In mid-August we attended the 58th annual Sturbridge Federated Church auction, which we’ve attended every year since we bought the camp except 2004 (we were all set to go and I went into labor). It was a beautiful day and we all had a great time. I was even interviewed for the Evening Telegram. I bought an old school desk for Aliya and a round wooden box to do something with (in my free time). Aliya got to participate in the first auction, where people were asked to raise their hand if they would bid $5 for an item, keep it up if they would bid $10, $20, etc. Later in the day, the Sturbridge chair behind Aliya in the picture went for a record $1200.
At the beginning of August my old friend Elizabeth who now lives in Texas came to visit with her family. We spent a rainy day at Plimoth Plantation; my first visit. It was great! I can’t wait to go back when the kids have a longer attention span (or I can sneak off without them). Although they look enraptured in the picture above, it didn’t last for long. One of my favorite things was the sign near the Wampanoag Homesite, instructing visitors to be respectful and avoid “war whooping”, saying “How!” as a greeting, or referring to the staff as “brave”, “chief”, or “squaw”. I guess I just can’t imagine doing any of those things.
What a week. Aliya starts kindergarten tomorrow, Adlani starts preschool Tuesday, and Norah starts day care Tuesday. I start Arabic in a week and Zoe has just finished her private lessons. It has been a whirlwind of forms, orientations, and summer reading lists. It has been great having the kids home with Rachael (and usually me) but summer flew by and I’m looking forward to getting into a routine. I’ve been so busy trying to get everything organized for school that I haven’t had much time to think about the fact that this is a major transition time in our lives. I’m really excited about our choices for each of the kids. Aliya’s program will teach her to be fluent in Spanish within a few years, and we expect 
that Adlani and Norah will follow in her footsteps. I met Adlani’s teachers tonight and they are TERRIFIC. Norah and I went to see her day care provider Lina last week, and Norah had a great time playing there. When we were ready to leave Lina gave Norah a big squeeze and said, “I love you.” It was so touching.
Recent Quote:
Aliya: “I was praying and I told God, ‘You’ve kept our family safe for a long time and you need to keep doing it for a lot longer.’ “
We have had quite the wildlife adventures lately – baby opossums scattered around the yard, a close encounter with a skunk, and a snake (“Snakey”), tiny toad (“Toady”), and strip of vinyl that Adlani is still convinced is some sort of snake (“Skinny”) at camp. We also have a gigantic wasp nest in our tree. As long as all of the critters stay outside, I say “live and let live”. Speaking of that…we found a larger toad in the garden a while back and I put it in a bowl on the kitchen floor. After the kids were done examining it I let it go outside but put the bowl back on the floor. A while later Ben noticed that the toad had jumped out of the bowl and gone missing. They’re still looking for it! 🙂
