Living, Loving, Learning

Well, the weather doesn't reflect it yet, but our summer ended a couple of weeks ago with Griffin going back to school. Now, another boy is gone too! Lucy's dear friend Gabe starts pre-school this week and so he won't be able to join us for our standing Wednesday playdates. This was the last playdate for these 5 friends for a while. This is the first time they seemed to really play together at the playground vs. parallel play. They had a great time huddling, assigning parts and setting a new world in motion. And WOWZA that playground is DIRTY!!!!

At Herb Club last week, a friend gave me a bunch of fresh lemongrass from her garden. Bruce and I were excited to cook with it and Bruce found this recipe for Chicken in Lemongrass Sauce . So so so delicious and different. Our palates were getting weary and this spicy lemon flavor really picked things up!! Easy, healthy, tasty and Griffin loved it....meets all of our requirements to make it into regular rotation!!

Earlier this summer I visited a sweet friend to check out her amazing collection of quilts and beautiful gardens. It was a wonderful afternoon, and as I was leaving she sent an already open geode and one that could be cracked to give to Griffin. I may have a little geologist in the making because he loved it!!! He wasn't ready to split the whole one yet, but played with the other all summer. If fact, he even had to take 5 things to school on Friday to "tell the class more about him" and the geode was the first thing he took to tell the class how much he loved exploring things in nature (also a cicada shell, a oyster shell he found at Lake Michigan this summer, a soccer trophy and his Star Wars III wii game - all chosen independently of our input.) This weekend he was eager to finally break open the other one and was delighted at the sight inside. To be thrilled by such natural things....priceless. And you know he wasn't the only one to get in on the ex...

This has been the summer of the bike! Griffin has had a bike for a long time, but we've had no luck in convincing him to learn to ride it until this summer. Once he set his mind on it, he was riding in a matter of minutes. Such a stubborn one! So now, whenever we have a few minutes we walk the kids and bikes over to one of many empty parking lots within a few blocks of the house and they have a great time cruising around!

While Griffin learned to ride without training wheels, Lucy was working on building up those little leg muscles to power herself around on her trike. She LOVES it!! She usually rides in straight lines, but once in a while...she just can't help going in circles.

And if you love it, you may also love this (If you are like me, have a tissue handy!) http://youtu.be/L64c5vT3NBw

Well, the big guy was ready to get back to it today. With very little grumbling we had his backpack packed, lunch ready and hair done with 10 minutes to spare this morning - YEAH, great pattern to start! He has been excited to go back to school for the most part, although, he had an attack of nerves in bed last night. I so so remember that night before the first day of the school year feeling!! I think it helped that we were able to meet his teacher and see his room on Monday. This is going to be a really wonderful year for him! I was pretty calm this morning, I was good with him just wanting to be dropped off, gave him a kiss and a wave goodbye, turned out of the driveway and BAM!!!! The sob ribbed out and the tears started flowing...I didn't even see it coming. I think mostly I was just excited for him, but there is still a significant part of me that just isn't quite right when I don't have my babies with me. It's like that constant nagging feeling that yo...