Second grade and Kindergarten!

Two days after returning for Maui James started second grade! He was a bit nervous, a bit excited and quite a bit sad to have summer winding down. He ended up having a fabulous day and loving his teacher. James eats hot lunch every day and plays with his friend Ian most days at recess.

This bunny didn't start for another week and was SO nervous and anxious on her first day. Yes, this is a smiling photo but there were lots of tears and anxiety even when she had to say goodbye to me.

 James was trying to help, make her feel better. Sweetest big brother.

 E wanted to see Juliet after her first day of school and she came out of the class with a huge smile, saying it was "a great day." We've had some anxiety each morning before drop off, but overall the transition has gone smoothly and has been easier than it was with James.

After we hugged and kissed Daddy I asked her what she'd like to do. She chose Wendy's and a visit to the park.

And while my kids are at school I love to spend my time hiking. I'm not able to go daily (things like grocery shopping, laundry and responsibilities keep me out of the mountains) but I try to make it up there weekly. When this view is thirty mins from my house the tired legs and burning lungs are worth it.

Day to day life {little playdates and this and that}

Most of my blog is filled with epic weekends of beautiful light, perfect sunsets, dinners out, and adventures had by all. That is our life. weekends are filled to the brim with fun and activities and doing fun things. But weekday life is not even close to that.

I don't have the energy to take kids up the mountains or out to eat by myself. E is out of the house ten hours a day, so the majority of my life is just me and the kids. Once upon a time we did lots of playdates, lots of activities, and lots of go, go, go.

Now my kids are much more happy to stay home and play with what they own. A few minutes ago I asked them if they'd like to go to the aquarium with me and they responded "no, we want to stay home and play legos, we are happy." Awesome!

Most of or playdates are with the kids that are across the street. Neighborhood friends are so important for kids, we love these little friends and see them a lot.

The crew. For a long while Juliet was the only girl, but now there is another little girl in the mix.

Backyard swimming with buddies. And don't you love my new garden boxes that E built? I need to do a proper backyard post soon. They look incredible.

Every Wednesday we have a standing playdate at our friend's house who has a pool. This is the highlight of the week, we LOVE it. I've been friends with all these mamas since James was a year old, so we've literally seen these kids grow up. And Juliet is there too, must not wanting to jump off the edge.

Lots of neighborhood walks when it's not too hot. We love visiting the goats and playing on the neighbor's playground.

When it's hot we are always in the water.

Epic!

Day to day life is not nearly as photo worthy as weekends, but its just as sweet.

Warming up on towels after playing in the splash pad.

Another day at the splash pad with different friends. Such fun.

(I document the majority of my day to day life with Instagram. Lots and lots of photos of taking walks, going on bike rides, and just playing. Follow me @happierstill, if you aren't already!)

Struggles with Juliet

I am struggling with Juliet. She is hard. She's been a much much harder two year old than James ever was (James was a difficult three year old).

About a month ago Juliet decided she was too old for napping. This was partially do to taking her binky away, so probably my fault. Once she stopped napping she started tearing apart her room during quiet time. Peeling the stickers off her wall (all the mushroom stickers behind her door were removed), climbing onto the dresser and emptying the drawers, and banging the walls with her feet for the entire hour that was supposed to be nap time/quite time.

Plus she's been punching, hitting and throwing toys.

Now all these things are quite normal for this age. But she NEEDS to nap. Like she's a mess without them. Every day feels like a new struggle and the time change only makes it worse. Today she woke up for the day (a day with no naps, mind you) at five am.

She was a pain at ballet. She was mean spirited for a visit with my grandma. She is trying every last bit of patience I have. And the weeks E is gone for the entire week (there have been quite a few of them) and it's just me, well I get tired and grumpy too.

Let's hope this phase is a short one. She's being so mean/fussy/tired/cranky that I'm over it. Blah.

Above: Dressed her in a new dress and took her to Gardner Village for a special Mommy/Juliet date while James was in school. She threw a huge fit that I only gave her one piece of candy from the candy store and it was so bad, and so long that I finally just had to take her home. I hate days like that.

Little playdate with little friends

Early this morning, while it was still quite cold, we met a little friend at Wheeler Farm. James had preschool so it was a perfect excuse to play dress up with these little girls and indulge in pink cake pops.

Juliet was in such a grumpy mood, even the cake pop didn't entice a smile. Good thing our little friend was such a doll.

These two are too cute.

Thank goodness this babe was smiling. Juliet was having none of it.

Daily walk with James

Often times I get stuck in a rut of only taking out my big camera on the weekends. Carrying a camera in addition to taking care of both kids by myself isn't my strong suit. My camera is clunky and heavy and awesome, but because of those reasons I find that all my photos are of just weekend outings.

While weekend outings are spectacular, I also want to remember the day to day. E leaves early (most days by 7:15) and doesn't arrive home until after five. So there are a lot of hours in there that are beautiful and messy and silly and frustrating. While I'm great about documenting these moments on IG with my phone, many times IG photos don't get posted here.

So today, I decided to take my camera out for our daily walk.

For as long as I've had kids I've walked with them. Not every day, but most days. September walks are the best. Horse chestnuts are ready to be collected, grapes are waiting to be picked (lots of grape vines with generous owners) and many times we come home with bags of fruit and veggies that our neighbors have shared.

Most the time our walk route is the same. I've written about the "secret house" a few times; it is a house tucked back behind the subdivisions that I didn't even know about for the first six months of living at our current residence. We love to walk there because the man that rents the basement is our favorite neighbor and the gardens are spectacular.

There is also an irrigation ditch that runs parallel to the secret house. We pretend it's a mountain stream and "fish" everyday off the bridge. Many days in the summer we even get wet. It's not a problem that this little ditch is actually not a stream, and there are not actually fish. We make magic anyway.

The best thing about our neighbor friend is that he always has a candy or two for the kids. It is the sweetest thing.

Today, for the first time ever, our friend asked if the kids wanted to take a ride on the lawnmower. The blade would be turned off, but they were welcome to ride along if they wanted to. Of course both of them couldn't wait.

I don't know this man's last name. He doesn't know ours. But he's known me for almost five years and we've formed quite a friendship. I've seen him through almost losing his leg to infection and he's seen me through raising two really great kids. It's fun to have a friend like that.

Especially when they make my kids smile like this.

Neighborhood walks are the best. And today we came home with a bag bursting with grapes, green beans, tomatoes and candies of course. Always candies. (And one more favorite post about this neighbor, just for good measure).

And, if you're on IG, one of my favorite hash tags of all is #dailywalkwithjames. Lots of joy comes from this part of our days.

Goaties!

Every single year since James was a wee babe we visit the neighborhood goats in May. We actually adore visiting the neighborhood goats all year long, but May is special because each year there are babies!

The owner is an amazing man that has been raising African Pygmy goats for years. The mothers are gentle and the babies are adorable. You can scoop them up like a cat and snuggle them for as long as you can hold on, because soon they'll bound away to chase all the other adorable babies.

There isn't much to say other than they are cute. So here are a lot of photos, to emphasize the point.

Before going in to visit the babies, we feed the mamas some old bread. They love it.

The babies! James's genuine excited smile here just melts me.

Hold on tight!

She loves animals and I swear she is a baby goat whisperer. They flocked to her.

See what I mean?

Raising these two is a dream. There are hard days. Hard weeks and hard months. But being their Mama, well I adore it.