First Day of School

Here's Mason, dressed for the first day of school. Wearing the shirt we bought for him when we were in Australia visiting his grandparents. When he was in 1st grade. He is now in 4th grade. Which is, somewhat unfortunately, an old enough age for picking his own clothes out.

When we went to the open house, someone (a teacher or resource person--I didn't know who she was) stopped me and asked, "Are you Mason's mom? He is such a nice boy." And that he is.

And here is Katie, before school. She came home in tears because her class was all different, one of her best friends was gone, and the bus route had been changed and the girl she rode with all last year was on a different bus. The new girl she sat with didn't talk to her, even when Katie tried. Change can be hard. I've never had a child come home sad from the first day of school, and I have to admit I have been pretty sad for her ever since she came home. But tomorrow is a new day, and I think it will be a better one.

And here is Andrew, who ran back in the house to grab his backpack once he realized we were taking the kids to the bus.

And here is Andrew arguing with us about whether or not he's old enough to ride the bus and go to school.

And the bus arrives...

And Andrew holds out hope that they'll let him on. But they don't.

But he still has a puppy to keep him company

So back home they went.

Back to the Blog...

It's hard getting back into blogging after 8 months, but sending 2 children off to school this morning seems to have freed up just enough space in my brain to sit down and do this again. That and the fact that my kids were looking through their photobooks the other day laughing at the stories I had written about them--which were almost all from my blog. And now there is almost a year of no stories, so I need to get back to work.

A quick shot of Mason, who is now 9 and starting 4th grade.

Our newest addition, Scout, who is about 3 1/2 months old. Having a puppy really is like having another child in so many ways. He's been great, though.
Katie has been trying out horseback riding this summer. The great thing is, I take lessons with her. And Andrew gets to have his turn on the pony.

And rounding out the crew is Chloe, who turns 2 in November and has been a lot of fun. She'll miss her brother Andrew when he starts preschool next week.

Since we don't have a dog yet...

we've had to make due with what Mother Nature provides. This squirrel has been getting more and more comfortable with us, to the point where if the garage door is open he considers it an invitation to go in and snag any stray goldfish, animal cracker, etc. that might have landed on the garage floor.

I was a little surprised that he was THIS comfortable with us, but Katie couldn't have been happier to feed our already chubby little squirrel.

Winter Wonderland

Hello Blog. It's been a while. But luckily a monster snowstorm came through, and not only do I have good material, but we're unable to leave our house--so I'm back to blogging. We got about 2 feet of snow in a 24-hour period, which is as much snow as we've seen here in the last couple of years combined.

I think we've got a solid chance of having our first white Christmas in a long time.

Summer Photos

The summer is coming to an end--and it has been a great one. Stay tuned for the forthcoming back-to-school photos.

Why do I try?

You pick out the outfits. You find the photographer. You force your children to get dressed up in nice clothes on VACATION. You even buy a bag of Skittles to be your ace in the pocket. But sometimes, it's just not meant to be.

We got 5 out of 6 looking at the camera on this one. Unfortunately, all 5 of us who are looking are squinting because we would have had to be up crazy early to not be staring at the sun. Live and learn.

And yet, I know I'm going to put them all through it again next summer. Some day I might get around to posting all of the other things we've done for the past month or two. Perhaps after Tuesday, when a certain yellow vehicle stops outside my door to escort my two oldest back to reality. All good things do come to an end.

A Little Wiffle Ball Never Hurt Anyone...

...but if not done carefully, it can hurt your windows.

Seriously, how many times do you have to remind your kids that right in front of the house is NOT a place for wiffle ball?

But when your 3-year-old pitches a ball, it's hard not to want to hit it. Even if you are the mom. Standing outside the front window. And your reflexes kick in before your good judgement alerts you that you are an idiot.

So we will be visiting the window shop sometime in the near future.

And according to Katie, "it was DEFINITELY a home run" so at least I have that to console myself with.

I just realized I forgot to tell Ryan about this. So, Ryan. if you see it here first, I'm really sorry.

He said he be coming home to "recalibrate" some things with me over lunch (what am I, a printer?), so maybe I'll break it to him then.