I didn’t want to jinx it before now, my it looks like E is really truly on vacation. The kids are ALMOST getting used to having him around, although every time they wake up and he’s still here they freak out again.

Sunday:

FTR as of today (a week later) this balloon is still floating

Playing with her favorite baby friend

They are excellent babysitters

Monday:

De-icing the steps

This is clean now, or I’d be too ashamed to share the mess

The view from my new couch is pretty good

Tuesday:

This hat is the best purchase of the winter so far

IT’S COOOOOOOOLD

They sent the kids home early because THIS.

Wednesday:

Doing snow karate in his pajamas

Sledding is 100 more fun when there is someone to help pull the sleds

Decorating all the cookies for her school celebration in the morning

Thursday:

Three

Twinkle lights on the train

She had a super great time

Friday:

Princess Caroline is pleased with her new gown

Chilis serves blue slurpees to children

A pile of gingers and pillows

Saturday:

This is how I get to sleep in on Saturdays

Two serious movie watchers

This is why having my husband home is AWESOME.

We’re watching The Walking Dead from the beginning (we’d only seen the first couple of episodes) so I’m not really sleeping. I CANNOT HANDLE ZOMBIES and yet I can’t stop watching this show. If E wasn’t home there is no way I could handle it, so we have to get through all of it before he goes back to working insane hours. I’m just so happy it looks like he’ll be home for Christmas.

It’s still Wednesday, right? I feel like it’s been raining for a week (because it has been raining for a week) so when we got a break last night I dragged the kids all over Eastern CT to find a nice empty (but public) field for taking fall family photos. Success!

Respect my mad flower-crown making skillz.

I cut (butchered) Evan’s hair and he aged 10 years.

Looking at clouds. He said he saw a rhesus monkey wearing a powdered wig. For real.

WE LOVE YOU SEPTEMBER

Two of the days this week were SO LAZY I barely took 3 pictures all day. Coming back to real life is hard.

Sunday:

It rained on our last day at the lake house, but luckily Mormor and Bumpa have cable.

Evan and his man bag are ready to go.

Quick! Put the GIANT serving of Pad Thai on a huge plate so it looks more reasonably sized.

Monday:

This is my sister’s from France and it is AMAZING

Singing a song that goes “I am so cute! I am so cute!”. She made it up.

Emergency 9 pm Target run for baseball supplies.

Tuesday:

The red seat is the spot where the longest ever home run landed.

Empty park.

He is accurately expressing how hot it was.

Hell yeah panorama feature

Wednesday:

TV watching cuddles

Spitting face, even though spitting is a time-outable offense.

8 pm McD’s trip for happy meals is part of my campaign for Mother of the Year.

Thursday:

Quick! Run in different directions! It’ll confuse her!

Best sibling photo ever? Possibly.

Taking a magical carriage ride for the very first time.

Friday:

I think the cat missed us while we were gone.

Wrinkly piggies!

I’m going to shave off her hair and turn it into a wig for me. So jealous.

Saturday:

Lord Caroline sneers at her subjects.

Super Caroline is annoyed you disturbed her secret lair.

Who knew a weekend at a kid’s birthday party could be a vacation?

I know I said LAST week that we were just going to relax at home and take it easy for a while…but then I realized Summer is REALLY SHORT and we are already running out of time to do all the things. We’ll be all over New England for the next week and the kids start summer school/camp the week after, so the frantic pace continues. It’s literally giving me stomach pains thinking about how little time we have left before it gets dark and cold again, so I’m fitting as much fun into these warm days as possible.

People ask me that all the time. I smile and say “No, they’re just best friends.”

Last night I brought them to a meeting and left them in the rec area with instructions to take care of each other. After about half an hour I heard them both crying so I ran out to check – apparently one of the older girls (she was maybe 7?) had gotten concerned with how rough my kids were playing and picked Caroline up to move her away. Both gingers started SOBBING and Evan told me “That mean girl took my baby sister away!” I had to let them come into the meeting and play cars under the table to reassure them no one would try to break them up again.