Four-word sentence

Tess uttered her longest sentence ever yesterday.

Four words!

And they were:

"I want some chocolate."

Second Grader

San Mateo schools switched to a mid-August start date.

I think the idea is to increase retention of knowledge by lessening the summer break.

When every day of the year is basically a summer day, starting school on August 12 doesn't seem to register as a negative with the kids.

Silas was champing at the bit.  He is thrilled to be seeing his friends every day. 

Rosemary is desperate to get back to preschool, but much to her distress, her school is still on the post-Labor Day schedule.

Orcas Island

The last week of July, we joined the Grandparents Keithley and Blair's family on Orcas Island.

We got off the ferry and went straight to the beach, where we met Grandpa.

Silas in the Salish.

At low tide, the kids turned over rocks.

At high tide, they looked for shells.

We also celebrated Mom's 76th birthday -- with goody bags, of course (at Rosemary's request).

Dungeness dinner, with Aunt Lisa doing all the hard work.

The obligatory family photo.

More pictures of Orcas are here.