Abby at Work

We went in for parent day at Abby's school this morning. She was very productive and proud to show us her activities. She moved orange and black pompoms from one pumpkin tray to another using a special little scoop, she traced bats with chalk on black paper, she painted a pumpkin on the easel with impressive gusto, she cut strips of paper using a scissors that apparently she's been practicing with for weeks, and she showed us how tiny spiders and webs stick to a magnet. She pushed her chair in after every work and put each away neatly. Her manual dexterity with these works explains her latest accomplishments at home: pulling her pants up and down and putting her shoes on all by herself! That's my girl!

Siblings

Mike sent me this photo today while I was at work. When I got home, they were both in the bathroom with the light off, comparing how their new pumpkin necklaces light up in the dark.

Outlay at toy store for plastic necklaces: 5 bucks. Value of sibling collaboration: priceless.

San Francisco and Superman

Just got back from 3 days in San Francisco, to attend the SOCAP10 conference, all about the "social capital" markets, or funding for social entrepreneurs. I had a blast!

The best part of SOCAP is that it takes place on the water near the Marina. I got up at dawn in Monday morning and hiked around Fort Mason to see the sunrise.



The next morning I met someone for breakfast on Fisherman's Wharf.


While I was there I also saw Waiting for Superman. it is not playing in NC yet and I could not wait! I was not disappointed. It is an intense and highly emotional film, about a lot of entrepreneurs I have studied and taught over the years and what we all need to do to improve the way schools serve our kids. I bawled during the last 30 minutes watching the kids wait for their slots in good schools during school lotteries. I have a lot of opinions of this movie, some good some bad, but I think it was a very courageous film to make. If you care about how kids are educated in this country, run, don't walk, to go see it! I very literally did as I couldn't find a cab the night I needed to see it and when I finally did I was late to the theater. Anyway, GO!!!!

Random Recents

Here are some recent pix of us:

On the museum train:


At the playground:
At Orange Leaf:
At the playground again:

On the way to ANOTHER playground!


Running through the rose garden this afternoon - my, she looks tall and thin doesn't she??

A Lake beach!

Today for my birthday (actually it was yesterday, but I worked), I decided we should go check out a local lake's beach area. It was delightful! The kids were so happy in the sand and water and Mike was happy with the huge shaded area in front of the beach. Next time we go we might grill up some lunch. They had a playground and showers and changing rooms and life jackets and the roped off swim area is huge and shallow enough for Jake to touch all the way to the back of it. It was 95 degrees today, so I'm glad we got a real swim day in before it cools off.

We're going to get a lot of use out of this next summer!

That little blob in the middle is the kids and me on the beach, from Mike's view in the shade.

Hanging Out

It was pretty exciting around here last week as we had some landscapers in, who climbed up some of our highest trees, felled some, pruned some others, and ground down all the logs, branches and stumps. Abby was fascinated. Jake was beside himself because he came home from school and found "his" tree, the one he'd randomly chosen a few weeks ago to put a pulley in, was gone. We had told him this was going to happen and why (it was in danger of falling on the house), but his 6 year old brain felt betrayed. We let him cry about it for a while and then we didn't. Finally, he bucked up in front of a Dirty Jobs DVD. Thank you, Mike Rowe - you have no idea how much you help us around here!

Next we have Miss Abby, looking serene beyond her years:

On Saturday, we spent the morning in downtown Carrboro, discovering a lovely green mosaic lady (hey, watch the hand, Jake!) and having a fantastic snack at Weaver Market. The day was just perfect - not too hot, nice breeze. We did an errand we needed to do while there too and thought again how easy living here is - in C'ville the errand part would have taken all morning. Here, that took 15 minutes and we played the rest of the am.



In the afternoon, Jake went to his first local birthday party, and I took Abby to the indoor pool and to the playground. Boy was she happy! She swam and grunted with happiness for over 45 minutes and then showed off her new climbing skills at the playground. We had 2 very happy and tired kids last night - yay!

Morning at the Duke Gardens

Grandma Lynne, Abby, Jake and I had a blast at the Duke gardens yesterday morning. We rambled through the Asian gardens, ponds, bridges, sculptures, bamboo forests and water gardens. Delightful!

Two Weekends

Now that both kids are in school, we try to make sure our weekends include a lot of family fun time. I'm 2 weekends behind on posting, and happy that I've just discovered an easy way to access Mike's pix again. So anyway, here's weekend #1, which included playtime at the mall, buying shoes for both kids, and wonderful haircuts by our new friend, Tasha. Abby watched a Dora DVD the entire time and was a little zombie. Jake was more nervous and no pix were taken, but he agreed the place was fun and he'd go back. Score!

Abby and I also did a lovely hike and craft project with the things we collected on the way.









Weekend #2 included a toystore that had a live iguana sitting on a shelf who flirted with me, a lovely stroll downtown culminating in a fantastic visit to a Mediterranean restaurant where Jake had his first taste of baklava (he's a fan), and a wonderful day of family gardening. A new babysitter stood us up (what is up with these people??) and another came the next day and gave me three precious hours of unpacking time. Ahhhh. Did I mention our house is still full of boxes??


This is where the photographer husband comes in handy... I love these photos!! Click on any to enlarge. The haircuts worked out well, didn't they?