Go, Go, Goers!

What a fun week we've had! We're embracing the fall season around here, even though it's not quite yet October. G informed us exactly when we went from summer to fall on Tuesday, according to the calendar. Good job, little guy! On Sunday we headed to a local apple orchard. It was a different experience than what we've had in years past...no hay ride, no country store with fresh cider, no pumpkin picking, or playing on the playground. And you know what? That's 100% okay! We still had fun. We picked a whole bunch of different varieties of apples, plus we picked up some locally made apple BBQ sauce and some apple butter. And most importantly, we were able to get outside on a beautiful Sunday morning, and spend time together as a family. I made fresh applesauce this weekend to use the apples, and I'm hoping we can squeeze out some apple pancakes before the weekend is over. Scott and I celebrated our 15th anniversary on Thursday. FIFTEEN YEARS! Whaaaat? I can't g...

Well, folks, school has started. And week 1 was a success! G had a great two days with his real teacher at school, and then an equally good three days at home with his mom-teacher (hey, that's me!) He made lots of new friends, behaved well, and seems to be enjoying his time out of the house.  One of the benefits of having G at home is that we can go for walks over lunch together Ava also had a great first week at school...in her room. As a reminder, she's doing 100% distance learning, and rocked it this first week. She worked ahead so by Friday, she only had two things to do. She is starting to learn Chinese this year, and then also decided to learn Japanese on her own. And remember, just this past summer she started teaching herself Korean. She was vacuuming the other day and was able to recognize some Japanese (Katakana) writing on our Dyson vac. I'm so proud of her for realizing that there is a BIG world available to explore and learn about, outside of our country. I bel...

The kids were at home with me for the entire week, enjoying their last week before school starts. Hard to believe in a few days we will have a 7th and a 1st grader. On Wednesday, Ava and I went to the middle school and met all of her teachers...I thought it was important to meet them since she chose to do distance learning. At least they can see that she made an effort.  Also on Wednesday (big school day for us!) G went in for his 1st grade assessment and we ran into some friends from preschool there, as well as our neighbors. It was a very chatty hour at Red Pine! On Thursday, he went in to continue his testing with the school psychologist and the special ed teacher. He did great and the psychologist told me that he may not receive a diagnosis, and we might not be eligible for any extra help. I'm totally cool with that, as their suspicion of ADHD last year just didn't feel right to me. Scott and I maintain that his biggest issue is controlling his feelings, and he gives up on ...

 Yay, it's a long weekend! The kids had their last week of summer programming (and will be home with me for a week before starting school on 9/14) and Scott and I took Friday off to extend the holiday weekend. We decided it was a great day to take the boat out for another fishing trip. The biggest difference is that the launch was empty when we got there (just a few trucks/trailers in the lot) so we could take our time getting the boat into the water. And just like last time, the clasp unsnapped as I tried to pull it to the dock so I had to stretch really far to make sure the boat didn't float away from the dock. It was a little dicey - yikes! G also managed to break a seat lever and then something weird happened with the hitch when Scott was taking the boat back to storage...so besides some really strange maintenance issues that we'll need to take care of, it was uneventful. Big Marine Lake (near Scandia) was almost empty as well...just a few fishing boats in the water. We...