Saturday, September 1

Was I just saying that I can't believe that August is half over??? Now it's gone!! We've had a couple of very full weeks here in Belmont! The kids and I visited the North End on Wednesday, August 22. Tim had his final exams for the summer on Thursday and we went to the Survival Party that night. Then we had a quiet day at home on Friday and headed out for vacation on Saturday. We were out of pocket Saturday (8-25) until Wednesday (8-29). On Thursday, Rachel and I finally got her class assignment. Her teacher is Miss Sullivan, a first year teacher who seems very organized. She actually was having an open classroom on Thursday, so Rachel got to pick out her seat for the first day of school while we were there. She will have about 23 kids in her class. We also got a supply list which was very short (pencils, colored pencils, 2 glue sticks, kleenex, and hand sanitizer). We went shopping for school supplies on Friday and Rachel kept asking what about. . . pencil box, crayons, scissors, etc. And I kept telling her that they weren't on the list. We also got Jamie's "team" assignment for the year. In 6th grade, the students are divided into teams of about 50 kids with 2 teachers. Jamie will be on the gold team this year. His teachers are Ms. Bourke (homeroom) and Mr. Guarente. We won't find out about supplies for him until the first day of school, but they will give him an assignment book that day. I think that they'll both be ready to start next week.

We have also been enjoying meeting and playing with the grandchildren of Jan & Don (our landlords). They have one son (with kids ages 11, 7, & 4) and one daughter (with kids ages 3 & 3 months). Jamie had a fantastic time playing with Dylan (7) and trying to make Kaylee (11) laugh. The whole family was in from Thursday till today. Hopefully we'll get to see them again. The family of 3 lives in Connecticut, so that's a possibility. The daughter's family lives in Seattle, so this was probably our only chance to meet them.

Friday night, Tim & Jamie went to a Red Sox game. They didn't have tickets, they just went to the stadium and tried to buy some after the game started. They finally got tickets for only $15 over face value (cheap seats) and went in for the game. Jamie says that it was a lot of fun. They ate Fenway hot dogs for dinner, had soft pretzels, and - of course - peanuts and crackerjacks. They stayed through the 7th inning stretch, and then decided to head on home. They didn't make it home until 11 even with leaving early, so I'm glad that they decided not to stay. The Sox didn't have a great game, anyway - they lost. Oh well, at least the boys had fun. Rachel, David, & I went to eat Chinese and then went to the mall in search of a new pair of crocs for starting school. We found her a pastel teal color, which she loves. We also bought David a pair - green and blue with Mickey Mouse holes. He is loving them. I am loving the fact that he finally has a pair of shoes that he can put on by himself!!

Today we went to Boston to the Public Garden. It was a beautiful day for it!! A cool front came through last night, so the highs were only in the 70s, and there was a wonderfully cool breeze all day!! The skies were beautiful blue. The Public Garden was crowded, but not horribly so. We did see two different sets of wedding parties taking photos in the park today.




We walked around a bit admiring all of the flowers and roses and then got in line to ride the Swan Boat. David loved the boat!! We all did!!
After our boat ride, we walked around a little more and over to the statue of George Washington. David wanted to take pictures of all of the statues.















Then we made our way over to the "Make Way for Ducklings" statues. The kids all had fun climbing all over the little ducks. We were all ready for a snack after that, so we hit a sidewalk vendor and got soft pretzles, drinks, and candied nuts. Yum! While looking for a shady spot to eat our snack, we happened upon a hammered dulcimer player. He was great! He even stopped and did a song that got the kids involved. He did "The Marvelous Toy" by Tom Paxton and gave the kids instruments to play at specific times during the chorus. They loved it! He also told us where to go for good family Irish music on Monday nights. We'll definitely have to give it a try!

We left Boston and drove out north of town to a land reservation to do some walking. It was georgeous! A huge area surrounding a lake. The first thing I noticed when entering the reserve was that you could smell the fallen leaves. That was my favorite part!! The main trail going all the way around is paved, so David was able to ride in the stroller. There are also lots of little trails that branch off from the main trail. At the lake there is a great area for picnicing with a playground and beach. We didn't walk all the way around the main trail because it was getting dark. We did walk for about an hour, though. I'm sure we'll visit there again, especially as the leaves begin to change. We came back to town and grabbed some supper at Bertucci's (a chain Italian place up here). Then we came home and Tim logged on to the computer to see how Alabama was doing in the first game. We thought about our Bama friends and missed them all!! We are very excited that the game went so well. So,
Roll Tide!!!!!!!!

Well, I think that's it for today. I know that I still have a lot of catching up to do. I also have a ton of pictures from our vacation. I'll work on getting those up this week. Until then,
Hugs and Kisses from the McKelvys!