quinn's first day of school

we found a lovely little preschool for quinn to attend this year, although i can't believe she's big enough to go! the school is called "the meeting house", it's a bike ride away (although everything seems to be) and she'll be going tuesday and thursday afternoons.

our little sassy pants heading out the door. she has her mittens on, a tutu, a snack and her new cd that her school sent her, she's all set:)

hanging with ryder after school, checking out her new picture book of all her classmates. cute, cute, cute!!

contemplation

while visiting the family up in birchwood, us ladies decided we should take the kiddos out on the four wheelers (cause that what you do in the northwoods). so we, meaning my dad, got the machines fired up and ready to roll, and we were off, well then we stalled and my dad had to come and start one of the 4wheelers again, and then we were off, whew! we cruzed down a path for awhile, we were trying to take the kids to one of my fav childhood hang outs, and suddenly had to stop. a huge puddle the size of the pacific was before us and as tempting as it was we decided that we shouldn't drive through it (our risk taking has dropped considerably), so we stopped and hung out and just admired the hugeness:)

quinn's reading material

quinn loves looking through all the real estate pamphlets (she will comment on all the houses, like "oh, this one is pretty nice", or "hmmm, i don't really like this one"), it's dead cute. anyways, she insisted on grabbing a handful while hanging on state street for her ride home, and this is what i saw when i stopped....i guess there must not be anything good on the market these days:)

aunt tessa came for a visit

the hardest thing about leaving san francisco was that we were leaving aunt tessa behind;( she was an integral part of our life in the city and truly made an impact on our children! so, when we heard she was coming to visit, we put her arrival date on the calendar and patiently counted down......pins and needles i tell ya!!!

oh, the three amigos, being silly on state street

can i have some cheese with that?

we had a birthday bbq for tessa (she turns 30 on sunday) and invited a few of her old school pals over. nothing like a summer picnic in the back yard.

contrary to popular belief, tessa can actually ride a bike, and "she rides pretty well" say ryder! we participated in the "ride the drive" while she was here, where we had the opportunity to bike downtown without the car traffic. it was a beautiful day and was such a fun experience. man, i have forgotten how fun life can be while riding a bike.......

primer dia de clases

buenas dias quinny! i feel like every family has this picture, the younger one so excited for the older sibling to go to school (what a huge transition for these two pumpkins), just hanging on every word, every action......pins and needles:)

montamos una bicicleta a la escuala. ryder requested that he ride his bike to school (which he now does every morning), so we walked and he rode. we live about 6 tree-lines blocks from the school, and this has been one of the most reassuring moments of our move!!! he LOVES this routine, and so do we:)

here his is in his classroom. his teacher's name is maestra melissa. ryder was a bit unsure how this whole spanish immersion program was going to go (and so were we, but had to remain calm and confident). as soon as we walked into the classroom he was embraced with the the flowing words, and the warm smiles of this classmates and teacher (now, it may sound like complete gibberish, but it's amazing how he understands what is being said).

we are now on our second week of school and ryder loves it. he has several friends, doesn't surprise me any, and loves all the different activities he gets to do throughout the day (spanish, math, computer, gym, art, music, play, lunch, reading, ect), he says "school is awesome" and that is all i needed to hear!!