My Miss Maya

Friday, September 5, 2025

Summer 2025 Wrap-Up

Dear Maya & Emi,

I've posted a couple times over the last few months, but now that school has started it's time to wrap up the rest of our very full, very fun summer. So here's what we've been up to, not completely in order...

The end of last school year, and your graduation from junior high school, Maya:

Emi, after a quick emergency vet trip almost derailed our plans, you and mommy went to the Berkshire Botanical Gardens and left Baba and Maya home to keep an eye on Saffron (she's ok!):

Camp! Maya, this year you were a CIT (counselor in-training) and Emi, sometimes they treated you as if you were, too. Photos by counselors:

Nature time! It was the summer of cool moths around here. Also, we went to the farm every other week to pick peas, beans, tomatoes, herbs, flowers and more with our CSA share:

Another musical performance by you, Emi--this time at the Rhinbeck Farmers Market and although Mommy couldn't make it, Grandma, Baba, and Maya cheered you on:

A trip to NYC! We went to meet up with Mommy's friends Amy and Andre who were visiting from the UK. You two got along with their daughter Sophie so well as we walked around Central Park and did some shopping and sightseeing together:

Time with friends! You hung out with friends so much this summer, and often they invited both of you to join in the activities which is so sweet:

At Hudson's Pride Parade

At Delilah's birthday party (photo by Delilah's mom)

At the Altamont Fair (photo by Evelyn's dad)

At Kam & Bentley's Welcome to High School Bash (photo by Kam's mom)

At the Columbia County Fair (photo by Juliette's mom)

At the Columbia County Fair

Family time! You spent a week with Grandpa and Lori in Copake and got to visit all kinds of cool places with them like Olana, a Lego exhibit, and the butterfly conservatory. You also spent time hanging out with Grandma and Papa Stan and the rest of the family stacking wood for the winter. Photos by Grandpa and Grandma:

And finally, yesterday was the first day of school! Maya, you're in 9th grade--high school (eeek!) and Emi, you're in 6th:

Well, here's to a fun school year for you both. We love you!

Thursday, July 31, 2025

Emi's Excellent Eleventh Birthday!

Dear Emi,

You're 11! We spent a few weeks celebrating you and it's been busy since then so I'm just getting around to your birthday blog now. So here goes...

The day after your actual birthday we celebrated with family at Grandma and Papa Stan's house. Grandpa flew up from North Carolina to be there, too! Thanks for sharing your party with me since my birthday is so close to yours.

perfect birthday shirt from grandma!

ice cream cake requested for this party

Then, a week later, we had your friends over to our house for another party. You requested a tropical fruit theme, so we drove all over the place looking for uncommon fruits. After having pizza (yes, one of them with pineapple on it) we had a tasting and ranked our favorites. Passionfruit, watermelon, and coconut-soaked pineapple were favorites, with honey mango, regular mango, and kiwi also pretty popular. Dragonfruit was so-so and Prickly Pear Fruit wasn't gross but also not great. Unfortunately your favorite, kumquats, were out of season so we couldn't find any.

your hand-painted/drawn art

Baba dropped the pineapple pizza but it survived!

You planned lots of games for your friends to enjoy and then opened really thoughtful gifts from all of them. Then you handed out little fruit-related favors including hand fans which were perfect for how hot it was that day. We also had lemon-pineapple cupcakes and sang to you!