Happy 2nd Birthday, Nico!

Photos by Blue Lily Photography. Thank you, Wendy!

Dear Nico,

Happy Birthday to you!

You are such a joy.

We love you so much!

xo

36/52

A portrait of my children once a week, every week, in 2014. Linking up with Jodi and her 52 project.

Bode: loves watching science shows on TV

Gianna: no matter how many times or how well we brush her hair, it always ends up looking like some version of this

Nico: probably wondering, "Why did Mommy say NO (when I climbed up here on the fireplace)?"

First Day of School!

Well it has begun: a new school year. Same school, and the same classes.  Bode has his old teacher, Teacher Traci. Gianna has a new (boy!) teacher, Mr. Trent.  Some old friends, and some new friends.  It will be a great school year!

You can see from their sleepy, glazed expressions in these photos that school was kind of an abrupt change to their summer routine!  Plus, all the new faces around them in a familiar setting had their attentions.

They both had a really good first day.  They came home in good spirits, and tired! But it will be awhile, I think, before the reality of "school-is-the-new-norm" will sink into their heads.


The second day was just as startling. I had to wake them, and they seemed surprise when I told them to get ready for school.  We got Gianna into a pair of (new) pants. I guess, since she agreed to wear them this morning, that she is conceding that yes, it is indeed chilly in the mornings and we must dress appropriately!  Bode insisted on wearing the same outfit (???) as yesterday.  I washed it last night but we had to do a speed dry this morning.  Ugh, it was all tears and protests until I produced that *&#@ lightening bolt shirt and orange shorts from the dryer! Nico is the only one that is cheerful in the mornings. He loves going to school. Maybe it is because we take a walk through the farm and see chickens and goats after dropping Bode and Gianna! 

It will take awhile for our routine to become...well, routine.   I'll try to take more snaps and report more next week. Hopefully the children will get more sleep and look more rested over the next week!

I do hope that I will be able to blog more with the children in school.  Nico is not quite ready to nap in the mornings. He kind of dropped morning naps over the summer. But I'm hoping that he too will settle into a nap routine so that he can rest while his sibs are at school.  I missed reporting on our summer adventures (we did do a lot off our summer bucket list!) and I missed capturing milestones  and special events (Nico's milestones, and baptisms, in particular).  Hopefully, I'll be back to this blog regularly!

Hope that your back-to-school week has been fun!

xo

35/52

On Labor Day, we set out for Hood River.  But an emergency announcement on the radio told us that the highway was closed due to "police activity."  So we had to re-route ourselves.  After much bickering (I am directionally challenged, and can't read a map - not even an iPhone map - to save my life. This drives RWF absolutely freaking CRAZY.), we wound up at a place in the Southeast called Powell's Butte, a 608 acre nature preserve.  These snaps were taken there.

Monday night, we remembered to Google the "police activity" that had closed a long stretch of the highway: a gunman was on the highway, shooting at cars.  The gunman was eventually killed by the police after a stand-off.   (ACK!)

This day was a sad day.  It was the first time we had taken off on a walk without Priscilla in tow.  She has been ill, and is not able to join us on walks anymore.