In Ohio

My first attempt at blogging from the iPhone- havent figured out how to rotate the pic. Am watching Andrew horse around with aunt Erin and Nana in the new pool. Beautiful weather and the farm is full of fresh fruits and veggies to enjoy.

 

Byebye Playschool

To make up for my lack of posting lately, I'll give you lots of pics from this past school year at Parents in Parternship Playschool, a  parent co-op that Andrew and I attended together for the past year or two. The school year just ended, and Andrew will be off to Morningstar Montessori in the fall which everyone is excited about. These are a few representative shots of the activities we enjoyed. We'll miss everyone!

State Park Sundays, Week 2

We've decided to make Sundays our State Park days. Today's visit was to Schodack Island State Park. Andrew's first geocaching trip! aka "going on a treasure hunt" :)

Fathers Day Hike

This summer we've instituted Sunday Hikes. Our first hike came on Fathers Day, to Thacher Park which loads of folks have recommended. It didn't disappoint - we walked under 2 different waterfalls, then up to the top to see where they start. We had a picnic snack, visited the science center and tired ourselves out in the process. Most importantly, Andrew LOVED it. He wanted to immediately do the hiking loop again (we talked him out of it.) A few days later I took him on a local nature walk with another mom and her 3 year old and we were climbing hills and crossing streams for an hour and a half! I swear that boy never tires. Anyhow I'm really happy to have found an alternate way to enjoy being outside that doesn't involve our backyard or playgrounds.

First Sketch

Andrew's first representational drawing.

Mad Scientist

We had a great time at the 5-week Wednesdays Parent and Me program hosted by the Childrens Museum of Science and Technology. Andrew was really into all the experiments. The one above illustrates how clouds (shaving cream) hold rain (blue dye) and eventually when saturated, the clouds release raindrops. Themes included weather, measuring, movement, animals. Highly recommended for budding scientists.

First Bowling Outing

 During the summers there's a national program called "Kids Bowl Free" so we took advantage this weekend and let Andrew give it a go. The lightest ball they had was a 7 lber and he did pretty well with it actually. But Dada needed to provide the driving force for the ball to actually move.

 He REALLY liked the shoes. Moreso than the bowling, I think.

Not too shabby, Andrew was actually in the lead over Dada for the first half of the game. No joke!

Boston, Part 2

We went on a little excursion while in Boston, to visit my Mom's friend Emily. She showed us around her town, including the local beach. Beaches are not exactly plentiful in our area, so you can imagine how excited Andrew was (as were Shawn and I).

And.....he's off!

Digging

Splashing

Boston, Part 1

 We went out to Boston this past weekend to visit our friends Kate and Cliff, and celebrate their son's 2nd birthday! This is the first visit we've had where the two kids could do interactive play. They seemed to like each other, which bodes well for future visits.

They threw a fun birthday party - check out these finger foods!

The cake was unbelievable. Every year they use this local bakery who claims to be able to make just about any cake scene. This one combined all of their son's interests, but mainly was about monkeys on the playground. Cliff had to do an emergency re-capitation on one of the monkeys.

Tasty cake too. After all the green icing, Andrew's poop was green for days. Lovely.

Hanging with the Gordon Guys

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 Andrew and Grandpa Richie napping

 Andrew and Cousin Levi getting strangled by Uncle Adam

While Nana was visiting we also got to see my side of the family while attending Grandpa Bernie's unveiling. At this age, Andrew knows who everyone is by sight and name, and warms up to them very quickly.