School Days!

So school has begun! And the kids are loving it. On Evie's first day, she was very excited, but a little nervous.



But by the time we reached school, she was growing more comfortable with the idea.



And a few minutes before the bell rang, she was happily tucked away doing one of her favorite things.



Not to be left out, Arun started his preschool experience. He loved sliding into his backpack to be like his big sister.



He was so thrilled to finally have his own cubby!



Sadly, he's missed all this week due to a nasty cold that turned into pneumonia, but he's on the mend and looking forward to getting back to school next week.

We've actually all been fighting sickness and the start-of-school tiredness, but despite that Evie and Daddy celebrated a start of the year with an outing to Seattle to use some free Mariners' tickets.



They ended up being a few hours early for the game, so a trip to the market to pick up a cool Pez dispenser (she picked out a Tigger for Arun), and a bus ride to the sculpture garden made it a full day.





Sadly, we don't have the same problem with being so early for school. But at least they're clean when they arrive.

What happened to summer?

So suddenly, it is September 10. Summer was fleeting and silly cold, but we managed to have some semblance of warm weather fun on this side of the country.

One of the first things we did was finally get Arun's room painted. We're all glad he no longer has to sleep in a dark jungle green cave.



July also brought soccer camp. We were lucky enough to host Evie's coach, Alex, for the week of camp. Alex is a university student from Manchester, England. He's also probably made it very tough for any guy who might try to win Evie's heart eventually. And for that we thank him.



Arun was too young for soccer camp this year, but he loved day camp at the local montessori school, and tore it up at the county all comer's track meets.



The unseasonable cold weather drove us to find some indoor adventures, including discovering our new favorite children's museum, the Imagine Museum in Everett.




But there was sunshine here and there. And parks to check out.




And sprinklers to run through.




While the kids were busy playing, Jimmy and I were creating my new writing cottage. Check out my website for the full-story, but here's a peek:

Before:


After:


We did get a few nights of camping in at beautiful Baker Lake. The kids were super helpful setting up the tent and helping wash dishes.




But it wasn't all work. There was plenty of time for "spider-swimming," pillow-pet smuggling, and generally relaxing.





We tried to do a little hiking, but the trailhead was still covered with tons of snow.



Luckily, snow wasn't a problem canoeing on the lake.


But keeping Big Baby in the boat was a bit trickier.



And what would summer be without some bike riding? Evie surprised us all (including herself) by riding without training wheels! We've had her on a modified balance bike without pedals for a while, and she's been doing really well. So Jimmy popped the pedals and crank back on, had her take a seat, and about ten seconds later she said, "Daddy, let go! I got it!"

And she really did!

Untitled from James Bradbury on Vimeo.

And that's our summer. Kindergarten starts Monday for Evie, and preschool for Arun on Tuesday. Stay tuned!