Brrr

This is what we looked like during breakfast this morning. We cannot safely turn on our furnace until we have our chimney work completed later this week, so it has been a crisp 58 degrees inside our house the past few days. And for the record, it feels colder than it sounds.

Eloise's 1st karaoke

Eloise sang her favorite song at the second block party this week in front of a huge crowd of adults and tween aged children (plus this random drunken groupie on her right). There wasn't a screen to read the lyrics but she doesn't know how to read anyway... She pretty much nailed it.

Weekend at home

This weekend we went to a luau at our beach and a block party on our street. It was awesome.

my loves

Labor Day weekend

We had a busy Labor Day weekend, halfsies spent in Wisconsin with friends and halfsies spent with Uncle Dave, Aunt Molly and Jane back at home. Two different halfsies equal one whole lot of fun! Plus we had time to work on the yard on Monday afternoon which was very exciting and very necessary.

in Wisconsin we swam and boated and...played with shaving cream!

mohawk boy

We took cousin Jane to the beach by our house and just like us, she loved the waves and sand!

one last cuddle on Monday

First day of school!

Eloise began her third (yes third) year of preschool this week. She is in a new house and a new town and therefore a new school, and she handled it like a champ. The school where she is now (and where eventually George will be too) will be the same school until 5th grade. This year of junior kindergarten and also next year of senior kindergarten are only half day, so we all have a bit of adjusting to do from full-day school last year. The morning without her goes quickly - although maybe not for George who asked "where Sissy go?" no fewer than 10 times today. After a very long and wild summer we are happy to begin another school year and looking forward to getting to know all of our new friends. 

Home sweet home

We've spent the last two weeks elbow deep in boxes unpacking and settling into our new home. And it's literally felt like home for us since the moment we arrived. Most of the boxes are unpacked with a few stacks remaining in a corner of the living room and in the basement. We discovered less than a handful of broken dishes coming out of storage and only a couple of things are still not found (where is that big red vintage drum - and more frantically, where are the precious silhouettes of the kids???)

We've taken packing breaks for swimming at the pool and going to the beach and riding our bikes and walking Maize all over the neighborhood. At least 4 times we've had children ringing the doorbell asking if the kids can come play with them. One neighbor has a trampoline! And another has a tree swing! And Eloise went to lunch at another neighbors house earlier this week.

After 4 months of chaos, we are focused on getting the kids back on a sleep schedule. I'm not sure that out-of-control/whiny/demanding even begins to touch the surface of describing how their behavior has been - clearly the adjustment for them has been much greater and more difficult than we could've imagined. But we'll get there (and we really look forward to when we do!)

This beautiful old house is a project and a half and we plan on taking our time with it and filling it with love and memories. Please come and visit very soon.

"Mommy, is this our permanent house? It's everything I dreamed it'd be!"

-Eloise