The Brown Brick Road

Capturing our adventures one photo at a time...

buddies

Spencer has the three cutest buddies from his class last year – Christopher, Stephen, and Wade-O! (it’s really just Wade but then he became Wade-O Potato and now they all just call him Wade-O!). Unfortunately they all got split up for this year and will each have a different teacher. We’ve gotten them together to play a few times this summer though. They were at our house last week and they really are the sweetest bunch of boys. Christopher was a little late so Samantha happily posed as the stand in!

buddies

We got another good one once the whole crew was there!

stairs

I can barely handle the cuteness in that photo. I loved seeing Spence with his buddies without Maxwell around. He’s quite the little leader!

buddies

Silly, cute buddies!

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First day of first!

Yesterday was Maxwell’s FIRST day of FIRST grade! I think it’s going to be a great year. We went up on Monday to meet his new teacher, Mrs. Liddle.

meet greet

meet greet

She seems really sweet and Maxwell is excited he got her. He even took his 100 Books list to show her! She was pretty impressed. 🙂

mrs liddle

Unfortunately, her husband had a heart attack last weekend (!) so she’s going to miss the first week of school. He should be fine though and she’ll be back next week if all goes to plan. The class has a great sub this week and it will all be fine. After all, we’re used to starting and ending the school year with a different teacher!

On the first day, Maxwell was all neon and ready to go!

neon

first day first grade

He had goodbye hugs for Spencer and Samantha…

hug

hug

and then off he went!

first grade

first grade

first grade

When he came home that afternoon he was all smiles with this in his backpack…

jitters
I’d say that’s a sign of a good day! I’m so proud of this kid and can’t wait for him to learn all kinds of fun things this year! Go Maxwell!

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One last summer hurrah!

Today is a big day – Maxwell starts first grade!! It’s been a fantastic summer and while I’m anxious to get back into a routine, I’m going to miss these summer days. The kids have done so many fun things from exciting trips, to adventures with Mrs. Susan, to lazy days at home. Most importantly, they’ve all played so well together. I love seeing my 3 little buddies being the best of friends (most of the time!). I know it won’t always be like that and I’m so appreciative for this summer and how much they have enjoyed being together at this age.

As a little farewell to summer, we hosted a neighborhood party at our house on Sunday night. We have some fun families on our street that all have kids of similar ages. We had gotten together with most of them at Easter and I thought we needed to do it again. I ordered up a bounce house/water slide, got some chicken nuggets and plenty of watermelon, corn, and tomatoes, and we had a great party! I think all of the neighbors were excited to get together!

party

bounce house

party

The only minor hitch in the evening was when Spence slipped and knocked his cheek on the brick step. Ouch!! He hit it pretty hard but, after a period of pitifulness, he rebounded and got back on that water slide! thank goodness.

face

His face actually wasn’t as bad the next morning as I thought it was going to be. I’m just so thankful he hit his cheek and not his eye, nose, or mouth!

face

Anyway, aside from the fall, it was a great party. The best part about having the party at your house? You get to keep going down and down and down the water slide even after everyone else has left!  🙂

summer

We finally pulled them off of it at 7:30 and tucked 3 worn out babies into bed.

summer

Long live summer!!

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Meanwhile….

Happy Monday! Phew…it was a busy and FUN weekend! and it’s going to be a busy and FUN week because Maxwell starts school tomorrow! Lots to catch up on but I first have to reassure you all that while Maxwell and I were gallivanting all over New York City, the crew back home wasn’t suffering one bit! Robert did what was necessary to survive on Friday night…

marg

and then went down to Montgomery on Saturday to get a little help!

mgm

swim

There was even cake and ice cream! Happy birthday Lulu and Granddaddy!!

mgm

Sure, there might have been cake pops for breakfast…

cake pop

and Samantha’s dress might have been on backwards…

mgm

but they made it just fine! I don’t think they missed us one bit! By Monday morning we were all happy to be back together though…

monday

and I might have even let them get a cake pop for breakfast that morning too! 🙂

cake pop

cake pop

See you tomorrow!

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The city so nice they named it twice!

Day three in New York and we woke up….tired. After a full day 2 exploring the city, we were worn out and Maxwell was weary. I was nervous that we weren’t going to have enough to fill up the day. We did head up to Sarabeth’s on Central Park South for breakfast which was a good start. Pancakes are always a plus!

sarahbeth's

After that there was a little bit of twiddling our thumbs while I tried to figure out what to do. Maxwell thought he wanted to go back to Nike Town again so we walked over there…but they didn’t open until 11:00 on Sunday and it was only 10:00. So, we headed back towards the park and stopped in the Plaza to check it out. (Maxwell was unimpressed! ha!)

plaza

We then decided to take a carriage ride in the park. In all my years of living in New York this was something I had never done! Well, it was money well spent! Not only was it a fun ride but it showed us all the neat areas in the park we wanted to go explore. Maxwell wanted to hop out of the carriage mid-ride to go start climbing rocks!

cariage ride

carraige ride

carraige ride

We spent the next 2.5 hours in Central Park and it was FANTASTIC. It was a beautiful 72 degree morning with a slight breeze. Just perfect weather! Maxwell has no idea how lucky he was to experience such a beautiful day in New York.

new york

central park

He was the happiest camper around climbing on all of those rocks and running his heart out!

rocks

It’s like a game of Where’s Maxwell?!

rocks

The carriage ride also showed us that they set up a carnival in the Wollman rink space during the summer. We obviously had to go ride some rides and play some games!

carnival

central park

We needed to check out of our hotel by 2:00 so I had to drag him away from the park to go pack up our bags. He was having the best time! I should have known better than to worry about finding things to fill our time – New York always delivers! After checking our bags with the bellhop, we headed to the Upper West for a quick lunch at Shake Shack (note the Nike jacket – best purchase of the trip!).

shake shack

We then went across the street to the American Museum of Natural History. We got lucky there – apparently there was a huge line to get into the front entrance. We had to walk around the whole building to get there so passed the Planetarium entrance where there was zero line and you could walk right into the entire museum from there too! If you ever go, skip the main entrance! We spent about 2.5 hours there and had just enough time to hit up all the floors and see the things Maxwell wanted to see…

dinosaurs

dinosaurs

dinosaurs

We took our souvenirs and went back down to the hotel to get our bags…

nyc

But it wasn’t quite time to go to the airport yet. I had kind of planned on grabbing dinner but we weren’t hungry so we did what Maxwell wanted to do – climb rocks! We went back to Central Park (with roller bag in tow!) and I let Maxwell run around, climb up and down, and have fun. We also saw the most gigantic raccoon I’ve ever seen in my life! ha!

raccoon

Playing in the park was the perfect ending to our trip! We got to the airport in time to eat some dinner and then wait for our plane to be delayed for over 2 hours! ugh.

airport

We finally made it home around 12:45am…completely exhausted but so happy for all that we had gotten to do and see!

Maxwell was the best travel partner and I can only hope that he enjoyed it all as much as I did. For the record, Maxwell’s favorite part of the trip? Climbing the rocks in Central Park. I have to agree – as I sat in the park on Sunday watching him run around and enjoy the city that means so much to me…well, it just doesn’t get any better. I’m so thankful for this awesome kid and loved surprising him and creating memories that I hope he never forgets…I know I never will.

new york

I ❤️ NY and I ❤️ Maxwell.

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