Away He Goes, Jet Pack Powered

Tim has been plugging away at making a jet pack for Porter for a while now and finished it just in time to gift as a first day of Kindergarten present. All the hard work and time spent buiding it was justified by Porter's enthusiastic reaction! 

 Apparently it's a very serious responsibility wearing this jet pack! 

 One of Porter's immediate concerns with the jet pack was whether it would be safe from wild animals if we left it out on our back patio area. (He is very wary about the skunks, possums and raccoons that frequent our yard.) We joked with Porter that the raccoons were not plotting to fly away in his new jet pack. Funnily enough, as we got ready for bedtime that evening the local raccoon family started making a major racket walking around on the aluminum roof of that same back patio area. Porter was in a panic trying to simultaneously close the back door and go out to get the jet pack from them. We watched them for a long time climbing our tree and growling, squeaking and grumbling to each other. Porter's worry for his new precious toy seemed to subside a bit and so far the jet pack has not gone on any wildlife joy rides that we know of. Well done RD Papa, this imaginative toy is going to get some miles on it. (Yes, totally, pun intended.)

Kindergarten and Third Grade

Here we go, another whirlwind day of firsts. Both kids were super excited for school to start today. Porter is really happy to be going to Matilda's school now, and Matilda was just about bursting with pride over her new kindergartener today. (Sob.) They both got the teachers they were wishing for. As Matilda said this morning, this might be the best year ever!

Matilda was on cloud nine this morning yelling hello to everyone and seeing all her friends again.

Official First Day of Photo on the steps.

Porter marched right up to the front when his teacher (the same kinder teacher that Matilda had!!) called them. He held his own as line leader and turned back to call out a goodbye to us before leading the class in. So proud. 

  This boy!

Now I just need to shake this panicky feeling of how to most efficiently use my kid-free time. I can't think of the last time I had 6 hours to myself. I think bon bons on the couch are in order, stat.

Pool, Beach, Pool, Beach

The kids cannot seem to get enough water fun so we just keep repeating these two outings. 

This video of Porter jumping off the diving board is from last week. He is making progress every swim and now looks slightly less like he is drowning. It cracks me up, and definitely says something about his personality, that as soon as he can barely swim he is ready to start throwing himself off of things into the water. 

Yuck

I love coffee more than the average person, but no. Just no.

Cornell's Ornithology Lab

On Thursday we visited the ornithology lab, which is on our long list of favorite places to go while visiting Ithaca. There is never enough time to see everyone, eat everything and go everyplace that we want while in town. However, the kids both listed the bird lab and the Sciencenter as a must so we made that happen. 

The indoor space at the Ornitholgy lab is just beautiful with many viewing points out for observation. At bedtime last night Porter listed back all the birds he remembered seeing while chatting with Tim: Canada Goose, Blue jay, female Cardinal, Goldfinch and some ducks.

Porter found a really fun touchscreen kiosk where you could look up a particular bird and see how many sighting had been recorded at the lab in the last month. We learned the Bald eagles are becoming more common! 

The paths around the bird lab are gorgeous hikes in ther own right. It's been such a rainy year here and everything is so green and wet. A nice contrast from LA right now.

The kids have been alternating taking turns staying one night with me at Dad and Kathy's house and then one night with their Grammy. It's been a really nice chance to get one on one time for everyone. Because they were missing each other a little beforehand, on this hike they were particularly goofy and lovey to one another. Slightly less bickering and antagonizing than normal for this pair of siblings!

Gorge Swimming

The kids got brave and went for a chilly swim in Buttermilk Falls today. As a child I swam here so much and was not phased by the chilly temps! Today it was all I could do to wade in with them! Brrr. They were not phased at all by the 68 degree water!

From Pond to Table: A Step by Step Guide

After feeding all the beggar fish in the pond, and then finding nets in the garage, the kids had a bit of an epiphany. Turns out it's quite easy to scoop up a fish or two. Or ten. Midway through the fishing frenzy Kathy and I realized we needed to set a limit or we would have way more fish than we could eat! 

A very proud fisherboy with his first catch of the day:

Next we took the bucket 'o fish for a ride back to the house. 

I'll spare you the photo of the other bits, but here are our delicious results! The kids were very interested in the whole cleaning process, with a short attempt at helping to scale them and lots of fish head touching and poking. A good life lesson in where food comes from.

Porter contemplates dinner. He's not the seafood lover that Matilda is but he tried a bite. He loved the process so much but we told him we can only catch fish if they will get eaten so he's struggling with that dilemma a bit.

Yum!

NY Day Five: Rain

The day started out dry. I woke up more than an hour before the kids in the teepee this morning so I passed the time with wildflower crafting. Matilda, my fairy aficionado, was quite pleased. 

G-pop and grandma Kathy quieted the rowdy troops down with a delicious breakfast.

Shortly after breakfast a major rain storm

hit and all of us poor drought suffering Californians made the most of the moment. Porter also convinced his NY cousins to get crazy in the rain, even if they aren't rain deprived. 

Later on we loved the rain storm a bit less as it momentarily interrupted our tv feed for the World Cup final! Thankfully the interruption was very brief.

NY Day Four: Tee Pee Sleepout

We decided to use the super moon tonight as our excuse to sleep out. The kids were totally freaking out about scary wild animals at first as we drove out in the little tractor. After a few minutes settling in they relaxed. I asked them both to be totally silent for 30 seconds to record the noisy pond frogs and Porter fell asleep. I guess all that pond swimming wore him out. 

NY Day 3: Swim Milestone

What turned out to be our biggest event today was a visit to Aunt Gia's family pool.  Porter finally had that "ah-ha! moment" and can be counted as a swimmer! He was so excited and proud of himself, as were all of us! He wasted no more time in the shallow end and fearlessly threw himself off the diving board repeatedly. 

We also continued in our vacation eating habits with a fabulous meal at a downtown restaurant that Brian recommended. We discovered that Gio likes calamari as he pounded through the platter. 

We also had a few oysters.

I sampled Poutine for the first time; it was deliciously bad for you. 

As if that were not enough saturated fat for the day, we squeezed in a visit to inventory the fleet of ice cream trucks and sample their wares. 

NY Day Two: Maid of the Mist

In all our NY travel, we had never managed to take the kids Niagara Falls until today.

We met some dear old friends there for a touristy ride on the Maid of the Mist. All suited up and ready in their souvenir ponchos:

Lucky kids got to eat some Kinder-contraband while we waited for the boat to get going.

The soaking was quite thorough, so most of my pictures during the ride are on the water camera still, but here's one quicky iPhone shot of a happy soaked Porter. 

He was super excited to get wet and even took his poncho off for a while in an effort to get extra soaked. Once the water was coming in sheets, he relented and asked for the flimsy cover back!

On the walk back to the car we found another bit of water play and they declared it as good as the boat ride. Any water play is good enough it seems.

NY Day One: Cousin Fun

Content plane reader.

Water table fun in the rain = double the sogginess.

Perfect seat for watching World Cup.

Matilda as "The Statute of Ice Cream"

Today's main event: ice cream with family.

Random Model T

These won't last long in the backyard now that we've discovered them!