First Day of School :: 2014-2015

[the requisite first-day-of-school picture]

The days are long, but the years are short. This rings especially true on the first day of school. How is it that I now have a high school freshman and a 4th grader?

I still feel like I have some time with Maya. After all, she's still in elementary school. 

But Ian is a different story altogether. We only have four more years with him before he's legally an adult and he flies the coop. 

Judging from my own high school memories, I have a feeling the next four years are going to pass much too quickly ... and, by then, Maya will be starting her teen years and I'll start begging for those years to fly by! ;)

Adventuring in DC :: U Street Corridor

[Ben's Chili Bowl, African American Civil War Memorial, Busboys and Poets Teaching for Change bookstore]

Snow Day

Second Snow Day in a row (although, officially, yesterday was an Emergency Weather Day because of icy conditions). It's not even officially winter yet and we've already used up two of the four Snow Days we can have before the district starts tacking on days to the end of the school year. 

My brother-in-law and his wife live in Rochester, New York and we were talking about snow over Thanksgiving, and it came up that DC-area "Snowmageddon" was a regular occurrence in their area. Which makes me wonder how bad it has to get in places like Rochester, Minnesota, or Canada before they declare a Snow Day. 

The kids are, obviously, enjoying this unexpected long weekend. I actually am too. I've decided not to venture out and I'm taking advantage of the serenity (minus the kids' voices) to catch up on some reading. Luckily, we have enough food in the house so I don't have to go out. 

7:45ish

8:45ish

9:45ish

10:45ish

11:45ish

OK, so most of the pictures look the same, but it's been snowing consistently for several hours so it's piling up more than it did on Sunday. 

By 3:00 the scene was already changing ...

There was just enough snow for me to build a snow penguin:

Day 23 :: Thankful for ...

... my kids' new friends. 

Day 22 :: Thankful for ...

... my children's good health. I took them to their first check-up here and everything's A-OK. And we liked their new pediatrician, a youngish guy (a first for us and probably a good thing for Ian).

Milestone moment for me ...

 

I sort of let Ian babysit Maya: I left them both at home while I went to the library to return some books. Then I sent them out, just the two of them, to go back to the library to pay my overdue fine (meaning, they had to cross the street by themselves).

 

They were late coming home so I got a little worried and headed over there just as they were heading home; they were late because the librarians helped them sign up for the summer reading program.