pumpkins.

my parents were in town last weekend, so we took a little trip to sweetberry farms in marble falls for their pumpkin patch activities. ek was still puny, and jb was camping with some dudes so he missed it, but it was a super fun outing. i'm so glad we got there when we did (fairly early), as by the time we left, i was so over the masses of humans out on the farm.

the kids got to paint pumpkins, ride horses, eat some snacks, and pick out a (massive) pumpkin. now, if only we could have some weather that's colder than the upper 80s, we'd be in good shape for fall...

first two weeks + labor day holiday.

whew. time is just rolling on by over here at our house. the school year is off to a good start, i think. there are definitely things i'm hoping will change/shift, but i'm trying to just be patient and positive. emme seems to be adapting well and hollis is much less traumatized than i expected without having ek at the same school as him all day.

the weekend after school started, jb headed up to dallas to see the coldplay concert with his mom and brother. they were there for three nights and got to catch a rangers game, eat some fancy sushi, and see the concert, so i'd say it was a successful trip. my mom was able to get a ride in that weekend, so she and i got to hang with the kids solo and that was super fun as well. we saw pete's dragon, did lots of puzzles, went out for dinner and ice cream, and generally had a great weekend. mom left on monday, so she even got to walk emme to school, which was fantastic.

i am taking care of all the animals at ek's elementary school, which is a huge job, but one that i am loving. i have always had mammals as pets, so it's been fun to learn about the parrots and hermit crabs and snakes and turtles. we have had some animal trauma this year - we lost a rabbit right before the summer, and all the chickens got mauled and killed by something the first weekend of the school year. i was lucky that mom was in town to hang with the kids while i went to clean it all up (i had an amazing neighbor who helped me so much), but it was really devastating. i really love animals and i hate to see any creature suffer. justin fixed the coop up last week, so hopefully we will get some new hens soon.

emme has also been letting me play with her hair lately which is really fun. it's so long and easy to mess with. i love it.

other than that, we are just plugging along. we did all sorts of fun things for labor day weekend - swimming and birthday parties and dinner with friends - and we are working on exhibiting gratitude and also not flipping out when it's time to leave. well, mostly emme is working on that. sigh. parenting is hard sometimes.

fourth of july.

fourth of july was super fun this year. hollis's class had a parade/party celebration; we had our neighborhood parade, complete with bagels and lox at the bowmans; and we rounded out the actual day with another neighbor party and an evening at the koens. the kids loved sparklers, but the louder fireworks were not a hit this year. it was also a pretty exhausting day - three blow-outs is a lot to cram into one day, especially for the 10-and-under crowd.

do you still blog?

i don't know. there's been a lot going on. and nothing, like sometimes happens. but it's all felt like too much to write about or adequately explain, so i've just been taking a little hiatus. i guess. but i'm still here, and i do plan to keep writing...

this past weekend we had spring weather and it was amazing. warm and breezy and sunny. we rode bikes and spent a ton of time outside.

the kids were really into valentine's day this year - my parents sent them some adorable cookies and they spent many hours sorting through their classroom valentines and trinkets all over the floor in their room. v-day isn't really my thing, but we made a pretty legit dinner on sunday night - filet, lobster tail, grilled potatoes, roasted broccoli, and smothered mushrooms. yes please.

hollis has been very three lately. so many feelings. so many tantrums. he loses it at least once a day, usually during transitions (to and from school, bedtime). we're working on a few different tactics to help him (and us) through this intensity...to varying degrees of success. the other day he was flipping out about something and i was like "i'm going to walk away before i lose my temper". he was like "where is your temper? ", so we had a talk about tempers and expressing our feelings in constructive ways. so a day or two later, he was starting to get upset and he busts out with "i'm about to lose my temperature!". he's such a rat but man, i love that kid.