What did you do for your summer vacation? We really hope someone asks Emily this question when she starts school in the fall because she has a lot of cool things to pick from. We combined visiting two sets of family into one vacation and a few sightseeing things between them.

First we drove to Connecticut to visit cousins. We did lots of swimming and a few sight seeing adventures including the Statue of Liberty. After leaving Connecticut we spent an evening and morning in Washington D.C. taking in a two museums and several monuments. Then, we caught a train in northern Virginia and travelled to Florida, sleeping one night on the train. The next part of our vacation took us to the kids’ Grandparent’s house in Miami and a visit with more cousins. We made one trip into the Everglades between rain showers. The last stop of the trip took us to Orlando to play and swim a bit more.

In total we traveled for two and a half weeks and saw 14 states and cousins. Julia traveled through two states for the first time. The best thing we collected in our travels were great memories of time that we spent together.

We have been waiting for words from Julia and it appears that the wait might be over. Over the last three days we have heard four sentences of two words and one three. The first we heard was her answering a question and requesting to go swimming by saying “me pool”. She was sweet to say it with her hand in the air like a school age girl. Fun stuff.

Emily is quite a talker and seems to have a really good stream of conversation. As she was playing tonight, she was rearranging diapers into a road. She disliked something and exclaimed “Oh, Crickets”. I though it was awesome. I hope to hear that one again.

We played at Emily’s school playground just before school started. It was good for Emily to be able to reconnect with the school this way and Julia just had a blast playing. Mama caught her a few times being particularly sweet. She is such a big girl getting ready for her last year at home with Mama before she starts school. Mama is looking forward to this non-school year to spend some special time with the big girl she is becoming. Honestly, who can say no to those big brown eyes?

Sun-kissed sliding time! Notice the shoes on the wrong feet. This happens most days. We decided that there is not much Julia has within her own control in her life, but she can control which feet her shoes are on. She intentionally wears them on the wrong feet to act out her independence.

It is our first day of 1st Grade today! Emily was up early and waiting for the house to join her. She must have been excited. Her backpack and clothes have been ready since last week. She picked something blue to wear of course!

Sporting her backpack that doesn’t seem to swallow her as much as it did last year.

Mama and Julia walked Emily to her class. Emily went last Friday to meet her teacher and find out where the class is. Mama asked Julia if she was ok leaving Emily today and she thought it was fine. When asked if she would miss her while playing she answered that "Mama will just play with me instead".

Emily was happy to get right to work on her desk assignment. She was ready and eager to follow the instructions given to her.

Emily with her 1st Grade Teacher. I think they will get along great this year. Both of them seem to have a bit of bounce to their personalities. Emily asked to bring a croissant to the teacher for her first day. Seemed like a great way to start off the year!

This summer the girls took two weeks of swim classes from our favorite teacher set. Both girls ended up with Ms. Kate as their teacher. Julia took the preschool level 2 class this session and when she completed it was told to move on up to preschool level 3 for additional classes. Emily took Ready-to-Learn level 2. The difference in the classes the girls are in is based on age. By being split like this it means more time at the pool, but the girls have really enjoyed the kids they are in class with. Both girls are learning to blow bubbles while under the water. Seems to be a tricky skill for them.