Rocky 3rd Grade

Daisy 1st Grade

 Daisy and Nellie are two peas in a pod and so are their moms.  I have not been very good at taking photos of my friends because I am always focusing on the kids but Marissa has become one of my closest friends.  We work together at church with with teenagers and I try to soak up as much wisdom as I can from her.

 Fall in Eugene is incredible.  That is all that there is to say about it.  Ike and I happily spend our mornings out running through the leaves and thanking God for the beauty around us.  I can't think of any activity that makes me feel more alive than my heart beating fast as I breath crisp fall air and listen to podcasts on my foot journeys through this beautiful place.  Sometimes I get to go with friends and sometimes I just get to go with my little boy riding along.  I already know how quickly babies grow and I am trying to savor the jogging stroller days before they are gone.

 Rosy got into the fall spirit too with her leaf self-portrait.

 We now have two little readers in this house.  I feel so happy that these girls care so much about books. Whenever I see them reading I know that they will always have a safe retreat from real life.  I know they will be able to explore the human experience through stories and will find empathy and courage without even leaving the couch.

 We had a movie date with our Eugene cousins, Sailor and Ruby.  The picture isn't great but I just never want to forget how much I love hanging out at Nicole's house.  We ate tons of treats and watched Halloween Town.

 Daisy loves Ruby because she will snuggle with her.  Ike is a lot of things, but a snuggler he is not.  Whenever we want to get our hugs in we go find Ruby Bird.  If we want to get hit in the face with a tinker toy, Ike's our guy.

Daisy and Rocky both got skates from the most glorious bag of hand-me-downs you have ever seen. They wear them all day long, inside and out.  I am dreading the first broken bone but I know it is worth it because just look at how cool Daisy looks.  I mean, really.

 Also in the bag, awesome hats and mittens.  I cannot express enough how lucky we have been to have friends, cousins, and neighbors that have generously supplied my kids with their entire wardrobe as well as the majority of their belongings.  Grad school isn't the best way to fill your pocketbook but it just might be the best way to experience a community of wonderful people.

It's Always Fun When Grandma Comes, Hooray!

 Daisy made a drawing of all her friends.  She just needed one more box so she could have added her dad.

 I feel bad that Rosy wastes all her time on social media, especially because her phone is a toy and doesn't have a screen.  This is when I realize that I need to put my phone away and actually start having conversations.

Rocky finished her soccer season, finally.  She had a good time and has proven that she is exactly like her mom and doesn't mind if you lose, as long as there is a snack after the game.  I didn't take any pictures of the actual soccer because Ike was just so much more fun to watch.

Not too sure about this.

 Rosy gets ready for bed by putting on her pajamas and wig, just like any regular kid.

 This big bike tire is right outside the train station and is so Eugene.  Kathy was in town and we had such a great time re-exploring our town.  I will never get sick of the Saturday Market.

Best Photo Winner

 And of course we had to stop at Voodoo Donuts where Brandon made us all share.  One day my kids are going to super rebel and eat an entire donut all to themselves.

 Rocky's final soccer party was at Papa's Pizza.  Even though I try hard to lobby against trophies I am kind of glad to have one that says Space Kitties.  They were probably the worst team with the best name.

 Even vampires like pizza I guess.  We all had so much fun with Grandma.  She is always so loving and brings out all the best things in us.  I was a little bit hesitant to teach her the game Splat! because I knew that she would not like smashing the bugs.  She is too nice to do something like that.  She was a good sport though and we had a lovely time playing.  I had that game when I was little and I am still convinced that it is one of the best kid games ever.

Jogathon

 Here we go again with the jogathon.  The girls ran their little hearts out and I went and ran with them.  This time I told them the story of The Secret Garden.  Rocky was great and had a lot of fun, along with several stops to pick up watermelon and get drinks.  She ended up running 14 laps.

 Daisy had her game face on that day and ran 18 laps.  I was pretty impressed with both of them.  This is a regulation size track we are talking about here. That is 4.5 miles.  Good thing we didn't bother to go out and get any pledges or we would be sending our friends and neighbors to the poorhouse.

 Bonus:

Rocky has a little bit of election fever.  If you want to know her opinion on the issues just go ahead and ask her, and then sit down to make yourself comfortable because the girl has a LOT to say.  Spoiler alert: She's with her.

35 Years and All is Well

 Ike is my workout buddy.  You can tell he is really into it.

 Sometimes he gets worried that all that exercise is going to make me too skinny so he'll get out the shortening and remind me of my priorities.

My girls told me that they were going to get me one of the Costco bears for my birthday but we decided that they fit better in the store than in our apartment.

 Every year the homemade card gets cooler.

I can hardly believe that I have been alive for 35 years.  I feel so blessed and happy.  I love my husband and kids and family and friends and I got to go eat a peanut butter, bacon and pickle burger and things are just good.

A Day Off

 There was no school on Friday so we really made the best of it.  I slept in and when I woke up I found Rocky feeding Ike oatmeal while they watched cartoons.  Basically it was a perfect morning.  We had planned on going to the pumpkin patch but on our way it started pouring rain.  I tried to bribe the kids into letting me out of it by taking them to DQ for a Ladies Lunch.  (Even though Ike is a boy he still gets to go to Ladies Lunch.  We decided on the way that the name reflects the fact that it is the type of lunch that ladies would do, not that it necessarily excludes gentlemen.)  Rosy wasn't satisfied with eating out.  She was crying and whining and exasperated said, "Who cares, it is just a little rain? That's fine. WE CAN BE IN THE RAIN!"

 So when we finished eating and the sun came out we decided to go for it.

 Johnson Farms might be one of my favorite places in all of Eugene.

 It was a gorgeous afternoon as we loaded up our buckets with pumpkins to throw at the scarecrows.  We hopped onto the hayride and were on our way.

 Just as we started moving the sky went dark and as soon as we got to the pumpkin patch the clouds began to dump rain.

Somebody immediately changed her tune.  The stoic in the car melted into a bawling shivering mess.  The change was so drastic that she, and I know it is hard to believe, actually apologized for her earlier tantrum.  She was careful to defend herself though, and in true political fashion continued to justify her position.  Rain, she can handle, but she wasn't warned about thunder and lightning.
The rest of us thought it was delightful.  We picked out our pumpkins and laughed at our luck. On our hayride back the sun came out again and revealed the gorgeous fall afternoon that had been hidden by the storm.