One day we were passing by the fire station and were lucky enough to see the hood lifted up to reveal the engine.  I had no idea a real fire truck opened up like this, just like our toy one.  The firefighters were very friendly, as usual, and let the kids climb into the ladder truck and even see how the fire station doors operated.

A few pics from Blaine’s school.

Another day I was very surprised when Sarah managed to zip up her own fleece jacket.  And then later that same day Blaine zipped up his own hoodie!  Such big kids.

Andrew left for a trip to India on 9/23, and Mom-Mom and Aunt Molly drove back to PA early on 9/24, so I decided to take the kids to something called “Jay Day”.  It was a yearly event held at the John Jay Heritage Center in Rye.

They had food trucks, balloon animals, pony rides, music, and even a children’s author doing a presentation and signing books.  Blaine was somewhat frightened by this woman on stilts who came by while we were eating our grilled cheese.

Blaine got a sword (which it seemed like they were making for all the little boys) and the balloon guy made a neat little elephant for Sarah, inspired by the elephant on her shirt.

We were also able to explore John Jay’s house.  The view was beautiful and the kids loved seeing an old dumb waiter.

Then we had some ice cream and went home for a nap.

Mom-Mom and Aunt Molly arrived on 9/21 for a visit.

On Friday, 9/22, we went to the Bronx Zoo!  The kids were particularly excited to show Aunt Molly and Mom-Mom the monorail.

Then they wanted to ride the zoo’s shuttle train!

Then we went to the children’s zoo.

Back home, we enjoyed dinner that night out on the patio.

The next day we hung around Larchmont and ran into the grand opening celebration for the reading area on Palmer.  There was a high school student reading stories to the kids and tasty food from some local restaurants.  And we got to see our mayor wield her giant scissors again!

That night we enjoyed our dinner inside at the dining table to avoid the pesky mosquitoes which were still plaguing our backyard!

Thanks for visiting, Mom-Mom and Aunt Molly!

We checked out the new popup reading area on Palmer in the morning, and then Blaine and I went to Larchmont Day featuring big trucks and the fire department’s anniversary in the afternoon.

He got to see the jaws of life up close, and was only mildly frightened by the open flame on top of this antique firefighter’s helmet.  Apparently they used them for parades in the old days?

He also enjoyed this instrument petting zoo (what a great idea!) put on by the Larchmont Music Academy.

Blaine was ready to go on his first day of Kindergarten on September 5th!

The whole family was ready to walk him the half block to school and drop him off for his first (half) day.  Daddy carried all the school supplies.  And Sarah.

The next day, 9/6, I took Sarah to the Westchester Children’s Museum to enjoy one of her last free mornings before her own school started.  She had a fantastic time, and keeps asking to go back to the museum “with the lighthouse”.

She spent so long in the toddler beach area that she worked up a sweat!

On Sunday, 9/10, we went to Sarah’s preschool for a welcome event in the garden.  There was music, and we got to meet some of Sarah’s new classmates and do a craft, and then we played on the playground.

On the walk home we decided to stop in to Tequila Sunrise for some lunch.

The next day, 9/11, was Sarah’s first day of Preschool (3s).

Her school did a very slow ramp-up, so we were only scheduled to be there for 20 minutes the first day, to see the room and meet the teachers.  The second and third days she went for an hour, with only half the class.  Then it increased to 1.5 hrs with the whole class, then 2 hrs.  Finally one week after she started she had a full morning of school.  Phew!  It was tough to keep track of the timing, but I guess it was nice to ease into things.  Often we’d end up spending extra time playing in the “garden room” pictured below.

Meanwhile, Blaine was adjusting well to his new Kindergarten schedule.  He seemed pretty tired out by the long days at first (8:40am-3pm) but he was doing pretty well after a few weeks.

He was thrilled when it was his turn to take home the class mascot, “Mama Echo”.  He got to have a sleepover with Mama Echo and wrote in a book about what he did with her (“Mama Echo rode on a fire truck and helped me put out a fire”).

At back to school night I took a pic of this schedule board which shows how the kindergartners spend their day.  It’s packed!

Sarah loves to dress up with whatever she can find!

We finally got the Precor moved out of the garage and up to the guest room so we can use it!  Blaine loved watching it being disassembled, moved up the narrow staircase, and then reassembled.

On 8/30, I took the kids to the beach and it was completely empty!  It turned out to be a gorgeous day, though.

Later that week we visited Blaine’s elementary school and checked out all the playgrounds.

Blaine also got a new backpack and lunch bag!

On Saturday, 9/2, we went to the beach for the annual clambake, though they ran out of clams by the time we were ready to eat so we ended up getting sushi takeout.  Labor Day was beautiful this year so we went back to the beach for the last day of the season.  Blaine has become a pro at catching hermit crabs.

The beach was packed so we ended up eating lunch on a bench.

Goodbye, beach!  We’ll see you next May!