Constant Beginnings

The weekend before school dismissed, we hit the playground for a picnic and playtime. The kids had a blast. Claire is our climber. She loves to go to the Rock Wall and climb. Now that Chris was trained with the ropes and harness, she can do it as much as she wants. The girl is definitely our child. I have no fear of heights and clearly, neither does she. 

Santorini was our third stop on the cruise and one of our most favorite. We had to depart our ship via tender boats as the ship could not dock at the port directly. Corraling 12 people to ensure we would meet our tour guide on time was a small feat in and of itself. We ended up making it to the top with time to spare. Santorini was as I imagined--quaint, relaxing, beautiful views at every angle. It was lovely. We enjoyed the tour which took us around the entire island. We stopped at the most famous St. Irene's dome to capture pictures, traveled to the highest point on the island, also enjoyed Red Sand and Black Sand beaches, ate at a cute little Greek restaurant overlooking the ocean, checked out the volcanic views and learned about life on the island. Most of Santorini is built around the tourism industry. It used to be a huge farming island, growing pistachios, tomatoes, wine, but most of those producers have moved into the tourism market as it is much more lucrative. Land is in...

Nothing says "Spring" like the birth of babies, so we made some bird nests out of shredded wheat biscuits. This particular recipe wasn't the greatest (I've since found a better one that we'll try next year), but the girls enjoyed. Claire's classroom has a little nest perched on a stick in their classroom. Claire came home one day and told me that a teacher found a baby bird's egg to put in the nest. She was 100% convinced that is was going to hatch soon. Each day we go into class and she has  to check on the egg to make sure all is still well. Low and behold, after careful observation, Claire noticed the egg now has a line on it. She is certain this means that egg is going to hatch open VERY soon. One of her friends has tried to stomp on her innocence by telling her the egg is fake. Thankfully, Claire is holding her own and sticking to her story. These are the stories I truly cherish. I am so thankful that she truly is an innocent soul even though there a...

These two are quite the combo lately. Mya refers to Claire as "my Claire" and that pretty much sums it up. They are the best of friends being "teachers" to their babies, building houses for their squinkies, doing ballet to Justin Bieber or the Muppet theme song (whichever captures their mood that day) and laughing and giggling galore. It is really nice to see them together. This friendship has been a work in progress and I am certain this is an "up" on the rollercoaster, but I am taking it all in!