A New Rugby Season Begins

Moojie had a pre-season game this weekend.

The weather was beautiful, and the air was fresh with the smell of grass and sea. 

The school that hosts his rugby club is a spectacular setting and a place worthy of weekend down-time, for sure. 

 There is a new uniform since they merged with another local team. It's obvious Rugby is mainly a man's sport; I doubt women would go for such broad stripes.

 They won the game and Moojie was not injured so that's a double win in my book.

 The only downside is that Sebby continues to charge the field and kick random soccer balls where he shouldn't.  Pai and I take turns chasing him around while trying our best to keep an eye on the game.

Fall Beach Days

 

I like to pretend it's still Summer on the weekends. The weather is warm, but not hot, and with such a packed schedule from Monday to Friday, we need a little beach time even more than we do in the Summer.

We went to Carcavelos beach to do something a little different. All six of us were there, but you wouldn't know it by the photos.

What will I take pictures of when everyone is a teenager or older? The cats? Grandkids? Time will tell.

A little Santini afterward made for another perfect family afternoon.

Puddle Fun

 

I'm going to pick up where I left off, and get my backlog of pictures up.

 

 

 

 

 

The first thing I did when the weather turned ever so slightly, and the rains came in abundance, was to get Seb some new wellies. I keep intending to even out this part of the driveway, but then what fun would Sebby have on rainy days without the puddles?

 

You can see Patches the cat runing for dear life in the above picture. She knows that where there is Sebby and water, there is also likely to be a wet cat.

 Alas, Fall was not meant to be. The very next day, the six of us spent the afternoon with our toes in the sand and swimming in the waves.

 

More on that and my long-awaited trip to Paris tomorrow.

School Year: One Week In

Here are the kids on their first day of school.

Zita: 6th Grade

Moojie: 11th Grade

Freddy: 3rd Grade

 

Moojie and Zita continue to walk to school, and home for lunch. I drive Freddy most of the time, but Pai also shares in that responsiblity when he can. Freddy is a great car chatterbox, and has lots to discuss in the car without the distractions of home.

Most everything is the same for the kids this year with a few exceptions. Both Zita and Freddy now have music at the conservatory. It's more demanding than the music they were taking before, but we're giving it a year and then deciding how it goes after that.

Zita's day is longer and now goes from 8:20-4:50. They incorporated more study-hall type hours (5 of them!) and will give less homework. Less homework works for us!

She still has tennis three times a week, plus orchestra on Saturdays.

Moojie is in his critical junior year of hichschool where the work load is heavy. He has 10 hours of sports a week, not counting rugby games so Mooj barely has time to eat. I'm doing a lot of running after him as he walks out the door, trying to make him take a water bottle, or a hearty sandwich, or a rain coat with him.

Freddy has the same teacher as last year and is a little unhappy that his best friend left his school. He's navigating the playground without his fellow non soccer playing pal, but I know  with time he'll be okay. Another change he isn't too thrilled about is having to do chorus and a music theory class on Saturday morning, but it's a package deal at the conservatory and one can't take lessons without doing the rest.  He still loves tennis and has started training with Moojie in the basement gym.

Our back-to-school cookies this year were chocolate, chocolate- chip oatmeal. I baked half and saved half the dough for the next day, but elves broke into the fridge and polished off the dough. Strange, I know.

Scheduling-wise, this year is a challege for all of us. Thank goodness Seb not only tolerates the car now but loves it! His obsession with all things moving-vehicle related makes for exciting trips. I also input locations on my Google calendar so I get alerts on my phone saying "you need to leave now to get to tennis on time." Genius. Love it.

One day this week, we had 3 tennis lessons, rugby practice, a cello lesson, and two parents meetings at two different schools.  Not all days are like that, but they are mostly packed.

So far so good, one week in. We only have 9 more months of this pace unitl we can breathe easy again.

Last Summer Hurrah

On the last day before school started, Zita invited a few friends for a afternoon of swimming. Most of them hadn't seen eachother since the last day of school so there was elation all around.

 The sublime magnificence of sitting by the pool, looking out towards the water in perfect weather, and all children content for hours, was enough to get me through the sometimes rocky back-to-school days.

 After just a year in her new school, she has a close group of friends whom I adore. They are really great girls.

 Mooj fired up the grill and started churning out burgers for the hungry swimmers at 7pm.

What would I do without Moojie?

 

 Zita said her last goodbye around 8:30 leaving no time to fret about the school day to follow.

Oh The Mischief!

Final Stretch

With school starting in a few days, we're squeezing in all the beach time we can. Last Friday, we set out for the park and mid-drive unanimously decided to divert to the beach. 

I have at least 4 beach bags in the back of my car so I can always pull together just enough for a few hours. 

The kids are not wild about taking pictures, but they don't mind doing a few jumping shots. 

Shortly after this was taken, a bigger wave came and soaked me up to my waist. 

We got the last of the school supplies yesterday, and we still need to swing by the school today to pick up their books for the year. 

I'm going old-school this year with a small hardback calendar/agenda. I needed somewhere to jot down all of Sebby's hilarious sayings, and there's just something nice about real paper and pen. 

Happy week! 

Great Toy Discovery

I must record our newfound love of Magformers. My mom got us a set for the plane ride home and the boys play with them every day. I don't even mind getting down on the floor and joining in. 

Just like with Legos, Playmobil and everything else, Freddy now feels like we need more pieces to make the really cool stuff. 

Christmas list has begun: 

1. Magformers 

2. harmonica (LHM)