Our big boy Ollie had his first day of camp yesterday! No surprise, he loved every minute of it. In the morning I made banana pancakes to celebrate the event (ok, it was leftover batter, but they were homemade!!), and I asked Ollie what I should make with the last bit of batter. He asked for a cow (a cow??!), and I did my best... but as you can see, it appears that I made an outstanding terrier!! Witnessed by this photo, he was very pleased with it.
Andy dropped him off today, and the same thing happened to him - Ollie jumped out of the car to greet the awaiting counselor, and Andy overheard him say, "You know what?" (a very typical Ollie-ism right now!). Here's a photo of Ollie and Maddie right before we left for his first day. Impossibly cute.
e at home sending big, huge birthday hugs and kisses his way!!! We had some celebrations together last weekend, even a 13-hour power outage (very thoughtful of the power company!) which forced us to have a lovely birthday breakfast on the boardwalk at Lake Mohawk! And Ollie was very helpful at eating all that pesky frosting off the carrot cake that night. Andy has a fun weekend in England with family and friends coming up after tomorrow, so don't feel too sorry for him. :-)
and attempt smiles at the same time for a photo (witnessed here) - always a challenge. Not wholly successful today, but a good effort. I'm celebrating Andy's birthday - while he toils away in meetings across the sea - by getting a babysitter and having a pedicure with my friend, Beth!! tee hee! I didn't mean for it to be today, actually, just worked out that way.
to of Oliver from today... he made this fantastic castle all on his own, a new design I've never seen before! He can't wait to show Daddy, though he'll have to wait a bit, since Daddy's in Germany. Speaking of that, Oliver has *already* grown out of "Germdiddy" - I was hoping that might last a bit longer. Now when I say, "Oh, Daddy's in Germdiddy," he says, "No, Germany." Aw, man!
r humid out today, hot as well, but luckily there's a fair bit of shade at that park. I think the kids wore themselves out, as I actually managed early bedtimes for the first time in ages! We miss you Daddy, counting down the days. oxoxox
Rachel and Beth have moved back to NYC, and we finally had an overnight visit in early July. It was soooo nice to see them, and of course SUPER fun for Ollie to spend time with his big cousin, Saul! When I picked them up from the train station in Dover, I couldn't believe how much Saul reminded me of Ollie, laugh
ing at the silly chipmunk voice on my GPS, telling funny stories, asking offbeat questions. I know they will grow up to be good friends! We had a nice dinner - Andy's yummy tandoori chicken and my cucumber-grape-mint salad, and the boys all had fun putting up the tent with the promise of camping that night, but in the end we decided it would be easier (mostly for the adults) to save camping for another night. Rachel and Beth marvelled at how quiet it is out here, how peaceful
(although lately I think that the chirping crickets out there every night could give the noise of NYC a run for its money!)... I'm sure when we visit them we'll marvel at how easy it is to get to great museums, events, and restaurants. We just can't wait for the next visit -- love you!
Daddy's - oops, I mean Ollie's - new toy! Ha ha, we all know it's Daddy's new toy, you don't have to twist his arm to get him to purchase anything bike-related!! No, this is equally loved by Dad and son alike - Ollie pretty much yelped with glee upon his first ride out with his dad. Imagine, you're 3 1/2 years old, and you've biked here and there lots of times, pretty much on flat areas or down very little slopes, carefully. All of a sudden, you're zooming down the road behind your dad, going fast! Up and down hills with ease! 
Ollie does not stop smiling when he's on that bike with his dad. Bliss. And this last weekend, they actually went mountain biking together! Mild trails, so I'm told, but still, into the woods and along lake Aeroflex in Andover. Ollie loved it to bits, and Andy says he pulls his weight most of the time, doesn't just let Dad do all the work. That's our boy!!
I'm here to report that two months have passed since I posted an update!! However, my computer died partway through that time, so there's my excuse - ha!! And you thought I was just being lazy. Catching up now, it's hard to know where to start, so I'll just give it a go. The summer so far has been marked with various trips up to Maine... we just can't get enough of it!! Maddie had her first "taste" of proper ocean beach fun - I'm happy to report that she didn't try to eat the sand, as Oliver did when he first visited Drift Inn Beach, a younger baby than her wise 14 months or so. Or maybe 
he wasn't younger, maybe he just liked to eat sand! He learned quickly that it wasn't yummy. Maddie wasn't too impressed with the whole "sand thing," I must say... but she's warming up to it slowly.
e water. Mostly it boils down to how much energy mommy has to get all the junk together and actually get us to the beach, and also how the low and high tide schedule works with Maddie's nap. Thinking back, I feel like we didn't have enough beach time yet this summer, but I guess it's not over yet. 
