Back to school night

We had back to school night this week and I was able to meet Duffy and Lulu's teachers and learn about the curriculum for the year. Here is the one of the presents Duffy left for me.

Here is to a great school year.

The Leaning Washington Monument

I bet you didn't know there was such a thing, did you?  This was Daddy and Lulu's art project yesterday.  Very impressive!

Bunny fun

Duffy has really gotten into golf lately and luckily, we had a birthday party yesterday at a putt putt course.   It was great fun and I am really impressed with Duffy's swing.

Enjoying the fun...

Scary daddy (photo by Lulu)

Fancy night out..

This past weekend, we were invited to a "fancy" party in the country and we all were able to get dressed up (somewhat).  It was a beautiful night and we had a great time.  Duffy wasn't super excited to get dressed up--the sport coat came off in about 20 minutes and he ended up losing some privileges in an effort to get him to wear one. Regardless, we had a nice evening and Lulu really loved the music and the "fanciness" of it all.  As you can see, we only have pictures of Lulu as Duffy was camera shy with his sport coat and the one picture we have of him, his eyes are closed. I guess that's 7 for you.

And dinner to boot...

And in the spirit of celebrating, we ventured out into the rain to have a celebratory first day of school dinner.

Closing out the first day..

It was a great first day and I was so excited to meet Duffy and Lulu when the bus dropped them off.

Here it comes..

Look at that smile...

She loved it! And if you are wondering where Duffy is, he didn't give me or the camera the time of day!!

K and 2nd grade-Day 1

And here we go, the back to school pictures for 2011-2012.  Our day started as we expected, with Lulu not wanting to get out of bed even after much prodding and gentle waking...

And fortifying the kindergartner with some cereal..

A rainy first day but it didn't damper anyone's excitement..

And here comes the bus...

 Very brave..

And then Mommy lost it, tears galore..

Back to school dinner...

We decided to come home on Sunday from State College as we needed to get organized and try and get the kids on a schedule (ha!).  But we did start the school year off right with a great back to school dinner.  Yum!

Sous chefs at work..

Saying goodnight to Daddy...

Let's go PENN STATE!!!

We had so much fun last year going up to Penn State, that we decided to spend Labor Day there again this year. Thanks to J, C, K, B&C for a great weekend--we had a blast with lots of fun video to prove it.  Thank you!!

Growing up so very fast...

Mr. Independent..

New student day

This year, we were able to attend New Student Day at school this year.  For the past couple of years, we have been out of town and unable to attend.  I'm really glad we went.  Here's Lulu frustrated with Mommy's picture taking..

Checking out the school bus..

Lulubear, I can't believe you are ready for Kindergarten!

Who's my teacher...

We have started a really great new tradition in our house for back to school.  While our elementary school posts Duffy and Lulu's teachers on the website a few days before school starts, for the past two years, we have gone old school and checked out who the teachers were by going to the front door of the school. It add a lot more excited and anticipation and I think I may have more fun than they do.

Searching, searching..

Great news! They are both super excited about their teachers. Here's to great school year!

Come on Irene...

It's been a long time since I posted but I didn't want to continue without mentioning what crazy weather we have had here. From earthquakes to hurricanes, we keep waiting for the locusts to arrive.  However, we were very fortunate that Irene just brought us a lot of rain and wind and thankfully, we didn't lose any power.  We felt very very lucky.  Here's a picture of our damage...