North Carolina Apple Festival

We took our first road trip today, driving with Heather and Matt and the kids to Hendersonville, where the annual North Carolina State Apple Festival was being held. It was a huge street fair with tons of vendors and you guessed it -- tons of apples! Here are a few pictures: the kids enjoyed gourmet candy apples (dark chocolate and caramel, dark chocolate and caramel with sea salt, cinnamon and sugar coated then dipped in caramel and white chocolate --yum!)

Thursday Update

The school year has been so far so good; Charlie has pronounced Elizabeth Lane to be "way better" than his elementary school in Quincy. His two favorite things so far seem to be the computer lab and, well, lunch ;-) 

Amelia also seems to be doing fine at Chesterbrook Academy, although she's having a rough time with the food. They provide lunch there, and with Amelia being the world's pickiest eater it's been a little rough so far. Today she managed to eat a banana and yesterday a piece of mango. (Which I'm impressed at; that must've been under extreme duress. )

Mike is finally working again part time for his old company while he looks for a full time job, having worked out the computer/connection issues that were plaguing him in the beginning of the week. 

My friend Heather and her husband Matt are on their way down here for the weekend; Mike is picking them up from the airport tonight. We're planning to go the the apple festival in Hendersonville on Saturday and otherwise hang out by the pool! 

Looking forward to a relaxing weekend!

Short But Sweet

We said goodbye to Grandma and Grandpa this morning after a too-short but great visit; they arrived in time to attend our back to school pool party Saturday night. Sunday they took Amelia and I out shopping for some much needed kitchen/household items and then we had a barbecue in the afternoon, which most of the Kaplans attended, including Joel's father Mort. 

Monday I had to work in the morning but in the afternoon we headed out (again with Amelia (because she generally doesn't mind being schlepped around) to the bike shop, where we dropped off an old bike of Ben's to be fixed up for Charlie. (Having determined that we couldn't raise the seat up on Charlie 's bike because it was damaged and that Charlie's bike also only had rear brakes instead of both front and back.)

Afterwards Grandma and Grandpa treated us to dinner at Brio, a yummy Italian restaurant. 

Thanks for the great visit Grandma and Grandpa!!

So Far So Good

Charlie pronounced his first day at Elizabeth Lane "totally awesome " except for the fact that he couldn't find the chips at lunch, and Amelia announced that she had made several new "best friends" at pre-K today but that she couldn't remember their names. 

And My Baby's First Day of Pre-K!

On The Bus!

Charlie was not exactly thrilled to start third grade in a new school this morning but he did eventuly get on the bus! Good luck on your first day of third grade, Charlie!!!

Pool Party

Grandma and Grandpa arrived Saturday afternoon in time to head to the Beverly Crest Back to School Pool Party, which involved a DJ, Fudruckers truck and a bounce house. Here are the kids enjoying their burgers by the pool:

Double Trouble

Dueling Sleepovers

Ben had a belated-birthday sleepover party tonight. Since I figured Mandy would have her hands full with 5 boys including Charlie at her house, I offered to take Rebecca for the night so that she and Amelia could have their own sleep over. 

Here are a few pictures: we made brownies, had Chick-Fil-A for dinner and watched a movie. By 8:30 they were nestled in sleeping bags on the bed in the bonus room playing on my iPad. I am thinking I definitely got the better end of the deal here, as I hear that at least one of the boys at the Kaplan residence didn't even bring pajamas, presumably since he wasn't going to bed lol. 

Open House

This afternoon was the open house at Elizabeth Lane Elementary. When we first got there Charlie looked so nervous that I literally was picturing his head exploding. But he he was visibly relieved to have Ben show him around. We met his teacher and unpacked his school supply kit at his desk. Then we toured the school courtesy of Ben, getting to see the computer lab, library, art and music rooms. 

I totally forgot to take a picture of Charlie in his classroom so here is a picture of him making faces in the library. 

3rd grade here we come!

Red Sox Guest Room!

Is now only missing a few items ;-)

North Carolina Plates!

Teacher Assignments

With the school year starting a week from today, Charlie got his teacher assignment for 3rd grade at Elizabeth Lane. Somehow out of seven third grade teachers he was assigned to Ms Kepley, who was Ben's third grade teacher as well. The inside scoop on Ms Kepley is that she doesn't like to assign too much homework, something that Charlie was excited to hear!

Friday is the Open House, so Charlie will get to tour the school, meet his teacher and we 'll get to pick up his school supply packet and buy some "spirit wear". 

I also confirmed his bus assignment and opened a lunch account for him -- with some trepidation -- because lunch is ala carte, i.e Charlie can eat whatever he wants and my bank account gets charged for it. We'll see how long that lasts before I start making him pack his lunch!

Also on tap for this week: the FINAL furniture delivery -- the sleeper sofa for the bonus room -- will be delivered Wednesday, and Mike might be starting back with ActioNet 20 hours per week if they can finish getting the paperwork in gear. 

We are also eagerly anticipating the arrival of grandma and grandpa, who are coming on Saturday!

New House New Baby!

Ferret, that is! Meet Snitch, the newest addition to the Robinson clan :-)

Pool Day

Starting To Look Like Home!

Between Mike driving to the furniture warehouse to get our living room rug today, Mandy coming over to hang pictures last night and Joel rearranging our living room furniture over the weekend, it's starting to feel like home!

In Case There Was Any Doubt...

... That a bunch of Massholes live here :-P

First Game Night In The New House!

Thursday Update

As the week comes to a close we are slowly settling in to the new house! As of today we not only have hot water and internet but we finally got all the TVs mounted and working in their respective spots. We only purchased basic channels instead of an expensive cable package but Mike went out today and purchased 2 apple TVs as well as subscribing to Netflix, so the kids are set up with basically all the shows they could ever want to watch, and so are we. 

The rest of our living room furniture and guest room furniture is coming tomorrow afternoon, except for the living room rug, because apparently getting us everything we paid for is impossible...

In other news, Mike's old job in Boston asked him to come back on to do contract work for 20 hours a week through the end of September and he had a promising phone interview for a job at Wells Fargo that we 're waiting to hear back about. 

The X Box and the Playstation? Still wholly unaccounted for, with the moving company telling us to "give them time " to figure out what happened to them. 

Looking forward to spending our first weekend in the new house !

I Guess He Never Made It To Disney World...

Mike and the kids found a squashed Checkers on the road around the corner from the house, this morning. RIP Curious Checkers! When I asked Charlie how he felt about it he said, "Ehh. I don't really care that much."

Finally Bike Riding!!

Zip Lining In The Neighbor's Backyard

Needless to say, the kids had a blast!

Getting There...

... Very slowly... After a very long and ardous day we are moved in! With some definite kinks to get worked out like there's no hot water & Mike's play station and x box are no where to be found... So some definite phone calls to make tomorrow. 

Here are a couple pics of the bedrooms which are mostly unpacked and our little "office" area. No pics of the living room yet because a) it's a mess and b) because most of our living room furniture isn't here yet. Same goes for the bonus room. 

Stuck In Maryland

Last night the driver of our moving truck called to say he having trouble with the truck & that he was stuck in Maryland. He rescheduled our delivery to Sunday, much to our disappointment. 

Fortunately he has already called today to tell us to expect him tomorrow morning between 8 and 9, and to re-confirm our address so we are keeping our fingers crossed that he stays on schedule!

Today we have been productive none the less, doing laundry and bringing most of our stuff over from Mandy & Joel's house. We also plan to do a big grocery shop later on & we bought the much needed item pictured below!