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Monday, September 15, 2025

Jane is 10!

Jane is ten years old! She is 58 inches tall (86% of the way to my adult height) and weighs 84 pounds. One of the things we absolutely love about Jane is that she loves being exactly the age she is and embraces her season of life. She had a decent year in fourth grade and is happy to be staying elementary school for another year while also looking forward to the opportunities (mostly sport-related) that middle school will hold. She decided to play travel soccer this year and is a starter for her gold team despite having less experience than many of the other girls, so far only playing center mid. She is also looking forward to basketball and lacrosse season and had a fun summer swimming, rising to the challenge of competing in 50s for the first time. Jane is currently planning on doing chorus, run club, and Battle of the Books at school (all things she also did last year). She also has decided to play trumpet in band this year. She got very lucky that her 5th grade class is stacked with all her friends, and she continues to remain our most social child - always looking for a buddy. Jane continues to have an admirable amount of empathy for others and generosity and kindness. We have also noticed her, at times, working hard to manage her big feelings in a productive or positive way. She says she wants to be either a lacrosse or soccer player when she grows up. Happy birthday to our sweet Janer!!

Eleanor and Jane at 10:

Jane at onetwothreefourfive, sixseveneightnineteneleventwelvefifteen, and eighteen months old. 

Jane at twotwo and a halfthreefourfivesixseveneight, and nine years old.

Thursday, September 11, 2025

Artwork

We had to get all the artwork from last year cleaned up before the new school year started, so here goes!

Rosie: some of my favorites were her portrait of me for Mother's Day, her sleeping panda and birthday cake from the first grade art show, her skyscraper, her underwater diorama, and her watercolor bird drawing. 

Jane: In fourth grade you do considerably less artwork than 1st, but I loved her yearbook cover entry, her brain hat, her water color bird, and her kelp project.

Ben: I also loved his Mother's Day portrait of me, his sleeping lizard and birthday cake from the 1st grade art show, his underwater diorama, his Burj Khalifa, his water color bird, his non-fiction flower, and his yoda for May the Fourth.

 

Monday, September 8, 2025

Thomas Rhett

For Christmas last year we got tickets to go see Thomas Rhett in August. In the months that followed, tons of friends and friends of friends also got tickets. We didn't find this out until a week or so before - but it ended up being a huge group!

Our small group girls and guys:

It was a fun concert with fun friends!

Thursday, September 4, 2025

Labor Day

Labor Day weekend now falls right after the first four days of school and is always a welcome break as we adjust to the new school year. Chris headed out Thursday morning for his annual Fantasy Football draft!

We celebrated the end of the first week of school with ice cream sundaes! Eleanor was out getting ice cream at the Meadows with her student ministries leader, Emma.

Friday we did some pool time!

Then we headed over to our friend's house for a bonfire, s'mores, and a Labor Day weekend camp out (maybe the 3rd or 4th year in a row now)!

The next morning dawned bright and early and started Jane's soccer tournament weekend. Unfortunately they lost their first game 0-10, tied the second 2-2, and lost the third 0-3.

Chris got home that afternoon and we headed to Busch Gardens for treats.

Later that night, Chris and I celebrated our neighbor's birthday at their house.

The next day we had more soccer, then our neighborhood picnic.

And finally, we closed down summer on Monday at Virginia Beach. We played in the sand...

We played in the waves...

We played spike ball, flew kites, and lacrosse.

We found some playgrounds and Rosie even had a photo shoot.

There was a lot of tween and teen vibe going on...

Saw The Colony - Chris' family used to vacation there!

We ate pizza at Planet Pizza.

We got ice cream at Kohr Bros.

We stayed late and said a very lovely farewell to summer...


Happy end of summer!