The weather is cool and the poinsettia is blooming.  We’re welcoming new families to the Embassy community and getting ready for the start of the new school year.  Jake and Eli were at Nyimbo Music Camp all week, and we are inspired!

Two weeks ago when I tried to continue Oma’s piano lessons with Jake, it was a frustrating and short-tempered experience.  Now after a week of being taught by someone else, he is ready for me to teach him!  This morning we clapped our rhythms and quarter notes, and learned about F-A-C-E.  We set up the piano in the kitchen so he could practice while I made breakfast, I even did yoga while waiting for a batch of brownies to bake and jumped into help with piano lessons whenever needed.  Who says yoga needs solitude and quiet?  I say a person who can still do yoga in the midst of questions about half notes and the done-ness of one’s brownies has more mental concentration than one who does it in solitude….

Eli kept busy with Daddy in the living room, making lego airplanes.

Eli is also busy making beds for his bunny.

The sugar packets are Bunny’s pillows.  And he likes to eat artichoke hearts.

Today he decided Bunny needed a friend, and put Bunny to bed with Dottie.  They sleep on the floor in our bedroom.  Naia made the “quilts” that are still the best pot-holders we’ve ever had.  Thank you Naia!!

Having the boys back home has been a wonderful thing.  We’re settled into our routine again, waking up early to have breakfast together before work/school, and long breakfasts on the weekends.  Mike and I are trying to drink less.  But in the meantime, we had a party with the most delicious Citrus Sangria…

The boys set up a coloring station for all the kids.  Girls were coming, what do girls do?  Probably lots of things, but it turns out the coloring was a hit.

The first day of second grade is Monday.  We’ve had a great week at music camp.  Dancing, drumming, singing, and being back at school with all our friends.  How can they be second graders already?

I love it.  Bring it on.