Hello there!  We are a family living in a town in Connecticut, which is about 40 miles outside of New York City.  We have three children – our daughter is 9 years old and in third grade, our son is 7 and in the first grade and our baby boy is 4 and a half and he is in pre school.  We also have three Labrador retrievers.  We just had a wonderful au pair from Au Pair in America.  During her year here she really became like part of our family.  Her responsibilities were to help me get the children off to school in the mornings, then make their beds and tidy their rooms.  Then she would have some time to herself in the morning until our youngest son gets home from school in 1:00.  She and our son would then play either inside or out.  He loves to art projects, puzzles or play games and they all love to run outside.  When the others arrived home from school she would help get them snacks and play a little bit and then would sometimes help them with homework.  She would help get dinner ready for the kids and would typically be off on her own around 7 – 7:30.

I am a stay at home Mom so she and I really worked together as a team.  She was my pair of helping hands.  It gave me a chance to have time for myself or to spend individual time with each child.  Some evenings my husband and I could even go out together.  My husband works for an investment banking company in New York.  He either drives into work or takes the train from town.  He leaves around 6am and gets home between 6 and 7pm.  Our local area is a suburb with a very nice town center.  It’s known as “the next station to heaven” – it’s a very pretty place to live.

The children go to a private school, which is in Connecticut.  It’s about 20 minutes away from our home.  I spend a lot of time driving the kids back and forth and it is nice to not always have to take everyone with me.  We are a very casual family.  We usually vacation either somewhere warm or go skiing.  During the summer we have a home outside of Massachusetts.  We are there from June through to August.  While there we bike, roller blade, play tennis, have lemonade stands and mostly go to the beach.  It is one of the most beautiful places and we always have a wonderful summer.