Adventure Day - Children's Museum

Today we had to keep to our NEW pre-school schedule, so I needed a tiring type morning activity for me & the boy... Boston Children's Museum - fit the bill. We packed ourselves up & set out on the "T" on a momma boy adventure day - which we haven't done in awhile & headed into South Station for a short walk (past a construction sight - yeah) to the museum.

We started in the art area on the 3rd floor, then wound our way into the lil' kids area and then before you could say boo... we were down on the 1st floor at the climbing wall.





He was something of a little speed demon working his way through this circuit until I finally bribed him with promises of chocolate milk to move on. After a stop in the attached cafe we headed back through South Station for a look at the trains & then hopped on the red-line home


with a special treat from Rosie's Bakery!!!

First Day of School

First "first day of school"

Today Pre-School started.

Here is the boy walking toward the new school with Mommy

You can tell that its pretty early in the am for him by the half-closed eyes. He actually did really good getting up early, watching a little telly, having his breakfast, getting clothes on & getting into the car. At this point though he is telling us that he doesn't like his school & doesn't want to go there. You can tell from the smile that he's got Em convinced.

Here he is in the classroom - not so bad

there are blocks, there are trucks, there is a marble run... This was before he started crying & asking us to not go.
That was hard but the teachers called to let me know he was ok & playing & having a good time an hour or so after drop off.



No paparazzi at my breakfast please!!! - note 2 kinds of cereal (both wrong by the way)
and scrambled eggs, water and fuzzy milk.

The picture I didn't get was him at the pick up - marching into the cubby room holding his little snack-purse and
his lunch bag -OMG so Friggin Cute. & he had a BIG smile even with the crazy-ness of 17 kids running to their
respective moms & dads & nannnies.


And the real picture from the first day of school is where he is now....
asleep on the couch -
he didn't even make it into the bedroom to lay down for a nap.
Playing can be SUCH hard work!!!!

Building a Foundation - Labor Day

This is the fruits of the boys labor over the labor day weekend.
He spent much of his time up in the woods & trees with Grandpa & used his trucks to dig out a "foundation"



He says: "... thats my skyscraper at Grandma and Grandpa's house.
There's woodchips in there and some sticks and we have to put tape in there.
There's big rocks. The rocks are the edge...."




It was a pretty impressive project

Goodbye Party at Hoyt

A Juggler came to the playground this morning to do an end of summer show for the kids. It was a special treat for a couple of the boys who were leaving day care and going off to school (Dia & Mathew).

It was fun to have a little party & the monkey & Gabe enjoyed it to since they are also getting ready to start school in a few days. It seems like this summer just flew by & now all these little three year olds are off to preschool.

wow.

Kemp Playground Re-opened

A slideshow from todays trip to the newly renovated playground in Harvard Square...

Cambridge Common Playground

The playground up by Harvard Square (& the boys new school) re-opened today



--- this is the totally cool gate with a kid size door that opens up if you push the shovel.


Monito & Gabe LOVED playing with the blocks that were spread out in diff't parts of the playground


and climbing on the AWESOME pirate ship.

NY Times Article...

When Parents Scream Against Ice Cream
By HELENE STAPINSKI
Published: August 18, 2009

Today's NY Times Story.... here



Rachael R of Cambridge, Mass., called the ice cream truck “the music truck,” convincing her 3-year-old son that it was playing “The Entertainer” simply to entertain. But he soon got wise when he saw the other children walking away from the truck, their faces smeared with chocolate and vanilla, their hands filled with ice cream cones.
Ms. Reiley didn’t mind buying him a treat, occasionally. But the truck — called Here’s Frosty — parks outside her door on most sunny days around 4:30 p.m. and wakes her son from his nap. “Then he’s up, plastered against the window, yelling: ‘Music truck! Music truck!’ ” Ms. Reiley said. “Sometimes he grabs his little bank and says, ‘I have money.’ ”
As a new mother, she said, people coach you on potty training and what to feed your child. “But the ice cream truck, nobody ever mentions that,” she said.

Games

His alter-ego this month....

 


Princess Ana (see Bugs Life) - flower crown courtesy of mommy & aunt Gina

Vacation is all about the naps

...and the friends

Climbing Tip Toe for Sunset

Tip Toe Mountain Sunset

After dinner we headed out to watch the sunset from the top of TipToe Mountain

the kids all did really good on the hike up the hill - I did okay too

Yep I think it was worth the death defying climb....

Happy Em on vaca...

and the kids get ready to head back down - I think we

promised them Ice Cream

Blueberry Picking

Alex took us offroading to find some primo blueberry picking

Monito does a taste test

Jack prefers his straight from the bucket...

You Just Wanna Get Nekkid Here

This is the scene that we woke to on our first full day on Alex's Island of wonders

The view from her mom's house


Nekkid porch play

Another shot of the kayak friendly inlet in front of the house



and a shot looking back at the house

Ferry Ride -

The start to our Maine Vacation - a foggy ferry ride from Rockport to Vinallhaven Island.

He really didn't like the fog horn that the ferry had to blow every 10 minutes or so...



Looks more like summer in San Francisco than summer in New England - we were a bit worried about what this meant for the vacation - but we didn't need to be.



Yours truly on the ferry.

Moving Picture of Spelling

S-P-E-L-L-I-N-G

Admin Chief

His New Best Friends

The King Sunny Ade Band at the Boston Museum of Fine Art - 7-16-09

Sparkle-r

Ok I realize that this is a ridicoulously late post for 4th of July.... but here is the boy-o poolside (note the fancy poolside clothes) learning to play with fire from his uncles - we like to think of them as the good-role-model pair ... Uncle makes-big-farts and Uncle pants-unzipped-at-the-park-again.