A Tired Boy

I found Ian on the floor a few weeks ago. He had been playing so hard, he just couldn't stay awake any longer.

He's so sweet.

School

The kids are settling in well at their new school. Paige loves her teacher and seems to have a whole entourage of little friends already. Orion has spent a lot of time reading and is really challenging himself to try bigger/harder books.

Here they are on the first day of school looking fresh and pressed and excited.

My handsome third grader.

And here's my beautiful Kindergartener.

Check out the attitude!

Ian wanted to get in on the picture show.

Here she goes.

And here they are coming home from the bus, probably fighting already as is the tradition as soon as school is over.

But I bribed them into a few more happy looking pictures.

Adventures in Baking

Shortly after we moved, the kids started into a phase of asking to bake things almost every day. I think it was a way to beat the boredom a bit as summer languished on. Orion suggested baking cookies for their Primary teachers, and I said they could try. Orion had one botched attempt as he accidentally used the measurement for flour when adding the baking soda. But after that, he and Paige tried again and had a complete success. I was only involved in the baking, they did all the measuring and mixing themselves!

On another day, Orion wanted to try making a cake from scratch. I'm pretty much the queen of the cake mix so this was a challenge for me too. We did a chocolate and vanilla marble cake in a bundt pan. The cake stuck to the pan and sort of fell apart. But I showed him how you can cover a multitude of imperfections with a beautiful chocolate ganache. Here he is, so proud of his cake, and the other kids are looking very happy too in anticipation of tasting it.

Summer Fun

I know it's been awhile again. But here I am today to share some pictures from clear back in August. We had a very relaxed summer, going to the park or library most days, eating fresh produce from the fruit stand, and playing in the yard. These pictures are from a fun evening we spent playing outside in the grass.

What a sweet baby! I knew that this outfit wouldn't still fit at Halloween (and it doesn't!), but I had to get his picture in it anyway because he was so stinkin' cute.

I love these boys! And here's Paige posing in the grass after a good game of catch with her Daddy.

Time for Naps

1/2 hour in the fabric store

+ 3/4 hour in the book store

+ 1 hour in Costco

+ 1/2 hour eating lunch at Costco

+ 2 hours in the grocery store

= 1 tired boy

Creativity

Paige conceived and built this tower almost entirely on her own. She was very proud of it and we had to leave it up for about a week so we could all check it out.

It was built out of our Contstrux. These toys were a favorite of Steven's when he was growing up and we were able to find some on ebay a couple years ago that we gave Orion for Christmas. I love open-ended toys like this that let the kids use their imaginations and also do some problem solving.

Paige's challenge with this model was to figure out how to make it stand on its own. I suggested adding a base, and Orion gave her a few design tips and she was off and running.

Lounging

Don't they look comfortable? And happy?

I could look at these two all day.