reading

family fun evenings

who doesn't love a fun friend who plans fun events? our friend janet has organized a monthly get together for a few friends and their kids. we just had the first one on the 5th of july, and it was a blast! we met up at oakley playground, where the kids played their hearts out in the heat. we ate pizza in the park, and then headed to aglamesis for some yummy ice cream (and air conditioning). it was so fun to see all the moms and kids and dads too....it's rare anymore that we are ALL together, and it was so great to just hang out and enjoy being together. i feel so lucky to have such a great group of friends, and some fantastic playmates for otto and greta. can't wait til next month!

sibling love

some video of otto and greta sharin' the love. otto likes to "bonk" people in the head, which you can see demonstrated in this video. you can see, however, that greta is learning how to love him right back.....

bubbles!

otto

otto likes to read books. and otto likes to eat. the end.

i spy with my little eye

i borrowed this "i spy" game from montessori center room (mcr) for the class i am teaching at xavier this summer. i spy is a game to help children discriminate sounds....let's just say that greta LOVES having this i spy basket at our house and i think she's going to be pretty excited to see it again when she starts school at mcr in the fall.

coney island

the kids and i took a trip to coney island this week with janet, ella, and paige. it was a perfect day! the weather was great and the kids enjoyed riding the 'classic rides'. well, until the second to last ride of the day where otto slowly slid towards the opening of the helicopter, and just dangled near the opening until the ride attendant decided to stop the ride to get him off. check him out in the photo, holding onto the buckle for dear life, not to mention looking so ridiculously tired from all the fun he'd had.

it was a great day....ella and greta were all smiles and loved going from ride to ride. and otto would literally bounce up and down with excitement as the ride was going....quite different from the indifference greta showed to the rides when she was around his age.



































if you can look past cute little ella in this picture, you can see that otto is grinning from ear to ear.....he was bouncing up and down as the ride was going, smiling and laughing the whole time!










paige got to join in the fun on the carousel, and we made sure to get her in at least one picture....too cute!