Fainting

As we're sitting down to start our reading lesson...
Thomas: "I'm about to faint!"
I look at him with a puzzled look.
Thomas: "Mom, what does faint mean...?"

Valentine's activities

Today, all our school activities are St. Valentine themed. During the below conversation, the kids were coloring heart-themed papers.

Cecilia: Why are you coloring your heart all red? I'm coloring mine all different colors.

Thomas: Because hearts are red. I think hearts are red because of all the love inside.

Creative Music Class

Cecilia and Thomas are taking a Creative Music class at the Manchester Community Music School. They are playing lots of musical games, learning to play the xylophone, and always end class with crafts. This week, they worked with clay. Cecilia walked out of class with 3 creations (since she couldn't decide): a violin, a butterfly, and a snowman. Thomas went for a more minimalist approach and only created one item... a clay snowball. Ah, the difference between my type-A, first-born girl and my easy-going, second-born boy :)

Anna is 1!

Ok, so Anna turned one on September 29... but I'm catching up now. Since we're in the new house now, it was the first time we were able to host a big birthday party for one of the kids. We absolutely love the house! (Maybe I can get Matthew to take some photos once we have our Christmas decorations up.) Anna is growing fast, still not walking, and turning out to be a very fun, funny, cheeky little girl. Here are some photos from her party.

Late Summer Photo Session

Matthew set up a little studio on our front lawn to get these photos. I was very happy with them!

Summer at the Lake House

It's been some time since I've posted (Matthew's commandeered a couple of times), so I'm going back to the summer. This past year has been super busy. We sold our condo and bought a house four months ago. Somehow, in the middle of all that, we still got to sneak away to Belmont for a week. This summer vacation is one of our favorite traditions--a week of relaxing at the lake with some of our very favorite people.

Life is still very busy. We still have more sorting to do in the house (and lots of things to hang). Cecilia is in 2nd grade and Thomas is in 1st this year. Homeschooling is going well, but of course keeping us all busy. Still, I hope to post more regularly now. Enjoy!

Cecilia, photo assistant

Cecilia was awake and out with me early on Sunday morning for her first job as an assistant. She mostly held the reflector, since there was no wind--but insisted on holding the lightstand at the end (b/c that's what my assistants do), so we complied.

Other tasks included: walking the location host's dog, model for lighting tests, and retrieving fresh batteries for the strobe.