"By all these lovely tokens September days are here, With summer's best of weather And autumn's best of cheer."
-Helen Hunt Jackson
The relationship between siblings varies by the day, sometimes they get along great and other days it takes almost nothing to set them against each other. Luckily for us there are more happy times than bad. This week Ashlyn wanted to dress like Isla and spend time with her little sister. James didn’t want to wear a matching outfit and felt a “#1 Brother” shirt would be sufficient to show his support.
I have very little to say about these next two pictures. When we told Ashlyn that summer was officially ending she decided to run off and get her winter gear ready. I wasn’t aware that a multi-color skirt and hats for shoes was part of a fall/winter outfit, but what do I know. I may be out of touch with kids fashion.
This weekend was the annual walk to support St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital. Our family is a proud supporter of this amazing organization and we had a great time out at the walk. I didn’t take many pictures during the walk itself because I had my hands full with the kiddos, but I was able to take a few pictures right after. Don’t ask me why there were Storm Troopers and Tie Fighter pilots out there but it made for a fun picture.
Summer is ending but that means the weather is becoming perfect for being outdoors. The kids have been asking to clean off the trampoline for awhile now but the mesh has been too hot. Not anymore, so out we went with soap and bucket in hand.
I’ll end with a snapshot into a typical nighttime routine at our house. This can vary slightly from evening to evening but the steps below are mostly true for a normal night:
- Get kids a snack of fruit before bed
- Tell kids they have 2 minutes before we go upstairs
- Kids sit there and continue doing whatever they are doing
- Tell kids it’s time to go upstairs
- Kids say they are still hungry
- Ask kids why they didn’t tell me earlier
- Kids only say they are still hungry, with no explanation as to why they didn’t tell me earlier
- Tell kids it’s too late, naively thinking this will teach them a lesson for future evenings even though I’ve taught them this lesson for months
- Get kids upstairs
- Ashlyn brushes her teeth while James debates on what kind of toothpaste he wants
- Start brushing James’ teeth only to learn it was the wrong toothpaste, brush teeth anyway naively thinking this will teach him a lesson for future brushings
- Fight with James for 5 minutes to pick out PJ’s only for him to put on the first pair of PJ’s he pulled out of the drawer
- Start to read books to kids
- Kids spend 30 seconds listening and then proceed to make jumping forts out of Ashlyn’s bean bag chair and pink sitting chair
- Continue to finish books to even though nobody is listening
- Tell kids it’s time for bed
- Kids tell me they want to read books
- Tell kids we just read books
- Kids say they will pay attention this time
- Tell kids no, it’s time for bed naively thinking this will teach them a lesson for future book readings
- Get Ashlyn to bed
- Get James to his room
- Read book to James
- Turn off light
- Read another book to James
- Leave room
- Go back in room because Nala is in his room
- Go back in room because his blanket is on the wrong way
- Go back in room because his blanket “fell” off
- Go back in room because James saw a bug at school and wants to tell me about it
- James finally goes to sleep