First Day of School 2013

Same school. Many more kids and much bigger classroom. They did great. 

Chop

Before

During

After

In the end, it was his idea for the haircut and I seized the moment. He was silent and still as stone during the haircut, and pleased as punch afterwards. We miss those curls, they had turned golden in the sun, but they'll be back and in the meantime the morning is a lot easier without trying to tame the mane in some way!

Late Summer Joy

Summer seems to be slipping away, we don't know how it went so quickly. We are holding on tight. 

Someone did not get the memo about inheriting my family's nose. The appetite on the other hand...

This is a clever picture I took that makes it look like Chris is very bald. He has a real drill and is explaining something about it. Creston has a toy drill that Lisa gave him, he doesn't let it out of his sight. 

We found a new beach and we feel like the luckiest people on earth when we go there. The water is shallow all the way out to the buoys, which is a dream for a set of 3.5 year olds and their parents. And we often have the place to ourselves. 

Sometimes your bear needs to breastfeed during a tea party. It's hard being a mother, exhausting. 

But there's time to nurture the wild side, too. 

August, please don't go. 

More Maine 2013

We left at 3:00am with the brilliant notion that the kids would sleep for a chunk of the 7 hour ride. Didn't happen even a little bit. It looked more like this. 

But it was actually pretty smooth, all things considered. And we knew there'd be this at the end. So the slog was well worth it. 

Grandpa took his chances at the Hungry Hippo table. 

And here are the cousins, entertained by Auntie Kerrie's tricks. 

Big cousin Cora was a smash hit this summer. Too cool. 

Grandma Robin puts on a mean Tea Party. A lovely late afternoon treat. 

She's not too shabby with the books before bed, either. I was solo parenting for the week, and Grandma Robin really helped make that easy as pie. 

Ivy's favorite activity, really, is walking Chip. Chip is totally blind and Ivy's nurturing/bossy instincts kick right in. She is so thrilled with ordering him around.  

Creston was head over heels for cousin Sonia's baby, Harriet. And this is actually where he spent most of his time, at the helm of a docked boat. 

They got out their bikes the very second we got home. After a single week away, Creston's feet suddenly reach the ground. It was a bit of a shock, he was really on tip toes before we left. 

Speaking of toes...

Maine 2013

More to come, but suffice it to say we had a great week. 

We love Maine.