254/365... enJoy

This cooler weather means the grown ups are more likely to come outside and play a little more often. It also means we can do fun things like build fires in the backyard without melting to death. The combination of an impromptu fire with hot chocolate and smores makes for a pretty great Friday night.

Backyard camp fire joy...


253/365... enJoy

This boy is hilarious. His vocabulary has exploded lately and he keeps us laughing all the time. He is still fiercely independent, heart-meltingly sweet and he really loves his brothers and sister. When I asked Caroline what she wanted to take to co-op this week for show-and-tell, she replied, "Jack." (and I thought for a brief moment how relaxing that day would be if she could, in fact, take Jack to class with her all day! : ).

I adore this face joy...



252/365... enJoy

It's coming. My favorite time of year when the air turns crisp and cool, yoga pants and  long sleeves become the uniform of the day and cozy nights with blankets, books and warm drinks are the activity of choice. Early red and yellow leaf sightings make me very happy.

Fall is almost here joy...


250/365... enJoy

After two months of counting down the weeks, co-op day is finally here! There was much excitement in our house this morning and yes, a little bit of nervousness. The kids were a tiny bit nervous, too. : ) Though I'm pretty sure none of them got at all teary when it came time for all the parents who were lingering in the hallway to leave. Ahem. Lets just say, I learned a valuable tip from my sister-in-law who had to learn the hard way that wearing non water-proof mascara on the day that you leave your babies for their first day out in the big world by themselves is a bad idea.

But any nostalgic sadness that I might have felt today pales in comparison to how wonderful this co-op is going to be for our family, and I'm so thankful to get to be a part of it. I had three excited kids scrambling into the car this afternoon and all three proclaimed their first day to be a huge success.

First day of co-op joy...












There might have been a bit of a tantrum thrown when these two yahoos realized that they didn't get to stay at co-op as well. It was a foreshadow of the day that would serve to remind me that the big kids don't contribute a whole lot to the craziness of my day... : ) But once things settled down a bit I think even the little boys would agree that it was pretty fun to have some uninterrupted preschool time. Oh, and I think I'm going to go ahead and make the "lefty" call for Jack! First one so far to take after daddy in that area.

249/365... enJoy

It's the night before the start of co-op. They were so excited they could hardly go to sleep. Their backpacks are ready and I've packed lunches for the first time ever joy...


(now if we can just get out the door on time in the morning it will be a miracle...)

248/365... enJoy

After Jimmy's Great Closet Purge today I found the beloved elastic-ankle sweats on the top of his Goodwill pile.


Before bagging them up for good, I asked several times if he was sure he could really do it, bagged them up and left them there for a while, then  came back and gave a final call before hauling them out to the car. He said he was sure he was ready, the replied to my final call with, "Go ahead and take it out." It was a little bittersweet but I'll admit, I was proud of him for finally letting them go.

So you can imagine my surprise when we met on the couch later this evening to watch a movie and I found this:


It's the little things that make him happy and he just couldn't let them go joy...

246/365... enJoy

Our World War I studies had us learning the ins and outs of trench warfare this week. The systems that those soldiers built were completely amazing! There were many interesting conversations had about strategy; do you fight the battle first, claim the land, then build your fancy trenches, or do you quickly build temporary trenches to live in while you fight the battle? Then there were the stories that we read that made the war personal, even for people living almost 100 years later. Stories about German and British troops living in trenches only 30 feet away from each other, smelling each others breakfasts, hearing each others evening songs, decorating Christmas trees together on Christmas eve and playing an impromptu soccer game together out in "No-Man's Land" on Christmas day. I stopped our reading to talk about what that would be like - to have to fight with men who had become your friends - and sure enough, the story went on to say that shortly after a visit from a German General, the German troops were pulled out of that area and replaced with a Prussian army. The battle was over soon after.

I'm not always nice enough to make time for a crafty-type project to help cement what we've learned, but creating their own trench scenes sounded too fun to pass up. Anytime a boy gets to set up a battle scene pretty much ensures a successful school day.

Trench warfare.... joy? Well, the craft was fun anyway. : )




245/365... enJoy

I've mentioned before that our people like to party and birthdays are easily their favorite things to celebrate. The kids also seemed to have inherited their daddy's gift-giving abilities and confirmed that they know and love me well through their selections for me. They actually talked me into celebrating two days early on Labor Day since Jimmy would be home all day, which meant that it gave me the whole day to be spoiled. : )
We have lots of birthday traditions, one of which is a birthday date with either dad or mom to pick out everything related to celebrating their day. Travis was so precious to tell me that HE wanted to take ME out on a birthday date! He bought us a snack to share and everything. Then the kids were all put to work baking my birthday cake (which turned out to be fabulous).

Party time finally arrived and I'm not sure who was more excited that it was present time, me or my sweet gift-givers. Jack did has shopping in our pantry and chose some fruit leather and a bar of fancy chocolate. He knows just what I like, although he seemed to think that "his gift" meant that it was, indeed,  his. He wanted that chocolate bar opened for him the minute it left the wrapping paper. : ) Ben actually left the house to shop for my present and chose what his four year old mind thought was the most desirable present anyone could want - a glow in the dark sword! And he specifically chose purple for me because it's a "gull color". Caroline didn't want me to be left out when the kids put on their shows for the neighborhood, so she bought me my own set of magic tricks, a top hat and a huge chocolate bar (she knows the way to my heart). My sweet big boys came to Jimmy a few weeks ago and told him that they knew the perfect gift for me and that they needed his help ordering it. I was so very surprised to open my present from them and find my very own copy of The Help. In hardback. ("Paperback was a lot cheaper but hardback is waayy nicer.") My sweet husband, as always, spent countless hours of research and chose an amazing new lens for my camera. He knew exactly what I needed - a lens that would work well inside even at night. My camera weighs a ton now (and I look a whole lot fancier than I actually am carrying it around), but man, those low-light pictures are beautiful! The mid-thirties are looking pretty good.

It's my party joy...