Mother Nature's Boys...

I love being outside and could spend hours on walks lost in my own daydreams and filling my lungs with the scents of the outdoors. I grew up with the stories of my parents' childhoods filling my head. The ideas of playing in the creek, hunting for bugs, climbing a tall tree, picking a tomato from a vine and sitting down in the tall grasses to eat it. Running in packs with the neighborhood children, fishing, sneaking over the neighbor's fence to feed the cow, playing outside everyday and only returning home at dusk because you could no longer see and your tummy was a little hungry. This was not exactly the childhood I had but the dream of one I carried for my own children. And though we have had to tweak it quite a bit to get it to resemble something of my parents generations' childhoods, I hope my children will one day have fond fond memories of spending their childhoods outdoors. Of building mother earth houses, growing a garden, collecting leaves, studying bugs, playing in creeks, hiking, camping, climbing trees, spending summers at the ocean's edge, laying on your back and watching the clouds go by...just breathing and being still in mother nature's world. Life moves so fast with the constant bombardment of chores, meetings, deadlines, over extending one's self with so many committments that it can be hard to remember to make time to just be, to explore and discover what is in our own backyards.

Mother Earth houses created by Boy Wonder. I prefer the name Fairy House.. :-)

Bubba's 1st day of school

Here's my baby boy ready to head off to his first day of school. He was so excited especially after watching his big brother go to school the day before. We had a lovely first day. The weather was in the 100's in town so it was a very nice low 80's in the mtns. What a treat! It's quite a hike from the parking area to the outdoor classroom. Bubba had to carry his own backpack and it was little touch and go. I wasn't sure if was going to make it up the .5 mile incline in one piece. But when he made it to the top and the redwood grove came into view and he could once again see the sandbox and the teepee, the trucks and rakes and the kids playing he was all smiles again. He quickly handed off his backpack and settled into the sand. We later made our way over to the creek. Bubba had fun following his cousin and teacher over tree logs and navigating the rocky waters. So much steadier on his feet than last spring! He found two banana slugs and had his teacher move them so they could be together and out of the way of little rainboot covered feet.

The rest of the morning included snack time, story time, going for a hike, playing in the sand box, singing songs, circle time and lunch box time and meeting new friends. It looks like it will be another fun class with lots of great people.

I'm so happy that we are carpooling again with my lovely nephew and my sister. Bubba had a great day and I'm sure he will do just fine on Auntie's day to drive. Good luck to her!

Boy Wonder's 1st day of Kindergarten!!

Today was my baby's 1st day of his elementary school career. It was hard work getting all of us out the door. Boy wonder was excited but a little apprehensive. We arrived a few minutes early outside the kindergarten class and waited with all the other kinders and their parents. Boy Wonder knew a few faces from playdates he had over the summer and from the great pre-kindergarten party his teacher had thrown the week prior. Finally the door opened and there was his new teacher waiting at the door to greet each child and help them put their backpacks and lunches in their cubby and then sit down on the carpet while she introduced the kids to their new classroom for the year. We stood around for a few minutes and watched and then blew kisses and out we (emily, bubba & I) went. It seemed too easy. But I think he was just ready to go. He had been talking about it for a few days and yesterday he kept asking me to take him to school . So it looks like it was time. And of course in true Boy Wonder fashion at breakfast this morning he told me how he was going to teach his teacher how to make rockets out of water bottles.


Bubba and Emily and I went to a park around the corner and met quite a few kids and moms from Bubba's new class. We had our first circle night meeting last night where we got to meet all the parents and teachers and talk about the new school year. Bubba starts back to his beloved Mtn School tomorrow. He is so excited to go back as well. He will get to carpool this year with his cousin and can't wait to ride up and be at school with his auntie on her driving day. Looks like I will have a busy night dusting off the old rainboots and packing up for the mtns and creek for Bubba's 1st day tomorrow.

After our fun park day it was time to pick up Boy Wonder. Poor Emily was beat and had already fallen asleep twice and Bubba was teetering on the edge of his sanity. And it was a hot, HOT day. But back to school we went. The classroom door opened and in we all shuffled. BW was excited to see us. He came over, took my hand and lead me around the room showing me his new pencil box filled with supplies his teacher gave each student and his special paper cubby to keep all his work. He told me how he went on a tour of the school, had a snack, played with play dough, learned some sign language and got to play outside. Sounds like a great first day! I noticed how red BW looked and asked if he had remembered to wear his hat outside. He told me he did not think it was that hot so he had not put it on. He then said, "It looks like this is an inside school, mom. We were inside a lot." And he is right. What a change that will be for him after going to a preschool all outside in the mountains. But his new school does have a lot of outdoor time and a garden to work in, which made it a good find for our family. It was then time to go get some ice cream. In honor of the 1st day, his school was throwing an ice cream party for all the kids and families. The boys loved this part. BW and Bubba also met up with some of BW's new friends and just ran and ran around until it was time to go.





I love this shot. I always said Boy Wonder was so fast he just flew around. Here he is running with a new friend. Look at how his feet don't touch the ground!


It was a good first day! I hope the fun continues...

Boy Wonder's New School

My little baby is starting kindergarten in less than a week. I can't believe it! How is this possible. It seems like just yesterday I brought him home from the hospital and now he's old enough to go to elem school. The werid thing is, I remember my first day of kindergarten and that seems like just yesterday too. The tricks that time plays on us.

Today his new kindergarten teacher had a party at school to invite all her new kinder friends to come and explore their new classroom. Boy wonder was a little shy at first but he came inside and we slowly made our rounds around the very cool room. There was a building corner full of legos, blocks and other manipulatives, a dress up/drama area with kitchen set up, dolls and puppet theatre. There were three tables set up with watercolor painting, building a bead necklace and a snack table. There were two classroom pets, a huge goldfish and an even larger salamander. There was a book nook, a circle carpet, an art supply area and lots of orig art hanging everywhere, the ceiling, walls, etc. What a fun and colorful room! I can't wait to go to kindergarten again!! Boy wonder sat down at the watercolor table and for the next 40 mins created picture after picture. Taking an occasional break to get up and pour himself a glass of juice and eat a strawberry. Juice is a special treat in our house so it was big motivator for him to move over to the snack table and get that dixie cup of juice. The teacher even had a lovely bouquet of sunflowers on the snack table. Boy wonder eventually moved to the lego area and sat down and began building a vehicle of some kind. We met a couple of boys in his class over the summer so he would recognize a familiar face. He was happy to see them both there and shyly said "hi". The teacher seems wonderful. Very caring and she told us about a few special projects they would be doing during the year. She saw Emily signing to me. Emily was in the sling and she loves to be a part of the conversation as well. So she does her best to throw out words and signs to get my attention when I'm engaged in coversation with others. The teacher also knows sign language and told us they would learning signs in class and recognized the signs Emily was doing. Small side..Emily has created 4 new signs to communicate to me "twinkle, twinkle little star", "patty cake, patty cake, the itsy bitsy spider, and row row your boat.

I'm so excited for Boy Wonder to begin school. He has such a great opportunity of exploring his whole self in this class. And even though I'm very sad to see my lazy and warm days of summer slip on by. I am looking forward to cooler weather, new school supplies, being back in the mtns with Bubba and working in Boy Wonder's new classroom. Oh and don't forget apple picking. I'm really looking foward to visiting some orchards with the kids and picking yummy, juicy apples. So I guess I'm ready for you Fall. Bring it on!!

Brothers for Life...

I'm always amazed how well these two can play together, work together and just be together. Yes, they have their unsibling moments of hitting, yelling, taking each others toys, throwing things at each other. But for the majority of time they are great friends. I love listening in on their play. As I'm typing this they are playing in BW's room. I have a video monitor with sound on my desk so I can see what they are upto during their "nap" time. I think they forget that even though I'm downstairs I can see one boy sneak out of his room and join the other boy. They are being super silly right now. BW helped his younger brother take off his shirt as that is the one article of clothing that Bubba can't get off. BW talked him through it while he pulled and yanked if off. They have stripped down to nothing and are flying around the room being super naked heros. Jumping off the bed and just laughing so loudly. Anyone else have boys that prefer their own skin to anything else? Their belly laughs dominate much of what they do. They are so silly together and can entertain each other for a long time. They seem to bring out the best in one another. I see that when they are together they support one another and help one another. It's amazing to me they do get along so well and have so much fun as they really are as different as night and day. I do hope that their relationship continues to strenghten with age. How lucky they are to have one another...brothers for life!

It's been awhile...

More updates about the boys coming soon....

Much needed time off...

It's the small things in life that make life great. And for me it was having a week off of school. It was such a needed break just to recharge my batteries and take a breather. As much as I love school it pretty much has consumed me this year and I know next year will only be that much harder with having two in different schools and one at home. But for this year it feels like I live at the school, esp since I have 2 at the same school, which means double everything, 2 carpools, 2 requirements for being the cooking mom, lots of laundry, 2 times a week I spend driving groups of kids to school and then watching them at school, multiple clothing changes in the woods and at the creek. Our preschool is an outdoor school in the mtns which is a 30 min drive from our house. I also have double the nighttime meetings, the writing assignments and 2 culimination projects looming in the back of my head. And last week I spent everyday at school just trying to get caught up with all my makeups this semester from missing school time because of Hawaii, Russia and the flu that hit us. And next week my hubby is off (he's a teacher, so they have a week off too) and we will once again be at the boys school all week trying to get ahead on makeups for our time off for our 2nd trip to Russia. We know we will be making one more trip to Russia and I have no idea how I'm going to be able to finish the year off once our daughter comes home. Don't get me wrong...I love our preschool and I'm glad for the opportunity for my boys to be outdoors and all the great friendships our family has made.. but it's a participation school and it's really tiring with 2 in school and an adoption at the sametime and then there's just the rest of everyday life and the workload that goes along with that.

These past 2 months have really taken their toll on me and I have been a roller coaster of emotions. We traveled half way around the world and back in one week and met our daughter for the first time!! I have been exhausted from all the prep required to get there and then the jet lag, adjustment to life and the make ups once back. We also lost a beloved pet and the weeks we spent prior getting her to all her appts, and special medical treatments and watching her not responding to anything we tried and losing her so much more quickly than we had planned was painful. I also spent March touring kindergartens and frustratingly fighting immigration for an important document for our adoption and finally after 6 months getting it. We found out that our son made it into the only kindergarten that I wanted him to go to. No pressure there! What a happy moment that was..boy that took off a lot of stress. He had to go to an assessment at the school and I had to attend a few meetings. The assessment was a little stressful for me as I tend to worry and I wasn't allowed to be present, so I didn't really know how he did until I went in for a meeting and found out he had been accepted. Yeah! And shortly after we came home my aunt past away fairly unexpectedly which has been very, very hard and left me raw to the bone both with her passing and the anger that seems to consume my extended family. And now we are hearing that we may be traveling once again to Russia for our daughter maybe before the end of the month. The highs and lows of these past 2 months and just being exhausted all the time trying to meet all of these various tasks...it has been so hard! And then to have all our birthdays in these two months...my daughter's, my hubby's, mine, both our sons...it's crazy!

So...selfishly I'm grateful for this week off and have done very little to get ready for anything beyond this week. Which I'm sure I will regret on Monday. But for today, I have this week. And what a beautiful week it has been. Thank goodness! Time off has been so great! A chance to break from the everyday routine and mix it up. So far this week we have gotten to have a playdate with a friend, sleep in and have a pj day where we stayed in our pjs all day and hung out at home, camped in the living room with our lanterns, made pb and banana muffins together, and worked in the garden planting our veggies and flowers, gone on bike rides and stroller rides, played in the sand and water and tomorrow we will have an early b-day party for me. The kids are looking forward to playing with their cousin and the ice cream cake from Baskin Robbins. And the best part? I went to bed at 8pm everyday so far. That never would have happened in a regular week.

It has been so fun just having this time this week just to be together and really be together presently in the moment and enjoy. The boys are changing so much. My oldest has outgrown all his pants and shirts. He has been especially kind to his brother this week and has helped him in so many ways. My youngest is telling the most amazing stories. It's been so fun to hear what he comes up with. It's hard to believe that at the end of April and the beg of May they each will turn a year older...I will then have a 3 year old and a 5 year old. The boys play so well together. Their laughter has been my greatest medicine..that and sleep. I'm so happy they have each other to grow up with. And I pray that they remain close and kind to one another throughout their life. We are hoping to bring our daughter home soon and I'm excited to see the 3 together and watch them all grow up. I think each of them has so much to bring to one another and I hope that they will all be the best and closest buds that siblings can be.

And the one thing I hope to take from this week is to appreciate the small things that make life sweet..to take deeper breaths and to overall do less and just enjoy being for awhile. Now how I can incorporate that into my crazy life I still need to figure out.

Here's my beautiful boys this week....