First Day of Summer

We biked ourselves to North Beach today. It was a great way to spend the first day of summer. We were not really prepared for swimming. So the kids did a lot of wading and some sand playing.

I have to say the water was not quite as cold as I expected, and this early in the year on a  week day the beach was pretty empty.

Alexa took to stuffing her dress into her leggings. Quite a fetching look to say the least...

Summer Vacation Day One

Today was the first day of our summer vacation. We slept in. It was wonderful. No getting up and starting to morning routines to get the kids to the sitter. No rushing. Today we got up and made pancakes. We pumped up the bike tires and went for a bike ride. We paced ourselves. It was the first trip out since last year. Best not to over do it on day one. We covered about seven miles today. We broke up the riding with a stop at some of our favorite places. The swings at Waterfront Park. There are lots of open ones on a Wednesday morning.

Happy summer.

Recital Time

It is that time of year again when Alexa's dance classes come to a close, and we trek to the high school to see the recital. I took some of these pictures on Friday at the dress rehearsal as we are not suppose to take any during the performance. This one is from the recital today backstage. The tap routine was to the song "You Got a Friend in Me" from Toy Story. They were dressed as little Jessie dolls from the movie.

These are from Friday...

I love the look on her face there trying to figure out what the directions are.

Here they were on Friday waiting to go on stage for their turn. There are a lot of little pink tutus there.

Our tradition after her recital is for me to give her a chocolate flower from Lake Champlain Chocolates. She sniffed it all the way home.

YAM Scram

The girls ran the YAM Scram again this year. This year was horrible in terms of weather. It was cold, pouring rain, and wind. But they did it!

Here is Chloe at the start. Look for the tallest pink rain coat hood out there.

And their off!

Coming around for the first lap!

The sprint for the finish!

Alexa huddled in the tent before her race started.

Alexa, Annabel, and I at the finish line.

It was a driving wind and rain and they were still smiling at the end!

Art Opening

The girls had an art opening on Friday night. Their classes had beenw orking with an artist in residence and the resulting projects were on display. as it turned out just Chloe's class stuff was there. They only had a small portion of Alexa's class stuff there. Chloe created three prints.

The red turtle is her creation.

She also had to create some designs to represent Vermont. Her first idea was the dog with the I heart Vermont sign...

Since it is a collage a portion of him is covered by the another students.

Her other Vermont representation was this design.

I think the state should consider this one. You can see the shape of Vermont near the center. The circles (on the right) have names of different countries and continents on them and lines pull them to Vermont. The woven lines goes out the other side from Vermont leading to a peace sign and heart. She said it shows that people from all different countries combine together in Vermont to live in peace and love. Pretty deep stuff for 10 huh?

Alexa was a bit dissapointed to see her sculpture wasn't there. But she did think that since it was the Firehouse Gallery that the pole must be left over from the firemen and should be tested out.

Birthday Number 41

The girls kept with our tradition and decorated a birthday cake for me.

This year I got a bunny and confetti theme.

And singing. Lots of singing.

Science Fair

Chloe particpated in her first science fair. I think it was really more of an invention fair, but she particpated regardless. I was a little fuzzy on the requirements, and it seemed to complicate matters if I asked a lot of questions. So in the end I just supplied the materials she needed. She created a pencil mobile.