Kindergarten and Preschool at the Ritter house

Addison is a kindergartener this year!

Audrey is a preschooler!

We are homeschooling again this year. Our days will be filled with books and many trips to the library to get more books, art, math, science experiments, playing inside and outside, music, cooking, dance class, gym class, fall soccer, trips around the city and outside the city, and anything else that we want! Every other Tuesday we will learn about different countries with a coop in the city.

Matisse inspired window art by both girls

Polluck inspired art by both girls

Taking advantage of nice weather.

Added some essential oils to our homemade play dough!

"recess" at Transmitter Park

science with Daddy

Happy Birthday, Andrew!

Andrew is 32! 

The girls were so excited to make (and EAT) his cake.

Andrew was excited too : )

We celebrated by taking a day trip to PA to go hiking! The girls did pretty well on the hike. They walked the whole time and only started to get tired toward the end...it was getting hot!

Addison loves her new backpack and wanted to bring it along. She packed water, binoculars, a magnifying glass, and pencil and paper. Audrey brought her backpack too. She packed a babydoll, a beanbag, water, and pencil and paper. Andrew packed a compass, first aid kit, a space blanket, cord, waters, and probably a few knives. I packed some fruit. Not sure what Tiffany packed, but I'm sure it was the most sensible! We are excited to have the car up here and explore outside of the city.

The girls loved throwing rocks in the water.

Tiffany was able to join us, which made Audrey very happy!

I was talking to Addison about how I liked a huge rock beside one of the falls and she said, "there's a snake!" Sure enough there was a snake...eating a frog. It was pretty neat.

The hike was at Bushkill Falls and there were several falls to see. It inspired Addison to try to build a waterfall in Minecraft...haha.

On the way home we were super hungry and decided to use the Olive Garden gift card from the Ritters. We left quite stuffed.

Grammy Visit

We had a great time with Grammy this visit! I'd say the theme of this trip was ice water. It was incredibly hot when Grammy was here, feels like temps of 107, so mom was sure to have a never ending supply of ice water!

The girls were so excited for her to visit the humongous McCarren pool! After the pool, we ate lunch at Park Luncheonette and introduced mom to breakfast pizza! Each visit with Grammy usually includes some time when they are doing yoga or some kind of exercise together. This time Addison wanted to show Grammy how to walk up the wall! We ended the night at the new Whole Foods and watching the Minimalism documentary with mom.

On Friday, we went to the Swedish Marionette Theater in Central Park. The show was a modern take on Little Red Riding Hood. Let's just say we left craving cupcakes and deeply contemplating how much we are glued to our phones...haha. It was a really cute show! After walking through the park a little, we ate lunch and headed home.

On Saturday, we headed to the Bronx Zoo!

Audrey loved the photo props!

Even the animals were feeling the heat.

Here it is, the theme picture!

Cooling down with ice cream.

When Addison said, "let's leave this sweaty place", we knew it was time to head home! haha

Audrey likes to sleep on the way home from our adventures...here in the car, the day before on Grammy in the train.

Thank you for visiting, Grammy! As always, looking forward to the next visit!

Heat Wave

We met up with Tiffany and Rob (Tiffert, Robany?) to go see the fireworks on the 4th. The plan was to go to the waterfront, but it started raining so we chickened out. Luckily we got a pretty good view on our rooftop!

Experienced a New York heat wave this week and it was brutal.

Going to the playground was pretty uneventful this week: find shade, eat all the snacks, play for two minutes, go home and eat popsicles!

Same with Stella at the new dog park: she found shade, she sat on the bench, she panted, went home and guzzled water, and then napped.

Saturday we had a break from the heat and we headed to CP! We rented a row boat and Andrew rowed us around!

I didn't catch a smile on Andrew, but I know he was happy to work hard for his girls! haha!

Climbed on the Alice sculpture...

hit up a playground, and headed home to have dinner with Tiffany!

Next weekend I get to see Erin (and her parents!) at the halfway point...Seattle! It will be a quick and amazing get together. Now I need to quickly figure out who Meghan Trainor is and what she sings to get ready for a fun concert!