Jennifer Woodbury

First day of second grade.

We were all very happy that the start of school was not delayed by a hurricane this year.

Traditional first day of school cookies.

The cookies are a very calculated tool to help get Ella talking so that I can get the low down on the first day. If you didn’t watch the video of Ella’s thoughts on second grade that I posted a couple of weeks ago, you can see it here.

Matt had one of his fantasy football drafts this week and brought this monstrosity home with him afterward. If you take a close look at the back, you can see that Matt has had a pretty good streak going in this particular league that he’s in with a bunch of friends from his MBA program. (PS: The name of the trophy is some sort of inside joke, and has nothing to do with where Matt actually went to school.)

I actually had this trophy sitting on the mantle for a day or two before I took it out to the garage. When Ella saw it out there she asked Matt if he was offended that I moved it. His response was that he was surprised I hadn’t done it sooner.

Claire drew this violin as part of her first violin lesson this week. I’m excited for her to start playing, but also slightly nervous about now having to supervise two practice sessions every day.

On Friday night we celebrated the end of summer with a town-sponsored movie night at the beach. It’s evenings like this one that make me fall in love with where we live. Sometimes I do a double take when I realize that my children will grow up calling this little corner of the East Coast home, a place so different in many ways from where I was raised, but then I’m reminded that different isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

What made the night even better was that we had family there with us. Matt’s sister, her husband, and their five kids just moved into town from London. It has been almost six years since we’ve had family less than two hours away from us, so it is surreal to think that my kids will now have five cousins just minutes away. We shared a pizza dinner on the beach and then Ella, Claire, and cousin Brooke got to work building a seashell fortress.

Later on Aunt Ashley took the kids down near the water to explore.

Lucy found a new buddy in cousin Will.

Am I the only one who thinks they could almost pass for twins? I can already tell this is just the beginning of a beautiful friendship.