Avocado Cucumber Salad, Frog Pond, Kindergarten Classroom, and Fruit Picking!

On the plate:  Avocado Cucumber Salad

Soundtrack to cook to:  Will Smith and DJ Jazzy Jeff's Summertime on repeat.  Trying to enjoy our last few days of summer.  Love this old school jam!!!  Click on the link to enjoy it along with me!  :-)

After sleeping in a bit from all of the excitement from last weekend, we got ready for the day on Monday and went to gym class!

William loves to push Alex around in the barrel.

The boys doing their best "table" while stretching before class started.

I love when these guys have their sweet and cute moments.  :-)

After gym class, we got home, walked Oscar, and then quickly threw on our swim clothes so we could go to a play date at Frog Pond.  I was surprised to admit that this was our first visit to Frog Pond this year!  We met Alex's classmate Chloe, her brother Owen, and her mother at Frog Pond that morning.

Alex, sitting on his bucket and being reluctant to splash around.

Until he filled up his bucket and dumped it all over William.

That's when the fun started!

It got that much better when Chloe joined in on the fun!

Chloe and William walking around Frog Pond.

The kids were so cute!  They were playing
Jake and the Neverland Pirates again and collecting
"buried treasure" in the water (picking up leaves and putting
them in their buckets.)

Alex and Chloe kicking and splashing around.
It was the perfect play date to cool off on a hot summer day.

William sitting on the side lines and kicking up a storm.

More bucket dumping fun.

After splashing around for a bit, we got the kids out of the water and walked over to a sandwich stand in the Common to have lunch.

William, Chloe, and Alex walking to lunch.

Alex, Chloe, and William being cutie patooties
while waiting for lunch.

After lunch, we splashed around a little bit more.  Then, we changed out of our swim clothes and rode the carousel together.

Chloe and Alex in the front with Owen, Tammy,
and William in the background.

Me and my big beer belly (HA!) with William, ready
to ride the carousel.

Alex and Chloe loved the carousel.

It was getting close to Owen's nap time, so we said, "Good bye," to Tammy, Chloe, and Owen and made our way to the Public Garden.  Thanks so much for a great time, Tammy and crew!  The boys and I had a blast! 
It was a gorgeous day and the Common wasn't crowded at all.  It was really nice.  So, we decided to ride the Swan Boat and enjoy the peaceful and gorgeous ambiance.

I love riding the Swan Boats in the Public Garden.

Alex and William, pointing out the ducks.

Me and the boys :-)

While we were riding, Alex put his arm around William
and started pointing out the geese and ducks.  I'm so glad
I caught this sweet and natural moment.

Our big boys, being cute and snuggling on the Swan Boats.

The swans and turtles were taking a nap on the little island.

Alex asked to take a selfie while William was napping
and we were reading books together that afternoon.

The next day, we had a low key day, and thankfully so.  I think the boys were pretty pooped out from doing so many activities.  So, they just got hair cuts, we made a quick Target run, and then had lunch at Johnny's Luncheonette (per the kids' request).

William fell asleep in the cart while we were at Target.
This never happens!  Which shows just how tired this little
Jub Jub was.

Alex with his fresh new haircut, ready to dig into a
big bowl of matzo ball soup.

William was ready to do the same.  These kids LOVE
soup!  It doesn't matter how hot of a day it is outside,
they would welcome soup any time of year.

Since they were having such a fantastic day, I decided
to take them out for a little ice cream treat after lunch.

On September 3, Alex had his "Meet the Teacher" day at school!!  I couldn't believe this day had finally arrived.  Alex brought his teacher some items from her "wish list" and enjoyed meeting her and checking out his new classroom for the upcoming school year.

Alex, looking at his daily schedule.

Alex playing with puzzles while chit-chatting with
a girl from his class.

After that, he just wanted to read books (as you can see,
William wanted to do so as well).

Our big boy by his cubby, ready to take Kindergarten by storm!

Afterwards, we stopped by the local library to return some books and get Alex his very own library card!!

Alex was so excited to fill out his name on his own card.

The library was hosting a beginning Kindergarten party that same day.  How fortuitous that we just happened to be there at the beginning of the party!

The librarian read two "Beginning Kindergarten" books
and had some crafts laid out for the kiddos to make.
It was very sweet and thoughtful for the library to
put something like this together.

Alex making a lunch box craft where he glued some
pictures of foods that he wanted in his ideal lunch box.

I was craving avocados sooooo much last week that I just had to whip up a salad one day that I saw on Smitten Kitchen's site.  The result satiated my craving completely and was a lovely salad for a hot summer day.

Ingredients:

• 5 small cucumbers, cut into bite-sized pieces
• 2 avocados, sliced
• 1/4 sweet onion, diced
• 1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and chopped finely
• 2 tbsp fresh cilantro, chopped
• 2 tbsp mayonnaise (I substituted non-fat Greek yogurt and it was great!)
• Juice of 1 lime
• Salt and pepper

Mix together the avocados, cucumbers, and onions
in a medium-sized mixing bowl.

Whisk together the jalapenos, mayonnaise (or Greek yogurt),
and lime juice.

Pour the dressing over the veggies and season with salt and pepper.

Enjoy!!
The result was a delightfully creamy and crunchy summer salad.
Because I added jalapenos (instead of sriracha), it almost reminded
me of a salsa.  So, later on when I snacked on it, I ate it with
some chips and it was delicious!

Last week, we joined our friend Shikha and her son Rohan, along with her friend Serena and her son to go and pick some fruit at Tougas Farm.  We enjoyed picking apples, nectarines, and peaches on a perfectly overcast day.  (Perfect for picking fruit so that we weren't too hot!)

Alex and William (with Shikha and Rohan in the background)
riding the tractor to the orchards.

These handsome guys were ready to pick some apples first!

Of course they had to sample some as they were picking.
Rohan kept taking the picked apples from the boxes
and tried to put them back on the trees.  What a cutie!

Alex picking some apples.

William loved his mid-morning snack!

Rohan and William picking apples.

Alex sampling a nectarine.

William was double-fisting an apple and a nectarine.
He was one happy kiddo!

Alex, Rohan, and William playing around in the orchard.

These boys love to pick fruit.

Alex, William, Rohan, Shikha, Serena, and her son Millen
riding the tractor back to the playground.

We were ready to have our picnic lunch.

William pointing out the pumpkins on the tractor ride.

The boys chowing down.  They love having picnics.

Afterwards, we went to check out the goats.
Here's William, Rohan, Alex, and Shikha at the farm.

William loved petting the goats.

Shikha was nice enough to give us some feed for the animals
and the boys fed the goats.

Our handsome little guys on the play tractor at the playground.

Last weekend, Joseph and I took the boys to the Museum of Science.
Here's our little Ninja Turtles hanging out in the space shuttle.

*Phew!*  I tried to get in as much as possible before Alex started school.  We had a lot of fun last week and enjoyed our time together.  I can't believe our little Monk Monk is ready for Kindergarten.  Where has the time gone??
Until next time...

Love and kisses,
Nikki