Meet the teacher night

Lilly had back to school night, or that is what I called it, the school called it "Meet the teacher night."  It was an open house to come and find your new classroom and meet your new teacher.

Alysson (2nd grade), Lilly (1st grade)

Lilly's school has strict rules about the first day of school.  Parents are not allowed to walk their children into the building or in their classroom on the first day, or any day of school.  As a result I used tonight to get all my "first day of school" pictures taken care of.

Lilly is in first grade this year and she has Mrs. Haas for her teacher.  Lilly is on the second floor, which is a change from kindergarten.  There are lot of changes this year!  Seeing her classroom and meeting her teacher made Lilly excited to start school.

Lilly was slightly embarrassed by my picture requests and wouldn't sit at her desk, but this is a picture of her leaning into her desk.

We met Mrs. Haas tonight for the first time and she kindly agreed to take a picture with Lilly.

She had a scavenger hunt for the kids with prizes at the end, 

which was Lilly's favorite part of the evening. 

The funny thing about the primary school is the location.  It is across the street from a cemetery, a corn field, and down the road from a top security state mental hospital.  We joke that the land was really cheap and that is why they built an elementary school in such a location, although maybe that's what happened...

This year, Lilly gets the view of the cemetery.  This view is an improvement over the court yard/ brick wall view she had in kindergarten. Yes, the cemetery is an improvement.

This was a great night with no fits or tears from anyone.  Jim was able to join us this year. He met her teacher and toured the school.

(In the library)

The library has big beautiful windows with a great view of the corn field.  Lilly was excited to show us the location of the American Girl books and the Boxcar Children books.

Here is Lilly in front of the 2011 marker at the start of the 2012 school year.

Here she is last year, 2011 school year.  Feels like yesterday, and yet, you can tell by looking at her that she has really grown in the past year.

Lilly is ready for first grade!

Headstand

Williams Family Reunion

On Jim's side of the family Grandma B hosts her Williams family reunion at her farm every August.

The farm is very special to Jim and his family.  He spent some of his childhood years living here and many reunions and family gatherings happen here, including my bridal and baby shower.

Grandma B had a giant pile of sand brought in for the kids to play in, Jack didn't come away from the sand pile for the first few hours of the reunion. It took awhile to get all the sand out of his eyes.

The tractor ride convinced Jack to leave the sand pile.

Close up on Lilly's hair.

Lilly, Jack, and their cousin Morgan

Aunt Chris and Baby Riley.

Uncle John and a wiped out Sydney (2).

Emma (3) on the favorite tree swing.

Becca (10) on the swing.

My children love playing at the farm, can't wait for the next reunion.

Night at home.

Jack has a fit at almost every meal. This time the fit ended quickly but the tears remained.  He thinks we're horrible parents for not serving him goldfish crackers or chips at every meal.

Since Jim had the camera out to capture those alligator tears 

he caught a picture of the kids while we prayed before dinner.  

And then of them actually eating food....

And then practicing head stands....

And then I took a picture of them attacking Jim...

Then dressing up as Elmo and Hulk...(okay so this was on a different night, but I can't remember which night, so I thought it fit in here.)

Jack prefers to be the Hulk...

It's all fun until your brother throws a Frisbee into your eye...

Okay, that incident was on another night as well, but honestly who can keep it all straight??

When I'm 64...

That weekend we went to NYC, it really was my father in law's birthday, and we really did celebrate, and we really did then ask him to take us to NYC for his birthday.  He's cool like that.

Here are some pictures from the celebrating part:

Becca (10) and Lilly (6)

 For the birthday celebration we had dinner at Pizza Perfect.  It really is perfect pizza because they fry the crust and it is amazing.  Jim took me to Pizza Perfect for three years before I found out why this pizza was so delicious (because it's fried).

Uncle Mike, Grandpa, Aunt Kelly.

Kids in the background.

Aunt Jaime on the right with her sister, Jenn, and her brother in law Jer.

Jenn's daughter Maeve and Emma (3).

Nana and Uncle Karl with the classic "I'm taking a picture of you taking a picture of me" picture.

Birthday Pizza with 1 candle to blow out. No one wanted to cause a fire hazard with accurate candles in a restaurant.  He turned 64 this year and I was sad I didn't think to play one of my favorite Beatle songs for him.  Although if I had, he probably would have looked at me strangely and turned down his hearing aid.

(Halfway through my blog post I decided to edit my pictures in black and white. I can do that as creative owner and operator of this blog.)

Katy (15), Jack (3), Becca (10), Lilly (6), Emma (3)

It's fun when Lilly and Jack can see some of their 23 cousins on Jim's side.

The other older cousins sat at the adult table but Katy and Becca

are such sweet girls and always helps with the younger ones.  

Stephen, Amber, Mark (Amber is Mark's girlfriend and not a cousin, which is good for Mark.)

Stephen was really bored at Pizza Perfect even though I tried to entertain him with Rock, Paper, Scissors and a surprise dynamite attack.  Stephen was not amused by my antics. Luke and Jack monopolized the iPads leaving the other cousins to actually talk with other people.  Because what's cooler than an iPad?  Your 32 year old Aunt playing Rock, Paper, Scissors with a dynamite attack in your face.

Uncle Jim and Grandma B who is 96 years old and quite an impressive woman.  She still lives completely unassisted with a clear mind. 

We had a great time with family.

NYC

Last weekend we went to NYC for the day with Jim's parents.  It was one of those "Hey Dad, it's your birthday, why don't you take us to NYC for the day?"

(Photo by Jim)

Jim and his dad immediately started planning for a 3 hour boat tour around the Manhattan Island.  I immediately started thinking about how I would be really sea sick on a 3 hour boat tour.  They tried to assure me that the waters were calm and I then reminded them of the time I got sick on a Ferry and a canoe. I don't do well on planes or boats, or cars, or rides that go in a circle, or gently rocking wheel chairs.  It's just who I am and the sooner people get on board the less I have to throw up.

They decided to take the children on the 2PM boat tour and I said that would be perfect because all Broadway matinee's start at 2PM.  Betsy decided to join me and we secured last minute tickets to Wicked.

I saw Wicked 4 years ago in NYC, and it was even more amazing this time.  It was Betsy's first Broadway show and I think she had a great time too.  We bought sunglasses and hot dogs off the street.  Side note - NYC hot dogs have become smaller, less tasty, and more expensive.  We then did some shopping at the Disney Store on Times Square and even popped into the American Girl store.  Since it was a day trip that was all we could squeeze in.  Betsy and I probably could have shopped a lot longer.

Jim said the kids were great on the boat, with the help of the iPad and his excellent parenting, no one had a fit and Grandpa was impressed with our well behaved children...on the boat.

Lilly loves New York City and she still calls it Yew Nork.  It was a fun day.

Canoes

We decided to take a canoe out on the Susquehanna last weekend, or some weekend, I already can't remember.

When we arrived at the boat rental facility the worker said to me "Are you familiar with the river?" Uh...you mean the Susquehanna that runs through several states that I live 1 mile from?  Then yes, I am familiar with the river.

Lilly was a little nervous about the boat, I think Jack was too.  Lilly didn't really believe me that there are no sharks in the river.

They warmed up and then had a great time.

Lilly helped row.  Jack wanted to help but I knew that would end up with an oar floating upstream, downstream? Either way it would not be in our boat.

Some of the boats on the river fly the pirate flag.  Are they pirates about to rob our canoe after tubing or do they think it's funny to pretend to want to rob our canoe?  

Either way it is slightly alarming.

We rowed along the shore and Jack found a "flower," you might call it a "leaf."

Then I saved my family from crashing into a bridge.

The end.