The Official "Best Picture of the Summer" - 2010

This says it all. Fun-loving Stella. Adoring Marni.

Or, check out last summer's photo.

My New School Girl

Our little Marni has at long last made it into the public school system (or Free-K as our wallet lovingly calls it).

Two years ago Marni was a guest Pre-K attendee as older sister Stella entered Ms. Cassen's class. Throughout the year Marni got first-hand experience of how fun Pre-K can be.

Last year we looked longingly at the Pre-K class as Stella moved up to Kindergarten and Marni entered her final year of daycare.

Over the summer we received a call from Ms. Cassens informing us that Marni would be following in her big sister's footsteps with her big sister's Pre-K teacher.

Marni's first day of Pre-K was 1-hour long and Lisa stayed with her the entire time. Day 2 was a half-day and Lisa and I both took her. Marni got a little teary when it got time for us to leave, but a kooky dance at the "goodbye window" left her with a smile.

Day 3 was Marni's first full day. After dropping off Stella at 1st grade (smiling), I hung out with Marni for 20 minutes in Pre-K. There were no tears when I left. Just smiles from the "goodbye window".

And so the moment we have all been thinking about for the past two years is finally upon us. Marni is in the public school system, in the same school as Stella. Single drop-off. No tuition!

Now Ms. Cassens will see exactly how different two sisters can be.

The Cottage's Last Days

We made a rare September journey back to Maine this year in order to prepare The Cottage to meet its maker.

Stuff was taken to the dump. Stuff was dragged out to the garage. Stuff was donated. And, when it was all over, all that remained in the cottage were the two old rocking chairs from the porch and an air mattress. And Nana and Papa Shepard.

The girls did a great job amusing themselves as we did our work. They made a slide out of old mattresses in the front yard. They took a hair-raising terror ride in the back of cousin Linda's pickup truck. And they got to meet a 1700 pound moose made out of real chocolate.

Best of all, we got one more beautiful day at the beach on Saturday. Castles were built. Holes were dug. Sand was thrown. And Stella even found her one millionth sand dollar of the season.

That was the last time either girl will see the The Cottage (soon to be called The Old Cottage). I tried to drum that into their heads a gazillion times, but they just can't understand the concept.

Maybe we will visit The New Cottage under construction in November. If not, we'll see our new summer home in May. Stella and Marni will pick out their room and, hopefully, this is where their children and grandchildren will make their summer memories.

First Grader

Last Wednesday we officially added a first grader to our family. No, I don't mean we adopted a child from Bolivia. I'm talking about Stella!

All signs were good as she bounded out of bed in the morning and excitedly rushed around to get ready. Things remained good as we walked down the street and she happily told anyone who would listen that she was heading to first grade. Things fell to pieces as she caught sight of the building.

"I don't want to go to school!"

Tears.

Meltdown continued as daddy happily met up with his long lost school chums (parents and kids). Having new teacher Ms. Strickler come over didn't help much either. Nor did friends Sasha and Elle who came over to help.

Eventually Stella cried it all out and Ms. Strickler came over and took her hand. Stella almost cracked a smile as she was led away to day 1 of first grade.

Later that morning Stella's pre-k assistant teacher (Ms. Henry) bumped into Lisa who was attending a pre pre-k meeting for Marni at the school. Ms. Henry offered to go check on Stella. When she returned, the report was good. Stella was happily in music class and gave Ms. Henry a big smile when she saw her.

And after class, Stella gave her first day at first grade two thumbs up!

(PS... day 2 of first grade, no tears!)

That's A Wrap

As I sit here in the air-conditioned, sand-free comfort of my Brooklyn lair, it's time to reminisce about the fantastic month of August.

Mother Nature made up for any practical jokes from last summer by providing us with an exceptional summer this year. Over the span of five weeks we only had three or four rain days. Luckily, the supply of summer kid-movies lasted just as long as the rainy days (Despicable Me, Toy Story 3, Cats & Dogs). Only Cats & Dogs was a dog.

This year's list of visitors is impressive:

• The Imhoff/Stefanoff clan
• Nana and Papa Shepard
• Nana and Papa Hoffman
• Aunt Carol and Uncle Norman
• Aunt Toots
• Brian, Jill, Tyler and Delia Hoffman
• Marcy and Hannah Leiman
• Martin, Jennifer, Andrew and Julia Weaver
• Laurie Shayler and Ricardo Leon (aka Sin La Ropa Interior)

And, just to spice things up, we introduced some brand-new destinations and activities:

• Portland Head Light
• Booth Bay Harbor
• The Maine Lobster Festival
• Candlepin bowling at VacationLand
• Whale watching (sans whales)
• Cliff Walk at Prouts Neck

Some memorable moments:

• Stella and Marni can now (with supervision) cross the street and visit Cousin Beverly at will. And they did!
• The girls bonded with Cousins Janet and Julie
• Stella developed a crush on Cousin Nick. So much so that one night they bid him ado by waving their underwear at him from the porch as he headed home.
• Marni singing the Enrique Iglesias song, "Baby I Like It" with her own special lyrics... "Baby I farted".
• The girls declaring that they are Shepards after I explained that Shepards do not wear shoes to the beach.
• The annual "Run into the water and play in the sand in your clothes at dusk when Tyler and Delia arrive" festival.
• Terrified parents letting their kids play with sparklers for the first time.

As always, hats off to Lisa who ran this crazy Bed & Breakfast. It's a tough job running a popular beach destination for 5 weeks with no time off.

In a couple days we head back up to Old Orchard to move out the remaining furniture. Later in the month The Cottage gets knocked down to make room for a brand new, improved, winterized cottage. So many memories. So much history. Hopefully the girls will remember the old cottage. The new cottage is theirs to start all new family traditions and memories with their children and grandchildren.

And now, what better way to wrap it all up, with a collection of photos and videos from the summer of 2010:

(This post contains video that can only be viewed from the website.)

Crank Calls

A couple of years ago I installed an office phone in the cottage. It works over the Internet and acts just like an extension on the NASFT phone system. This way I can do work from the cottage.

It didn't take long for the girls to figure out how to use the phone. All they need to do is push one button and it rings my desk in the office.

That's ok with me. But it has resulted in about a million phone calls per summer from Stella and Marni. Sometimes they reach me. Sometimes I'm away from my desk and they get voicemail. Stella has a good grasp on the voicemail concept and she often leaves me cute messages. Marni, on the other hand, doesn't always understand that it's not me on the phone... it's a machine.

Here's a voicemail message I received from the girls this week.

Transcript:

STELLA: Hi daddy. Just to let you know, we just came back and, uh, from downtown. And we had an ice cream. It was a long day, now we're getting ready to sleep. Bye bye.

Daddy... no. Mama, Marni and me love you! Bye bye.

MARNI: Hi daddy! Daddy? He's not talking. Daddy?

STELLA: It's the other phone. Marni, it's the other phone. (Meaning, I think, that it's voicemail and not me).


(This post contains video that can only be viewed from the website.)

Girl Power in OOB

Week 1 in OOB started off with a bang as the Imhoff gurlz (plus 1) joined us for fun in the sun.

We pulled out of Brooklyn on Saturday headed for an overnight stay in Natick. On Sunday we headed up to Maine with Nana and Papa in tow. After a brief stop at the New Hampshire State Liquor store (for mommy and daddy's happy juice) we all pulled in to the cottage by late morning.

The weather was nearly perfect all week with the exception of a gloomy day that sent us up to the Lobster Festival in Rockland and the Stefanoff/Imhoff tribe out to the movies.

Stella and Marni immediately got back into the beach groove and were thrilled when their favorite pink bedroom took shape again.

The 7 girls were great together on the beach and in the cottage. They built sand castles, jumped in the waves, played with their skate boards (what Marni calls boogie boards) and searched for sand worms.

On lobster night, Stella was particularly thrilled to mercilessly chase Jessie and Lauren around with a lobster claw. They don't like seafood.

Speaking about seafood, week 1 was quite a wildlife learning experience for the Shepard girls.

First, they witnessed a strange battle between sea worm and snail. The snail seemed to be the winner as it attacked and took a chunk out of the worm as they hung out together in a beach bucket. Who knew?

A couple of days later I suddenly found a live and large surf clam at my feet in the waves. We placed the 6" clam in a beach pail with sand and water and were fascinated all afternoon as it dug its way down into the sand to hide. Once the tide started coming in we took "Clammy Davis Jr." down to the water and buried him in the sand for safety.

Our marine biologist daughters continued their education at the Lobster Festival at a "touching tank". The tank is only about a foot deep and low to the ground allowing kids to reach in and touch the inhabitants. Stella and Marni were super brave as they held live muscles, star fish, snails, scallops, clams and lobsters. They would not touch the sea urchin though.

On the last day of the Stefanoff/Imhoff stay, we ventured into Portland to take a duck boat tour. Unfortunately, a missing wallet incident caused 5 of the group to miss the tour, but Jenna and Jasmine made the trip because they were riding in our car.

Things got a bit quiet after the 5 girls left town, but cousins Becca and Lily took over and kept Stella and Marni occupied (along with cousins Alex, Janet, and Elise).

Saturday night was "downtown" night. Froggie ride. Other rides. Ice cream at Dairy Queen.

Daddy flew back to NYC at dawn on Monday. Now I get about fifty million phone calls a day from the girls via the office phone in the cottage. Yesterday I was in tears laughing so hard during a call with Marni.

That girl cracks me up.

(This post contains video that can only be viewed from the website.)

The Maine Event

Here we go again!

Another summer at Old Orchard Beach is underway. Festivities started on August 1st with Nana and Papa Shepard in tow. Also in attendance was the Stefanoff/Imhoff clan staying for the week at a rental apartment across East Grand Street.

Only two days in and the bonding process between the girls is well underway.Stella has always had a crush on Jasmine, but now Jenna is getting into the act a bit more and things are working out fine.

They're having fun at the beach, fun at meals, and today they had fun at Two Lights State Park where Stella and Marni earned their full mountain goat badges.

How much fun are they having? So much fun that Marni told Papa Art this evening "today was a great day".

Poof. Done.

At the expense of repeating myself... where did the time go? Wasn't it just yesterday that I was blogging about the trials and tribulations of dropping the girls off at summer camp?

Well, somehow it's all over. Poof. Done. Five weeks of matching t-shirts, summertime adventures, and marching songs.

I debriefed the girls in the tub Thursday on their final thoughts about Park Slope Day Camp. They're not big talkers, when you want them to be. Overall impression... good. It was fun. Now can we stop talking about this daddy and let us play with the squirt bottles?

When I told the girls (as I teared up) I was sad that we wouldn't have our morning routine of walking to camp together, Stella reassured me. "That's ok daddy, you can still walk us to school every day when summer is over."

Overheard #31

On our walk to camp this morning:

MARNI: Daddy, this is the restaurant that we are taking you to tonight for your birthday.
STELLA: Marni! It's a secret!
MARNI: Oh. Daddy, pause your brain so you don't remember.

Do Angels Sleep?

Apparently.

Fore!

Stella and Marni watch golfers with cousins Tyler and Delia at Capital Hills in Albany.

Ice-Walking at Tanglewood

For most people, the lure of Tanglewood was the Boston Pops with special guest performer Arlo Guthrie (heard singing in the background).

But for the kids it was all about playing with a pile of ice left behind by a departed Ben & Jerry's ice cream cart.

(This post contains video that can only be viewed from the website.)

Interesting

For a number of years now I have been observing my two Earthling daughters with fascination.

Recently I have noticed that the older female, Stella, has been acting in a very peculiar fashion.

For no obvious reason she suddenly gets very affectionate, comes over and hugs me, and tells me she loves me. Now that's very nice and all and I really appreciate it, but I haven't been able to figure out why it comes and goes.

Until today.

This morning was a little more frantic than usual as I rushed around trying to get the girls ready for camp. Lisa had left for work already and I was behind schedule.

I don't like to be behind schedule.

I run my mornings with military precision. But today I was not on my game. I hadn't even showered and gotten dressed, and departure time was fast approaching.

Things were getting tense as I implored the girls to put on their shoes and socks. I was clearly getting frazzled while trying to shove Marni's water bottle into her already overflowing backpack. And that's when it happened.

Stella saw how tense I was getting and came over to me. "Daddy, I love you". She gave me a big hug and clung to me.

It finally began to compute.

Stella is sensing when I'm stressed or unhappy and she's trying to tell me that it's ok. And she's doing a pretty good job of it.

So now Stella is beginning to take care of daddy.

How does that make me feel?

Out of this world of course.

The Other Summer Tradition

For the past several years we've been lucky enough to be invited to Joel and Adriene Belmont's summer pool party. The Belmonts are cousins of Lisa and have a gorgeous house up in Hartsdale, NY.

Within seconds of arrival Stella had stripped down and put on her bathing suit. Marni was a close second. Then, for the next several hours, the entire family happily frolicked in the warm pool - taking breaks only to munch on chips or chow down on the delicious BBQ dinner.

(This post contains video that can only be viewed from the website.)

The Summer Tradition

A year ago the Shepards and the Asanovics got together for fun in the sun at a local Connecticut beach. This year we kept the tradition alive with a trip to Calf Pasture Beach in Norwalk.

After checking out the Asanovic's new trampoline, the group headed for the beach. Marni had never experienced a beach with virtually no waves, so she immediately waded way out to her chest. Stella was not too thrilled with the stony shore, so she hung back on the sand.

As the tide pulled out, the kids grabbed buckets and began an exciting hunt for crabs over by the large rocks. Ian was the designated catcher and Stella was the designated bucket holder. Marni was the designated screamer. Lisa Asanovic was the back-up screamer whenever crabs got a little too close to her toes.

After crab torturing we took a trip to the snack bar for ice cream, followed by a visit to the playground where the girls gave the boys a run for their money.
At some point during the day Stella decided she really liked Tomo. "He has nice hands".

So how did the day go? Pretty good considering that both girls complained on the way home that they wanted to go back to the boys' house.

(This post contains video that can only be viewed from the website.)

Because What They Say Is So Important!

We here at The Daddy Diary are rolling out the latest in over-hyped technology in order to bring you the latest pearls of wisdom flowing out the mouths of our babes.

The girls now have their own Twitter feed entitled StellaMarniTalk. Based loosely on the hysterical ShitMyDadSays Twitter feed, our feed will bring you the latest kooky kid-talk from Stella and Marni.

If you care enough, sign up with Twitter and follow their feed. Not interested in bothering with Twitter? Then just tune into the Daddy Diary website and check out their latest "tweets" on the right side of the page.

Enjoy.

Happy Campers

And by "happy" I mean "not too miserable".

Ok, maybe "not too miserable" is a little negative. They like their new camp alright. But they just don't like admitting it.

A week into their stay at Park Slope Day Camp, things are looking up.

And by "looking up", I mean no more teary meltdowns at drop-off.

The first few days were a little rocky. Both girls donned their matching camp shirts and put a on a brave front. But when it came to leaving them there at camp, things got a little "intense".

Day 1 was on a Tuesday and both mommy and daddy dropped them off.

Stella was clingy, but ok. I stayed with her. Marni was meltdown city and clung to Lisa till the bitter end. But at pickup they were both happy and told us they had a great time.

I would have a great time too given the fantastic activities that await the kids every day. Horseback riding, swimming at a pool, frolicking at a beach, puppet shows, karate, arts & crafts, amusement parks, and field trips of every imaginable type.

Damn! I want to go to this place!

But our kids are a tough sell, and day 2 was a disaster. Lisa texted me after the traumatic drop-off that she was never doing this again. Both kids had meltdowns and Lisa needed the help of several camp counselors to pry Marni lose.

Later that night I had a "family meeting" with the girls and asked them why they cried when mommy dropped them off, but they are ok when daddy drops them off. The final explanation was that daddy "just did it better".

Now I have my mornings cut out for me as the official kid dropper offer at camp. Daddy's no-more-tears drop-off method is in full effect.

So mornings have gotten better and the kids are having a blast during the day. At pickup Lisa tells me that the girls are happy and that Marni is an absolute animal. Running around, attacking her counselors, and refusing to leave.

In the end it was well worth all the effort that Lisa put into finding Park Slope Day Camp. Stella and Marni will never appreciate how much money it costs to send them to this place. At the end of the day they come home dirty and tired. And happy. Singing songs they've never sang before, and showing us stuff they've learned during their day.

And that's all that matters.

Daycare Grad

Last Friday our little Marni Moo Moo (as she is affectionately known by parents and teachers) graduated from Raindrops Daycare.

The ceremony took place in the blazing hot skateboard park across the street from the school. After performing a couple of songs for the adoring and biased crowd of parents, it was time to hand out the "diplomas".

Carlos, owner of Raindrops, called her the "mayor of the school" as he handed her the diploma. The girl that everyone knows. She is definitely a kid that is hard not to notice.

And now she moves on to public Pre-K. Or "free-K" as our wallet affectionately calls it. For the first time ever we have a single drop-off of both kids to the same place for school. Yippie!

I have no doubt that Marni will do great in Pre-K. She is so ready. Through Stella she already knows the school and teachers. Many of the teachers already know her.

So watch out P.S. 39. Here comes Hurricane Marni. They'll never know what hit them!




(This post contains video that can only be viewed from the website.)

Unhealthy Competition

Because there isn't already enough rivalry between the ladies, daddy decided to stir the pot a bit last week in the skateboard park.

Bring on the scooter race!

I eventually gave up trying to explain the concept of handicapping to Stella and told her she just had to let Marni go first because Marni is two years younger and one month shorter than her.

So here's the video of their first-ever scooter race. Just between you and I, Stella may have the speed, but Marni has the style.



(This post contains video that can only be viewed from the website.)