First day of School

Rebecca started first grade yesterday! She was very excited to go, and had no problems saying good-bye. Though I was a little teary eyed. Her teacher is Mrs. Merriman and her name seems very fitting, as she appeared very animated and well, merry! At the end of the day Becca said her day was awesome and the hightlight was that she got to see a real police officer. I cautiously asked "why?" as visions of bomb threats and psycho molesters invading the school ran through my mind. "To talk about safety." was the innocent reply. Of course safety, what was I thinking?!( but have you seen the news lately??). Okay I was a little bit nervous having her gone at school all day with a bunch of strangers, but she is my firstborn and I am entitled. So all in all everyone survived the first day without incident. Or more accurately I survived the first day, Rebecca had no problems. Does it ever get any easier?

A weekend without kids! part 2

I know you are all just anxiously waiting to see if Dom and I got a life this weekend. After dropping the kids off we went out to the Windward Grille in Essex, Ma. The food was great. The building is over 200 years old with low exposed beam ceilings and huge fireplaces, very cozy for a drizzly afternoon. After that we headed up to Maine to wander around the Kittery Trading Post. Then we headed back for a quiet evening at home. On Saturday we headed up to the White mountains to do some hiking on the Dry River Trail. We had done this trail once before a long time ago. At the trail head there was a sign that warned that the bridge that crosses the river was damaged during the heavy rains we got in the spring and we would have to find an alternate route to cross the river. We decided to hike in anyway and see what the situation was.
As we hiked it quickly became apparent that because of the warning very few people had hiked the trail this season. There was a lot of debris and overgrown branches along the way but we made it to the bridge without incident. I admit I was expecting major damage to the bridge but there was only one support pulled out and some warped boards, not the mass destruction I had envisioned. The river was fairly low and it would be easy to hop across rocks to the other side. But instead we picked a nice spot to sit on the rocks and hang out. Dom had brought a fishing pole and quickly caught several small brook trout that he threw back. While he fished I checked things out and discovered the biggest spider I have ever seen. This spider hunts for its food. I am not a big fan of spiders but had to take a picture because it was just so huge!
After our little adventure we headed back home, making a stop at a place called the Margarita Grill to eat. The food was good. We chose to eat on the patio and I kinda wished we hadn't. It was too close to the road and the traffic noise was annoying. Also everyone with kids also chose to sit on the patio so the noise level was doubled, not really what we had in mind when it was just the two of us. We did agree that it would be a good place to bring the kids. Sunday was a lazy day at home until it was time to go get the kids. Unfortunately we got caught in the"mass" exodus of tourists leaving the state. I say "mass" literally because 85% of the cars were from Mass.
The kids had fun being spoiled by Nonna and Nonno with trips to the park and 2 different toy stores.

A weekend without kids!

Doms parents have taken the kids for the weekend and as usual, on the rare occasion we are without children we spend the first hour like this..

Me: "What do you want to do?"
Dom: "I don't know what do you want to do?"
Me: "You wanna go somewhere?"
Dom:"Yeah, lets go somewhere?"
Me:"Well where do you want to go?"
Dom: "I don't know, where do you want to go?"
Me: "I don't know."

Insert chirping cricket here.

Stay tuned for more excitement: Will Dom and Cyndi find something to do? Will they ever find that cricket that got into the house?

The count down begins

Summer is ending and school begins next week. Becca is excited about starting first grade and I am excited for her, but not too excited. It is going to be an adjustment for all of us having her gone all day. It will probably be hardest for Kenzie, she's used to having Becca to play with all day. Last year Kindergarten was only a couple hours a day so it was an easy adjustment, all day might be a bit trickier. I did sign Mackenzie up for dance and there is story hour at the library as well as activities at the rec center, so we'll keep pretty busy. Plus, Kenzie likes to help around the house, especially in the kitchen. We may have the next Rachael Ray on our hands!
We've had a really fun and busy summer and it's sad to see it end but we've still got some adventures planned we just have to work around school that's all. I've included a picture from one of our hikes this summer at Waterville Valley. We took a break by the river so the girls could splash around and throw rocks in the water.

Featured Artist

Here is the latest artwork added to our refrigerator gallery
done by the 3 year old artist formerly known as Mackenzie. I was informed that she is Alodar the dinosaur until further notice. This is her depiction of a horse corral and horse poop. The horses have gone out to lunch and that is why they are not in the picture.
The kid cracks me up.

"There is a place..

...where the sidewalk ends and before the street begins." This is from the Shel Silverstein book,'Where the sidewalk Ends'. It is a book of fun, quirky poems that is one of my favorites and my childrens too. I like it for many reasons but chose it as a title for my blog because that particular line reminds me of where I live now and where I grew up in rural New England.
No sidewalks, not even a paved road, just lots of wide open space to let your imagination run free! No traffic, smog or ear-piercing screeches...Just quiet.
Okay, who am I kidding? I have two children. Girls in fact, so ear piercing screams come with the territory and the screeches are usually followed by crashes, yelling and tears. But they get along great, about 90% of the time.
So this is where the sidewalk ends and my blog begins...