the dark...guess who did all the paddling.   And we ate a lot of Panera food on that trip.    Luke is already working hard in the off season with practice sessions with Coach Dad.

Adrienne continued with swimming throughout the summer and has even gotten into horseback riding a little bit.  We'll see if we continue with that among all the other activities.  My kids have a knack for picking the expensive hobbies.  Its a good thing I slave away at my HR job when I find time to fit in a few visits to the office.

And Coco, well she's been visiting Yotality every chance she gets.  Always the same selection - strawberry yogurt with mini m&m's.  She's also been putting her life on the line every time she gets on the tree swing or the trampoline.  Sister is risk-taker.  She has finally landed a front flip on the trampoline. 

All three kids have been enjoying some weekends at the lake.  Playing most of the time on the blue floating mat.  "Playing" includes WWF wrestling, yoga and gymnastics.  I'm always amazed at how many hours they can spend in the water no matter where we go.

As for summer, camp, we've done a lot of Brighton rec. camps this summer.  Adrienne also went to lacrosse camp and then of course, both Luke and Adrienne went to Stella Maris for year 2.  I love that they love sleep away camp and Stella Maris is a magical, fairy tale summer camp but my oh my is the re-entry tough!  They come home mourning camp and its hard to get them out of the funk.  Next year we will try to send them for two weeks.  And mom and dad?  Well we enjoyed a child free week of restaurants, fun with friends, peace and quiet, all while missing the kids in the background.  For humor, I present their letters home from camp: