First Day of School: 2nd & 3rd

It feels weird to type those grades.  My kids are in the middle grades of elementary school.  You anticipate K for so long and subconsciously forget to think that it just keeps going and going.  That's a theme as this fall has brought a few silly things that have made us feel ushered into middle age.  Haha! More on that later... Here are my cute second and third graders.  I chose Peter's outfit.  Lily chose her own- and surprisingly, I think it actually works nicely- which isn't always the case.  I gave the kids their back to school haircuts.  I took 2-3 inches off Lily's and left Peter's on the long side to preserve the summer blonde a little longer.

 Our bus stop crew was thin the first morning, but THICK with donuts.  Mattie is our high school senior, cul de sac neighbor who is also a lifeguard at the pool, who is also just all around amazing (& follows Jesus). She bought the kids donuts on the first morning.  The other kids really missed out. Grateful for her sweet & cool influence on the kids and we may not let her leave next year. :)

Oh, the many faces of Peter & cute photobombs by BenBen. 

 Bye Bye, Kids!  Like I said in an earlier post, it felt more mixed this year to send them off.  

But certainly, I've adjusted just fine. :)

 The first day of school also just so happened to be our anniversary!  So with a few months notice, I was able to convince Mike to take the day off.  It helped me ease back into having the kids gone and didn't feel so eerily quiet.  His mom generously offered to adjust her schedule to be able to watch Ben so we could run out for a lunch date.  It was lovely.  We sat outside, had complete sweet conversations and dreamed that we were somewhere coastal (it was breezy & warm so that helped us dream).

 And then they came home.  How fun to have Daddy at the bus stop after school!

 And an after school picture to include more of our neighborhood crew.

 Back to the middle age thing, our sweet kitty, Clove, who is front and center here died this fall (Oct 13).  So it was a fun surprise to see she made it into these pics. She was 18 & 3 months (July 1998-Oct 2016).  She had a nice, full, long life.  Mike joked that she wanted to live to be old enough to vote but then when she realized who her choices were, she decided it was OK to go. She had been my kitty since college (and now much prefered to be Mike's kitty).  She was a good girl, living different places through two different years overseas, a new marriage to Mike (adoption by her favorite human would be her boast), and through three new babies and toddlers who pulled her tail and petted her any way but gently. She was sweet, patient, and friendly. We will miss her.  Ironically, she is standing on the rock Mike buried her under.  Haha!  We are those people who buried their cat in the front yard.  Ben talks fondly about "my kitty who's under the ground".

Speaking of Benny, aren't his locks and his cheeks beautiful?!

{We also sold our '99 Civic the same week Clove died.  Also ushering us away from any semblance of our college & young adult season.  We cleaned it up (first wash since it became Mike's car 9 years ago) and sold it on Craigslist.  We had 5 responses to our ad within the first hour of it being listed.  So we sold it quickly.  Mike got a 2014 Subaru Crosstrek and we all love his new ride.}

The first weekend after school was nice and HOT.  This mama's dream to help ease the blow of summer ending. So we hit up the pool once more.  

Peter's 9th Birthday

Hopefully, Peter won't mind sharing this post with August Birthdays first! :)

We celebrated Mike's birthday a weekend early, at the river with my parents, Holly & Glenda.  Holly had this amazing, delicious cake made for him.  It was lemon blueberry- Yum!

He is easy to celebrate.  Sweet, generous, laid back, and endlessly kind to us!

He continuously grounds us all in our faith, reads us the Bible, calms us, hugs us, holds us all, helps us worship, and reminds us of the big picture. We love you, Mike. 

 We had a shared celebration of Mike & his mom at our house, with spinach and artichoke enchiladas:  my favorite new recipe from the summer.  

Moving on to Peter's big day.  I also let him plan his party.  I offered a sleep over, thinking that could be less work than our parties of the past.  And it was.  Three friends came for the evening party and two of those slept over.  It was honestly less stressful than the years of throwing big parties with adults too. It was sweet to see interactions with his friends (not that it was perfect) but I'd rather see it than not. :)

First, there was a water balloon fight!

He wanted a little free play inside to do Legos, snap circuits, etc.

Then pizza!

Then presents!

The boys were in bed by 8:30/9 and asleep by 9:30/10pm.  We had pancakes the next morning and pick up by 9am.  It was a fun party and not too jarring for our first sleepover.
Happy Birthday, sweet PT!  We hope and pray 9 is a great year for you!

A Farm House Trip to see Maw

 We made our summer farm house visit.  

Maw had to work one afternoon so I babysat and did that my sending the kids out to run in the field.  They had a great time, picked some beautiful Queen Anne's Lace, and didn't get a single tick.

 This guy explored around the out buildings.  Isn't he breath-taking?

 It was also breath-taking to watch these kids run through fields of green- a picture of childhood summer!  

 Let's take a picture, kids!

 I thought it would be neat to take a pic with the kids wrapped around the tree.  Didn't work out for me.  Who knows why they didn't get my country photo op memo?

 We went back to the Sylvan Heights Bird Park again this summer.

 Please note the country girl, chicken farmer's hold on the parakeet. Love it!

Back at Maw's house, we had a little water play. Future hydro engineers right here---

 My little cuddle buddy got cold in the water and needed some warming snuggles.  Done.

Glad to fill our tanks with some country summer.  Thanks, Maw & Paw.  

Take some time off next summer, Paw. We missed you!

Summer 2016

Something about the summer was weird and 'off'.  

I'm still not totally sure what it is, maybe this blog post will help me resolve it mentally ;).  It got off to a weird start- the kids got out of school really late (June 17).  It started off full speed in the best of ways with lots of travels, but kinda stalled out mid-July.  It was crazy hot (100s for weeks!) and there were changes in plans, dropped plans & mishaps.  Grandparents are also in a different season than before, surrounded by illness & suffering of those they love, and we love.  :(

  I also think that the summer schedule is a little unexpected.  We live in an awesome neighborhood surrounded by families and friends we love, full of community.  So I have this idea in my head- SUMMER: wildly unscheduled days full of friends and idyllic summer activities.  But in reality, ATTITUDES (kids' attitudes and lack of cooperation and mom's attitude).  Also, VACATIONS- when our plans and vacations tag team the weeks with neighbors & friend vacations, we miss the community.  When grandparents aren't as available as they used to be, its different.  Also, OPPRESSIVE HEAT!  I love some warm weather and some summer, but I admit, there were a few too many hot days for my taste.

We are grateful for the days we did have- days at the pool, days of community living:

'I'll take your kid', 'can you watch mine?'

We did big ticket items (trip to NY, VBS, BG, etc) but I realized its the smaller things I missed most.  A big part of that may be having a 2 year old (we love you, Benny) who needs naptime, and can't zip in and out with the bigs (tho they draaaaag a lot too!).  Its the smaller things we didn't do as much.  I loved the younger preschool days of 'school' with my kids, sitting with the kids at the table.  I know that it takes a lot for them to have willing attitudes, and those days were nearly non-existent this year.  And I didn't push the envelope. (There are equally or more wonderful things about their ages now.)  With the start of summer being on the go, we didn't get into a routine to begin with so then we just never really did.  It was only the big schedule items and no smaller daily, home routines.  I'd had dreams of learning cursive and writing the Bible but we only wrote the Bible once and we never did cursive.  There were no art projects, only one pinterest fail.  So sometimes, I'd grasp for what I could get: making you a cake batter milkshake today and taking pics of your cute squishy legs another day.

The summer also went FAST.  I'm sure it'll only get faster so would love to consider how it could be different. Lord, help us number our days that we'd gain a heart of wisdom.  

Who is wise and understanding among you? Let them show it by their good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom. 14 But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth. 15 Such “wisdom” does not come down from heaven but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. 16 For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice.

17 But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. 18 Peacemakers who sow in peace reap a harvest of righteousness.