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!!

sour grass!!!

the other day the kids spotted sour grass (which is an edible plant that they ate handfuls of in sf. they were both very concerned that they would never find it in wi, but alas, we did) right next door. we are finding it every where now, this is very exciting news!!! they are showing this treat to their friends, and we are starting a new trend here in madison, it's hilarious how much kids love eating this stuff.

cohen and tiera came to madison

cohen had a very unique way to hop, very animated!!

quinn was very focused...hop, hop, hop

riding bikes down the street

rub a dub

honey

world cup enthusiast

ryder was involved in a soccer camp, which he loved, and finally had the opportunity to show off his skills:) he made so many goals, it was hilarious;) well, he had a blast and made lots of great friends too!

the essential humidity cure!

after a very hot afternoon at olbrich gardens (had to check out the butterfly exhibit, which was quite impressive) we needed to cool ourselves down with some delicious frozen custard at micheal's, yum yum yum!!!

to friends!

one of the hardest parts of the move for us was leaving behind all our wonderful friends in san francisco. we all truly relied on friendship while living miles away from family, and we were so lucky to find some super awesome ones! well, once we got settled in our house here in madison, the search was one. it was a little harder than we imagined. we live in this quite neighborhood, and we didn't really see any kids running around (which is how i imagined it being). so, one morning i decided to take the kids for a walk and we searched for signs of children (play structures in the back yard, swings, sand pails, bikes, balls, you know kids stuff) then we counted that house in our tally, we ended up counting like 15 houses that day, and that was only walking up 5 blocks and then down a block and back. that's potentially a lot of kids!! so, with those statistics we came home to get started on our "make new friends" mission. we made a double batch of our favorite cookies "camelback mountain cookies", made a chic package for them, included a picture of the kids, and said "hey we're new here and would love to meet you, so swing on over" and included our address. we went out on a family stroll with the goodies in tow on a saturday morning, and meet 3 lovely families in just that afternoon, and then three more the next day! we have attended bbq's, scheduled playdates, meet lots of kids that will be going to school with ryder next month, and some sweet little girls for quinn to play with too. it has been great to see our kids smile again, ryder still talks about wanting to go back to SF, and misses his preschool pals (especially his little buddy toby), but he know he will see them again someday, so he is planning on having a "blast" in the mean time.

pictures will be posted soon, so you can meet all the new kiddos (i think we are up to about 15 now)