Family Dates

Family and Senior photo season has arrived in full force. I have booked myself at least two sessions every weekend and that requires I be intentional about spending time with the kids. Ty elected an early morning skate park date Saturday. We were there by eight and had the place to ourselves. I shot some photos and enjoyed a cup of tea while he rode his heart out. He loved it until he wrecked. I think we dodged an emergency room visit by the skin of our teeth. Watching him fly over his handle bars dropped my stomach. In the end, he had some pretty gnarly bruises but walked away. Praise God. Now I just need to replace broken bike parts and convince him we are doing it again soon so he doesn't grow too afraid to risk it in the future. 

Saturday afternoon was gorgeous so we spent a great deal of time on the porch and deck once the house was cleaned. Kate decided to add Pip to the mix. He kept walking right up to Layla so after a few moments, we let Layla check him out......

Neither was all that impressed by the other.

Sunday, my Senior session lasted a full forty-five minutes before the client declared we were finished. Delighted by the sudden availability in my schedule, Greg and I slipped away for a drive and a salad together. We scouted a few new photography locations and spoke in complete sentences. It was a lovely change of pace.

Monday our new appliances were delivered and the kids got an awesome box. Sometimes I worry the boy aspires to be homeless. He begs to sleep in the box, fights showers and deodorant, wants to hold a 24 hour challenge in the box and only dreams of being a youtuber (which he can do from inside the box). It's not just this box. He gets excited about every box and I feel like a mean mom when I declare, "no, you cannot sleep in the box on school nights. Wait for the weekend." Parenting is weird.

Monday, Kate seeking to reduce her prison sentence, emailed her school counselor requesting additional courses on her schedule next semester. We haven't completed our first quarter and she has decided she is graduating a year early. Things are going well; said with all the sarcasm you can imagine.

Wednesday I once again experienced a not so healthy dose of mom guilt while working our virtual day so I took Kate out to run errands. We made a quick Target run where she picked up a new buddy. She named him David Bones, Dave for short. We grabbed an ice cream and some groceries. Our date wasn't exciting but we needed it, none the less. 

Thursday I accused my friend at work of shopping at Target without me recently. We plan to remedy that over fall break. But showing up in the same sweater neither of us knew the other owned was comical. In our defense, it was purple day in kindergarten.

Only the bravest ask a room full of kindergarten students to guess your age. To their credit, the average was only 41.5. Thank goodness for all those little cuties who had me in my twenties to help balance the stinkers who guessed in the eighties! But if you want to feel pretty special on your birthday, hang out with five year olds. They know how to celebrate. 

Tonight, dinner on the patio with some of our favorites. It was a beautiful ending to a delightful day.