Halloween 2016

Another successful Halloween in the books! 

The girls got to dress up twice. Once for the Union League Halloween party where they both were superheroes - Sophie was Wonder Woman and Lauren was Super Girl. 

The party duo

And then dressed up again for actual Halloween. Sophie remained Wonder Woman, but Lauren decided to go as a purple princess.

As you can see from this picture, Dave decided to go all out for Halloween again - fog machine, black light, and all. Too bad we didn't have very many trick-or-treaters. More candy for the girls I guess. 

Earlier in the day we went to Sophie's school, where they celebrate Halloween big time (with a half day of school... seriously). Here's Soph in her classroom. The Queen of Hearts behind her is her teacher, Ms. Henry, who apparently also goes all out for Halloween. 

Another cast!

Our own series unfortunate events. Lauren and I are now both sporting right arm casts – though hers is much more fabulous than mine. 

The events: Lauren breaks arm; though they're not supposed to be, girls are wrestling; Lauren kicks Sophie in the mouth, front tooth comes out; tooth fairy climbs to top bunk, slips and falls on descent, breaks wrist. Dave has decided to keep his distance.

Beaven Raft Up Weekend

In the middle of October we went for our last sail of the season. We met 3 other boats in the Chesapeake for the annual Beaven Raft Up, named after a sailor in the ULYC. The weather was gorgeous and it was just a beautiful weekend. 

Me and the girls. 

Sophie at the helm. 

We had a fishing pole off the back of the boat on the way home and ended up catching this big Rockfish. We threw him back - after taking this glamour shot of course. 

Pumpkin Picking

We took our annual trip to Milky Way Farm to pick out pumpkins. Unfortunately we went on a dreary, rainy day, but it was still fun - especially eating the home made ice cream after doing the picking!

The girls making their selection. 

This looks like a good Christmas card contender to me! 

Lauren's broken arm

On Tuesday Lauren fell from the monkey bars at Sophie's school playground and broke her elbow. She was with the babysitter at the time and I got the call at work. I met them at the hospital and after x-rays they told us she needed to have surgery so that they could put two pins in her arm to secure the bone. We slept at the hospital on Tuesday night and she had her surgery on Wednesday. Apparently it's an extremely common monkey bar injury, and in fact, the surgeon was doing three of the same procedure that day. 

Here we are on Wednesday morning waiting for the go ahead to head to the pre-op room. We both had about 4 hours of sleep the night before, which I think is pretty apparent from this picture. 

Here she is post-surgery and post-blue popsicle. The surgery took about 45 minutes and we're told it went perfectly. I actually rode with her on the bed into the operating room because she was so freaked out. Once the anesthesia kicked in I was escorted back to the waiting room. 

We were able to go home on Wednesday night. Sophie was very happy to have her sister back home with her. 

We decided to do a little bedazzling to the cast. She'll have it on for 4 weeks, and then we need to go back to get the pins taken out, and she'll be in a splint for another 4 weeks. By January her arm should be back to normal again and she'll be able to get back to all of her usual rambunctious play. For now, no running, playgrounds, bikes, etc. It's going to be a long three months! 

Sophie Loses her First Tooth!

Sophie finally lost her first tooth! It was loose for weeks and finally fell out on September 29th. The grown-up tooth behind it is already mostly there, so she doesn't have much of a gap. The tooth fairy brought her a Eisenhower dollar. She immediately stashed it away - the start of a new collection I'm sure.

First day of School 2016

 And here we are - in September already! Sophie started at her new school, Cynwyd Elementary, which is about a 4 block walk from our house. She's in Miss Henry's 1st grade class and so far loves it. Lauren started at Bala House Montessori School in their primary program. She has two years to go before starting Kindergarten. She's in Miss Kiernan's class and also loves it.

The girls on their first day.

Miss Henry's first grade class - first day of school

Lauren doing counting work in Miss Kiernan's class.