Thursday, September 15, 2016

L turns seven!

Today my sweet baby  boy, my first born, turned seven.

Seven.

It's been seven years since this tiny baby came into S and mines life and completely changed us. I remember having no idea what to do. Being nervous and scared. I remember imagining what that little baby might grow into...in a year, five years, twenty years.

The main thing I  wanted for him, for all of my kids, is to be happy. And to be kind. I wanted him to grow into a loving and curious and funny and inquisitive and happy little boys. And he has exceeded my every hope so far.

(Donuts for breakfast on your birthday are a must!)


L is pretty much one of the most amazing kids I've ever met. And I'm not just saying that because I am his mom. He is so smart and so curious. He is in first grade and the constant stream of questions he asks me often leave me stumped or googling things on the Internet.

He is such a good friend. In the past year he has formed his own little group of friends, and they are truly the four musketeers. If I'd had the choice to handpick his friends (and I'm not going to lie, I was hoping I would be able to!), these are the boys I would have picked. They play well together, but challenge each other. They support each other and make each other laugh. They are all genuinely nice and sweet boys, and I love them and love that L has them in his life!




Because we have a surprise coming for all the boys at the end of the month, we decided not to do a birthday party this year, but instead had his best friends and our neighborhood kids over for a "birthday play date". They played and ran and opened presents and ate way too many cookies.





And after the play date was over we went to dinner as a family and then came home and opened more presents. L said it was the "best 7th birthday ever", and I have to agree, I think it was a pretty great day for all of us!
(family dinner at Humble Pie)



(His big present that he was thrilled about! It hasn't been delivered yet, but he's getting his own kayak!)

So, sweet boy, Happy 7th Birthday. You are so loved, by so many, and I hope for the rest of your life yo never forget that. As you get older, life will get harder, but as long as you hang on to these qualities that you have now you will be fine. Stay curious, stay funny, stay adventurous, stay kind, and stay happy!!! 

You are so very loved.

Monday, September 12, 2016

The end of summer

A week ago I posted about Labor Day, and how it always signifies the end of summer to me, despite the fact that temperature here will be hot for at least another six weeks. And true to form, we are once again getting sucked into the hectic and wonderful and activity packed days of the school year and fall, and the lazy days of summer are starting to feel like a memory.

Once we hit September, our lives get busy in a way they are not all summer, and they will stay that way until school end again. There is school, obviously, and carpool and playdates and field trips and volunteering. Then there are the sports. Soccer just started again, and this year we have both L and L2 on two different teams, with S coaching L2's team. this means two separate practises a week, two games, snack duty and making sure everyone has their cleats and water bottles and jerseys.

And finally, as the weather starts to cool and the days get shorter, we move away from the long lazy days at the pool and move into doing more community type events. Farmers markets and festivals and events at our local parks that cannot happen when it is 120 degrees outside slowly start to come out of hibernation.

This weekend, in honor of 9/11 (Can you believe it's been 15 years? I cannot. It feels like yesterday.) out local firehouse had an open house. We went and the kids got to climb in the firetrucks and we got a tour of the station, and most importantly we got to thank these amazing men and woman for keeping us safe in our little community.



L and R especially liked the firemen hats they got, and getting to sit in the trucks, and L2 loved just watching the all the huge trucks!



After the forestation, we had our first soccer game of the season, S's first coaching game of the season, and L2's first game ever.

If you've ever watching a bunch of 3-4 year old play soccer you know it's..... well it's an adorable disaster. L2 spent most of the game just standing in the middle circle, and most of the time he was facing the wrong direction!



It was cute to watch though, and the most important thing is that he had fun. And it was also pretty amazing watching my hunky husband coach the team.




Hope you all are enjoying falling out of summer and into fall as much as we are!

Friday, September 9, 2016

Crafty Crafty!

As we head into Landon's second year of "real" school (first grade) I have to say, I am loving every second of it. Being a stay at home can be lonely, and hard, and tedious sometimes ( a lot of the time!), but I have found that I really love the school aspect of it.

And, no, I don't just mean sending him away to school for eight hours a day!

No, I really love being involved and doing this for him and for his school. I heading into my second year of being homeroom mom, which I loved last year and I'm sure I'm going to love this year, and I'm finding myself looking forward to doing things that I would have hated a few years ago.

I mean, I was a sorority girl for four years and my friends used to have to drag me kicking and screaming to anything craft related, but tell me that my son needs a Polk-a-dot shirt for dot day next week and I'm calling all the girls and getting us together to paint shirts for them!


I had more fun doing this than I would normally admit, and I think they turned out pretty cute!


And the best part is "dot day", which is obviously out of uniform shirts (apparently the dots signify every ones individuality?), also falls on L's bday next week! So the whole day now feels like even more of a celebration!

Labor Day 2016

Last Monday we celebrated Labor Day, which to me symbolically indicated the end of summer.

I say symbolically, because it will still be what the rest of the county considers "pool weather" for at least another 6 weeks, if not longer. I, however, am ready to pack up the swimsuits, light the pumpkin candles and start wearing sweaters, jeans, and boots.

But we had a great last pool party, even if we may still have a few pool days left in us!



Some good friends of my parents actually live in our town, and they invited us to a small BBQ at their house. The kids love them, and it ended up working out perfectly because my parents decided to make a last minute, surprise appearance.



We hung around the pool, swam, (OK, I didn't swim. Once it gets below 100 degrees I consider swimming season over! I have been ruined by Phoenix!), and ate a lot of food!


It was nice and relaxing. The kids had fun and we had fun and it was really the perfect way to officially "end" summer, especially as we are now fully into the school year swing.

Oh, and the best part? It completely wore the kids out!