First Day of Pre-School!

A group of us from church organized an at-home pre-school this year. The kids are all close in age and each of us moms takes a turn to teach a week at a time. We ordered the curriculum from Mother Goose Time, and it comes with lesson plans and basically all the materials you need. It seems like it will be a great first-school experience!

Lincoln is all ready with his backpack:


Ellie wanted to wear a backpack just like big brother:



The pre-school class!



They were all so proud to wear their backpacks - so cute!

NYC - Visit to the Intrepid

As another portion of our stay-cation, we went into New York City. It was the first time we drove in, and it only took about 45 minutes - not bad. Lincoln really loves jets and has his own aircraft carrier, so we thought we'd take him to a real aircraft carrier, the USS Intrepid. It was a great museum, and he really loved everything!






Ellie checks out the upper flight deck:




Linc really has a thing for the "space shuttle Discovery" - he loves it! I think he learned about it from an astronomy book he has, but I'm not quite sure.


I don't think I'd want these little rascals flying my helicopter!


We rounded out the visit with H&H Bagels, a little shopping, a walk through Times Square, and some Tasti-D-Lite. What a day!

Jersey Shore - Giles Style

Ryan has this week off work (he's done with his 2 year rotation and starting his *real* job at AmEx next week - hooray!), so we decided to take a stay-cation! At the top of our list was "The Shore" - we've never been, even after living in NJ for 2 summers. [I think having two little kids has something to do with that :) ]

It was a beautiful, hot day at the shore.




Ellie liked chasing the seagulls:


Lincoln liked digging in the sand:


But they both LOVED the splash pad on the boardwalk!




We all had a great time and enjoyed some cotton candy afterwards. It almost felt like being back in Brighton!

Peach Pickin'

The other day we went peach picking with some friends to a little farm literally less than 10 minutes away from our house. Who knew New Jersey was so agricultural??

Lincoln was very entertained by the chickens.









The peach orchard was pretty, but it was a HOT and MUGGY day. By 10am we were already sweating. This is the "We're really hot and ready to leave" picture:



I made a yummy peach-cranberry crisp...and also had some other help taking care of the peaches:

Ellie is ONE!

I can't begin to put into words how much we love this girl. Before she was born, I couldn't fathom how I could love another child as much as my first. She has touched our hearts and expanded our love beyond what I even thought possible.



She loves to wrestle with her brother and do everything he does.
She always wakes up with a smile.
She gives her Daddy the biggest smile and "Hi Dad!" when he comes home from work.
She loves books.
She waves to strangers in stores and knows how to turn on the charm.
She is determined to walk.
She points and makes noises to let her opinions be known.
She is a tease.
She is independent, yet, likes to know where her Mommy is at all times.

Love, love, love this girl!!


More B-Day pictures:






Why is Lincoln so happy? Because he just opened all of Ellie's presents...

Evolution of cupcake-eating

Concerned and curious


Testing it out


She seems to be enjoying it...


"Hmmm...pretty good!"


Cupcake destroyed. Ready for more

This 'n That

Now that we're done vacationing for the summer (boo hoo!!) we are trying to keep busy with some fun things around the area.


The kids and I met up with some friends at the zoo this week.

I can NEVER get these two to both look at me for a picture...


Linc carrying a bird on a stick. (My mom would freak out - she hates birds)


We took a family hike at the Watchung Reservation close to our home. The scenery was beautiful and it was much cooler in the shade of the woods.






Lincoln inspecting for trolls under the bridge:


Linc took this picture of an ant:


Throwing rocks in water was the most popular activity of the hike.