Miri's first day of preschool, and family fun at the fair!

Miriam had her first day of preschool this past Friday, and it went....ok.  The dropoff was quite traumatic (for both me and her!) and involved a lot of tears, but by the time we went to pick her up, she was happy and giving her new teacher hugs.  Her class only has 5 students this year (including her, and 2 of the students are from her class last year, so she has some familiar faces surrounding her).  She's excited that they have a guinea pig in her class as well as a couple of frogs.  We hope she adjusts to the new class/new teachers quickly and has a great year, and that the teachers get to see the funny, outgoing, smart, talkative girl we see every day.  :)

Here's Miri on her first day of preschool this year:

Ready for preschool! 

On the way...

Feeling shy in her classroom

This morning we went to the fair.  It was supposed to be hot this afternoon (I think it got into the 80s), so we went at 10 am to beat the heat and the crowds.  It was a lot of fun!  Mathias slept for the first hour in the baby carrier while we walked around and got some food.  (I'm glad he was sleeping, because there wasn't much fair food that we would have fed him, and he gets so anxious to eat whatever we are eating!)  After he woke up and we'd eaten, we walked to the rides/games area, where Miriam went on some rides.  She even went on the Ferris wheel with Mario, which surprised me...I was worried she was going to be scared of the height, but she did really well and had a big smile whenever we saw her (Mathias and I waited on the ground).  We walked around and looked at animals, watched some animal shows, ate some more food (dessert), and finally headed home just about when the crowds started appearing.

Pictures from the fair:

Miriam eating her first corndog. 

It has been nice to have gorgeous weather this weekend and the past couple weeks...we've been spending a lot of time outside and working in the yard.  My tomato plants are extremely large and we've gotten a huge harvest this year; I'm running out of ideas about how to use them and have even started giving them away as a last resort!

And here are some other random pictures from recent weeks:

Miriam and Mathias with cousin Charlize

At the zoo! (Looking at the sharks)

Gorgeous weather for walking by the water...