Some of my favorite memories from our trip are from our time at the beach… We hung out at three different beaches in Miami and Ft. Lauderdale (and were joined one day by a small group of relatives), and the girls couldn’t get enough of the sand and ocean.

-M

We spent the last five days in sunny Florida, where we went for a family “tri-mitzvah” and some beach time. It was a pretty terrific trip, and here’s the first of our (many) photos.

-M

Some things never change: Avery still loves playing around with store mannequins – human or otherwise. Here she is during one recent Old Navy trip.

-M

A few nights after I shared my cracker story here, I started getting upset over something that the girls and I were talking about.  I can’t quite recall what it was (I might have realized I had misplaced something), but I do remember Zoe telling me, “This is a small thing, Mommy,” and then having Avery chime in, “Yeah – remember the cracker!” And a few days later, when I started to fret over something in the car, Avery called out to Q, “Say ‘cracker’ to her – tell her about the cracker!”

I had encouraged the girls to help me remember to not get upset over small things, but I was just so happy that they remembered – and understood!

-M

A group of third graders periodically come into Avery’s classroom to help out. Here are Avery and one of her buddies doing some recent math work.

-M

Speaking of school, here’s a peek at Zoe in technology class. She’s with (who else?) her bestie, Zachary.

-M

Zoe has had boy friends dating back to when she was a baby, but Avery: not so much. It’s been fun, then, to watch her blossoming friendship with a little boy in her class – the one who asked her to marry him a few months ago. Avery had him over for a playdate a few weekends ago, and I loved watching and listening to them interact. (She played with him differently than she would with her girlfriends – they mostly just ran around – but I know she had fun.) And I had to laugh when I overheard him ask her, “What is lip gloss for? Does it go on the lips?” Avery laughed and answered, “Of course, it does, silly! Where else would it go?”

-M

This has been a good school year for the girls so far, and Zoe in particular is super happy. The other day we were talking about the movie Frozen and Zoe announced, “Would I rather watch Frozen or go to Brandeis? Brandeis!” And when we started putting together the girls’ summer camp schedule (camps fill up months in advance, so you need to figure out where you want to go in February!), she started pouting. “I don’t want to go to camp,” she said. “I want to go to school!”

Her love for school may not last forever… But I sure hope it does.

-M