Hot again

Well Fall made a brief showing here. But lately it has gotten warm again. Today it was 85 and humid! But truly we are starting to see some Fall colors.
Esmé and I are still enjoying going for walks. She loves to be on the go. She still brings me her shoes or crawls into her stroller and out we go into CW. I let her lead the way.

School is going well for Zaven and Nell. Last week we had friends over on Tuesday. Nell and her friend Kate pretended to be Johnny Appleseed.
Thursday Zaven stayed up late doing homework and studying for a test he has been a good boy getting his work done. Both kids seem to be pretty tired at the end of the days.

Tomorrow we are going to see a team of Clydesdale horses making an anniversary beer delivery. I have told the kids the story of my being lost at the 1982 World's Fair after starting to to follow the wrong pair of pants while looking at the Clydesdales. Hopefully no one will go missing tomorrow while we are seeing them.

Fall-ish

We are starting to have some Fall weather it has been so beautiful and we are having a lot of great times.
Walking/riding to school is still great.

We had a great visit from Milla and Poppy.

Here are some pictures.

One lucky momma

I am loving these days.
Our morning schedule is working out very well. The kids are doing a great job of getting up, eating and getting dressed which is leaving us time to play and be together in the morning before walking/riding to school.
After getting home from taking them Esmé is napping and I am tending to my "work". Either house work, laundry, bills or PTA committee work or church logo work etc. I tend to listen to NPR morning edition while I do that. Then when Esmé wakes up we play and walk around the yard and then eat lunch, run errands etc. then it is time for another nap. During this nap I get things ready for school pick up and have time to myself. Maybe rest or watch a little tv or read. At 3:30 I have to wake Esmé up and we head off for pick up. My time with Esmé is so fun. She is learning so much each day and saying more and more. It is a very sweet time with her and having her all to myself is so fun.
One day this week I was signing the Brewer boys out for Meghan and then keeping them on the playground for a few minutes until she made it. So I packed up a cooler with water, grapes, cheese and wheat thins. Those 5 kids tore through that snack as had a great time playing. The weather continues to be great.
Nell is still loving school. She was showing me lots of tricks on the playground.
Zaven is doing well with getting homework done. Last night he even went ahead and did today's reading and response since he has soccer tonight. I was very proud of him.

Yesterday, Isabel came and walked to pick up the kids with me. That was fun she brought Splash and we had a good visit. We are truly blessed to have her friendship here.
It's all good!

Nice Weekend, so far

Well the first week of school is behind us and went well. Friday after school Nell played on the playground with Emery and Zaven cooked up plans for a sleepover with his friend Will.
It is always interesting having another kid along for the evening. They had a good time.
Then this morning Meghan came over and we all walked up to the Farmers Market. Then after Esme's nap we had lunch and then headed out into CW. We had a good time walking around and we went to the Palace Gardens. They are beautiful. The kids did the maze and we saw fish in the pond. It was really a beautiful day and a fun time. We feel very lucky to live so close to so many interesting things. We ate in tonight and watches the movie Flicka 3. It was pretty good for a family friendly movie.
The weather is supposed to cooler tomorrow.

Back to School

We have three days under our belt in the new school year and things are off to a good start.
Nell is loving her teacher and new friends at school. She has been great at drop off. The first week they line up with their teachers out in front of the school. She went right into line. Gave me a hug and kiss and that was that. I went and waited off to the side and as I stood there and watched her soaking it all in I was unexpectedly choked up. She is growing up and doing so well. I want all good things for her.

Zaven is in 4th grade. I remember being in 4th grade. We wore Jams, did the TN report. Mr Welch read up Watership Down etc. I can't believe my first baby is doing things I can remember doing myself. How can that be? Zav has a nice teacher for his home room. And a new, younger teacher for his afternoon reading and writing teacher. He has some good friends in his class. Hopefully a year of growth and learning is ahead.

Last night the kids went to the kick off of the soccer season. They are both excited. Nell is also going to take ballet on Mondays.

Esmé and I have had a good couple of days. Walking to school is so nice. A great way to frame the day.
Esmé loves to put on her shoes and walk around, so we do a lot of that.

Who me?

So as a wife of 15 years and mother of three you might be surprised to learn that I often fail to feel like a grown up, or think of myself as one. But there are some moments and actions that make me feel very grown up.
I have had a few lately, which is what led me to write this post.
They are
Roasting a chicken.
Garnishing a platter with herbs.

Neither thing is particularly "big" and there are others but those are the recent ones.

I am not sure what about these things seem so grown up to me, perhaps they are things that I identify so closely with my mother. They are also things that I think, "my mom would love that I am doing this".

As the baby of the family I think I always was too young. So now I just assume I am too young to be a grown up. However, with my 37th birthday (I thought it was 38th,) coming up I am not sure how much longer there will only be certain moments when I feel like a grown up.

Keeping summer alive

Well as August rolled in and swim team finished up and people started talking about what teachers they wanted and school supplies were in every store flyer, we hit the road. Nell had left ahead of us with Grammy. So Zaven, Esmé and I went to TN to pick her up and visit with everyone there. It was a nice time. We even saw Booper one day. Zaven and PA hit it off right away. Esmé took a shine to PA as well. Booper was too generous and we are all loving our Royal Highnies. Baby Esmé even got to meet big Esmé.
Then it was off to Florida where we had a great time with Meg and her boys at Water Color. There were so many fun beach days. Swims in the pool. Bike rides. Dinners out. Rides in the street legal. Late night talks. On and on. A great time.
We left there on Saturday and went to Spartanburg and spent two nights at the Morrisses. You would never know there are 7 kids in the house. The three boys fall right in and Nell and LouLou and Ev have a great time. Esmé loved trying to keep up.
We had a truly great trip. The kids were very well behaved. I was really proud of them.