First week of Kindergarten!

Penny is officially a Kindergartener!  Her first week was great!  She is lucky to have two kids from her preschool in her Kindergarten class (pictured above).  She also seems to like her teacher, Mrs. Cahn (pictured above).

We were a little concerned about the daycare at first.  She is on an afternoon schedule and starts class at 11:30, so we drop her off at the onsite daycare in the morning and they walk her to class and pick her up from class.  She tried the daycare out a couple of days the week before school started, and she did not like it there.  But, now that she is used to the routine and has made some friends (that are in her class and also go to the daycare), she is enjoying it more.

Another surprise to us is that public school is not actually free anymore.  There are several donations that are expected of parents to support the supplies and the "extra" education such as art, music, computers, etc.  We were asked to pay about $600 and this does not count the many fundraisers that will take place during the year.  

Last day of summer

We had a great summer break this year.  I started working 3 days per week, but I still wanted the kids to have some structured activities.  For the two days per week that I was home, I signed Penny up for an afternoon camp through the city Parks and Rec. and her good friend also signed up.  The other 3 days when I worked, Penny and Max were together at a home pre-school/daycare.  Penny also did swim lessons every Saturday morning.  We figured out a good routine for ourselves.  It was nice to have Penny and Max spend a lot of time together during the summer, since soon they will be in separate schools.

These pics are from our last Friday together.  We went to the zoo and Max got on the car ride for the first time.  It has been his goal in life to reach the height minimum and get on this ride.

Niles Canyon Railway

We have been meaning to check this place out, and today we finally did.  Max loves trains, so it was a treat for him to ride an actual steam train (on a historic railway).  However, the "CHOO-CHOOOO" sound was sometimes startlingly loud!