Tooth #4

And tooth #4 is out!!

These loose teeth are now coming with waaaaaaaaaayyyy too much drama!!

She is terrified of the tooth coming out, it hurts to leave it in, she's afraid to swallow it in her sleep...  hours of fun.

But finally Sunday morning with one last little tug, it came out.

YIPPEE!!!!

And despite not being allowed to take the precious tooth with her once again, the Tooth Fairy still came for a visit.

The First Day of 2nd Grade

As of today, I have a 2nd grader!  How is that possible???  My beautiful girl has headed out into the big world again to learn and grow and become the person she is meant to be.  I'm so incredibly proud of her.

She takes on the first day like a champ.  There's moments of apprehension that only Daddy and I can really pick up on, because when you see her, you would think she's ready to take on the world without hesitation.  But those secret moments are the ones that remind me that she hasn't forgotten me, because, no matter how brave she is, that little girl means the world to me, and she has my heart with her wherever she goes.

My little shadow has gone off to school again.  I miss her so much already.

I love the first day of school traditions.  Jocelyn's school invites all the parents to come in to school to cheer them on, and walk into class with them.  There are major renovations going on in her school right now so there was no chance for open houses last week, so this was the first time she got to meet her teacher and the intern, and see her class room.

Meeting Mrs. Kozi for the first time

She still needs us just a little

Off to class

With Ms. Darvish the intern, and Mrs. Kozikowski her teacher

Summer Part 3

Summer has come to an end.  Jocelyn starts 2nd grade tomorrow morning.  She is excited to go back, ready to meet her new teacher, and get back into routine.  I'm so glad she's happy and ready to get started.
But I'm so sad for me.  We have had an amazing summer together.  Every day we had something new to do, and every day she would ask me "what are we doing today Mom??!!"  She has loved being busy and I have so loved having my little buddy with me.

In addition to our super fun Historical adventures, Jocelyn also had some really fun camps.  She also took swimming lessons from a friend and dived off the diving board for the first time!!

I'm so proud of what she has accomplished in the pool this year!

But that's not all!!  There's been so much more to the last weeks of our summer!  We made a trip to the Aquarium and pet a jelly fish, visited our favorite turtle Calypso, and watched the dolphins show off!

We went for pedicures! 

Took photos with Gus at age 7 1/2, and then lost tooth #3!

And then Jocelyn and I headed off to Connecticut to visit Auntie Joye, Uncle Don and all the kids.  It's been SO long since we've seen them!!  We had a great trip!

What summer would be complete without a trip to the county fair??  Among so many other fun things to do there, Daddy had a chat with a bunny, Jocelyn became a chicken, and got up close and personal with a calf and other baby animals, and then of course she had to take many rounds on the rides!  Lots of fun as always!!

We ended our summer with a fun afternoon at the park with Daddy, having a picnic lunch and playing on the playground.

I fully expect that Jocelyn will take on the first day of 2nd grade like every year before - ready for a new adventure, ready to meet new friends and learn new things.  I would think this would get easier for me too, but I think this year is even harder than last year.  We have had 9 weeks together, every day experiencing such wonderful, fun things.  Knowing tomorrow means that is over and we go back to schedules, and homework, and much, much less fun and free time together, is hard to swallow.  I'm going to miss my girl so much.  Thinking about it brings tears to my eyes.  

I say it all the time.  I am so proud of Jocelyn.  She takes on every challenge and new experience with eagerness, and anticipation.  She makes friends so easily and has a generous heart.  I love her so much.  As much as I want to keep her all for me, I know she has to spread her wings and grow into the beautiful person she is becoming.  Happy first day of 2nd grade Sweet Girl!

Historic Adventures

The best part of our summer was our History tour.  We started at the beginning of the summer with the thought that this would be fun for the kids and maybe we might learn something.  By the end of the summer we had visited 17 Historic places in our county.  We learned so much!  And best of all, we had so much fun!!  

Nicki and I invited our friend Ann and her daughter Lily to join us one Friday to visit the Belmont Manor and the Elkridge Assembly Rooms.  The Belmont was one of my favorites.  We spent over an hour touring the grounds, admiring the gardens and water garden.  I was personally very struck by the fact that the huge, very old Elm tree in the front yard was being taken down the following week, due to Elm disease.  They believe it was planted 200-250 years ago by the original owners of the home.  They even brought in Archaeologists to dig around the roots to see if there were any artifacts left over the years.  I was very happy to be one of the last to see this huge tree before it was removed.

We ended this fun day at Patapsco State Park with a picnic lunch and playing in the creek.  The kids had a blast together.

Nicki and I had one more day to our touring after that.  We chose a Sunday to tour 4 locations that were only open on the weekend.  We got to walk through the amazing ruins of the Patapsco Female Institute - what was once a girls boarding school.  This was another one of my favorite locations.  We also visited the first fire house in Ellicott City, the Thomas Issac Cabin, and the Howard County Historical Society Museum.  We ended the day by inviting our hubbies to have lunch with us.  

We were all sad to see the end of our summer adventures.  We've had such a great time!!  We took the kids back to get their prizes.  They both chose crabs!  And then we ended the day as our first touring day ended, with another special trip to Rita's.  We can't wait to do this again next summer!!!!

 

Summer Part 2 - But not the last!

Our summer fun continues!

A couple weekends ago, we went to our second Pow Wow.  I took Jocelyn last year and this year Daddy came along.  He appropriately joined Jocelyn in the couples dance.  I am forever fascinated by the costumes and elaborate dance.  It's a wonderful experience to learn about this great culture.  My favorite part of the event is when they call all veterans and military service people into the center of the room and while they parade, the entire audience applauds, the whole time.  What a wonderful show of respect.

The next day we joined our friends again for another adventure on our history tour.  This time we went to an open house at a colored school that was used in the early 1900's.  Once again, the kids had a ball, and we learned so much!  We got to see what it was like to go to school a hundred years ago in a school with no bathroom, no computers, and all grades together in one room.  Those kids had it tough!!  Colin and Jocelyn were fascinated!  They got to do crafts and play games like the kids had in those days.  We stopped on the way home to check out a couple other places and play on the playground.  Another fun adventure!  We have two more planned this week!!

Last week was gymnastics camp.  This is Jocelyn's favorite camp.  She

has two weeks of it this summer.  The last day there is always a performance for the parents.

There was a little something recently in the news about the *Dwarf* planet Pluto.  A space craft called New Horizons flew past Pluto on July 14th, after traveling 9 years to get there!  For the first time ever, we are seeing pictures of the real planet, and the U.S. is the first country in the world to have visited all 9 of the major planets in our solar system (we learned there are actually 1000's of planets in our solar system!).

The Applied Physics Lab (APL) hosted Plutopalooza last weekend.  It was a chance for us to get up close and personal with the people who created the space craft.  We got to try out some experiments, and see a replica of the New Horizon.  There was a presentation that introduced some of the major people on the project, including Brian May.  Anyone know who he is?  He walked on the stage looking like the stereo-typical 80's rocker.  He didn't seem to fit in with all the other master minds on the stage.  Well Brian May is the lead guitarist for the band Queen, AND he's one of the astrophysicists that worked on the project!  WOW! Talk about life accomplishment!  He gave a great talk about how he was the perfect example of how you can be anything you want to be in life.  I'll say! 

With the New Horizon replica

Our summer includes plenty of reading.  Every night we read to Jocelyn and she reads to us.  Daddy and Jocelyn have been spending time together playing Lego Star Wars on the Wii.  This has sparked a big interest from Jocelyn in everything Star Wars and Legos.  The books she reads from the library are all Star Wars, and her current favorite TV show is Ninjago -Lego Ninjas.  Jocelyn can read whatever she wants, whatever she is interested in as long as it sparks a love of reading, it's perfectly fine with me.  But I admit, in a million years I never thought it would be Star Wars and Ninjas!