Maymont Bears

So for the longest time we'd never actually seen the Maymont bears, and we used to joke that this statue was the extent of Maymont's bear exhibit. Well, there are bears again, and there's still this bear statue...

She's cool.... very cool.

Some pictures require no additional words. I think this may be one of them.

But why is the wind gone?

We missed it last year, but 2 years ago we had a wonderful time at the kite festival. This year we were again joined by the hungry robot crew (who again took pictures as we neglected to, thanks guys!), but due in large part to a serious lack of wind the festival was more of a sizzle this year than the bang it had been in years past. Ah well, good times with friends are always worth it. And to prove it, here we see Z and E joyfully frolicking together. (Also, there were bouncy castles this year which was a big hit with the 5 year old set)

Soccer, Round 3

So, this time around, Zara chose to play "Hot Shots" with her friend Vivien (who also did Y soccer wit her this past summer and turns out to be in Zara's class at school, too!). Also on her team? 4 other friends from her grade at Johnson, and at least one other kid who will be at Johnson in K next year. So all those Learning Leopards made the whole experience a lot more fun. And making it even mo' better was the fact that 3 of Zara's teammates are in her reading group at school! There was so much love on the field the kids sometimes forgot to play soccer and held hand instead. A lot of progress was made by all team members, and by the end of the 8 weeks the kids were going above and beyond my wildest expectations for huddle soccer, with even the occasional (purposive, as far as we could tell) pass! The accompanying 2 images show how COLD it was when soccer started in contrast to how delightfully balmy it was on our last game day.

Portrait of the Artist (squatting)

See? I told you! Art! Think we should buy her an easel for her next birthday? She seems pretty happy with the floor...

Walking with the Big Girls

Amity's actually a pretty good walker at this point, from a stamina perspective. From an agenda perspective, she really needs a lot of hand holding so she keeps moving and doesn't run into the street. She often tolerates Wes and I holding her hand, but big girls are the best! Here we see her toddling in to drop Z off at Hebrew school, accompanied by Z and her buddy S.