And She's Off to Kindergarten!

Off she marched without a backwards glance! Leaving Mom to wait on pins and needles to find out how her first day went!

Making the Most of It

Making the most of her last day before kindergarten starts! Playing video games in her pjs!

First Day of 4th and 8th Grades

Becca was much more obliging with the photo taking than Ben was! Caroline has her staggered start day tomorrow, so for today she is still my baby!

Last Week of Summer Break

The end of the last week of summer vacation is upon us! I seriously have no idea where the summer has gone. It seems like just yesterday we were gearing up for our Israel trip! And now somehow we have been home for two months!! Crazy.

Anyway, the girls and I got some back to school shopping and organizing done last weekend, and yesterday I took Becca to Open House at ELE where she met her new teacher Ms. Jones and unpacked her school supplies / filled out some paperwork. She is excited because Ms. Jones seems nice and because two of her friends from our neighborhood are in her class, including our next door neighbor.

Caroline meanwhile spent the morning at Daddy's office since he doesn't have patients on Thursdays. She brought some coloring and books and her iPad to keep herself occupied while Joel worked, and then they had lunch together at the "bacteria" as Caroline later told me. ("You mean the CAFeteria." "No, the bacteria.") LOL! I picked her up after lunch.

Ben did a Red Cross babysitting certification class on Tuesday, so watch out! He will now be allowed to babysit the girls and is looking forward to earning some spending money. And that's pretty much a wrap for the last week of summer vacation!

Kaplan-Carpenter Reunion

We got to host the Carpenters during their long layover here in Charlotte on their way home from vacation the other weekend! Ben was in Philly but the girls had a blast with the Carpenter kids!

Ben's trip to Philly

Ben spent from the 9th to the 19th visiting Uncle Mike and Aunt Kathleen in Philadelphia. He got to build a dancing robot at Bring Your Kid to Work Day at Kathleen's work, played lots of golf with uncle Mike, went hiking, swimming, visited the Mutter Museum, visited with Grandma and Grandpa, watched a lot of movies and ate a LOT of food (He has gone from about 118 pounds at his July checkup, to 124 pounds upon his return from his trip). Here are some pictures from his trip (mostly involving food!):

Total Eclipse

Abby and I took the day off yesterday and drove the kids down to the outskirts of Columbia South Carolina directly in the path of totality of the solar eclipse, and I am SO glad we did. I had heard on NPR over and over again that if you're anywhere near the path of totality you definitely needed to try to get there, as the difference between a partial eclipse of 99.9% and 100% is the difference between night and day literally. Totally true! We drove down early in the morning with no traffic problems at all and staked out a quiet spot at a park by 11 am where the kids played and ate a picnic lunch before the eclipse started. As the eclipse progressed the light from the sun got weaker and cast funny shadows/ was a funny color but it was definitely not "dark" until the moment of totality. At that moment it was as if the lights were shut off and the full moon came out with a cool halo around it. And when it passed out of totality again it was like someone turned the lights back on. The kids (and I, I will admit it) were literally jumping up and down and shouting in excitement. A truly once in a lifetime experience!

It's Already August??? & Random Updates

Becca finished her 3 week stint at performing arts camp with an awesome performance (well four actually) of Lion King Kids. The two Saturday performances were open to the general public and both packed the house. The kids were fantastic!!! After the second performance on Saturday Becca was upset that it was over and declared that it had been one of the most amazing summer camp experiences she's had. So I definitely see more performing arts camp in our future! I'm supposed to get a DVD of the performance, so when I do I will try to post some video from it here.

Caroline finished 6 weeks at Camp Mindy last Friday as well, and both girls started 2 weeks at our neighborhood camp, Camp KC , today. They seem to have enjoyed their first day. Their cousins and some friends from our block are there, so they jumped right in.

Ben this week is doing his summer reading (The Wizard of Oz) before heading to Philly on Wednesday for a week and a half visit with Uncle Mike and Aunt Kathleen!

I can't believe school starts 3 weeks from today!