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Leaves
11.03.12 | Permalink | | Comments Off on Leaves
Guinevere’s playground at school is the stuff of my own childhood. Hers looks like it was planned around the Dick and Jane stories from the olden days. Tall, established maple trees tower over the fields, offering shade in summer and color in the fall. They also offer leaves upon leaves upon leaves. Children in play yards love to gather and pile, be it snow, leaves, sticks and I’ve even seen students piling up and rolling in the grass clippings after the field has been mowed.
Recently we were up at the school and Gigi started getting fired up about the leaves. About how she and her friends were collecting and piling them up, but there was a faction nearby with their own pile and they were stealing leaves from Gigi’s group! She lamented that they were only allowed to go so far before the recess teachers called them back, leaving thousands of fluffy leaves just out of touch, beyond the boundary line.
I’m response, Bradley offered up a solution: to go home, gather rakes and pile up every leaf on the playground in Gigi’s domain! So that’s just what they did. It took about an hour before they had the biggest leaf pile ever to play in! By the time school rolled around the next day the pile was gone, spread out by some lucky kids in the hours between our leaving and returning. But for a few moments, Gigi and the LJ crew were Queens and Kings of the leaf pile!
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Cross Country
10.15.12 | Permalink | | Comments Off on Cross Country
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Birthday Girl
10.14.12 | Permalink | | Comments Off on Birthday GirlGigi turned NINE yesterday!! It is unbelievable that nine years have passed since she made it here on our earth. And what a gift she has been to our family, to our world. This year she became a reader, a lover of books. She grew up, became self reliant as she started a new school, on her own. She is showing her courage and tenacity daily. The love she shares is exceptional and generous, we adore this child! Thus, a perfect party was in order…
She wanted a Nancy Drew party and we went all out! Her invitations were the first clue and came with a book cover invite complete with her face, and a magnifying glass with a shrunk down invitation inside.
The girls arrived for the sleepover and halfway through dinner the doorbell rang! It seems a ghost stole all of the sleepover candies! They had to follow the clues to find them!
They were off and running to find the clue at the school… The hot tub…
To Jude’s room…
And finally to the swing set where they found a piñata full of candy. The third grade girls made short work of our poor ghost and they lamented the shortness of the hunt (for the record it took an hour and a half to solve the mystery- I think that’s pretty good!)
After that it was cake, gifts, dancing and giggles galore. It was a memorable party and a wonderful evening for and with an exceptional girl.
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Phone Photos
09.16.12 | Permalink | | Comments Off on Phone Photos
Shaggy, Scooby and the rest of Mystery Inc. made their way to the Kenmore Taco Time a few nights ago, prompting a sincere desire to own a van and paint it just like this. I would totally drive a mini van if it looked like this. (I would drive a mini van anyways, who am I kidding?)
Gigi built a loft bed modeled after her own lot bed.
This skirt is a size 18. I have never been under a 20 with Bradley! 75 down! Wahoo! I feel like I’m beginning to see an end in sight.
This traffic light makes the difference of up to ten minutes each way in my commute. And 90% of the time it stops me! Grrrr! At least it could play fair!!
I love my family’s impromptu-porch hoe-downs!
True dat.
Jude’s true identity is revealed! This was his ‘going to the store’ outfit on this day. I love it when my kids choose to wear their costume finery in public.
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Squeezing the Last of Summer
09.15.12 | Permalink | | Comments Off on Squeezing the Last of SummerWe are trying to squeeze the last drops of sunshine out of our summer. The evenings come upon us now, chilly and sunny. There’s that autumnal deception outdoors, beckoning with sunshine but lashing out with the sharp bite of frosty mornings coming soon.
Even though our skin is brown with sunshine and our bodies are saturated with vitamin D, as Seattleites we know that gray skies are rolling our way, destined to stay for days, weeks, months… It feels like years until May rolls around again and we can rely on the sky to share the warm, indigo view with us.
So for now, when the sun shines we roll out to the beach, to the park, to anywhere outdoors to soak up the last rays and squeeze as much sunshine out of the summer. There is grousing in the car on the way there, but once we arrive at our destination we never regret leaving the house. Because we know that when the Christmas lights come down in January, our eyes and hearts will reflect back to those moments when we did grab the bull by the horns and we stayed on the beach until the sun said goodnight. We will know we took all we could, all that summer had to offer, and that knowledge is a good dose of comfort during those cabin fevered days.
Enjoy your last days of summer!
