Minnesota is Heaven, But Virginia is Home

Continuing on in my super-positive trend of titling each September post with the word "last" in it... Our last trip to the beach for the season.  We discovered this little strip of beach in July and visited it many times over the hot summer.  It is the perfect little bayside beach--no rough waves, very shallow and features lifeguards during the summer season.  I'm sure we will start visiting it again next June when temps start heating up again, but yesterday it was 75 and breezy.  We had the beach to ourselves.  This is "cold" to Virginians, I guess.  The water did feel cooler, but it was nice to sit on the beach and not sweat to death and walk across the beach without the sand frying your feet! The kids had early dismissal yesterday.  It looks to me like Larchmont does this at least once a month, presumably for teacher training.  It's nice though--a 1.5 hour freebie to do something fun while most everyone else is still in school.  And so...

My last first day of preschool.  He was ready, so excited to put his little backpack on and go.  He went right into the classroom, pulled up a chair and got busy with the toys.  There was no hesitation and no fear, just happiness. I'm so proud of him.  A year ago, we couldn't leave him in the nursery at church or at the childcare center at the YMCA without him crying so hard that they had to come and get one of us.  It is amazing how much they change in the space of a few short months...and how their changes affect our life as a family. I really can't say much more without becoming maudlin.  It's just been one of those days when I feel more than a little weepy.  Leaving Will was harder for me than it was for him, and then thinking of 9/11 today compounds my grief in addition to forcing me to reflect on the years that have passed and the very good life that we have been blessed with in these years.  There are plenty of people ...

            The last Sunday before school starts.  They came to me, a little too late in the day and asked if we could go to the beach.  The sprinkler was the next best thing.  Pictures were snapped at the beginning of sprinkler time...by the end of sprinkler time, the brick area was almost completely submerged beneath a layer of sludgy water and each child had mud and muck in every pore on their bodies.  Elsa was not impressed by any of this.   School orientation was Friday.  Our wonderful friend Patty came over with her Larchmont students and watched William so that I could spend at least one day at a new school being unembarassed.  We moved to this neighborhood for a couple of reasons, one of which was so that the kids could go to Larchmont Elementary, and after attending orientation and meeting the kids' teachers, I am even more excited for them to get started.  The building is old...