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We’re just one month from the arrival of Dan & Maithili’s son! On Saturday the family was all in town to celebrate Nana’s 90th birthday, and on Sunday we hosted a baby shower at our house. Maithili looks great and says she feels good too. T-1 month!

Dave, Dan, Maithili, and me

Everyone at the party decorated a onesie for the baby, and we displayed them in the playroom

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What an amazing October! The weather has been really beautiful – in the 70s many of the days. We’ve been trying to spend as much time as possible outside, knowing that it won’t last long! 
We hit the pumpkin patch at Milky Way Farm in Chester County. We had a hard time narrowing down the pumpkins we were going to take home, but we finally settled on 5 to carve, and many, many mini ones for around the house. 
The finished products. 
Lauren (Sophia the First), Sophie (a Cheetah), and Ariana (a cupcake)

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In October I got away for the weekend to visit our friend Wade, who moved to Denver three years ago. Dave stayed with the girls and I headed out solo (ah…). The weather was amazing and we took full advantage, doing as much hiking as we could fit into 3 days. 

This was a hike in a town called Nederland, which is outside of Boulder. It was beautiful and ended at a lake on the top of the mountain (pictured below). Wade’s dog Boomer joined us and proved to be extremely agile scrambling up some of the steeper inclines. 

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The Pope came to Philly at the end of September and the entire City had to basically shutdown. We took the opportunity to enjoy the 4 day weekend in Rock Hall with the Devine’s. The weather was beautiful – perfect early fall days and nights. We spent a lot of time on the water.

John, Dave and the girls trying to catch jelly fish off the dock

Sophie and Ava waiting to take Tiny Boat out

The girls on Tiny Boat

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Sophie had no interest in doing soccer again, but we thought we’d give it a try with Lauren. She’s a pretty coordinated kid and loves to kick a ball around the house. First lesson was a success! She did some dribbling and even scored her first goal.
GOAL!

Control with her friend Julia

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The sound of cicadas has been replaced by crickets chirping, so that must mean summer is coming to an end. It was a pretty great one though.

In July Aleen and I road tripped it up to Mass to visit Sallie. It was a long drive (preview of what was to come a few weeks later for our Maine trip) but so worth it to hangout with some great, old friends.

Sallie, Aleen & Me
And then in August we headed down to Va. for the weekend to drop Sophie off, who spend an entire week with my parents. We had the annual high school friends BBQ at my parents house with the whole gang, and most of the kids
Becky, Ari, Sarah, Jenny, Aleen, Lauren, Me, Bracy, Samantha
Lexi, Parker, Darby, Kaylee, Darby
 Sophie was also reunited with Lexi. Sarah and I are really forcing this best friend thing on them. We’ll see where that ends up…
Lexi & Sophie
And then for the very last week of summer we trekked all the way up to Maine. All four of us packed in the car and headed to Bucks Harbor in Brooksville, MA and picked up a 40 ft. boat that was our vacation home for 5 days and nights. We sailed/motored around to Swan’s Island, Mount Desert Island, and McGlathery Island before heading back to Brooksville.
We did a lot of exploring in intertidal zones. They were teaming with cool creatures, like these start fish that Sophie found. 

Sophie at the helm. It was tough navigating the waters with so many lobster pots, but there were a few spots where Sophie (and I) could steer for a bit and give Dave a break. 

Dave and the girls

The fam in Acadia National Park. Beautiful hike and breathtaking scenery. 

Sophie in front of a very cool, very big rock that was only visible at low tide. The tides were huge there. On this particular hike we started having to wade thought water and ended with vast rock to walk on (you can see in this pic). But the tide also comes back in pretty quick, so we couldn’t linger for long. 
And that’s it. The last hurrah of the summer. We tried to pack in as much as we could it and was a great one! 

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It was a great school year! Lauren’s first in the Toddler House and Sophie’s last as a pre-schooler. Lauren loves her class – I’m so happy she’ll have the same teachers again next year.

Water transfer

Cutting cheese and giving the stink eye to anyone even thinking about taking it

With a friend

Sister love in the hallway. One of the teachers caught this cute scene.

End of year ice cream social
I volunteered to be a parent helper for Earth Day (actually, Dave volunteered, and then and to travel, so I took his place. Although I knew worms were involved, I agreed anyway). We did a lot of planting in the courtyard. 
Sophie with her posse: Liora, Claire, Beatrice and Else.

And the 3 Amigos: Sophie, Liora & Claire
I also volunteered to be a chaperone for Sophie’s class trip to City Hall. 
All 28 kids and 6 adults took the City Bus to get there. I will tell you that not everyone on board was so happy about this. But the kids had a blast. 

Once we got there we got to go all the way to the top of the Tower, which is something they only recently started letting people do. The elevator to get up there, and the space to observe is small, so each parent went with just 5 kids. It was a pretty cool view. 

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Lauren is 2.5 and that means potty training! Actually, her teachers told us she’s been showing interest for a while, so she was ready. And she was. This kid had it down within less than a week. After the struggle that we had with Sophie I was expecting some long weeks ahead, but it’s been smooth sailing. Her only request: purple underwear. Done. 

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