Beach Band Practice

On one of the last nice weekends the kids and I headed down to Myrtle Edwards Park for a bit of beach time while Marty had to do some video work at The Edgewater Hotel.   Our summer this year lasted through the entire month of September, in fact this was the very last day of September and still warm enough for short sleeves and sandals and a little beach time before the cooler, wetter weather hit. 

Josie, obviously the band leader, and Benjamin, the ever ready band mate: 

Soccer Girl

Josie has been playing soccer for the past 7 weeks or so and loving it.  She played on a team 2 years ago and then took a break last year and now is back at it.  It is a 6-7 year old team so this is one of the few group activities she does where she is the youngest.

She loves to be in on the action and near the ball. She prefers defense to offense and has been a great team player throughout the whole season and has made some new, fun friends.

We have been pretty lucky with weather up until last night's practice (which was miserably cold, wet and windy but thankfully our last practice for the season) She has a game today and her final game next Saturday.

Here she is (above/left) at her first game showing off her new game jersey with her faithful sidekick.

And a few action shots below.

PRESCHOOL!!

A couple weeks after Josie started kindergarten, Benjamin started his second year of co-op preschool.  He is in the 2's class this year which means that I work one day of the two and the other is drop-off.  Theoretically, I'm supposed to check him in and leave and then return 2 hours later to pick him up.  The drop off part of the preschool probably won't happen before early spring... he is NO where close to letting me leave without him firmly in tow.
Above, Grandma and Papa were here to send him off on his first day of preschool this year.

Kisses before school

As we were walking out he bends over and says "Daddy, look at my bum"  Nice!

He went to preschool one day a week last year with me there the whole time.  This year he was able to go to the same site where Josie has been going for the past three years.  He was with me when I dropped her off and picked her up and for special events so he is quite familiar with the site and now feels like he is in "big boy" preschool since big sister went here before him. 

Out in front of the building

At home I had a surprise gift on his bed too.  When I said "go look on your bed to find your gift" he had no idea where to look as "his bed" has meant so many different things over his past 2.5 years but seldom has it meant his actual crib/bed.   After a bit of confusion he found his gift on HIS bed.

And loved his new bubble blower!  Here's to a great year and that drop-off days really become drop- off days sometime before spring.

KINDERGARTEN!!

Our little girl started KINDERGARTEN a few weeks ago.  How did this happen?!?  She was ready, we were ready but still it was a huge shift in how our days have been for the past nearly 6 years.


















On the morning of the first day of school Franziska surprised Josie and Benjamin with schultuete, meaning "school cones"  a German tradition for the first day school.  These were beautifully decorated cones with a bunch of gifts inside were.  Aside from Tinkerbell being on the outside, the Shrinky Dinks were the biggest hit.

 Benjamin got a little robot which he loves and carries everywhere.

The Riemer 4 all went to school together that day.  We walked her to her classroom, as did most kindergarten families.  I think the parents were more nervous than their children.   

After visiting her classroom we all headed to the front of the school for the flag ceremony.  500 students plus all their parents and their siblings makes for a very crowded and chaotic event but they pulled it off. 

My sister, Kim, told me that she always puts a small wrapped gift on her kids beds on the first day of school and they still look forward to it now at age 14 and 16.  I decided to start the tradition.  Needless to say, Josie was quite happy about the unexpected gift of glitter glue sticks and drawing paper.

 I love when I catch the open mouthed surprise AWWW when she opens and really likes a gift.  GLITTER is a sure fire thing these days.

Her special meal choice for her first day of school was Indian food.  I LOVE that both of my kids are adventurous eaters.  At first they only ate the naan and rice but now they dig right into our normal order of eggplant bharta and chicken makhani with vegetables.  After Indian food we headed over to Menchies frozen yogurt to really seal the deal on a successful first day of Kindergarten.

The second day of school we played a bit on the playground after pick up time.

 The third day of school she was ready to ride the school bus. I WASN'T but nobody asked my opinion!  It was so sad to watch her drive away on the BIG school bus!  She had one had clasping the seat in front of her and looked out the window at us with a big smile a big wave and a touch of anxiousness.  She didn't tell me until two days later that she in fact cried a little on the way to school.  She said she was fine on the way home but on the way there she was a little scared.  I told her that it was OK, I cried a little bit too!

But look at that smile and confidence on the fourth day of school.  That's my girl!! I'm so proud of how she has transitioned so easily and comfortably to all of this newness.  She loves kindergarten, has made a lot of new friends and really likes her teacher.  We couldn't ask for much more.  

The Beach

 Before I start into the "back to school" series of posts I figured I would end the summer with a bunch of photos from one of our favorite summer hangouts - ALKI.  We spent a lot of time there this summer.