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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

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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. 

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



Bode: Story teller. In the car on a long ride, he entertained us.  He has such a big imagination!

Gianna: Swimmer (almost).  Last 2 weeks of swim lessons for this summer!

Nico:  Explorer.  Loves walks, and finding things...and he walks for so long! I rarely have to carry him.

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



Bode:  I'm still enjoying the gap-tooth smile

Gianna: I love that she still has the toddler "chubbiness" to her limbs

Nico: an early morning hula-hoop session in his PJs

George Rogers Park

I guess I got embarrassed, writing about how lazy I've been and how we have not done much of anything this summer.  Realizing that we only have about 3 weeks of summer left, I guess I felt like kicking it into gear. 

Last Friday, we went to a new park to us, George Rogers Park.  I had heard of this park, because there was a "grand opening" and a lot of press written up about it a couple of months ago.  But I had no idea it was so close to us! It is right in our town, maybe 7 minutes away from our house. It's a park that's been on my (mental) list of things to take the children to, but I've never felt like seeking it out. 

I'm so glad that we went to this park.  It is brand-new, and has a lot of things for all of the children to play on and enjoy.

Sometimes, a park isn't geared for a range of ages, so someone (usually the baby) has nothing fun to do except watch his siblings run around having fun.  But this park had bucket swings (a huge plus):

and a slide that Nico thought was the perfect size for him, the little scamp (but I was not happy or comfortable with...so he went down it twice, solo, and then I took him elsewhere):

and a huge sand pit, which, euuuw (thanks, Dawn, for the edification so many years ago!), but they all enjoyed it:

and for the big ones, there were swings, climbing structures and fun things like this seesaw:

I didn't get many pictures of the big children playing on the playground because, quite honestly, I was playing on it with them! You know, just demonstrating how to use it. ;) 

I'm so glad that we checked it out.  We will be back. This week, we're back in the 90s again (ugh).  I need to just 'keep on keeping on'....before summer ends!

Happy Tuesday, friends.

xo

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


Bode: lost his first front tooth this week, and finally agreed to a hair cut (love that smile!).

Gianna: learning to button (and wearing a sweater that cool summer morning)

Nico: went down the slide by himself (fearless!)