Love and Friendship

Could anything be sweeter?

New Beginning

Every year, our church holds a meeting for the 12 year-old girls entering the "young women" youth program.  They call it "New Beginnings" and it celebrates that these girls are commencing to enter an entire new phase of their lives.  When they leave the program at 18 years of age, they will truly be "young women." The leaders and other girls will help them along the way and they enthusiastically talk about the exciting things they will learn.

This post isn't about that.

BUT . . . it is about a new beginning.  And reasons to celebrate.  I see with a changed med regiment just how chronically grumpy, negative and tired I had become.  You know how you sometimes don't realize that your ears were ringing until it stops?  Yeah, it's like that.

I find myself held up by friends who have etched themselves deep into my heart.  Friends who drag me out of the house, kicking and screaming, and prove to me that I really CAN take part in the "real world."  And, dare I say. . . . even like it!  (But please don't tell them I said so.)  They love me, help me, comfort me, enjoy me, understand me (sometimes) and accept me.

I feel alert, light-hearted and free!  I refuse to think ahead that this will eventually cycle back around, just as the sun doesn't stay in the sky forever.  But I will savor it for as long as I can until the darkness falls.  I wonder who I will be when this phase of my life ceases - but I don't dwell.  For now, I will gaze at the sunrise and allow hope and excitement to lead the way.

Will Burying my Head in the Sand Make my Butt Look Big?

My 4yo has a girlfriend.  Or "gelfwen" as he calls her.  Seems to me that if you can't SAY "girlfriend" you're entirely too young to HAVE one.

He couldn't have picked a better "gel," even so.  She's a precocious little chatterbox with a great sense of humour and an elfin smile.  What's not to love??  Today she celebrated her fifth birthday, which was a punch-in-the-gut reminder that my own aforementioned littlest man will turn five in April.  Whaaaa?  I just HAD him!  I swear!

And if they're turning five, why that means that next fall . . . . . ::screams at the thought::

While I rush off and bury my head in the sand, here are a few pics of our day:

Ready to par-tay.

This one made me giggle.  I can't imagine what they were looking at.

My biggest little man, who opted out of the preschool birthday party so he could game at a friend's house.  Weird.

Gorgeous sunset this evening, but I wasn't in a very good location to capture it the way I wanted.  I was kind of playing around with the new camera and got this one, no edits.

Snow Dance

When I awoke this morning, my brain told me (rather rudely, I might add) that we had some rain in the near future.  I'm a walking barometer is what I am.  I managed to drug myself up just enough to head to my friend's house and it began to rain on the way over.  Yup.  Knew it.  I wasn't prepared, however, when white stuff started drifting down:

The kids were over the moon, and snow danced on the deck.  Naturally.

Then Chase was driven with the irresistible urge to dig a big pit in my friend's backyard.  (?)  Maybe he figured the snow was a sign of the apocalypse, and that he'd better get started on that zombie plan?

As for what he's wearing . . . . he's MY kid, what can I say?  Doesn't every boy wear pink rain boots with his black ballet skirt?

Even MORE snow fell:

And by this evening:

Yes, winter has FINALLY arrived.

Tonight my gurlz took me out for sushi, cookies and window shopping!

<3

What more could anybody want?

Well . . . maybe a new hat.

Conquering a Pumpkin Patch

A good time was had by all at the annual Jinxieclan trek to the pumpkin patch.  This year we had the best.family.evarrr join us.  I mean look at this:

How could this family NOT be fun?

So this is how you have a great time at a pumpkin patch.  First, find some adorable kids:

Have them bounce

climb

 (Funny thing about this - that tiny little girl OWNED those boys.

She was the one who corralled them together and kept them in line throughout the day.)

ride

(You are NEVER too old to ride a trike!  Surely!)

pet

love

pose

and zip their way through a fabulous autumn day!

If you're feeling brave, venture into the "Amazing Maze of Maize!" as Scout called it.  Try not to let the Children of the Corn freak you out.

(You want me to WHAT?)

beware of the "Adult of the Corn" too!

(Now that's skerry right there.)

Oh!  And don't forget the pumpkins!

(Some of them are heavy)

As usual, though - you'll find that all of the slides and crafts and hayrides in the world can't compare to an open field

So get your happy feet on

(yes . . he was happy dancing)

and conquer that pumpkin patch!!!!!

Letterboxing

Fun new experience for us - letterboxing!  Some friends of mine are into it and invited us along for their latest trek to see what it's like.  To find out more for yourself, look here.  It's a bit like geocaching meets stampin-it-up autograph collecting meets treasure map riddles.  Or something like that.  So we found ourselves hiking through a woodsy park on a sunny Sunday afternoon.  And this was a BRILLIANT location for a first ever "treasure hunting" experience, let me tell you!  It is one of my favourite parks because I have to drive through a creek to get there in the first place, so I have this sense of braving the rapids on a daring, epic adventure before I've even arrived.

I am beyond impressed with my friend - who is ready to pop with her second child at any moment.  She marched through the woods as if it was no big deal.  As if the freakishly steep hills and bizarre steps and 90 degree heat didn't even phase her.  She did FAR better than I did in that regard.  I don't tie my SHOES as well as she did tramping through the woods.

I love this trail.

I'll pretend that my boys remembered our "be sure to be discrete" lecture and didn't jump around like wild monkeys upon the final discovery.

This is Scout's "I'm being forced to learn something new and it's killing me because don't you realize that I already know everything?" expression that he wore as my friends explained how it all worked.

And this is Scout's typical "aftermath" expression.  Everything Scout feels, he feels a whole lot.  Whether it's the elation BEFORE a discovery, or the let-down after.

His spirits were lifted with a spontaneous wade into the creek to cool down our hot feet.

This pile started out with just shoes and socks.  But more and more items of clothing were added as more and more body parts dipped into the cool water.  Before I knew it, Scout was up to his neck.  HOW he managed to get up to his neck in about a foot of water, I still have no idea.  I was too stunned to get a picture of it.

We then dragged them out of the water to dry off at the playground.  They had fun, until Scout realized that the fun was about to end.  Cue in the let-down pose.

We then returned home and Vee painted Chase's fingernails and piggies.  Naturally.  What choice did we have?  He was mortified at their condition upon removing his shoes at the creek, I'm sure of it.