Girls Gone Wild

 

This was Holden at 7 in the morning on his first day of science camp.  So, so excited.  And camp didn't disappoint.  His week at the Natural History Museum was focused on one of their current exhibits - Dinosaurs Among Us which explores the connection between dinosaurs and birds.  He got to meet and talk to real live paleontologists, create his own made up dinosaur and make a diorama for it; visit labs that are closed off to the general public, and spend lots of time in the exhibit itself.

 

The timing was perfect because it gave Ella and me an entire week of quality one-on-one time before she's off to middle school.  We did some back-to-school shopping, took a tour at the Whitney Museum, had several lunches out, a tea party at home, and lots of girl talk.  We even headed up north to visit her friend Maeve for a day.  A perfect mother-daughter week, all in all.

For the long Labor Day weekend we were joined for a couple days in Woodstock by our friends Alina, Tom, and Luke.  We always have such a great time with them.  We introduced them to the swimming hole, had a great dinner out at a place where the kids could make S'mores for dessert around a campfire, and stayed up way too late catching up on our summers.

 

On Sunday we took our friends to Opus 40 Sculpture Park and Museum.  You may remember that we first went there about a year ago.  A man by the name of Harvey Fite bought a rock quarry back in 1938 with the intention of creating a massive bluestone sculpture park.  His plan was to spend 40 years on it but he died three years short.  He did however spend 37 years carving and piling rocks to make a serpentine maze of walls and baths and an amphitheater as well as several sculptures.  His family home is still there and occupied by his descendants.  We had a nice afternoon wandering the grounds and enjoying a picnic on the lawn.

 

Sunday evening and all day Monday we rested, just the four of us, and prepared ourselves for the new school year starting this week.  Ella got some creative juices flowing by building a small doll house with Kevin while Holden and I played some board games.

Caught a deer eating from our bird feeder.

Every time we leave Woodstock to return to the city we almost always talk about how lucky we are to be able to live in the two extremes.  We all love the energy and life of the city, but also need to be able to recharge in nature with some peace and quiet.  It's a perfect balance.