Friday Photo Favorites

Luciana ate an entire tomato for lunch yesterday, which reminded me of her big sister.
Here are some favorite pictures of our Izzie Rue and her food.


A tomato stolen from behind mommy's back.

Broccoli has never looked so good!

We told her, "your water is cold, SEE." She saw.

Small Successes

1. Today. Surviving, that is.
(Three glasses of apple juice spilled in four hours, three full glasses; Two urinary malfunctions by a six month veteran of the toilet; One failed attempt to wait until the last minute, spoiled by a clumsy stool and clingy big boy underwear; One bathroom quarantined after a two year old's attempt to rectify the unexpected movement of his bowels; One set of play dishes washed with delight in the opened, unflushed toilet; And three unplanned baths)

2. Consuming only a glass and a half of wine this evening.

3. Getting this posted.

Saturday Afternoon

For FOUR hours these legs stuck out from under our van, at least the hairier of the two sets. But with perseverance that would make a gold medalist blush, oil was drained, filters were twisted, turned, poked and pounded, fathers consulted, screw drivers broken, WD40 employed, and finally a seal was broken with the resulting resolution to never return to a "quick lube" so obviously incapable of reading the label "hand tighten only."

But in a young boys eyes, a hero was made in a pool of sweat and oil that afternoon, wearing the golden medal of fatherhood.

(And the rest of us sighed with relief at not having to push the van back to the "quick lube" to get our filter off.)

School Days

School officially began for us last Monday, and was promptly interrupted by a much needed visit with Gia, Aunt Ju ju and cousins. And I was greatly relieved to see how well our school adapts to our life, because keeping that order in perspective is exactly why we homeschool right now!

I didn't have the presence of mind to "capture" their first moments of school this year, but here is a close second. They are "disguised" as... well, I am not sure even they had their stories straight.
Do you like Izzie Rue's crimped hair? She LOVED it.


Here is a picture of Peter working on one of our early reading works. He takes the small objects and uses the alphabet letters to spell the objects name. It is a favorite in the classroom. Unfortunately, small objects with three letter names are extremely difficult to locate, so if any one has a minature mop, rat, bed... you know what I want for Christmas.



This week, too, was disrupted, unfortunately by an unwelcome guest who brought with it a 102 fever and body aches. Thankfully his bags seem to be packed, as his unwilling host is back to bouncing off the furniture that so recently cradled him.
(This is how I found him after lunch yesterday. The umbrella is to shade him from the sun, and the blanket to shade him from the wind. He eventually fell asleep with both.)

We are looking forward to resuming class tomorrow, with or without distractions.