365::270

Images of fall from around the neighborhood.......Lucas and I captured them on a stormy, muggy afternoon, in a break from the rain, we watched the leaves falling. Beautiful.

365::269

Afternoons.......after being away from each other all day each with their own, they really do enjoy each others company again.

365::266

Fall in Maine......

brings us indoors more b/c it get's dark earlier. That gives us a new appreciation for home and all the comforts of it. After a long day of school, or hiking in the woods and playing outdoors until our cheeks are red and our noses are runny from the cold, we love coming home and slipping into our cozy pants, and smelling what's for dinner in the crock-pot. We love coming home and making a hot cup of something and sitting on the couch and reading the paper or books to each other. We love coming home.

365::266

10 things.......

• You love everything to do with Thomas the train and are quite obsessed.
• You wash your hands independently when asked:)
• You have friends at school and on the bus (and I love how EVERYONE seems to know you!)
• You take ballet every Saturday and have met several friends there
• You re going to be Thomas the Train for Halloween (because a girl should be who she is, and unfortunately you are not a big fan of being a princess or a ballerina)
• You are almost SIX!
• Cheese sticks and apple juice are your staples, but you eat everything on your plate usually (two or three helpings!)
• I love how you wear barrettes in your hair now.
• You get on the bus ever morning and smile and wave goodbye from your window. That smile makes my whole day:)
• I love how you always smile for pictures now and then want to see the picture on the camera afterward.

365::265

a brisk fall day to come out and support the Maine Down Syndrome network Buddy walk.

The buddy walk 2010....smiles, friendship, acceptance and inclusion....not to mention family fun! Thank you everyone who has supported us on this journey!

365::264

Today.

• A soccer game and ballet class.
• Just passing the time on the VERY warm Saturday in September while Mom and Dad put up an new fence in the backyard.
• making small progress on the fence and finally starting to love our previously swampy backyard (It's taken 4 1/2 years!)
• A really fun evening in our last run for ice cream this year and a trip to the very large Memorial park for a walk and to play on the skateboard ramps-I LOVE our town.
• A little more working on the fence in the dark after the kids went to bed.

365::263

10 things......

1. You say, "I love you Mom" spontaneously about 50 times a day (I love that!)
2. You ride your bike down to the bus stop every afternoon to pick up your brother and sister
3. You love juice in a box, and milk in a box....anything in a box.
4. You want to be big and do everything your big brother is doing (including riding your scooter at the skateboard park).
5. You are the first one up every morning and the first one to jump in to bed with us, your feet pitter, pattering down the hallway, into our room, smiling all the way, and giving us GREAT big hugs (love that)
6. You play soccer, take swimming lessons and go to preschool two days a week
7. You don't know all your letters yet, but we're working on it.
8. You melt down quite easily when you don't get enough attention, when you have a runny nose, or when you want to do something for yourself that someone else "accidentally" does for you.
9. You love gum.
10. You are all done with naps, but I love that you are still little:)

365::262

10 things.......

• Every day when you get off the bus, you love to either go over to a friends house :( or ride your scooter or both and you say you are not ready to walk home alone yet (even though you are allowed to) and I'm happy with that.
• You always have seconds (and sometimes thirds) at every meal now
• You are still trying to find your way in remembering everything you need to about going to a new school (homework, papers to turn in, a lost water bottle, speaking up and asking for help).
• size 8 pants are still a little too long and you don't like khaki pants or jeans
• Your best friends are Nick and Niall and you play military every day at recess (and you say the game never ends)
• You like soccer, but might want to try football next year after a seventh grader told you that you have a "good throw"
• You actually like "fishburger" for a school lunch
• I love the way you say, "hi Mom"
• In bright light, your eyes look more olive green than brown
• If I would have known what a caring person you would turn out to be (esp. toward your siblings) I would have rejoiced even louder on the day you were born.

365::261

Evenings.

I cherish the family dinner. I really do, mostly because we don't get it every night b/c I work and the kids have "stuff". BUT, when the sweet, extremely cute three year old has been particularly challenging ALL DAY with no break, the grown up dinner (which kids were required to take at least one bite of) was burnt and then fixed and not ready until 7:30 PM, a bottle of wine needed to be bought, and the lawn needed to be mowed......we ended up with a quiet dinner alone with only an eight year old quietly reading nearby and some Norah Jones playing on the IPod. It's these times too, that I cherish.

365::260

Every once in a while, take the scenic route.

― H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

One of our favorite after school things to do (this year....no backpacks needed!). It brings us all back together after everyone has spent all day going in a million different directions. We breathe, smile, discover, talk and laugh no matter what type of day everyone has had.

365::259

Anatomy of a third grade homework assignment:

• He takes out his OWN orange folder without any reminders:)
• Let's get started, Mom can you come outside with me? (he likes to have someone with him wherever he goes these days)
• finds his tree, sits down and writes a few words, then erases. "Mom I need to go inside and find a better eraser"
• Comes back out and has a broken eraser and a pencil grip. "Mom can we go to Wal-mart and get a better pencil grip?"
• Notices the unique characteristics of the tree (it has acorns and a squirrel lives in a hole in the bottom), this of course is the last question and he is still on the second.
• "Mom, I"m cold, I need to go in and get my sweatshirt" Comes out with sweatshirt.
• writes a few more words, asks for help with spelling (squirrel)
• lays down to look up at the tree, wants to get a photo from that angle., "Mom can you get the little gray camera?"
• "Mom, I want to make a movie....like Narnia with swords and stuff, How do they make that Lion talk.....Can we make our own movie?"

Finally, he finishes the questions, takes a picture (not part of the assignment) and goes inside to finish writing his last paragraph about a tree. It's too bad he had to be restricted to the tree for this homework, I was all about making the movie.......Dream big, boy! I Love eight.

365::258

SERIOUSLY........

Our neighborhood rocks. We really did have a TV set up outside in the cul-de-sac watching the Pats game. We ordered pizza. We stayed until it was dark. We're already planning next years party. The kids(ranging from two years old to high school ) played like cousins (duck-duck-goose, football, biking and pulling each other around in wagons). I'm so glad they are all going to be growing up together. For Josh's job.....we could move anywhere in the country anytime we wanted. We love our neighbors, church, schools, ocean and woods. We choose here.

365::257

Today......

A second soccer game, he got to play goalie:)

The first day of ballet, making new friends :)

Putting the fence posts in for our new backyard fence (with a lot of help from family) :)

a really yummy family dinner :)

Weekends:)

365::256

Just because.....I love this picture.

365::255

Making my way........

and figuring how to keep track of it all. Three different schools, homework, lunches, two fundraisers, PTA, PTO, special services PTO, volunteering, sports, clubs and activities. We're not too busy, or too over scheduled (we try hard to keep it that way, after all kids need to be kids, not heading for pro football at age three!), but just keeping track of all that is out there and available to us, and what I want to do and help with and make our schools better places, it blows my mind sometimes.

And tonight.....we had Bre's open house. Everyone (kids and teachers) seemed to know Bre already (who didn't have a care in the world except for her plate of food!). The kids in her class, they do have questions like, "Why is she so small?" "how old is she?" and "why doesn't she use her words like we do.?.." But mostly, the teacher said, she is just one of the gang. She's a rock star, and I feel so lucky to be in her life!

365::254

evenings.......

we listen to Nora Jones or ocean sounds.

We do homework and color

We play games and read

We pack our backpacks and lunches

We put on our cozies

We try to organize ourselves

We brush teeth and get tucked in

WE clean up all the messes of the day

WE all go to bed at different times

WE give hugs and sometimes rub feet.

365::253

First day of soccer....you loved it and couldn't wait to wear those shin guards over your pants. Next year you get to be on the BIG team (pre-K), oh my! It's a completely different group of parents than I see at Trevor's events. Most of them, with lots of younger children, trying to manage their two to three year old on a soccer field and one to two other children, babies, carseats, strollers and diaper bags. As for me, I remember those days all two well struggling with two in a stroller in diapers(actually, b/c of the complete exhaustion.... I don't remember clearly most of Lucas first year, but I have pictures!) Now, I'm happy to be able to focus complete attention on my littlest, and savor every last minute of him being at home, hanging around town and going places like I have an only child AND help those other moms out as much as I can because I remember how hard it was.......

365::252

Sunday........

Our wonderful little church had a very nice service down on the beach. I didn't bring my camera, but a friend wonderfully e-mailed everyone out their pictures. A baby was baptized with the sea water. Guitars played and we sang. All the kids played running on the beach and building sand castles. We made our communion circles among the boats and clam diggers. There was a cross made of two sticks. It was a crisp cool, early new England Fall morning, but we left feeling warm and toasty inside:)

365::251

Apple picking at our favorite traditional family spot, Dole's orchard. LUCKILY, they were't hit hard by the late spring frost and they had TONS of apples. We sat by the pumpkins, went for a hay ride, rode in the wagon, picked raspberries and fought over who got to use the stick to pick apples high up in the tree. We picked out a pink Mum for the front porch and devoured THE BEST pumpkin whoopie pies on the way home (I look forward to those all year)....This afternoon we'll be enjoying the first Pats game and filling the house with yummy smells of those baking apples and homemade applesauce. We'll be celebrating our littlest boy's half birthday. It's really my favorite time of year!

365::250

Trevor's First soccer game! We were so proud of our little guy, he hasn't played soccer since Kindergarten and he had some great plays out there on the field. He is on a team with and played against 3rd and FOURTH graders. It was a PERFECT day to be out there, blue skies and cool temperatures (but not too cool). Breanna even tried to run on the field to play with the third grade girls next to us. It was so good to see Ruth from Shooting Stars and all our other friends and neighbors from around town. And tonight to celebrate (because every day one should celebrate), we made chocolate chip cookies and ate them right out of the oven. We all sat around the table, all of us, and dipped them in milk. Nothing like chocolate to bring a family together:) Then three chocolaty faces were bathed and tucked into bed and fell asleep in almost two seconds. I love weekends:)