We took the kids to get their haircut and for fun let them have a fun spa day. Here are the results. I think Sophie's ended up a little uneven but that girl doesn't know how to sit still.
We went away for Sophie's birthday and went to Dutch Wonderland. The kids had a blast. Genevieve and Sophie were able to go on all the rides that they wanted to go on. Jonah, sadly, was not. Their favorite ride was one an optical illusion ride where you go inside a house and then feel like your are flipping head over heels. The trick was that the house itself was spinning while you were stationary but they couldn't get enough of it. We went on that ride about 10 times in a row. Fortunately it had no wait; even more fortunately I could close my eyes to avoid feeling any disorienting sense of motion at all.
We went camping in August. It was unbearably humid. The girls, however, had a great time and impressed the park ranger with their knowledge of all things biological. The girls thought wearing sunglasses would keep the smoke out of their eyes; it doesn't work.
We visited the high line today with some friends. We'd never been before so we didn't know what to expect; we weren't sure if the kids could handle a walk in the park. After we arrived and were strolling through the park Sophie kept asking when we were going to get there. She was expecting to go to a playground and couldn't quite fathom why somebody would want to just keep walking. Eventually she forgot that we were going to a park and enjoyed being at a park. In the end, we did go to a great playground in Chelsea and the kids had a phenomenal time. There was a spinning toy where they proceeded to make themselves spin until they couldn't stand. I was nauseous just watching them.
Zen
Snack time with Joey
There were several street performers in the park. The group below were alternating between playing the Erhu (chinese fiddle) and letting anyone play their fiddles. They had four fiddles and were happy to let the girls play as long as they wanted. There was another performer who was standing next to a basket with some money and a small placard with the word "monologues" and a picture of Shakespeare. Genevieve looked at him in a very confused manner. She turned to me and asked: "Why would people give him money? He isn't doing anything." The man seemed a little crestfallen. I said to her, "He would recite some lines from Shakespeare, if you pay him." "I would?" he said hopefully. "Well, you might," I said, "but we need to go." Anon.
Summer is over and the school year has begun. We had a pretty good summer and will hopefully post some pictures soon. We took a few trips. Some were successful and others not so much. But Labor Day is over and school has started. Genevieve has moved into third grade and Sophie has started kindergarten. Both Genevieve and Sophie took martial arts lessons during the summer and will be continuing that through the rest of this year.
Genevieve was a little nervous but tried not to show it; however, after two days, she declared that these were the best two days of school...ever. It is nice to see that she is even keeled and doesn't go in for hyperbole. She is back in girl scouts and I hear they are going to visit a farm where they might get dirty. Hopefully Genevieve will be able to teach them a thing or two. Genevieve is trying to be more responsible. She has packed her lunch twice and is almost to the point of entirely making it herself. I'm curious to see how long this lasts but I like the trend.
Sophie seems to be completely unfazed by going to school. She is
approaching kindergarten with the same reckless abandon that she
approaches everything else: full speed ahead with her head down ready
for impact. The kindergarten center let the kids come last Thursday to check out the classroom to help acclimate them to kindergarten. We thought it was going to be a meet the teacher event but the teacher was not even there. There was a note on the board welcoming the students and asking them to write their name if they were able to. Sophie walked up to the board, read the instructions and proceeded to write her name. One of the mothers in the room was dumbfounded and stared at Sophie with a shocked expression. Carrie learned that they are supposed to be starting phonics on Friday. If the teacher makes Sophie do phonics there's going to be some s'plainin' to do.
Jonah doesn't start school until next week but he was really annoyed that he couldn't ride the bus with Sophie on the first day (or at all). Sophie has only had one day of kindergarten so far so I'm sure his level of frustration will grow. We'll see how his first day goes next week.
Jonah likes juice. I mean he really likes juice. Almost every morning he asks if he can have a juice box. We tell him no which elicits a whine. However, Jonah is not to be deterred. He started getting his own juice boxes out of the fridge and drinking them. He would do this while Carrie was in the shower presumably so she wouldn't notice. All this worked fine until one day the straw got stuck inside the juice box and he wasn't able to get any more juice out. He tearfully asked her for assistance forgetting that he wasn't allowed to have them. Carrie moved them to the top shelf of the fridge. Problem solved. Or not. The next day she found two juice boxes in the garbage can after she had showered. A mystery. How was Jonah getting the juice boxes from the top of the fridge? A chair would be the likely answer but it is doubtful that he would clean up after himself so well. While we were discussing the possibilities, Sophie helpfully chimed in: "I gave them to him. He asked me for a juice box so I got it." Mystery solved.
