Fair food!

Corn dogs at the LA County Fair.

Porter's Favorites Today

From a quick lunchtime survey:

Food -Chinese
Toy - tiger bike and Legos
Animal - rat and pug
Color- pink
Holiday- Christmas and halloween together
Place to go- Legoland
Park- Shane's playground in Griffith Park
Game- duck duck goose
Song - Yellow Submarine

Dunked!

At our neighborhood street fair this weekend there was a dunk tank fundraiser for Matilda's school. Thanks to the heat wave there were plenty of dunking volunteers! Matilda was so excited to do it and didn't even loose her nerve during the long wait for a turn in the tank.

 

Porter stepped right up to provide the first dunking for her. He knocked her in so quick, right on his first throw!

Matilda got to stay in the tank for two more dunks. It was so fun and silly to see all her friends stepping up to take a throw!

I think next year we will make double the money if we just charge the kids to sit in the tank, instead of only charging for a chance to throw.

Camping Weekend

We passed a relaxing Labor Day weekend camping in the Eastern Sierras at one of our favorite campgrounds. The kids spent hours mucking in the stream, along with a few little hikes, visiting the fish hatcheries and some swimming.

After years of coming to trout territory, we finally got a little pole for the kids to try their luck.

They didn't get any bites, but had a good time trying.

I swear these kids are part mountain goat; they love scrambling around on boulders so much!

School Visitation Day

This week all the parents were invited to visit classrooms. Matilda is settling into school fantastic and has declared second grade her "best year ever." It is great to see her getting to do so many fun, exciting new types of school projects and learning as the class gets more mature and able to tackle bigger concepts.

 Here's the table group sign she made with her group-mates.

 I loved seeing this record of where they all started the school year!

We've had a major heat wave here and consequently have been spending all afternoon everyday with friends at the local public pool. It's been a really nice way to eek out the last bits of summer fun before we are settled into the normal, hectic after school activity schedule.

Second Grader

Another first day of school has rolled around so fast. First day of school by the front door:

Meeting up with the block gals for our first walk of the season.

  The herd moved quickly today with all their high energy and anticipation.

Big hugs for lots of friends we missed seeing this summer. 

It was so nice to see all the friendly faces again.

 Happy, excited girl! 

We did not know teacher assignments until this morning so it was extra exciting (and nerve wracking) to see where she ended up. We are super pleased with her teacher and she has a ton of great friends and peers in her class so it should be a fantastic year. Hurray for second grade!

Michigan Day

We are winding down our whirlwind vacation with a few calm days (as calm as it gets with 2 kids) in Michigan with my mom.

 The big excitement for today was that Porter mastered the monkey bars. He started on these medium sized ones at our first playground of the day. He was so proud of himself but it was awesome to see how sweet and proud Matilda was.

 Next up we visited another playground with bigger monkey bars to challenge the new master!

After all the play we did some art projects to quiet down and pass the time while grandma made dinner. I made Matilda do a few pages of a grade 2 review workbook in an attempt to ease her back into a school-ready mentality! She was less than pleased at first but once she warmed up to it she did well and blew through a bunch of good practice work.

 Grandpa Chris also showed off some of his fun helicopter toys during the pre-dinner hang out time.

 Finally, we wrapped the evening up with yet another bowl of outrageously colored ice cream.

Grandpa's Birthday

We wore Grandpa out with birthday festivities today. First off, he drove from MI to NY and then we made him play 18 holes of golf! Next up, Gio and Brian grilled some stuff.

Family shot with the great climbing tree.

The main event!

Gio in his element: ice cream + truck!

Turns out it is really hard to get a group shot of four kids all hopped up on ice cream.

Spoiled Brutus even got served by the ice cream truck.

A little bonus late night fun.

Rainy Day Fun

Coming from a climate without enough rain, even the rainiest days are enjoyed on vacation. 

Cousins

There kids are having major fun together. Gemma seems to be in a big "no" phase, but she says "yes" to Matilda more than anyone else around here. 

 I see you.

 Gio does some unorthodox gardening. I think he understands just how much his dad cares for both his golf clubs and his citrus trees.

 Uncle Brian has an awesome apple tree for climbing, almost as good as the one we had growing up!

The Family Tour Continues

Our trip is really taking us on a huge tour of family. The latest stop last night was at Uncle Dave's in Rochester, who graciously hosted a crowd of us to facilitate great cousin catch up time. After a whole bunch of pre-dinner backyard soccer, hammock and rope swing shenanigans, the kids moved in for music fun. Some piano time for Gemma and Matilda.

After a demonstration from cousin Chris, Porter and Josh both got experience being even louder than normal.

We Heart NY

We are having such a blast here I can barely take time away from the fun to post photos, but here are a few examples of the good times we are savoring.

 Dirt pile in the back yard.

Crayfish chasing.

 Zip line!

 Garter snake catching.

 Vacation-land eating.

 Wine tasting!

 Ithaca is Gorges.

 Bug heaven.