Back to School!!

Now that I finally made it through our trip I can start catching up on all the things that have happened in the last 2 months. 

The kids started school!!  Jillian is in 3rd grade.  She loves her teacher (and we do too) & is so happy to have 3 of her close friends from church in her class again this year. 

Carter finally started kindergarten!!  He also loves school & has a great teacher.  We were lucky to get 2 wonderful teachers this year!!  Carter was definitely ready for kindergarten after the extra year of preschool we gave him.  His academic level has always been advanced but he is now so much more mature, which was our reason for holding him a year.  He loves going full day & it is so good for him.  This is what I have to remember as we pay the $375 a month for full day.  Yes, unbelievably they charge for full day kinder here. 



What does Benny do while the kids are gone all day?  The answer is make lines.  Her lines up his cars everyday & sometimes he lines up other things like the blocks, the food or anything else he can get his hands on.  We have also been going to story time, gymboree classes & just spending time running errands together.  He is a pretty good thing who will entertain himself for long periods of time!!  Thank Goodness!!

More school pictures.  Carter was unable to smile at first (bottom right) due to a minor infraction on his part that led to a privilege being taken away.  He tries hard to do what is right though & decided he was going to be happy regardless of the situation, and therefore was able to smile again in the bottom middle picture.  He is a good kid when he is not driving us crazy:)!!

 

End of our trip

Well, it took a lot of time & effort but I have finally reached the end of our trip.  On our last day we rented 2 surreys & rode them around the island.  It was a lot of work!!  Then, just before we headed out, we stopped at Poppy's for some ice cream & saw one last light house. 



We said our goodbye's with many, many tears from Jillian.  She hates to say goodbye, especially to family!  We drove from Long Island, New Jersey to Philadelphia where we stayed overnight to catch our 6 am flight home.  Thank goodness the kids were good on the plane again.  We arrived home by 9:30 our time & even made it to Jillian & Carter's teacher meet & greet that afternoon.  They started school 3 days later on Monday.  Luckily we were recovered from our trip by then & ready to start school. 

Other fun

When were weren't at the beach we were BBQing & hanging out in the backyard.



Loving the chance to spend time with cousins even if we only got to feed 3 ducks.  Some of the cousins could have been a little happier to spend time with us.  One in particular, can you guess which one?  I guess we can't blame Eden for being happy to see the back of us considering all the abuse she took from Bennett for 2 weeks!  I hope she has recovered & there will be no permanent physical or emotional damage!  Jillian loved her little girl cousins & the boy's too but she is happy to have Parke girl cousins finally!! 

We had an awesome pirate party to celebrate September birthdays.  Grandma & Grandpa Parke I wanted you to see how disappointed Asher was with the cars toy you got for him.  I mean just look at his face (2nd from left on the bottom row) it says it all!!!  He could not have been more excited. 

We took the kids mini golfing one day.  Here is a question for you.  If you take your 3 children mini golfing, how many are likely to pout & make it a miserable time?  Our answer was 2.  Bennett had the greatest time scooting the ball in the holes.  Jillian & Carter complained, pouted & then sulked after Daddy's "Stop pouting at the golf course" speech (see bottom left picture). 

Luckily they were able to pull themselves out of the sulks for the last hole, just in time to choose ice cream flavors they did not like as well as Daddy's & then proceed to eat all of Daddy's ice cream.  After that we had to give Daddy the "stop being irritated at the mini golf course" speech:).

Isn't it a pain when you take kids to do something you think they will really enjoy, that you didn't even want to do in the first place & they are miserable the whole time!!  I think they were getting tired by this time of the trip, we left the next day & it was probably just the right time, especially considering this was also the day Tennyson said he was ready for us to go home & things to get back to normal (that was the gist of it right Sierra?:).  

Beach Time

We had such a great time at the beach!!!  Here is Jillian & Eden, the cherry swimsuit girls! 



Enjoying the sun, water & waves.  The kids loved to wade with the adults & by the end they were swimming around in the ocean & wading by themselves in pretty deep water.  Aunt Sierra took Jillian, Carter & Tennyson out to play in the waves.  The water was only to Sierra's knees but when the waves come in they were up to her neck.  One giant wave came & knocked Sierra and all the kids down.  Jillian was a little disgusted with Aunt Sierra for being knocked down & landing on Jillian's foot.  I think she realized Aunt Sierra didn't do it on purpose & forgave her but not before much pouting & grumbling from Jill. 

Some of the favorite beach activities were body boarding, digging & then playing in large holes in the sand & catching sand crabs. 

 

To the beach house

After 9 days of fun in Boston, we drove through Mass, Connecticut & New York to get to New Jersey where we were staying in a beach house for another 5 days. 

In New York, I took some pictures of the city from a distance since it was my first time seeing it.  One day I will go back for a closer view. 

As we drove along I thought about my nephew Jake on his mission in Long Island.  I also thought of Buddy the Elf when I saw the Lincoln Tunnel sign.  After an 8 hour drive we made it to the beach house. 

 

Christian's  brother Gavin, & his family were there to meet us.  On Sunday morning Gavin blessed their little Adeline.  Cheryl made Adi's blessing dress & it was beautiful!

 

Swan Boats

This was our last trip to downtown Boston!!  We once again took the train & exited at Park street, which lets you off at Boston Common.  We walked across the street to the botanical gardens to ride the swan boats.  The ride was very short but we all enjoyed it.  (see top row of pictures) 

Next we went to see the "Make way for ducklings" statue.

Then we walked to one of the many churches in the area.  On our duck tour, our guide told us the stain glass windows were made by Tiffany & his son before they became jewelers.  They were beautiful.  (Center pictures) 

We passed by the iparty store where Amelia Earhart used to work (we assume it was not an iparty at that time:). 

Lastly, we stopped at the frog pond on the common to eat ice cream & let the kids play in the water.  It was another very hot day!! 

As a side note, Jillian absolutely loves the Power Rangers.  She watches all the many variations of the show on Netflix, and there are many variations!!  (Mystic force is her favorite)  I happened to find a Power Rangers shirt in the boys section as I was shopping for Carter.  I decided Jill might like it so I brought it home for her.  I was wrong, she didn't like it, she loved it!!!!!  She wore it night & day for about 3 days, then we finally said it had to be washed.  Eventually she and I realized it didn't even have any of the girl rangers on it but she wasn't disappointed, she doesn't like the color pink anyway. 


 

Temple & Park

One evening we went to visit the Boston Temple.  It is right off the freeway & we passed it many times on our trips to down town but we wanted to be able to see it up close.  We walked around the grounds & enjoyed the variety of flowers.  It is always fun to visit a new temple. 



After the temple, we drove to a near by park to let the kids tire themselves out for bed.  This park was awesome.  The giant slides were a big hit.  Bennett must have gone down them at least 2 dozen times.  It was really good exercise considering how many steps you have to climb to get to the top.  Carter found the fastest way to go down, leaning on your back with your legs up.  He also found out, the next day, that is the best way to get giant burns on your back. The lesson he learned is to tuck in your shirt!  I raced Christian & Sierra down a couple of times but I always lost!!  Carter clearly did not get his slide skills from me. 

There was a beautiful sunset that night & a great view of the city from the top of the slide hill.   Even covered in bug spray, I managed to come away with bites.  I hate mosquito's!!!!!!!!!!!