First day of School

So, Riley started Kindergarten back in July, and I'm finally putting this up.  This is his actual first day of school, as the week before, they had the kids come for one day, to see where they are starting.

Upstate New York

I had a work trip to New York (up by the Finger Lakes) in June, so we arranged it that Riley and Brian could come with.  We drove to DC, stayed with Brian's Uncle Sam, and then on up to NY.

We went to the Corning Museum of Glass, and I made a sculpture, while Brian and Riley made a sun catcher.











We also went to the Museum of Play in Rochester. It was super fun.

While I was in the field, Brian and Riley drove to Ithaca and did fun things.

After all of my work obligations were done, it was on to Niagara Falls.  We did the Cave of the Winds (Where you put on a bright yellow poncho, and climb around on decking in one of the water falls), which I think was Riley's favorite part.  He didn't seem too impressed of the Falls once we had seen it, but Brian was enthralled.  Luckily, we had gotten a room that overlooked the falls on the Canadian side.
















Driving home, we stopped in the Shenandoah Valley, and went on a cave tour, which was Riley's first time in a cave, where they also had a trail with Dinosaurs!

Kindergarten here we come

So, Riley had his Pre-school graduation on Thursday.  Before the ceremony started, it clouded up, and we made it 1/2 way through the diplomas before it started to rain. Luckily, it only rained for a few minutes, then cleared back up.

They sang songs, and had a little dance. I'm sad that he is leaving, as everyone there seems to really love the kids, and he has good friends. At the same time, I know that he will have all kinds of new friends in Kindergarten.

New House!

So, the main reason we have been so busy - we bought a house in March!  We were at the holiday party at Riley's school, and talking to the other parents, and we realized, that registration for Kindergarten was in January!  We had planned on buying a house this summer, but as North Carolina elementary schools can either have a traditional calendar or track calendar, we needed to decide quickly where we wanted to live.  Track calendar means they have school for 9 weeks, then take 3 weeks off, so no "summer break", they have more little breaks.  So, we mapped out schools, and housing, and started driving around (and around and around). We ended up with this: a 3 bedroom, 2.5 bath house, around back is the garage (which is in the basement!!!)  Being able to buy a house with a basement was the icing on the cake for this house (as that is an oddity here).  The house sits on right at 1/2 acre of land, fenced, with lots (LOTS) of trees.  We finally moved into the house in April.

Christmas 2013

Super behind with posting, so I will just put some of these up. Downloading the photos just now made me realize that we really don't have any pictures of Christmas at our place from last year, whoops! And, I only have one sad picture of Riley and the tree.