Madigan's Milestone

Well, she did it, my little Baby Girl left me for the greener pastures of Kindergarten 1. She could not contain her excitement, I could not contain my sadness. I never thought I would be one of "those mothers" who cries hysterically while chasing after the school bus. To my credit, I did all my crying the night before while I read her goodnight books. It was impossible not to get caught up in her excitement. The thrill of a ride on a school bus was contagious. Her smile was a mile wide. She was very polite at the bus stop and said her goodmornings to everyone. The part that was the hardest for me was that I was putting her on a bus with complete strangers. She knew no one that first day. Furthermore, most of the kids on the bus are all older than her, third grade and higher. I had nothing to worry about. The bus monitor said she had a great day, and that she had lots of fun. I could tell. When the bus pulled up for drop off at 4:15pm, Madigan was sound asleep.

Survival

Well, Hurrican Felix was a Sissy! I say that in jest realizing how lucky we were to have him skirt farther North of Aruba than was expected. The storm was not bad in the least. Lots of rain and wind, but I have seen worse Nor'Easters in Boston. It started with heavy rains at 4am. When we got up around 9am, it just seemed like a heavy, overcast day. Around 10am, the rain started to pick up so we decided to go for a ride to the beach to see what was happening. It was more fierce along the coastline and it was actually pretty difficult to open the car door at the beach. It was amazing to see the normally calm azure waters churning with an angry force. It reminded me of the Seinfeld episode where George Costanza says, "The sea was angry that day my friends..." Watching the water slam into the rocks was awesome. The spray climbed so high into the air. It was truly a force of nature. There was some areas of the island that had flooding, but we did fine here on the Northwest tip of the island. There were some palm tree leaves and debris, but nothing catastrophic that I could see. It was over before we knew it. We came home, soaked to the bone with about 60 pictures. In fact, I think I ruined my new Sony Cybershot (should have gotten that extended warrenty from Best Buy, huh?) because the screen is a bit cloudy now. I did regret not having my good Canon Digital Rebel with me. I would have gotten some unbelievable shots with that. But better to ruin a much cheaper camera!

The remainder of the day was quite a bore. When there is no sun, there is nothing to do here. The stores are never open on a Sunday here in Aruba, so shopping was out irregardless of the Hurricane. Madigan watched lots of the Cartoon Network. The Doc worked on some medical stuff and I read a great book. It was called The Boleyn Inheritance. If you like historical novels, this is a great one. It is about Henry VIII and some of his wives. Great read!

The sun is back out today so we hope to have some fun before we go home tomorrow. Hope you all have a great Labor Day!

Hurricane Watch!

HI Everyone! Writing to you from Aruba where Hurricane Felix is fast approaching! We got word yesterday that there was a Hurricane Watch issued for the island. Aruba is below the "Hurricane Belt" and has not been victim to the wrath of Mother Nature for quite some time. The locals here say that hurricanes only come once a century to their beautiful island. Looks like this time, it could actually happen! I just brought in all of our lounge chairs and moved the grill into the kitchen. I don't know if these precautions are necessary, but it is foolish not to do so. I keep reading articles saying "tourists are flocking to the airport to escape from the island" and that the local hardware stores are mobbed with people buying up plywood and supplies. We went out for a delicious dinner to our absolute favorite restaurant, came home and celebrated the news that the Red Sox rookie, Clay Buckholz, had just pitched a No Hitter! I guess we should have been in panic mode, not vacation mode! Stay Tuned Faithful readers........

Help!

Alright all you bloggers out there. I need your shopping help and advice. We are coming to the end of an era here at the Landcruiser Household. Madigan & her babysitter (Nanny to those of you who didn't grow up in a blue collar house ;) are parting ways after Four and 3/4 years together to make room for going to Big Girl School. She has been caring for Madigan four days per week since Madigan was nine weeks old. I am awful at coming up with ideas and knew many of you would know just the thing! Her sitter is her second mother, so I would like something sentimental but also something she could actually use and not just shove on a shelf. She has two children of her own (ages 5 and 2) that Madigan has grown up with, played with, fought with and shared with. I really want to give her something to remember Madigan by. Flood me with ideas!!!

Addendum

I tried.............She won.

A Bit of Pink

The new In the Pink Lilly Pulitzer Fall Catalogue arrived yesterday and Madigan immediately knew what store it was for. How is that for a savvy four year old? She honed in on these boots the second she opened up to the kids section. They have the cutest pink elephants on them and I can totally see her splashing around the puddles in these babies! Unfortunately, her cheap mother is not about to fork out $78 for rain boots. Looks like we'll have to keep these in mind a few months down the line. They also have some beautiful dresses in the new line like this one:

It is a classic for sure. I have to really start toning down my shopping for the girl because she has to wear a uniform to her new school. So while I may not be purchasing these beauties for now, I absolutley have to order this today. (Couldn't get the picture to appear)

I can't believe she is headed off to K1 (also known as pre K because she is not 5 by Sept 1st). I seemed like just yesterday that she was a tiny thing who did not argue about the clothes I was putting her in! Where does the time go?

Summer Fun

Can't believe the calendar is already progressing into August. Here we are in the Dog Days of Summer and I have been totally awful about posting some of the great stuff we have been doing these past few weeks. I need to find some time to really sit and organize my thoughts and pictures in order to immortalize them here on my blog.

One of the greatest things we did this summer was go to a Red Sox game in July followed by a special event at Fenway Called "A Picnic in the Park". It is organized by the Red Sox wives and all the proceeds go to three different (I think) charitable organizations. You basically get to roam around on the actual field and have a picnic. They provide you with a bag containing a blanket, and some other donated items like hand sanitizer (?) from CVS and a CD from the guy who sang the National Anthem at the game. You can wait in line to get some autographs from the players. They do that for about an hour, after which the guys spend the rest of the evening with their families. There is also a live auction with some pretty great things to bid on like a hunting trip with Tim Wakefield and dinner at Curt Schilling's house which if memory serves went for about $35,000.

This year, we brought my niece Lara who is seven and has always been a huge Red Sox fan. Her night was made when Jason Varitek came over and introduced himself to her and thanked her for being his #1 fan. Lara was speechless! She told me it was the greatest night of her life! Here are a couple shots of the fun:

Madigan could care less about talking to Jason, Doug or Tim, all she wanted to do was get her face painted. She has no idea how lucky she is to be in the presence of such greatness!