Paparazzi, end of summer, and fair time

Beatrice has been in the newspaper twice this month, once while chalk drawing with her friend Lily at First Friday in Putnam at the beginning of August,

 and then the whole family was photographed at a back-to-school Family Night  in Woodstock Sunday:

The paper read "Beatrice Foronda was getting ready to head to kindergarten at St. Joseph's School in North Grosvenordale. She ate a snow cone and admitted to being a little nervous about starting the new year."

Today I came home from school and it was quite hot, so Bea and I quickly changed into swim stuff and headed to the lake on her last swim of her summer vacation.  Beatrice shocked me by jumping off the dock by herself (with armbands) for the first time.  Over and over she did this, and swam with her face in and under the water.  I'm so bummed summer is ending because I think she's so very, very close to really swimming. I recently got her a pair of swim goggles and this has changed everything.  Now that her eyes are more comfortable she's much more willing to get her face wet.  Hopefully we'll get a couple more swims in before the season completely ends.  

Tomorrow is her first day of school, and when I pick her up at the end of the day we have to head to the Woodstock Fairgrounds to bring her entries for the fair this weekend.  She entered HERBS, DRAWING, PAINTING, BIRDHOUSE, PHOTOS, and RECYCLED CREATION.  Here are the photos she took from around our yard.  I tried really hard to get her to focus on flowers, or trees, or plants, or some beautiful theme, but these are the four she insists on as her "favorites."

(that's actually a pretty cool shot!)

Good to know our bulkhead, in desperate need of a paint job oviously, is near and dear to her heart!

And good old Buddha made the cut.  No surprise.

More photos of the entries tomorrow, along with back-to-school of course.