For my brother David in Iraq

This is all he gets of the boys for now - so I was thinking that I would make a concerted effort to blog more often and keep him entertained.
So here it goes - the blog for the day: A bit about James
- He calls his front his booty and his back his bum. I CANNOT convince him otherwise.
- He says" Sorry mama, sorry mama, sorry mama" when he does something wrong.
- He makes really goofy faces and rolls his eyes around trying to be funny (think connor at that age).
- He runs and jump tackles his brother from behind (and his brother almost always deserves it).
- He will only say family prayer at night kneeling underneath me and snuggling me.
- He listens to and loves all Ian's chapter books.
- He tells me I should put his bunny up to my ear like he does. When I say "no, it smells" he says - "but this side doesn't smell".
- He subsists on candy and strawberry milk.

I still call him my baby. I shouldn't but I do.

Glorious Fall Days

Saturday was one of them. We went to Gas Works Park in Seattle and had a picnic lunch overlooking Lake Union and the city.

There are lots of pipes and crazy stuff for the kids to play on.



The view was pretty fantastic. Ian said his Grandpa Clay would like the sailboats.


Then they both rolled down a really big hill.


We just happened to finish reading The BFG in the car that day so we went to see this not so friendly giant under the bridge (it is actually called the Troll under the bridge). It was really dirty and kind of smelled but Ian thought it was fun to play on.

Please bless we have some more sunny days before winter is really here.

Vacation ruined my baby

James has been really attached to me ever since we went to NY for a month. I think maybe he just doesn't adapt to change as well as some. He seemed to be doing a bit better but the other night he was sitting on my lap looking through old blog posts and pictures of himself (a favorite pastime for both of my children) and we came across a family picture where he was sitting on Curt's lap and all the sudden he says, "No! I want to be on mama's lap" and then a picture of Parker pushing him in a stroller and he says "No! I want mama to push my stroller." So now he doesn't even want to be away from me in pictures. Definitely regressing...

On the other hand, I picked Ian up from school yesterday and he said, "Mom, the second day was even better than the first!"

Momentous

Today Ian started school. I know I thought it was a big deal last year when he started preschool - but this is a REAL school, all day long (Monday, Wednesday, every other Friday), with a cafeteria and a gym and a library and two playgrounds. So, to me, it is kind of a big thing. He has been looking forward to it ever since we met his teacher last week. Yesterday he came screaming in to my room in the morning saying "I start school tomorrow - only one more sleep until I go!)

He even had to bring his own lunch (I actually made chocolate chip cookies last night to put in his lunch - he didn't really notice).

His brother was a little sad to see him go. I wish I could say that James and I did something really fun together while he was gone, but mostly I just canned peaches for the entire 6 hours.
We bought them bunk beds and put them in the same room together. Most nights have been great but tonight they cannot seem to go to sleep, despite my threatening them, and I can hear them kicking the walls and giggling.


One of the reasons I am so excited for Ian is because we waived him in to a school district that has a special program for kids that have birthdays from September-December, so they are the older kids that missed the cut-off for Kindergarten this year. We went back and forth over and over again about whether we should send him to school this year, since he just barely turned five, but this program is the same amount of time as regular kindergarten and teaches the same curriculum so it pretty much seems perfect. The only thing is that we have to drive him to school and he has been begging me to ride the bus.

Rainier View Trail

Unfortunately this was not the view in the direction of mt. rainier - this side was pretty sunny.






This was the view from the top towards Mount Rainier. We could barely see the trees below us - let alone a view of the mountain. The kids thought it was cool to be in a cloud.


Luckiest mom ever.

Last chance before school starts beach day

Yesterday we got together with a few of our favorite families at a nearby lake for a picnic and swimming. The kids LOVED being at a lake again.

They had some swimming races.


And lots of playing in the sand. Why do kids love sand so much?




And it was just hot enough that the moms could sit in the sun but not really need to go in the water (mostly because of the sign saying caution: swimmers itch). I am already feeling sentimental for summer - we went to Ian's back to school night on Thursday and school starting makes the end of summer seem so final.

The blackberry trail

Blackberries grow wild here, and they are everywhere - it is one of my favorite things about WA. Yesterday we took the kids to a bike trail that is lined with blackberry bushes - so they got to ride, we got to pick and everyone got to eat lots and lots of blackberries.



Wyatt found a baby snake that they all took turns holding. It kind of made me want to throw up. I almost stepped on one while I was picking and I almost couldn't pick anymore.

Josie and Ian with sweaty bike helmet hair.

I think we ended up going at least 2 or 3 miles and afterward we all went back to my house for homeade ice cream pops. I found the recipe here.

Can't wait to make my favorite new cobbler recipe with the berries tonight.