New School Year

Today was the first day of school for my kids. They are getting so big! We had a very fun summer, packed with lots of adventures and special days, but it was time to head back. The last two weeks of summer are always our hardest. The kids are tired of playing with each other so much and the sibling fights seem more frequent. They are ready for a regular school routine, and so is this mama! Here is to a great year, full of all sorts of new adventures in learning!

School Year Day 1

Project 365 Day 53

Tonight our boys had their Cub Scout Blue & Gold Banquet to celebrate the anniversary of Cub Scouts. The theme for the night was Everyday Heroes. Austin's Den chose police and fire for their heroes and each boy created their own 3D Collage. Daniel's Den chose Family for their heroes and each boy decorated a memory box with pictures of their family members. Daniel also displayed Daddy's old cub scout shirt/patches that Grammy Pammy turned into a pillow, and showed off Mommy's old Girl Scout sashes with her old badges, just to show that scouting is part of their family history. I made a Cub Scout hat out of rice krispie treats and frosted it for the Silent Auction. It was a fun night!

Project 365 - Day 5

First day of basketball camp

Happy Birthday Austin!

Today Austin turned 6! Wow! He was 14 months old when we first met him and the time has just flown by! I am so very glad that God brought him to our family!

I took cupcakes and balloons to his school to celebrate his big day with all of his school friends. They sang him a special birthday song, and then they all enjoyed the banana applesauce cupcakes.

We always let the kids pick where they go for their birthday night dinner. It's just the 5 of us celebrating together, which makes for a very special birthday for the special birthday kid. Of course, Austin chose McDonald's, so we met Daddy there after work with balloons and cupcakes and spent a couple of hours eating and playing.

Happy Birthday, my big boy Austin! You are so special to us! We love you!

My Three Little Reindeer

My brother Nick took these pictures of my cuties when he was over on Christmas Eve. I love how they turned out!

Austin's First Day of Kindergarten

What a big day! Austin's first day in Kindergarten. He has been talking about it all summer. He was so excited. He got his school supplies and backpack two weeks ago, and has been showing it off to anyone who came near him! He has been talking about how "I'm 5 now and I know how it works". Such a smart kid! His first day went really well today, and I didn't cry a bit. There were plenty of other moms crying as they were leaving school, but I think both Austin and I were so excited for this next phase of his life that we didn't even think to cry over it. He had all the confidence in the world going into school, and hardly had time to say good-bye. James got off early so we could all pick him up together, and then we headed out to Chuck E Cheese to celebrate the big day. Such fun!

Austin's Invention

Another week, another theme for I Heart Faces. This time it is Photojournalism. Our definition of Photojournalism for the sake of this challenge: Using an image (or images) to tell a story.

I love this series of photos of Austin. He loves to build - with blocks or anything else he can get his hands on. When we went out to my mom & dad's over the 4th of July holiday, he was in Heaven! So many "treasures" to play with. Grandpa tends to have a lot of things around the farm, and Austin eagerly found a quite place away from the craziness and just started creating. I love watching his mind work through his hands. He is going to do big things someday, I am sure of it!

Faceless Photos - today's inspiration

Over at the inspirational blog post for the day was on photos that don't necessarily have faces in them. This brought to my mind one of my very, very favorite photos that I took last summer while at Gearhart Beach, Oregon. Thanks to Twila and Susan I was able to do some fun editing of it. Hope you like it.

Peaches!

We decided to go pick peaches this morning before our playgroup date. The kids picked a bunch that weren't quite ripe, but we still got a big boxful of yummy ones. Now I'll just have to get them all skinned and chopped up and into the freezer so that I can make jam out of them once the kids go back to school.


They enjoyed riding the farm tractor back to the farmhouse.

We took some time to play in the pea pit. It's like a big sandbox only with dried peas - dusty, but lots of fun.

We even said hello to the goats and ducks on the farm!

Beach Fun photo challenge

This week's contest is Beach Fun, and I had lots of fun beach photos from our trip to the Oregon Coast last summer. I chose the one below with Austin looking up. I thought it was an interesting composition. When I took the photo, I was trying to just get all of our feet in it, with all of us looking down, and just as I clicked the camera, Austin looked up. But when I looked at it later - I actually loved it. Hope you do, too!

Shades

The challenge over at I Heart Faces is "Got To Wear Shades". I chose this photo of Austin taken in February 2009 - all dressed in his fireman jacket and hat and ready to go!