Ellie the artist

 This week Ellie and her boyfriend painted pictures of each other one afternoon. I'm so impressed with her painting of him. She has captured so many of his features in this small picture. 

She also has found a nice boy who enjoys doing these fun things with her. I'm happy for her.

She has so much artistic talent in her. She's an artist and linguistic at heart. I look forward to her finding her path and how to use these skills as she grows. 

She also got a 100% on a big paper for her English class and the teacher asked her if she could use her work as an example for others. Good job Ellie!

Max is my social butterfly

 Max has always been the kid that loves hanging out with friends. Recently he's been making sure his social calendar is extra packed. 

He enjoyed a group outing for homecoming with friends this year. He decided he wanted to wear his black suit with a bowtie. They met at a friends house to get dressed. Did pictures at the park. They went out for a big group dinner. They went to the dance (for which I'm proud of them since apparently no one goes anymore which I think it's dumb.) He even got to enjoy a bit of a an after party. 

He has a nice group of friends and is enjoying his high school journey. 

He's also been working on his grades. He has continued work to do to meet his full potential, but I do see him growing and maturing. 

Here are a few pictures from Homecoming. Isn't he handsome. I love the picture of him a year ago and then this year. It's not always easy to see the daily growth, but boy a year has seen a lot of growth.

12 u fall Softball

 I'm coaching again this season and enjoying almost every minute of it. I have a group of girls that I've coached for many years. There's always some new girls and there are some who have moved on, but there's a big group that's stuck together. I've had the pleasure of helping them grow in the game I love for a long time. 

Clair decided she wanted to put in the work to take pitching serious this season. She's been one of three pitchers this fall and has pitched some in every game. She is hitting somewhere around 40-55% strikes which is a huge improvement. She's doing pitching lessons 1-2 times a week and practicing at practices as well. It's fun watching her determination and I support her struggle and efforts to surmount the challenges. Pitching is hard. It takes a lot of extra practice. 

Granddaddy has been coming to all her home games to support her at the park. I love that he enjoys watching her play. 

Rocking my babies

Yesterday Clair had a sleepover with some friends - Lila and Jocelyn. She had so much fun. I love when she finds kids she's able to be her authentic self with. When I picked her up she was tired, very tired. 

When we went upstairs to get ready for softball practice,  I sat down in the brown rocking chair in her room and she crawled into my lap. She settled herself sideways and curled up fully on my lap. She then fell straight to sleep within a few minutes. She was out. 

I knew we needed to go to practice and I needed to waker her up. But I also realized this would probably be the last time I rocked any of my babies to sleep. So I sat there, admiring her beautiful face and closed eyes. She was so peaceful. She was breathing slow. She was so comfortable and happy. 

This picture is not of her sleeping in my arms. I couldn't reach my camera and didn't want to disturb her. But this was one day after a long tough softball game. She fell asleep on the couch. 

It wasn't that long ago that I was rocking a crying baby on a daily basis. Time flies. Kids grow up. Habits and patterns and routines all change. 

I am so thankful I get to be Mom to my three kids. It's my favorite role and the best part of this journey called life. 

Orchard Adventures

 

This fall I woke up one day and decided we needed to go apple picking. We used to do it together each fall but haven't gotten to do it for a while. This year was the year. We tried a new orchard and came home with $60 worth of apples that took up two large bags. The apples have been very nice. 

I always enjoy seeing David in an orchard. He's focused on finding good fruit. He used to particularly love apple orchards, but it seems his love affair with apples might be waining a bit. 

I told the girls that I remember why we stopped going. There are so many gnats in an orchard from all the spoiled fruit. It was pretty gross.

Once we got done in the orchard we also tasted their adult cider. It was quite nice. I would go back for more. While we were there we saw the barn cat and the girls enjoyed petty it. 

Max did not join us on this adventure. He was spending the afternoon with some friends. We missed him.