We went for a Fall outing on 9/26 in search of a corn maze!  We ended up driving out to Rhinebeck to Kesicke Farm, which had a huge corn maze, yummy apple cider donuts, and reasonably priced pumpkins!

We escaped the maze in about 50 minutes, not too bad compared to some of the other groups we encountered!

On the way home we stopped for an early dinner at Fireside BBQ.

The kids’ first day of the hybrid learning model was on Monday, 9/14.  They had remote learning at home in the morning, lunch at home, and then went into school from 12:35-3pm.  They will have this same schedule 5 days/week.  In the morning they have work assigned by their teacher as well as specials.  It’s on a 2 week schedule, so out of every 10 days they have 6 live specials over zoom.  The other 4 are pre-recorded videos.  Here are the kids all ready for their first day at 9am that morning, sans shoes because we were going back inside for remote learning.

There wasn’t a lot of actual work that morning, so we filled the time.  Sarah and I made another elaborate chalk drawing of a panda.

After lunch we got the bags packed, shoes and masks on, and headed out to school!

Thanks to our neighbor, Molly, for taking this last pic!

After school we had to leave the school grounds immediately, and I somehow let the kids talk me into stopping by the Mr Softee truck to celebrate.

The first week went really well!  The kids’ teachers seem great, they are happy to go and happy when I pick them up, can’t ask for more.  I was sad about getting the PM cohort instead of the morning, but now it seems to be working out okay.

On the following Monday, 9/21, they opened up the school playgrounds!  It seems to be a limited opening because they are not open on the weekends, sadly.  But it was still pretty exciting!

Here’s a pic that the assistant principal sent me of Blaine at his desk!  So nice to get a glimpse inside.

I’m so happy that our school district put together a thoughtful hybrid learning model.  It seems to be working well because we have been able to get into a daily routine, and it’s enough time that the kids are getting their core instruction in math, reading and writing in class.  So much better than the Spring!  We are happy and hope that it will last…

We spent the last week of summer as we usually do, going to doctors’ appointments and getting outside as much as possible.  On Monday Blaine and I went into the city for the first time since March to see his doctor at NYU.  On Tuesday we spent the morning at the Rye Nature Center and the kids were excited to show me all the sites they’d learned during their week of camp there.

This rock is known as “dinosaur rock.”

Then we had lunch at bartaco in Port Chester before Blaine’s PT and OT.

On Wednesday we went out for lunch at Polpettina in Eastchester.  We’d been missing their pizza since the Larchmont location closed due to covid and never reopened.

Then we went to the Greenburgh Nature Center for another short hike and we were so lucky to see all the birds of prey being fed.  The eagles were getting some fresh trout, and the red-tailed hawk and great horned owl were both getting some mice.  The man who worked there was so nice and answered all of Blaine’s many questions.

We went to the beach on Saturday and again on Monday!  It was beautiful beach weather, clear skies, not too hot.  We saw lots of friends and everyone was talking about teacher assignments.

One of our dahlias finally bloomed in the front planting bed, just in time for the plants to all get pulled out to make way for the real plantings, which finally got in.  Almost done with this neverending landscaping project.

On 9/8 Sarah lost another tooth!  She’d been wiggling it for a long time.  She has two other wiggly teeth so the tooth fairy will be busy this Fall.

School officially started on Wednesday, 9/9, but the first few days were mostly training on new technology and brief video meetings.  On Saturday 9/12, Sarah had her first soccer league practice.

She was also so happy to get this giant box of rubber bands to continue her rubber brand bracelet making endeavors.  I was going to wait for her birthday, but I thought she might like to make a lanyard for her mask for the first day of in-person school on 9/14.

On Sunday we did our final preparations for school!  We painted Sarah’s nails, and gave Blaine a fresh haircut!

Then we celebrated the end of summer with some s’mores on our new fire pit in the backyard.