First Day of First Grade

Maddie started first grade on Tuesday. We've all been very excited for her to start first grade.



















School supplies? check!
First day dress? check!
Hello Kitty backpack? check!




















Nervous? no way! Ready to take on the world? oh yeah!



















We found out Maddie's good friend Fiona will be in her class this year. Yay!

First Lost Tooth!

Maddie's been anxiously waiting the loss of her first tooth. She's watched a lot of her friends losing their teeth and asking me when hers will start coming out. A question I can only answer with "soon, baby girl."



















Last weekend she was vacationing with her dad, so I didn't get to be there when it came out but I did hear the tooth fair came and gave her some cash in exchange for that little tooth. The going rate for a child's tooth these days? FIVE dollars! Talk about inflation. sheesh!

Mustachioed

Forever Home

This past Friday, Mark, Maddie and I welcomed the newest addition to our home: Lulu Mae Torres! Lulu was adopted from the Tompkins County SPCA and is estimated to be about 5 years old. The pit bull/lab mix had been there since October of 2009. She came in as a stray had been microchipped to a shelter in NYC before that. Essentially, we think she's been a "shelter dog" for the past couple of years. But now she has a forever home with a great fenced-in yard, daily walks, and lots of love.



Lulu is very sweet and calm. She doesn't jump up on anyone, rarely barks, and gives lots of kisses in exchange for pats. She is still somewhat wary of her new home, so she isn't really interested in playing fetch or playing for long periods of time, but she's coming around a bit. She also has absolutely no interest in a crate whatsoever, or a Kong filled with peanut butter for that matter... we will have to find some super yummy treats in order to get her more interested in the crate.

Lulu is also very reactive to other dogs, so we have been doing our best to teach her to be less reactive and reward her when she doesn't react to other dogs.


Lulu has been very curiously checking out her new surroundings these past couple of days. In fact, she's been kind enough to find some weak spots in our fencing (she escaped twice!), which were promptly patched.

Here you can see two of the gaps she is (or should I say was) apparently small enough to squeeze through:


















Lulu is very responsive to Mark as the "alpha" in the house. She is always interested in what he's doing and looking for his approval. She likes me just fine, but my commands are definitely not as respected, and so we are working on this too. So now we have 2 pets that prefer him over me. I'm beginning to think he chooses these pets diliberately... Regardless, we're all very happy to have a great family pet and even happier that Lulu no longer has to live life as a "shelter dog."

Goodbye Party for Good Friends

This past weekend we celebrated the good times we've had with friends who will be leaving the area in just a few short days! We went wine tasting on the Seneca Lake Wine Trail. Then we hopped over to Samson State Park for some grilling, swimming, and cornhole.
It has been wonderful to get to know Ann and Jeff over the last few years. They will be missed.
Here are few pictures from the day.

View at the first winery. Can you believe we live in such a beautiful area?















Stefan and Tim love to race around small bodies of water:














Finger Lakes Distilling:




































Hudson finally got those keys...

















and wanted to tell us all about it!


















Ann and Jeff looking through the photo book:




































Birthday/potato shenanigans:













Good friends and good times!













We wish you the best, Ann and Jeff! You will be missed.

Summertime

The pool opens this weekend. I'm so excited for summer. I hope it's a hot one!



























This is the patio set I intend to purchase this weekend to celebrate!

Blogging

I suck at this.
I realized I'm much more interested in other people's blogs than my own...

:)