Hiking in CT

Right across the river from us is a great park, Hurd State Park. Lots of trails and very quiet. Click on the Picture to see the whole photo album.

maier family reunion 2010

Willy eats cake.


Our photos are still making their way from the camera to the computer, but cousin Bruce Kerr sent these to enjoy!

Kat


Grandma Maier's 80th


Dad and Willy

Can you pick our kid out of this lineup?

Willy had no good explanation for why he was making this face during the fire-truck-photo-shoot...
but apparently he made it in both of the pictures they took today.
He is a funny guy.

2010 Neighborhood Garden Party

Click on the photo and it should take you to a slideshow on the web. There are a few photos of the family.

art is subjective! Or is it?

We've been enjoying in the fruits of James' and Willy's artistic labors. Pre-school and kindergarten classes are art factories!

There is a never-ending stream of work coming in from school, so we thought we'd share some with you.
James impressed his kindergarten teacher by telling her he wanted to be a paleontologist. She said she had to look up the spelling. I like the axe, and the dino-skeleton shape.

It's a theme... as you can see.



Give him a shape... any shape, and he'll turn it into a dinosaur. Am I detecting a little sarcasm in the use of "another" for the second drawing? You be the judge.

Willy on the other hand has created several avant-garde self-portraits.


head shot, and
full body.

If I had to pick (please don't make me), I think I'd go with the potato-like head shot. But they're both pretty awesome.

Everyone in the family is busy and happy with school. Mike is already getting high A's on assignments, the boys love their teachers and friends, and I am really happy with my classes this semester.

Good times all around...

First Day, Fair and Willy's birthday

the boys hamming it up


a very grown up James


Willy is of course watching James for all his cues about how to act in front of the camera.






wait for it...



that's right. everybody has to take a photo!


We have had a whirlwind of activity in the last few weeks. James kindergarten has had several events to help acclimate the students to school. That, coupled with his graduation from his preschool, and Willy's transition from the toddler classroom to the preschool classroom has made things busy.

Add to all of this that I (Katharine) started teaching again, and Mike has begun the architecture program at UHart.

Whew!

We're tired, and ready to fit back into a more relaxed and comfortable schedule, without lots of activities every night of the week.

Everybody had a great first-day sendoff. I teared up a little when I dropped Willy off at the big kid (preschool) playground. He did not hesitate, running off to play with his friends. He just looked so big, and so grown up that it got to me. James had many questions about why I was crying, and then he began to extract promises from me that I would NOT cry when dropping him off.

As if.

We came back home and walked to school. Every Wednesday is walking school bus day, so there were tons of kids and parents walking. All the kids received yellow balloons. We saw several friends including a girl we met at orientation (Kylie) who lives right down the street.

We made it to school and all the classes lined up on the tarmac. James has several friends in his class- new friend Kylie, a boy named Quinn we met over the summer, and Brianna from his old school. That made such a huge difference for me.

I hugged him in line, then stood back as they walked in. He didn't glance back, and I met some friends under the shade of an oak to cry a little.

Next they had what they call the 'boo hoo breakfast' (though I kept it together). We went in for their first Surf's Up Assembly. All the classes (K to 5th grade) came in and sat in rows in the gymnasium. The parents sat in chairs in the back. They had a welcoming ceremony for new teachers and staff, then welcomed the students with a slideshow and video. Macdonough has this amazing theme song called Knowledge is Power. The music for Knowledge is Power cranked up and then all the older and returning kids started clapping to the beat and singing along. I TOTALLY LOST IT. This is just such an amazing school. I feel so lucky that the boys are going there.

James didn't see me during the Assembly and I didn't flag him down-- I didn't want him to think about me again because he was so obviously adjusting perfectly to his new class and teacher. He behaved himself throughout the assembly and I was really proud of him.


In other recent events-- here is a quick shot of Willy's special birthday breakfast.


And some photos from the Chester Fair. We saw our friends Mike, Melissa and Connor there, and managed to get this adorable shot of them walking to ride the pirate ship together.


and this was the first ride we tried, a Chinese dragon mini-roller coaster. This kind of preschooler/child ride is absolutely the limit of my roller coasting abilities. What I love about this shot is Willy's hands. He did that all on his own and it totally cracked me up