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 tooth and field trip.

kk and jj came to town last wednesday night for a quick mid-week visit. it was super fun. on thursday, they went to hollis's school and had lunch with him. friday, they were able to join me chaperoning ek's metrorail field trip where her class and the other preK classes got to ride the train to the east side and then play at an awesome park for a couple of hours. super fun.

friday night, the kids were dancing and going buck wild in the living room. hollis was flinging one of his blankets around during a prince song (they are obsessed with prince right now), and ek grabs her mouth, holds up a hand and says "hollis just knocked out my tooth!". so, the final front one is down! and thank goodness. it was so loose it was really freaking me out, but she was being super squirrely about pulling it for some reason. anyway - it was clearly mega-loose if it got knocked out by a blanket. ha. we obviously continued the ice cream tradition and everyone was happy.

saturday, my parents left after breakfast. the kids (especially emme) get super duper sad when they leave, so this time, i took ek to yoga with me right after they left. it was a great distraction and helped with the big feelings.

festival weekend.

last weekend we loaded up and brought the kids to lafayette for festival international. we missed it last year and it was awesome to be back, even though it was the most crowded i have ever seen it. the kids had a blast there, although i think the highlights of the trip for them were popsicles for breakfast, hanging with kk & jj & joe joe, and going to the dollar tree. jb and i even got to slip out friday and saturday night to see some music and peruse the crafts. we loved the bach lunch on friday, making masks at the children's area, jb and hollis dressed as twins, and squeezing in a nap during cedric watson. other than the insane rain we hit while driving back through houston, it was a fantastic trip!