We're Back

We’re back! We’re back in Philly, back to humidity and parallel parking and grocery delivery and traffic jams. We’re back to Wharton, back to unexpected team meetings and homework and endless emails. We’re back with our girls, back to giggle fest and tag tails and experiments and messes. We’re back to exploring the city; back to mapping our way to our outings, back to being amazed that this or that exists in the city and we just found out about it now, back to packing lunches and missing naps.

My parents arrived early this week with our girls. It was great to have visitors to distract me as Josh got back into his school routine. In spite of my own better judgement I let myself think that the schedule this year would be easier. This week as team meetings, homework, and social events began to pop up I was reminded that I was on my own a good part of last year. I survived then and I know I can survive again. I just have to get my expectations back in line. Having my parents here this week was a huge blessing. We had fun. We went out on the town. And it is always nice to have some extra hands.

Welcoming the girls back home was really fun. The first two days they ran around the house rediscovering everything. It was as exciting as Christmas. Kate would open a closet and call me over to see what she had discovered. The doll house, the tea sets, the bunk beds, the stick horses, the stacking bowls in the kitchen, and the scissors were some of the big hits.

The adult discovery of the week was the Barnes Foundation. This is a private art collection opened by Albert C. Barnes in 1922 to “promote the advancement of education and the appreciation of the fine arts.” It is a collection of Impressionist, Post-Impressionist and early Modern paintings and it was amazing! (I can’t believe I didn’t take Doug there when he came to visit.) Dr. Barnes arranged the paintings on the walls so as to emphasize certain characteristics of the paintings and then accented each display with furniture and metal work that adds to the effect. They are actually moving the collection this year into a building near our house. It has been a big local controversy. Now I understand why. I’m glad we got to go see it before it moved.

Being back in Philadelphia somehow makes me realize how fast my girls are growing. Kate rode her bike all the way down the Schuylkill River trail to our friends’ apartment building. Both girls went down the Big Wooden Slide at Smith Playground by themselves. And Kate started a gymnastics class, which she loves and wishes she could go to every day.

It’s nice to be back to Fall. It’s cooling off a bit. The leaves are starting to turn. Yesterday we went to Linvilla Orchards to pick apples and raspberries. It was a lovely Autumn outing.