We had a pretty low-key New Year’s Eve and Day — I even forgot to take any pictures! But we celebrated with Andrew’s traditional black-eyed peas and collard greens dish, which was delicious as always. Here’s a pic I took of our kitchen with our new wood blinds. We are so enjoying our privacy now that we have window treatments on the first floor — mostly wood blinds, but fabric romans along the front of the house in the living room and dining room.
The kids were excited to go back to school. I loved this picture Blaine drew, which he explained was about visiting Gram and Grandad. The top portion is the house, and the trail of circles is the stone path from the garage to the door. In the bottom right is our car with us in it.
Blaine is enjoying his new world map in his room.
Sarah officially gave up her nap in January. It was a gradual end, though. Here she is sleeping in my arms on 1/7.
And again the next day on 1/8.
On 1/12 I checked on the kids on my way to bed and found Sarah asleep in bed with Blaine! Apparently Blaine was the instigator, but it appeared Sarah was taking up most of the bed. They looked so sweet, I decided to leave them rather than try to move Sarah.
One Saturday we went to our local library for a kids’ yoga event taught by a woman from my book group! It was awesome and the kids loved this expanding ball.
Both kids have been really into the magic schoolbus series recently; we have read the human body (thanks, Aunt Suzanne!) and also the waterworks, solar system, ocean floor, and time of the dinosaurs.
On MLK Jr. Day (1/15), the kids had off from school, so we went to an event at the Bruce museum in Connecticut. There were art projects and a musical performance with songs about inclusion and kindness. It was another lovely visit to this tiny museum.
We also stopped at the awesome playground next door before heading back home for lunch at Walter’s.
We got a beautiful day on 1/20, so we took a family trip to the Rye Nature Center for a little hike and some playground time.
That evening we went to the family music concert featuring Matty Kapatty at the Larchmont Temple.
Once I mentally gave up on Sarah’s nap, she convinced me to let her try her own swimming lessons. Here she is in the pool for her first lesson ever, on 1/27. She loves it!
Also on 1/27, we went to the 3rd annual Larchmont Bonfire on the beach. It was an amazing blaze when the Christmas trees initially went up in flames. We also got some hot chocolate, and many songs with some reference to fire.
On 1/28, the kids enjoyed painting puffy paint on the bottoms of their socks (supposed to make them nonslip).
It was a pretty rainy Sunday, so later that day we tried out the “glow-in-the-dark” miniature golf course at FunFuzion in New Rochelle. It was a visual overload of neon carpet and black lights! Here’s Blaine doing his Peter Fonda impression at the arcade next door.
On 1/31, Sarah had off from school for a teacher training day and so she helped me pick out a new pair of warm walking shoes (Clarks! I am very happy) at REI, and then we had lunch at a burger place.
