Annual Rain Gutter Regatta

Adam had high hopes for his boat at this year's Rain Gutter Regatta. He sculpted and sanded and painted his boat weeks ahead of time. Last year, he had the fastest boat and he thought for sure he had the whole competition in the bag.
But, his sail was too heavy and he cut away too much of his boat. It kept falling over and although it was the slickest looking boat, he lost every race.
It was so hard to watch him fail and to see the disappointment on his face when race after race, he got beaten. But, he tried his best and learned a lot about being a good sport I think. We don't really talk about it anymore though.

First Week of School

OK... This very fuzzy photo is the very first day of school. One of the kids was playing with my camera (which they know they aren't supposed to and no one would confess to!) and put the focus on manual. Even though it's out of focus, you can see the genuine happy, excited looks on their faces.

Only one day later, I figured out what happened to the camera. I took this picture on Day 2. This is the look I got from Adam and Elli. Already they remembered the monotony of going to school each day. Amy, still excited to be at school all day and ride the bus with Adam and Elli continues to smile each morning. Oh! And I started school this year, too! I am a full time student at the community college and it sure keeps me busy!

Last Summer Trip

We had one more weekend to go before school and we had nice weather. It had to be Philly. We tried walking around Independence Hall last year but it was too cold and we missed a lot of what Riley wanted to see. So, we parked the car by Trader Joe's and walked around the city making our way back over there.
We stopped at Dairy Queen for lunch and a treat and sat down to wait for our tour.

On the way back to the car we saw China Town a few blocks over. We walked thru part of it and it was pretty Chinese! Wish we had more time and could have shopped a little.

Meet the Motorcycle

Right before school started this year, Riley found a great deal on a motorcycle. He had been looking at the Triumph and talking about the Triumph and dreaming about the Triumph for long time. It was time. He actually won this one on Ebay.
Riley calls her Susan. The girls love to ride around the block but Adam and I are waiting until he has a little more practice driving it. And the flames will be gone as soon as we can have them painted over.