Happy 8th Birthday, Amity!

Amity turned 8! She is an amazingly wondrous human being who continues to bring me immense joy (and occasional frustration) on a daily basis. Love you lots, Amiboo!

Amity in the Tent

We had big plans for a night of camping over Thanksgiving break, but weather and some minor illnesses conspired against us. However, thanks to a suggestion from our good friend Peggy, we still managed to pitch a tent (in the basement). Amity tried to go to sleep in it, but in the end decided she'd be more comfy upstairs in her bed.

Come somewhat warmer weather we'll need to give this another go. We are absolute slackers in this area as Amity has never spent a night outdoors in a tent and she's going to be 8 soon. Unacceptable. Must fix!

Ice Cream Faces

I'm pretty sure this is self-explanatory. Kids love ice cream. In their bellies and all over their faces, too.

Izzie!

One of the many pluses of my time at STAB was getting plugged into an awesome set of colleagues who pretty much all own dogs. This makes finding a dog sitter a lot easier than it might otherwise be. One of our favorite households to dog sit swap with is the Colombos, who have the sweetest and most gigantic St. Bernard, Izzie. As can be seen here, Izzie is a good sport when subject to much kiddo love. Also pictured, Zelda (much smaller).

Carbon Leaf @ The Jeff

Carbon Leaf came to town. They were, as usual, awesome.

Halloween

We've reached a new milestone here - the kiddos went with friends (also sisters) trick or treating, and Wes and I had a grown up evening?! While I was a bit sad to miss the halloween theatrics, it was nice for the kiddos to get to hang with their friends and perhaps we can reciprocate by inviting the friends to come with us next year. Which is a longer way to say, I didn't even take this picture! But here is Halloween 2k17 in all of its glory - Amity as scotch tape (dispenser) and Zara as a forest princess? nymph? dryad? something like that.

Sophie Visits!

Sophie came down for a visit Labor Day weekend which was an awesome treat for all of us, seeing as we hadn't seen her in ages. Here's a few pics from our hike to... I think it was Turk Mountain. Somewhere in SNP not too far away. (Z not pictured because she was off galavanting with a friend.)

Z goes to DC

Zara was invited by her friend Isabel to spend the long weekend in DC. Here are a few pics!

Sometimes they're sweet

I"m not entirely sure what possessed this children to get all snuggly with each other, but I'll tkae the adorableness where I can get it. Sister love? Love of posing for the camera? Maybe a little of both....

Back to School: 2nd and 7th Grades

Apparently, we never went back to school in 2017. Well, I hopped into my time machine and fixed this gross oversight. Sorry about that, devoted fans!