August 25

It was another lovely day, and we spent a good chunk of it outside, which is so good for my soul. 

Also good for my soul? Sending two of my four children off to school today. I feel awful typing that, but in this season it is a really beautiful thing. Today, it allowed me ample time to enjoy the sweet little ones who were left at home.

I mean, seriously. Look at this kid. He is adorable, and so, so mobile all of a sudden! He's definitely not crawling, but given enough time and lack of supervision on my part, he can move from point A to point B, C, or D. It's both impressive and frightening.

Happy baby! Can you believe he'll be 7 months old in a few days?

Lily handed me Pinky the blanket and asked me to wrap her baby on her back, and was so happy when it worked.

She is just too darling.

Those big brown eyes?

(The big knot and fading bruise on her forehead from Lord-knows-what incident?)

The sweet little ponytail with the perfect little curl?

Seriously. Are you dying? I'm dying.

Love this girl!

Then she wanted to grab my camera and take pictures, but you'd better believe that's not happening. Instead, I handed her my phone and let her try things out.

She really wanted to take a picture of Eli, but he would not say cheese like she wanted him to. He just kept trying to grab the phone.

Soon it was almost time to pick Daisy up from school, so I packed a picnic lunch for us and we all headed to the park.

The girls were way too distracted to eat, though, so we never even managed to get around to playing at the playground. Instead, we spent our time enjoying the great view. Honestly, I didn't mind at all.

This kid is loving the chew beads right  now!

We headed home and Daisy was so cooperative while I put the little ones down for their naps. For her reward, we made a grain-free peach cake with some delicious peaches the neighbors gave us.

(Here's the recipe, Jill. You know I'm not a fan of coconut flour, but I really didn't mind it in this recipe. It was actually really good. If I were to make it again, I'd cut back the honey in the cake to 1/4 cup or less.)

Daisy was the one who chose to bake a cake, and when I agreed she immediately began giving me instructions.

"First, we need our aprons. You need your apron and I need my apron. I can crack the eggs and I can mix...."

She looks slightly manic in the picture, but she was very well-behaved.

At dinner, we let Eli have his first piece of food! 

It was actually pretty anticlimactic; he got some sticks of cucumber because we happened to have them lying around. He was so, so excited and gnawed on them frantically, but didn't actually consume any of them.

I've spent lots of time reading about Baby Led Weaning and traditional and nourishing first foods for baby (barely cooked egg yolk and grass fed beef liver, anyone?), so handing my baby a leftover slice of cucumber felt pretty disappointing. But since he didn't actually eat any of it, I figure it's not that big of a deal.

After dinner, Chris, Caleb and I enjoyed Daisy's cake; no one else got any because they didn't eat their dinner. So it goes. The gym was closed due to a water main break, so we headed up to a new park nearby to walk. 

Okay, actually, we headed up to the park to scout photography locations, because I'm hoping to take pictures of a friend's darling daughters soon. The park didn't disappoint, and now I'm so excited for our photo shoot!

My kids were my models. They were already in their jammies and I did no posing or directing them at all, so these pictures aren't frame-worthy, but I still love them.

This one is hilarious. I don't know what Daisy is doing, and I love that Eli is sitting all by himself.

Isn't she funny?

Then we went on a family walk. 

And by "family walk", I mean Chris handles all of our family while I walk. He had Daisy on his back, Eli and Lily buckled into the BOB, and Caleb in the footwell. My husband is a beast.