Max is an awesome team player

I’m sitting at Max’s game alone cheering him on. He hasn’t scored. He’s made a few good kicks. He tries hard. He is fast. 

The thing I love the most is watching him high tide ever one of his teammates as they score or something good. He is forever there to support his teammates, try hard, smile and hustle. What a delight. 

Staring school 2018!

Ellie is top dog in the school. She’s in 5th grade. So far she loves her teacher; the first male teacher. 

Max is in third grade. He has Ms. Johnson and he seems quite happy. 

I wish them both a good year. 

After school they both seemed to take th day like a continuation of last year. The best part of after school was watching Ellie and come run to hug one another. It’s so cute watching their relationship. 

First two days of Kindergarten

Clair’s first day of school went faster for me then it did for her and then Ellie’s first day did for me. I was excited to pick her up. We had a smaller parade at pickup - Gramma and Grannie and Mommy. We all wanted to hear about her day and see her face. 

As she came out of the school Ellie had her hand and she was looking all around. When she found me she ran to me. She was happy. She was excited. She was up into my arms with a big smile. I was so happy to hold her, hug her, kiss her and see her smile. 

After school when we got home she went upstairs and played quietly in her room for over an hour. I went up to see her and chat with her. She was happy. She didn’t want a snack. She just needed to play with her toys, in her world, and unwind. I sat with her for a few minutes on the floor to see what she could tell me. I couldn’t get much out of her. 

She had her first soccer practice as well so I went to make dinner and left her to unwind. She was more prepared for soccer then I imagined. She went and ran the full hour with the team. So we ended the day with an ice cream treat from Grannie. What a day! One exhausted chickadee. 

A new business in the house

They worked together for hours secretly in Ellie’s bedroom. They wouldn’t tell any of us what it was about other then that they were writing a news article to tell us more about their project. Then, this is delivered to the dinning room table. 

Love them!

Drill sergeant mom

These children make me sound like a drill sergeant at dinner. “Use your fork, I’m sorry you don’t like it but you need to eat it anyway, no fingers, sit up, sit on your bottom, keep the food off the floor, times almost up, stop biting your cup.....”

Some nights are really worse then others. 

She’s off

The world takes Clair and Clair takes on the world

Tomorrow is the day I have anticipated and dreaded for a year or more. My baby girl, my youngest, starts public kindergarten. 

Yes, I’ve done this before - twice as a matter of fact. Each time I was nervous for my child and excited for them. Each time there was someone else at home who still needed my help daily. Tomorrow that changes. Tomorrow we enter a new phase in life - everyone is in school 9 months out of the year. 

Tomorrow my oldest two children will take my baby’s hand and walk her right into the school. I doubt she will look back. I want her to be excited. I want her to march forward with excitement, power, confidence, and curiosity. I want her to know I’m here and will always be here for her to come home too. I want the world to be kind to her. I want her to stay naive of the evils of the world. I want her kindness to shine. I want her to feel and receive kindness of others. 

Tomorrow she will slowly start to become aware of the way the world works. She will see popularity and how it plays out. She will see favoritism and how that plays out. She will see kids being mean to one another without consequence. She will see how the world outside the safe environment of her Christian preschool operates. 

I pray she is kind and that she receives kindness. I pray she is confident and respects confidence and opinions of others. I pray she goes after what she wants and respects the needs of others. I pray she stands up for herself and that she can stand up for those who can’t stand for themselves. I pray she finds Gods love in this amazing world he created. I pray that school can draw her closer to God and his purpose for her. 

I pray for strength. I pray for continued purpose. I pray that I  can be the mom each of my children needs, even as they grow into the more challenging stages of life to support. 

Time marches on. My babies are growing. I am proud that they will take care of one another. They are amazing kids. 

Max and his little friends

Two weekends ago we took a family trip to North Carolina to see Shawn and his family. A couple years ago Max enjoyed a similar trip with just me. He got to know Justin and they enjoyed each other’s company. This trip was nothing different. They instantly reconnected and had a blast all weekend. Justin didn’t want to separate from Max and mostly Max was game. There is a big age difference of 4 years but that did not stop them from having a blast together playing sports, swimming, hunting lizzards, watching a movie and just enjoying each other’s company. 

I love the smiles!

I enjoyed hanging out with them all and really liked having our families spend time together. 

Baby Zuchini for my baker

So after a couple days of summer rain we finally checked the garden. Last time I looked I did t see a single zucchini. That was maybe a day ago or two. Suddenly we find this monstrosity which Ellie has decided is her baby. It’s nearly 5 pounds in weight. 

The silly girl named it and wrapped it in a blanket. She’s decided we can’t eat this one either. It’s her real baby!

Thankfully she wasn’t afraid to use another one to try baking zuchini banana bread the next morning. My girl has turned into quite the baker this summer. She has made banana bread, chocolate chip cookies, zuchini bread and Rice Krispie treats. It’s nice seeing her take this independent step and enjoy it. I’m also very proud of her because I told her she had to take responsibility to clean up after herself if she baked. She has been doing a great job of it. 

Summer garden fun

We planted a garden on Mother’s Day this year. It has a little bit of a lot of things. We have enjoyed watching the plants grow from babies to producing vegetables we can eat. 

This was the first day we finally found some zucchinis and we were all excited!

Max and Ellie helped pick them. These things grow big fast. 

Chores

Since Sarah has left us I have been working hard to get the children to help around the house. We’ve been through a couple versions of a chore chart. 

Ellie is willing to help because it leads to Money. Max is willing to help on good days and he’s frustrated on bad days. Clair loves to help and sings the Daniel Tiger song when she does “everybody can help do something. “ (or something like that. It’s adorable when she sings her Daniel tiger encouragement sounds)

The first day Clair got vacuum the kitchen she was so excited. You see, this is a chore big brother and sister usually do. But today she is the big stuff. This one was so excited to vacuum and determined to do it right!

Gum balls make her happy

When we went to New York Clair choose a gumball machine as her gift. She was so excited as she has just started to be allowed to have gum. 

It was a big machine and a little amount of gum. She was so happy to share her few gum balls either everyone. She wasn’t worried about them going away at all. 

As a reward for her openness to share I ordered some gum balls to refill the machine. When I opened the bag and showed it to her she was so excited. 

I love to watch happiness in kids over the little pleasures of life. I hope my kids can always appreciate the little pleasures In the same way that this picture will always make me smile.