Sophie has her first pony ride at the Horace Mann Pumpkin Festival!

Rosh Hashanah came to Melrose this year!

Aunt Jaki, Grandma and Pop-pop joined us for a sweet new year 

(Nana and Grampy came too! and Cara and Ben even came for dessert!)

 Sophie has fun with Aunt Jaki and Grandma

 L'shana tova!

 The next day we had a bit more fun with Pop-pop and Grandma...

 While Noah and Grandma played Monopoly inside, 

Sophie and Pop-pop played Candyland outside.

A morning jaunt with just Sophie and Mama

(swim lesson, lunch, library)

 Noah decided to teach Sophie her numbers

Great job, both of you!

Tire Swing

 Need a boost?

The daring (and darling) duo

Daddy's birthday started out fantastic, making bagels with a very special helper:

 Roll the dough and make a circle!

Let them, rise, then boil and bake - yum...

 Bowling and lunch at Sacco's is becoming a birthday tradition

And then Nana and Grampy joined us for a birthday dinner!

 We love visiting the Walshes!  

Sophie and Oona had so much fun on the swingset!

What are those animals doing in here?  

Where did Sophie and Oona go?

It's fantastic that Noah and Sophie love art.

We spent the day at the MFA.

After a while Sophie just wanted to make her own art.

 We sat in the atrium near the Chihuly sculpture, and she drew...

 and drew...

and drew...

 Finally Noah and Daddy came back to find us!

(They were off on a scavenger hunt)

What a wonderful day...

 Fun on the tire swing just before the start of school...

Pebbles

The taste of summer...

 The four of us had a blast at a Lowell Spinners game, 

one of the minor league Red Sox affiliates

 Entranced by the game and the cotton candy

 Mama and Sophie make funny faces...

All four of us, home at last!

 We grew real ears of corn in our garden this year!

It was awesome, they grew taller than Noah and Sophie!

(but the corn itself was a little disappointing - we'll need to do some research for next year)

Inspired by the A Tribe Called Quest documentary, we've been playing a lot of their music lately - Sophie is particularly fond of "I left my wallet in El Segundo"


(the original video, for your reference)

Sophie rocks the Princess Leia hairdo!

Mama had the best birthday ever, with a trip up to Frye Island for the week...

 Japanese lunch in Portland on the way up to Frye Island... look at the cool Bento Box!

 Homemade chocolate cupcakes by my three favoritest people!

  Sebago Lake, we love you!

 Sophie cleans up around the house...the Walshes are coming soon!

Fun with Storycubes on our off-island jaunt for minigolf and lunch!

Aunt Jen and Uncle Zack gave Noah an awesome Mythbusters science kit for his birthday!

It even has a big poster of Buster that we used to test the bounciness of different types of balls.