Clara Turns 8

I know every parent says this when their oldest has a birthday, but we really can't believe Clara turned eight this year.  She loves art, books, beanie boos, and says she wants to be a writer when she grows up.  She makes friends easily everywhere we move, but says her best friend is Evie.  We celebrated her birthday with a "sleepover" party.  Her friends came in pajamas on a Friday night, and we did all the fun sleepover activities before everyone went home to sleep in their own beds.  We had dinner, birthday cake, decorated gingerbread houses, ate popcorn and watched a movie.

Grey Everett

Five weeks ago today we welcomed Grey Everett into our family.  We keep calling him our dream baby, because (for now) he's been such a sweet and easy newborn.  Clara and Evie cannot get enough of him.  Most mornings they have "play time" together.  This involves showing Grey their toys, reading to him, and telling him stories.  I'm especially a fan of this routine, because it means every morning I get to drink my coffee and catch up on social media and the news in peace.  The girls also help with diaper changes and comfort Grey if he starts fussing (which generally involves shoving a pacifier in his mouth, whether he wants one or not).  

We took some newborn and family photos in our home 10 days after Grey was born.  We're living in a tiny 650 square foot apartment on the MIT campus.  Despite the close quarters, we love our new place.  Elise Meader took these photos and we couldn't love them more.

 

Yosemite

When Jordan went back to grad school, we realized our days of living in the Bay Area might be limited, since we have no idea where life will take us after he graduates.  There are many places we still want to explore around here, so we began planning small weekend trips to our top destinations.  Yosemite was at the very top of that list.  During Jordan's trip home over summer break, we took an overnight trip to the park.  We left early on a Saturday morning, explored the park that day, then spent the night in a tent cabin.  We don't own any camping equipment so that's about as close to camping as we're going to get in the near future.  It was a bit of a crazy undertaking because Jordan had a flight back to Boston on Sunday at 8pm.  But having extended forced family time right before he left for fall semester was a perfect choice.  Predictably, the girls fought, we became impatient, everyone got tired of the car . . . but we also laughed, told scary stories at night, saw breathtaking views, and formed memories none of us will forget any time soon. 

Pictures of Jordan with all his girls: 

I believe this is the view that Clara and Evie tried to refuse getting out of the car for because "the view doesn't look that great anyway."  They both conceded they were wrong after I insisted they get out.

 Sleepy heads:

First Day of School 2015

Clara and Evie attend a small private school that has two blended Kindergarten/1st Grade classrooms.  Clara is in one, and Evie is in the other.  The teachers collaborate frequently and the girls also spend time together at recess, lunch and in the after school program.  We're told the vast majority of the time, they choose to play together.  That probably shouldn't be a surprise, because they rarely choose to spend time apart at home, either.  They fight like crazy, but they also love each other like crazy.

 And here are the obligatory first day of school photos.  Jordan was actually home on summer break for two weeks when the girls went back to school, but we didn't get any photos of him.

 

Our Magical Summer, Part 3

Towards the end of the summer, we helped Jordan get move into his new place.  He has a studio apartment in on campus graduate housing.  He's not exactly roughing it, though.  He has 16-foot tall ceilings, exposed brick walls, and a nice study area.  That window above the girls is Jordan's room.

Before leaving, we took a family trip to Target and stocked Jordan up on all the basics.

It was hard to leave Jordan, but it was also hard to say goodbye to all of our new friends.  I was genuinely blown away by how warmly we were welcomed into the MIT community.  I became particularly close to one mom, and we spent almost every weekday of our last few weeks with her and her two girls. 

(From the chocolate tour!)

But eventually, it was time to go home whether we were ready or not.  Clara and Evie very rarely sleep together, but I caught them like this on our last night in Cambridge:

Until next time, MIT!

Our Magical Summer, Part 2

Since we lived in a 600 square feet apartment and had no car all summer, we had to be intentional about planning outings every day to stay busy.  Luckily, Cambridge and Boston offer a tremendous number of family friendly activities -- many of them free!  We managed to visit the Boston Children's Museum, New England Aquarium, Franklin Park Zoo, Boston Library, the MIT Museum and the Museum of Fine Art.  We also went to the beach, an art studio, a chocolate factory, and we met up with Jordan's cousin and her family for an afternoon.  Nonna and Papa even came up and spent a week with us.

When we didn't have a major destination planned, we visited nearby parks.  The parks in Cambridge are amazing.  There were at least 4 awesome parks with water features, all within easy walking distance of our apartment.  A few of them were staffed with high school students who had crafts and games for kids to play all summer long.  

We also stayed busy by taking swimming lessons four days a week.  Afterwards, we often stopped for drinks at a nearby restaurant.

Jordan took seven classes over the summer and most of them were engineering courses, so he was very busy.  During especially busy weeks, we tried to stop by his classroom or crash his study sessions.

But the best weeks were when Jordan was able to join us on our outings.  Some favorite activities with him included the Boston Duck Tour, the beach, and taking the ferry to George's Island.  Nonna and Papa joined us for that trip, too.

 

But easily, our favorite family activity was watching the 4th of July fireworks from the MIT Boathouse on the Charles River.  We had to arrive at the boathouse by 5:30pm to reserve our spot even though fireworks didn't start until 10pm.  It was a long night of waiting, but we were with a large group of Jordan's classmates and the girls were very patient.  One of Jordan's classmates was nice enough to take Clara and Evie sailing, too.  And when the fireworks started, it was well worth the wait.