There are some pictures of Sadie up on her school’s Facebook page, as well as the “wordle” whe worked on last week.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Salem-MA/The-Phoenix-School/56241371119

Monday was Sadie’s first day of kindergarten at The Phoenix School. Sadie says, “It was fun. I started building a squirrel house.”

By Sadie

This weekend we went on a backpacking trip to an AMC hut. I crossed this bridge to get to Lonesome Lake.

I am excited to go. I have my own backpack to carry.

I’m having fun on this dock. This is near the hut. At the hut I got an AMC junior naturalist book and patch. This is my new friend Remis.

Frederick loves it here.

Frederick smiles to show that he loves it here.

Look at this fallen down tree. It is leaning against another tree.

This tree looks like a dinosaur. Another tree pushed it down like this.

There are caves on Canon Mountain. I took a picture of one.

Frederick got carried up the mountain.

Frederick looks out of the backpack.

I like it here.

Here there is bark. Where did it come from?

I’m too cold, so I’m wearing two winter hats, and lots of layers.

It was so cold we turned around before we got to the top of the mountain.

I had a hiking pole.

I liked my hiking pole.

Frederick knows how to walk across mud.

I love taking a view of Lonesome Lake.

Look at the mushroom.

Frederick loves the bog bridges.

Frederick says, “look at this fallen down tree.”

We love it near the stream on a rock. This is where we had lunch.

I had a friend named Maya. She is my best friend.

For the better part of a year, loose teeth have been a fascination of Sadie’s.  She has drawn many a picture of people with loose teeth and/or missing teeth.  For a few weeks, having Mommy or Daddy wiggle her “loose teeth” (which weren’t really loose at all) was an important addition to her bedtime routine.  So tonight when Sadie said, Mommy feel my loose teeth on the bottom, I thought it was the return of that old game.  But, low and behold, the child has a REAL LOOSE TOOTH!

We started giving Sadie an allowance of 50 cents a week in June.  Her first purchase was a 75 cent pencil from the Peabody Essex Museum that changes color when you hold it (in response to heat).  Her 2^nd purchase was split with Mom.  She paid $2.50 for a necklace with a handmade clay whistle.  She has enjoyed receiving her allowance and keeping her check register up to date.  One day she said, “Frederick doesn’t have many fancy clothes.  Maybe I can get him some fancy clothes with my allowance.”  Nice that she is willing to consider spending it on someone else.

A favorite revelation from Sadie a few months ago was that she is “a little bit magic.”  Her magic powers?  She has three: 1) She can touch things that are a little bit sharp without getting hurt, 2) Wet clothes dry really fast on her, and 3) She can jump so high it is like she is flying.  Please don’t tell her I told her.  Her magic powers are usually secret, and she could only tell us about them once.

Sadie continued to enjoy preschool all spring.  Staying an extra hour and a half through lunch became her default schedule.  After school let out in early June, it rained nearly every day for a month.  We didn’t have the local beach days I had dreamed of, but we did make it to PEM, the Science Museum, and the NE Aquarium twice.  Sadie will start kindergarten on September 14^th at the Phoenix School in Salem.

Sadie has been enjoyed many chapter books with both parents recently.  She and Ransom have been laughing out loud as they make their way through the Ramona series.  Sadie and I read about some more spirited young females: Pippi Longstockings and Gooney Bird Greene.  She still likes her “fact” books as well.  A “scientists in the field” book about discovering Bird Dinosaurs in Madagascar was interesting for both of us.  Sadie reads to Aggie most mornings.  The luxury of lingering in bed reading each morning is a summertime joy.

Sadie and I attended a production of Annie in June.  We watched the movie a few weeks later.  She is positively addicted to the music.  We have to listen to it repeatedly on car rides and often at home.  Julia shares this love.  On a recent occasion the girls were skipping down the street singing together “Together at last, Together forever….”

We’ve been to Contention Pond twice, once with Simon & family joining us.  Last weekend we took the train to NYC and stayed through Tuesday.  We saw friends & family, saw dinosaurs and much more at the American Museum of Natural History, saw the statue of liberty from the Staten Island Ferry, went to the Central Park Zoo, and saw the view from the top of the Empire State Building.  Sadie made a scrap book from all our ticket stubs and maps and brochures after we returned.

Sadie graduated from her balance bike to a two wheeler. It only took her ten minutes to learn to ride, although she’s still not comfortable on hills. The balance bike was great and she still uses it when we go on longer walks. In fact on Monday she rode over 5 miles as part of the Patriot’s Day walk from Acton to Concord that her great-grandfather helped start.

Here she is riding her two-wheeler at Lynch Park:

Another recent picture from our trip to Vermont:

A week ago Sunday we had dinner with Alexander and his family.  Sadie noticed they still had unpoened gifts underneath the tree.  Ransom explained this was because they celebrate Russian Christmas – January 6th – as well as American Christmas.  “Can we do that do?” Requested Sadie, “Because I really, really, really like Christmas!”

I really, really, really, liked this Christmas, too.  On Christmas day Sadie and Frederick slept in until about 8:30.  What a gift to me & Dad!  Another highlight was a few mornings before Christmas.  I was surprised to find the house silent and Sadie’s bed empty when I awoke.  Where could Sadie be?  Turns out she was in the kitchen happily decorating her gingerbread house.

This has been an eventful week as Sadie approaches her 5th birthday.

On Wednesday Sadie, Frederick and I took the train to the Science Museum.  Another passenger said hello to Sadie and referred to her as a “little girl.”  She promptly replied, “Actually I’m a big girl.  I’m going to be 5 next week.  And I am a lot of help at home….”  On Friday Grammy and Grampy took Sadie to see Suessical, which she enjoyed.  Saturday morning was Sadie’s “kid party”, shared with her friend, Mia, who also turned 5 this month.  The party was at Iron Rail gymnastics and included about 8 of of Sadie and Mia’s church friends.  Sadie requested a dinosaur theme, so we had dinosaur hats, plates, and napkins.  I also made a cake shaped like a dinosaur based on a pattern I found online.  Sadie was disappointed in the pattern because she “really wanted a T. Rex cake.”  In the end we had fun decorating together and agree that it turned out great:

For gifts at the kid’s party we had everyone bring a wrapped book and then leave with a different wrapped book.  I had trouble choosing our contribution so I bought two and planned to let Sadie choose.  After we read both books Friday night, I asked her what she though of them.  “I like them both.  I like them as much as I like you.  And I like you as much as I like ice cream, which I like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, etc ….!”  From a kid who doesn’t share her emotions much, being liked as much as ice cream was a huge compliment.  But how do you give away a book that your kid likes as much as you?  “Wow!’  That was just about all I could say, “Wow!”  Luckily we were able to sort it out in the morning.

Tonight we had a family birthday party for Sadie at Flatbread Co in Bedford.  ALL of Sadie’s aunts, uncles, and grandparents attended!  While I was working on the plans for Sadie’s party, she siad it would be “really special” to have it at a restraunt.  Thank you Sadie! – this allowed for less travel for everyone and saved us from doing a lot of preparations over what turned out to very a busy weekend.

Friday was an eventful day for Sadie – she had her first violin lesson, and she hosted her first sleep over!

We rented the violin on Tuesday.  As the staff measured Sadie for her instrument, the significance of this milestone dawned on me: playing the violin will likely be the first thing that Sadie will learn that neither Ransom nor I know.  Wednesday morning at around 7 an unfamiliar sound awoke me – it was Sadie “practicing” her violin!  Sadie soaked up the info from her first lesson like a sponge.  She shared what she learned about the parts of the violin during the drive home.  When Julie arrived soon after we got home, she played and sung for all of us, “This is the A string.  How do you do?….”

Friday night Julia slept over our house.  This was a milestone for Sadie, and an even bigger one for Julia – her first night away from her mom.  The girls took a bath together, then we did the usual bedtime routine with stories read and stories told.  The girls were asleep around 10.  Sadie slept in her bed and Julia slept on a mat on the floor.  Julia woke up around 5 and invited Sadie to snuggle with her. Both arose for the day around 6 and were delighted have the morning to play together.

We picked up Sadie’s rental violin today. She starts lessons on Friday. She’s been consistently asking to learn violin for about a year and is very excited to start lessons. Today she said that she wants to play some each day and will decide later if she wants to play trombone as well.

We took a minute to scan this before sending it off to the North Pole….