3/52

A portrait of my children, once a week, every week in 2014.
As always joining in with Jodi over at practisingsimplicity.blogspot.com

Not really a single portrait, but a single moment; a single memory.

Siena- after weeks of biting cold, getting to go outside - no words can describe! But jumps might.

Reed- what you get when you ask a 2 year old to pose:) (although he saw this quad-image and was able to recreate every face in quick succession- that entertained him for awhile- we might just have a little actor on our hands)

Winter (sort of) Walk

Mother nature decided to give us a few more days to soak up the sun before the long cold winter comes. We took full advantage of it…trying to treasure the time outside, knowing we'll be daydreaming about it all not too long from now. 

50/52 - Winter Lantern Walk

As it has become tradition- we went on a Winter Lantern Walk with some of our friends. The kids started getting excited about it days and weeks in advance- they all made their lanterns using the style of  painting we had learned in our Waldorf classes- dipping the watercolor paper in water first and then letting the colors swirl all around. Harvest Preserve was once again a perfect magical spot for the whole experience- they had even built a little pirate playhouse for the kids at the top of the hill. We went for a lantern walk- the lights alone in the dusking forest couldn't help but feel magic. We finished with some hot chocolate in the the pond house, while daddy told the story we always tell on Winter Solstice- the story about how the evergreens kept their needles. Every year I also try to make the kids a little gift- last year they were still small enough that they believed that forest fairies had jumped into my bag as we were walking- I'd like to think they would have believed that (or something like it) this year as well, but I was not about to push my luck…so they all received a little felted snowman. Last year's winter lantern walk here. As always joining in with Jodi over at practisingsimplicity.blogspot.com.

43/52, 44/52, 45/52 and 46/52

I know, I know! I was so good and each week on time and right at the end this happens....but life happened too! We had a few eventful weeks, from boring work stuff that got in the way to fun stuff, like our 10 year anniversary and my folks visiting for several weeks. These weeks were filled with a Halloween party (we traditionally host one every year), celebration of our anniversary, many many hikes and outings with Siena and Reed's baka and deda. We were desperately trying to get out as much before winter came- and winter is here now with all its might, so I am so glad we did.

So here it is- superbly late: A portrait of my children, once a week, every week in 2014. As always joining in with Jodi over at practisingsimplicity.blogspot.com

43/52: First there was an early Halloween party. Lot os gory food, stuffing the straw man, apple bobbing, three legged races and other fun...

44/52: after baka and deda arrived there were all sorts of hikes and of course actual Halloween (Reed no longer wanted to be spiderman, so we switched his costume to Bob the Builder- kids nowadays I swear!) I also helped host the Halloween party in Siena's school. 

45/52 and then came more hikes- Lake McBride. 

46/52 And more beautiful hikes (Harvest Preserve)- this was the very last nice day of the year that it was in the upper 60s (18C) and since then it has been bitterly cold and today we got SNOW- lots and lots of snow (not pictured- I am boycotting snow!)

There was also a little 10 year anniversary - with the love of my life. I could not be more in love!

There was also so much more fun that was had: 

42/52 A walk in the woods

Fall is most certainly here- can't believe we had already had to break out our winter jackets. Then again our tomatoes are still ripening and there are still some days when you can play outside in a t-shirt, but they are getting few and far between. Lot of excitement over here in the next few weeks- grandparents coming for an almost month-long visit, Halloween parties, our 10 year anniversary and numerous other things to look forward to. Somewhere in there we'll need to find sometime for work as well:)

A portait of my children, once a week, every week in 2014.
As always joining in with Jodi over at practicingsimplicity.com. 

Autumn is here

39/52

A portait of my children, once a week, every week in 2014.
As always joining in with Jodi over at practisingsimplicity.com

These two love doing pretty much everything together. When we had them almost 4 years apart and a boy and a girl I guess I just assumed they would not be as close as kids who are less far apart in age or same gender. I am glad to say I was absolutely wrong. These two love playing together almost all the time, they rarely ever get into conflicts and when they do Siena is very good at dealing with them. Recently Siena was sad about not having a best friend at school (she has loads of friends, but she only goes for 2h so it is not a great surprise other kids are closer), and as she started crying Reed came over and said "Reed Yena's best friend." I mean seriously!!! Heart melted on the spot!
The benefit of only going to school for 2h pictured:) We have been going to the local apple orchard almost every week, sometimes we only pick a few apples and then after our hike through the orchard kids like to reward themselves with some amazing freshly made apple turnovers.

37/52 and 38/52

The computer was on the fritz for a few weeks, and so glad to have it back and so lucky to have all the images and data and work saved not having backed up for months! What a dummy!

First set of images is from a lovely forest walk on a first autumn like day....
The second set is from our local apple orchard. Although the fall is not officially here yet - it sure feels like it is- we've had to turn on the heat already a few times, unpack the winter clothes, wear wool sweaters in the mornings. Not ready for it yet. Usually I love the fall, but last winter was almost traumatizing in its length...so I'll take as much summer as I can get. We have been homeschooling and working pretty hard over the last few weeks- life seems to be speeding up- like it always does in the fall, and we are trying hard to make sure we are finding time to be present when we are together. Getting out helps us do that.