My bakers

Saturday I went to the Bioneers conference at NMC. While I was gone Ben and the kids baked a birthday cake for me!
It's also become tradition that the kids get to pick out anything they want to give me (from the $1 section at Target) so it's always fun to see what they come up with. This year I got an artificial sunflower, a small orange metal bucket and some glow ring necklaces.

Our leaf raking friend.

Random fun

In the next few posts I am going to share some random pictures of fun around the house. Maya likes to wear some pretty creative combinations of dress up and regular clothes. There is homemade drums, leaf jumping and more!

Surprise visitors!

About mid week last week Matt and Amy decided to come down to visit on the weekend! We are so happy they came.
In between snow showers....yes I said snow showers, we even got outside a bit.
We took them to see the campus at Alex's school with the intentions of hiking a bit but it was pretty cold and windy so we settled with playing on the playground briefly and a walk along the pond.
Sunday we played in the yard a bit and Alex took his remote control car for a spin as he won't be able to play with it much longer.

Fall Farm Market

Last friday

Last friday Maya went a played at a friend's house without me for the first time! She had a great time, didn't cry at all and only asked about me a few times. Since her friend's big sister goes to the same school as Alex we all met at Woodland after lunch for the hike a thon. Maya insisted on wearing one of Josie's jackets and hats (Kati stopped her at the shoes she wanted to borrow - flip flops!) so she was awfully proud of herself in her borrowed clothes when we met at school.
Alex was very excited about us all being able to come to school with him. We were allowed to come for lunch and recess and then hike along with them afterwards.
The hike was around 1.5 miles and of course Maya wanted to walk most of it and Alex only wanted us near him some of the time but it was still lots of fun. Chilly but fun!
At the wrap up ceremony afterwards Alex won a prize for the amount of money he collected and got to walk up on stage in front of the whole school and choose a prize! He was very thrilled!

So much fun in fact...

In the previous post I was saying how Alex had his face painted for the first time and thought it was super fun....

so much fun in fact that he couldn't wait to do it again!

I happened to have some face paint "crayons" left from when we decorated a friends belly at her blessingway and we happened to have a rainy day on Monday when Alex had off school. So we went nuts!

He wanted his face to look like a mask and he chose which colors he wanted on which areas.

Last weekend of September

Last weekend Alex and I spent Sunday outside with friends and music! The Friends of Michigan Midwives held a family picnic and music festival fundraiser. I had volunteered to help out at the info table that day and Alex decided to come with me last minute.

I'm so glad he decided to come - I'm pretty sure he had a blast. There was a big sand pile, friends to play with, baby goats, a cider press and face painting for the kids. He came and sat next to me at my work station to eat lunch but otherwise I hardly even saw him!

He has never wanted to get his face painted before. It just made him nervous for some reason. Well, he finally took the plunge and thought it was super fun.

Mabon (Autumnal Equinox)

We have had great weather this week as we balance the nights and days and transition into fall. After we picked Alex up from school on Tuesday we stopped at the Brown Bridge Quiet area on the way home. We had a great time looking for colored leaves and other treasures and playing by the pond. Although it wasn't completely sunny it was very warm and calm.
Talk about having it all in one place....rocks, leaves, a few snail shells, sticks, a pond and a little stream from a spring. The possibilities are endless with those things at a child's disposal!

A few weeks ago we had a rainy saturday and made some salt dough and played making cookie cutter shapes and then baking them. They've been sitting around for a while and last weekend we had some really cold mornings so we took the opportunity to sit in the sun and paint them. Maya took her painting very seriously! I could not get a smile out of her.

We have two weeks under our belt

Alex says he has loved every minute of it. He doesn't ever want me to come INTO school, just drop him off and pick him up in the car line. Seriously, he's in school two weeks and already I am so not cool.

But at least he's happy to see me at the end of the day and sometimes even says he missed me. He is tired at the end of the day, more so towards the end of the week, but otherwise has had no trouble adjusting at all to being gone all day, having structure all day or anything.

Maya and I on the other hand.......well Maya misses her playmate terribly. I have been trying to fill the void but she's not entirely buying it. On top of that she got really out of sorts from whatever bug she had last week and those days seem to have rearranged her internal rhythm a bit and I was missing sleep and hunger cues. Resulting in massive meltdowns. Massive. Recurring. Meltdowns.

Our adjusting has kept us very close to home these past weeks. I feel a little "out of the loop" but it felt right to stay home and just try to find our rhythm. By the end of this week, I am happy to say, we seem to have figured some things out and even managed to have some fun! I am looking forward to expanding on what we've figured out and then venturing out more as well.

The last pan of cookies

You know the one where your brain is already thinking you are done making cookies so you forget about them in the oven?? Well not in this house - I always bake the last pan just to perfection...........because for me it's the second to the last pan of cookies! I don't know why. I get lulled into complacency and stop paying attention, get sucked in doing something else (something useful of course, not reading blogs or facebook), and all of a sudden realize - Oh S@#$, I'm baking cookies. Then I pull myself together and really, really pay attention to the last pan of cookies. Thank goodness the second to the last pan was on the baking stone and not the dark pan or they would have been garbage cookies. Now instead they are just ones that you soak in the milk until they almost fall apart!

Blech

The weather was gorgeous this weekend. We however spent most of our time inside. Maya started a fever Thursday night - between 100-101. She spent most of Friday either on my lap or sleeping on my chest. She had no other symptoms and was drinking a lot and eating a little. It was sad to see her so sleepy and lethargic - it made me think of last summer when she got so sick. Thank goodness she was asking for water all the time and drinking.
The fever continued all day Friday, Friday night and Saturday. Saturday afternoon it spiked higher for a while then she actually perked up a bit and stood on her own two legs and even played a little. By Sunday morning her fever was gone and today she ate a lot more, and played a lot. She was still pretty cranky and crashed hard in the evening though. I'm guessing tomorrow she'll be back to normal.
Meanwhile Alex came down with a cold Friday afternoon. He had no fever, just stuffy head, runny nose and a little bit of cough. He was definitely not himself this weekend either.
So here is to a new week!!

First Day of school!

Alex has his first week of Kindergarten under his belt. He had a half day Tuesday and then full days the rest of the week. He loves it! He was tired, very tired, by the end of the week but it turns out he was fighting a cold that finally manifested Friday afternoon.
He goes to the Woodland School and is in the K-2 classroom. The school has multi-age classrooms so that means his room contains students in Kindergarten, 1st and 2nd grade. He knew one girl from his preschool class last year, which was nice on that first day to see a familiar face. But it sounds like he found a little pack of boys to play with at recess without any trouble.
The campus at Woodland is gorgeous. There is a fun playground but also a natural wooded area they are allowed to roam and play in at recess as well. Alex says he has been spending a lot of time in the woods! The weather was beautiful this week and Alex said one day they went outside an extra time to go for a hike around the pond, he thought that was very cool.