This was consensual play. So I picked up the camera.

Just playing around with some pictures and liked what I got. The more pictures I take of others, the more she wants me to take of her.

Because I’m trying to pretend like summer isn’t really gone, even though I brought out all the fall clothes this weekend, I made some frozen hot chocolate because we haven’t made it to Serendipity’s yet in NYC. Perhaps we can save our money now next time we visit, because it was yummy but definitely not hard to make and enjoy with a straw! The recipe made enough for all four of us.

Lately Celia has taken off like a rocket on her balance bike. Here’s her looking back at me in the park. She’s off and down the street, picking up her feet and balancing by herself. Thankfully she stops at the corners thus far but she keeps me moving. It definitely speeds up our trips on the way to the park!

Now that Josie’s in school we’ve shaken our routine up a bit. She’s been loving school so far, making lots of friends, lots of art and enjoying her time away from me and her sister. It generally makes for a nicer afternoon as they are happier to see one another, but sometimes Josie is just tired too which is tough to deal with when Celia is ready to roll! After we pick up Josie we have lunch and then Celia takes a nap about 1:30 and every day I offer Josie some worksheets to do, mazes, letters, coloring by number, connect the dots. I put a few different types out for her and she’ll pick what she wants to do. She goes through phases where she’s very interested and then she’ll be completely uninterested, so right now this is what’s working for us. She’s busy while I help Celia fall asleep and even working on all those reading and number skills while having fun. I don’t think they’re terribly inspired, but I don’t force her to do anything so they must be good enough. Then we do a pile of reading, some laundry folding perhaps and Celia’s up after about an hour and 15 minutes.

The girls got new clothes for the Jewish new year from my parents, so I of course decided to take them out into the woods to take pictures.

Yesterday we enjoyed some apples challah and honey. Josie then asked why wasn’t it Christmas yet because Christmas comes right before the new year. Poor girl is getting very confused.

Today, we went up to the Arlington Great Meadows although we didn’t get very far, we had a good time. Lots of picture taking opportunities too, who ever saw such big tires?

My new 85 lens has some major trouble focusing in back-lit situations which sucks because that’s my favorite kind of lighting in general. Maybe I’ll just have to get better with it in manual or close it down more.

Do these seem like creepy children staring at you in the woods? who then just disappear.

It just sort of reminded me of that.

Today was Josie’s first day of school, ever. Most kids did preschool last year but we just did it informally. Yesterday we had a visiting day in which I went with her to school and they had free play for half an hour and talked to the other kids and teacher a bit. She jumped in and played with all the toys, but was remarkably quiet and generally kept to herself. Today we got ourselves up and ready to roll and over to school on time. Josie just about walked in the door without even saying goodbye. I called her back and she tackled me and Celia before dragging new friend Tess into the room along with her. I hung outside the door for a bit to finish filling out a form, but heard and saw nothing from her and so when I finished Celia and I headed out for our morning together.

Celia seemed to have the hardest time with this transition. She was interested in the classroom and she was also disturbed by leaving Josie behind. She’s also got a cold so that didn’t help things, but she broke down at least four times in the first half hour that we left Josie. We went to the library and the playground to play with others which was fun. We made it back in time to pick up Josie and hear her stories.

Josie’s first thing she wanted to talk about were the songs they started with and ended with. Those really seemed to stick with her. She then told me about snack (goldfish and apple juice) and making some drawings for the ‘gathering mat’ and ‘snack mat’. I’m sure we’ll get to find out more about these things as time goes on and we get to volunteer in the classroom. Josie’s school is semi-cooperative which means after the first few weeks when the kids settle in, one parent joins a day to help out in the classroom.

She also told me that she shared about having gone to Storyland this summer and that the ‘least good part’ was making some drawings. She also liked the playground, even though it didn’t have swings.

The teachers said she did great and everyone was just very hungry and tired today, such a new experience. Hopefully everything will continue to go well. This afternoon was a bit tiring by the end as everyone was worn out from such a new and different day. Tomorrow we’re back to our regular routine and then we’ll start figuring out the new normal for Thursday and Friday! Here’s some pictures, took these on Monday, she wore the same outfit both days as she insisted so she looked the same!

Here’s two pics of the two of them, first is a few months old, the second two are pretty recent. They like to dress the same a lot recently. Well really Josie likes to dress the same, Celia mostly just goes along with it.

This morning we hosted an end of the summer tea party for the girls and a few of Josie’s friends. Nothing says girl like fancy dresses on 4 year olds. We were lucky to have Blake join us too, Bronwyn’s little brother in addition to Bronwyn, Sophie, Adelaide (her little brother Grant), and Lucy). These pictures are not up to my usual quality standards, I was just trying to get some snapshots where ever and whenever I could given that I was also hosting a party and had to watch my own kids as well. But it gives the timeline for what we did and all.

The party started as all do with the food! Yesterday we took some pound cake and cut out hearts, circles and squares and glazed them to make tiny petit-fours type things, they were popular. Plus my pumpkin muffins and some scones from the store, grapes, cheese as well as cream cheese and cucumber sandwiches. In our search for inspiration online, we found a lot of pictures of people doing alice in wonderland tea parties so while Josie doesn’t really know the story, she loved the ‘EAT ME’ signs. We had a few moments to spare this morning so she made some signs for our cakes as well. Saralynn brought us some yummy iced tea and I put it in a little tea pot the girls could pour from themselves.

After eating the sand table was a big draw. That worked for a while and then when it started to fall apart we enticed them to eat more and then got them onto the hammock.

Then we brought out the big entertainment, the bounce house.

Unfortunately because of the time of day it was super sunny on the house, and it was upwards of 85 degrees outside so it was a little tough to keep the girls happy. But it wasn’t meant to be a long morning, quick as anything it was noon, time for our guests to go home and time for our lunch! I hope everyone had a good time, Josie is already asking for another one! Maybe in the spring on a cooler day.