The baby

Eli is going through a bit of a bad hair stage. I love the curls he has in back and I have been hesitating to cut them off out of fear that they won't come back. It doesn't help that he likes to use a combination of bananas and macaroni and cheese as hair product most days. Something is going to have to be done soon, so I wanted to take some pictures of him now. I always think that haircuts, especially for boys, age them at least 6 months.

Welcome Fall

This is a pretty sorry little pile of leaves for jumping, but the girls didn't seem to mind. I have a whole bunch of these. I usually only edit a couple of the best images, but this time I think they stand together as a series much more interestingly than any one frame. So, get ready to scroll. They look a little too blue to me now, but I am not editing them all again :)









This is the countdown for another jump.

Three...


Two...
(Gracie is already getting twitchy)



One...



Jump!



and land.



They didn't do the raking. They have people for that.



Another series. The last few are I think my favorites of all.

5,4,1

The light wasn't quite what I wanted (hi Doni! still working on it) but I know Derek will like these so I will show them.




This one doesn't look great web-size, but you get the idea.



I was making a mask during editing and I accidentally discovered that I really like the way it looked as a silhouette.

Siblings

I wanted a volunteer to sit for pictures for a minute so I could try some things yestreday evening. We nominated Eli since he is usually the most cooperative, but he wasn't thrilled with the idea. So Grace ran over and started kissing him and then tickling him and he laughed and laughed. I have a whole series, but these two were my favorites.




Excuse my messy backyard and yes, that is a sticker on her forehead.

Ballerinas

When Derek saw this on the computer monitor he said, "I love how their shoelaces are untied." Me too.



I'm not crazy about Gracie's expression, but I love this shot nonetheless. We were going for "non-smiley" in this one and she just. couldn't. contain. herself. Which is maybe part of the story really, now that I think about it. It's certainly true to her personality. The fact that they took a little direction and posed how I asked them to is huge!

Charlotte

We went out today after school and got her ballet clothes. She has been asking to take ballet for over a year. Her first class is next Wed. She is very excited.





(these look like the same image but they really are two different frames)

Kindergarten so far...

Day 1 - Charlotte did great. She told us all about her day, which is actually unusual for her. She can be tough to get information out of. I think that should improve when she's a teenager, right?

Day 2 - She hopped on the bus in the morning, all excited. Then, I got a call from the school nurse at 8:00 that Charlotte had gotten sick on the bus and I needed to come pick her up. She was disappointed to have to come home, although we had a nice day together running some errands. She has had some car sickness issues in the past, too. We are hoping it doesn't become a big deal. She told us she was reading her books while on the bus, and I think that was probably the biggest problem.

Day 3 - Charlotte was adamant that she did not want to be driven to school, she wanted to go on the bus. So we let her try it again and she did fine both ways. She has been home for almost 2 hours now and has not stopped talking to me since. She is talking to me as I type this actually. She got to play in the kitchen today (you have to sign up for the center that you want for free play) and it is much better than the kitchen from her preschool. There is a baby and all the baby stuff (a highchair and bottles, I guess?) in it and they were pretending that the baby got sick and had to go to the hospital but then free play was over. She got a Hershey's Kiss for being in the green light the whole day (meaning, she didn't get in trouble). They went to the gym and the library. They ate in the lunchroom and there were two older girls sitting with them and one of them taught her how to open her pudding by herself. They read a story, something about a pig who wanted to eat a sandwich. Honestly, my mind wandered a bit for awhile there. She has a friend from her class named Abigail who is on the same bus and they sat together on the ride home.

So far so good with this whole school thing. We'll see what tomorrow holds :)

She did it

Well, the first day of school went off without a hitch. When the bus came she marched right on. We'll get the report this afternoon when she comes home, I guess. I'll keep you all updated :)