"I'm so glad we live in a world where there are Octobers..." ~L.M. Montgomery
So, October in Austin perhaps isn't the October I have grown up with - colored leaves, sweater and soup weather. Nope. Not at all. I will not lie - I do miss jumping in piles of leaves and driving through canyons of color, but October in Texas is wonderful, just the same. In fact, it feels more like Spring! All summer it is too hot to open the windows or run free for hours outside, we have to have the A/C on 24/7 and our saving grace is the swimming pool :) It's been SO nice to open the windows at night and feel it start to cool off just a bit. A/C is still on, but there have been a few days I turned it off. We've had some rain. Things are green and flowers are blooming. The sun is sweet, warm, and welcoming - beckoning us out from out "summer-winter". We have taken full advantage!
For one of our adventure days, I took the kids to the zoo! We had the best time. We stayed all day, of course :) It was especially fun because Hazel is at that special age where she is fascinated with animals, and the sounds they make. She is our little animal lover, more than anyone else in the family. Needless to say, she was thrilled and awe-struck to get up close with the animals at our wonderful little Sanctuary here in Austin.
As some of you may know, we kept Sawyer home this year and are doing pre-k homeschool. If you can call it that (ha!) We are all learning a lot, together. And having lots of fun. Sometimes being lazy, throwing in the towel and skipping school, other times, spending much more time than allotted on our special studies. Our base is the Charlotte Mason method, with a sprinkling of Waldorf and Montessori thrown in. I take what I love and run with it.
A huge part of the Charlotte Mason is getting outside in nature (which is why I was drawn to it, just love love it!) and journaling. Lessons are very short. We spend much more time simply exploring. There's a lot to say about the method, but it is so age appropriate and a wonderful foundation.
I have a lot of thoughts about school - and homeschool. I have been open to what we will do for school and really had to reflect on the WHY and FOR WHO of it all. Doing homeschool preschool with my kids is something I didn't necessarily plan on. In Seattle, there was a TON of pressure to send your kids to preschool - and it was very expensive. (one of the prods for us to move, in fact). Sawyer did one year of co-op family preschool (one evening a week with our whole family, when he was 2) - loved loved loved it. We will always fondly remember teacher Sally and the old school we met in on Phinney Ridge. When he was 3, he went two mornings a week to Creative Arts for Children in Magnolia. We also loved loved it there...an old school, play-based, hands-on just wonderful little place in a wonderful neighborhood. It was then that I started freaking out about the decision of when to send him to kindergarten (5 or 6, as he has a summer birthday). We also did Nature school once a week with a group of the most wonderful people I know. Our friend, and teacher, Sara - is one of the greatest. We loved Nature School so much, that when we moved to Austin and nothing seemed like the right fit, I started our own Nature School here. Carried the torch :) I had about 6 little students (and their moms and a few younger siblings) and we had such a great time. I also did "Mommy School" for the kids last year. Totally informal (that's me!) I am not a super structured person, though I am super organized. It's a strange combination, really. I like things to be organized, yet flexible. Anyway, the more I thought about the whole idea of homeschool, the more I had to really dig deep and think about the "why" would I or wouldn't I choose that route? Most importantly, I had to think about WHO I was doing it for? For Sawyer? For myself? My motives, I've come to find out, while good and excellent motives - are more selfish than I ever imagined. There is a part of me that wants to keep my babies under my wing FOREVER. It's very bittersweet to see them grow. I don't want my good intentions, motives, and best ideas about the fun we could have all day every day until they graduate, to keep them from learning to spread their own wings and fly. Lots more thoughts on this - but pretty much, I am soaking up this year with all of them home, and enjoying it immensely, but I know in my heart it will be best for Sawyer to send him off to Kindergarten at the amazing school within walking distance from our home next fall. (and he's SO excited!) It will be hard (probably hardest for ME! Aspen, too, though - they're such inseparable buddies!) but it will be so wonderful and delightful to see him learn and grow in ways that I can't teach or provide at home. There. That's that. For now...
Fall means perfect weather for camping! We went last weekend. And plan to go often! I think it's the first time in YEARS we didn't get rained on and I basically slept on the floor of our tent with no sleeping bag or blankets (because I was sharing mine with Hazel and she kinda kicked me out) and I was totally warm and comfortable the entire night. You can pretty much camp year-round here which is awesome (but who wants to camp in over 100 degrees during the summer? Jacob went a few times with the boy scouts, but I prefer fall-winter-spring over summer camping here in Texas ;) We also took the kids fishing for the first time. Sawyer has been asking for quite a while if he could go fishing, so he was beyond thrilled. He was SO excited! It was adorable! He had so much faith that he was going to catch a fish! He wasn't too disappointed when he didn't catch one, he just learned fishing takes a lot of patience. I was happy when I pulled in a little sun fish, though - made for a little excitement even though we put it back ;)
Nothin' better than sitting around the campfire with the ones you love. Nothin' (except when you add s'mores!)
Sawyer's team picture. We didn't buy any. I just took a pic with my phone. (lame?) His team is sure cute. There are 7 girls and 3 boys. It's been fun to see him really take off and see the game "click" for these little 5 year olds. They've all improved so much! And it's been fun for me, I made a friend with one of the other moms who happens to also be a photographer. Fun to have someone to talk to during practice on the sidelines. I am also the assistant coach - so I get to jump in now and then to help out with drills. And coach games when the real coach is out of town. It's been fun. One day when we're done having kids and they're all a little older, I'd love to coach a team myself. It's kind of a funny little dream I have. Love soccer!
Aspen Jane - she's just cute and sweet as can be. She loves learning right along side her brother. People ask ALL.THE.TIME of they're twins. I guess they do look similar (but hello? do people not realize girls and boys are NEVER identical twins?) I probably know too much about twins, being one myself, but it cracks me up. I always smile when people ask if they're twins :)
Oh, Hazel girl. Hazel Gracie. Hazey Grace. She's 16 months old! Can you believe it? Crazy how fast the time flies! She is a little adventurer and I love it! This month we have been working on weaning. She didn't want to. I didn't want to. But my body needed to. I was having weird hormonal things (ie hot flashes, headaches, etc.) as my hormones were trying to regulate themselves after having 3 kids in just under 4 years, being either pregnant or nursing constantly for the past almost 6 years (with two miscarriages mixed in). My body just needed a break, I guess. I'm starting to feel a little better - and a strange freedom, starting to feel like my body is almost mine again, at least for a little while ;) It's really sad for me to have to stop nursing her when she's not quite ready (not to mention hard when she is constantly trying to get in my shirt), but we're almost/mostly there. It's getting better. She's obviously fine nutritionally, but it's the comfort part that's hard for both of us to say good-bye to. Wish us luck!
Over the summer, Sawyer decided he no longer wants me to buzz his hair. He wants it to be longer. I decided to respect that desire, since I've been buzzing his hair super short since he was a year old. BUT I don't know how to cut/shape it very well (buzzing it all off is pretty simple ;) so I ended up finding a cute little hair cut place for kids, and took him there. It's in kind of the in-between stage, but I'm hoping once it gets longer it will lay down a little better. He HATES having any gel or anything artificial in his hair (must take after his mama) but he did let the stylist spike it up the day she cut it. He liked it, so I'm betting we'll be going there from now on for our kids' haircuts.
Oh, I didn't take a picture - but I trimmed the back of Hazel's hair. She doesn't have much (esp. compared to her sis at this age) and it's pretty straight and very fine. But it was starting to look a little mullet like so I trimmed the back to the beginning of a little french bob. I think she's got the hair type that she will be able to pull that off and look adorable :)
Last note on hair - Aspen was pretending to be Rapunzel and Sawyer was Flint Ryder, and I was hemming some curtains...and before I knew it I looked up and Sawyer had grabbed my scissors and chopped off a section of her hair. It was all in innocent and the first time we've had a scissors incident, but I was a little upset. Luckily, it just blends in and it's not bad - could've been a lot worse if I didn't notice right away! Every kids needs a story like that, right? Haha.
We don't have many Halloween Decorations and are saving our money for more important things, so the kids and I spent an hour or so decorating our mantel with what we do have - and then "dressing up" some of their animals for Halloween. It was fun, and it turned out pretty cute.
We also did stamping with potatoes! It was really fun! And so easy. I just carved out some Halloween shapes and we used paint to dip them in. We also attended a Halloween Party at Aunt Tia's house. We ate pizza, apple cider, and cupcakes. Decorated a Haunted Mansion. Watched silly Ichabod Crane in Disney's "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow". It was a great time for all!
Tonight, we will carve our pumpkins! We did go spend a day at Sweetberry Farms and the pumpkin patch - I'll have to post some pics, eventually. I am really enjoying this once a month post - it keeps me posting, gives those friends and family who care to follow a little update, and takes a lot of pressure off me to blog - yet gives me a little archive of our day to day (or month to month). Fun to throw in some pics from the big camera now and then (I prep them for our family album anyway). Anyway, it's good. It also makes the year feel like it passes sooooo fast. Time really does fly.
I hope everyone had an October to remember...
Happy Halloween, Y'all!
