Bottle of Fluff

I'm not sure what Amity's doing with this jug filled with fluffy balls, but it's cute! Likely there was a fairly educative experience involving fine motor skills, sensory explorations, and maybe some color identification. But in the end, the thing I like the most is the aforementioned cute.

Stickers

Here's Amity at school again. This time she's deep in concentration doing something with stickers.

Sassy

Our friend Nikki (seen here on iPhone in the background) came to visit for a while. We haven't seen her in quite some time, in fact the last time was when Zara was younger than Amity is now. But enough about boring grown up relationships, back to the sassy here. Behold how Amity rocks Nikki's sunglasses.

Rosh Hashanah

Here we see Amity making her very own shofar, to welcome in the Jewish New Year. The last picture shows her teacher, Mary.

First Day of School - Keshet Edition

Today was also Amity's first day at CBI Preschool (and Kindergarten), which is the same school Z went to a few years back. Amity actually started camp there this past summer, so it really wasn't much of a "new" experience for her. It was, however, lots of fun to take sister first day of school pictures. As you can tell from the last of these photos, Amity is such a big kid and totally ready to assume her role as preschooler (WThF from 9-12:45). All other times she remains "the baby."

First Day of School - 2nd Grade Edition

We had barely recovered from our beach week of fun when lo and behold the first day of school (for both kids) rolled around. This post will primarily feature Zara pictures, though Amity did help to drop her off at Johnson this morning. Zara confidently strolled into her classroom, giving her teacher Ms. Machen a giant hug and finding her hook for her backpack and her new desk. New this year, her grade has 3 class sections instead of 4, so there are 20 kids in her class (and no assistant).Gone are the days she has to trudge down the steps to the first floor - 2nd graders are on the main floor of the school! On the other hand, she is in the furthest classroom on that floor (in reference to the main entrance). She's happy to be in the same class as her buddies Vivien, Alden, and Holden, and has made a new-to-the-school friend, Yenna. We expect she will have a wonderful year in 2nd grade (and will keep you posted, dear reader).

Beach Sunsets

One of the cool things about being on the Eastern Shore of VA is that you get a California-style beach sunset. Yes, despite being on the east coast we were on the western side of the Eastern Shore. And as we all know, the sun, she sets in the west. The Tobiases were kind enough to hang with Zara on the beach (and take these pictures) while Wes and I took a cranky Amity back to the beach house for bed. Thanks, guys!

Kayaking

We did a lot of fun things during our Eastern Shore week. One of them was a 2+ hour guided kayak tour of the salt marshes at the tip of the peninsula. We broke up into 4 tandem canoes - dads took younger kiddos, moms took older ones. Everyone had a wonderful time. Amity was so relaxed (and tired) she actually napped for more than half the trip. Both big kids took their turn at paddling and did great!

In the first picture, we're getting situated to head off in the boats. If you look closely on the left, Amity's actually already in a boat. The second and third pictures were taken on Raccoon Island. It's this super cool little place that's only accessible when the tide is right. Pretty amazing to walk around, really. We saw a lot of cool shells, as well as some beautiful birds and a ton of different crabs. Crossed a channel twice and avoided the power boats that didn't really get the "no wake" concept. Good salty fun!

The Eastern Shore

These pictures were actually taken on completely different days. No matter. This is just a little teaser to say we had fun on vacation on VA's Eastern Shore. To be fair, the picture of Zara is at the Virginia Beach Aquarium and therefore in Virginia proper, but the photo of Amity is on the beach (bayside) in Cape Charles, VA, so that totally makes up for my creative juxtaposition of space, time, and images.

BRIMS Camp

For the second year in a row, Zara spent a very enjoyable week at BRIMS camp. Last year we were very proud of her as she sang and played "Hot Cross Buns" and "Twinkle, Twinkle" on the tin whistle. This year she's moved up to advanced beginner status in dancing and picked up the fiddle as well. A lot of progress in just one year. She's enjoying it immensely, as are we. As with many things around here, Amity wants to know when it will be her turn to dance and play with Lori and Alex.