First day of kindergarten!

Nothing but excitement in this house this morning. He scarfed down his scrambled egg breakfast, happily posed for photos, and was off on a new adventure. No nervousness, no tears. Kindergarten is off to a great start. And now, this mama is going to enjoy a second cup of coffee and the quiet of an empty house for a while. (Because big days like this deserve a day off of work.) But really, I can't wait to hear his stories when he gets home. 




For comparison – today:

First day of 4K:

First day of preschool:

Sniff... ok, maybe a few tears...

End of summer

School starts tomorrow. Well, technically we just have orientation tomorrow. The first day of kindergarten will be Wednesday. But summer is coming to an end. And it was a good one! We checked off almost everything on the summer list. (Build something with every LEGO? What were we thinking??? But we tried. Oh how we tried.) The past couple of weeks have been filled with school shopping, Brewer games, t-ball, and a trip to Green Bay Grandpa's. And there's been a ton of produce going through this house. Last weekend was applesauce and apple pie (apples from Grandpa and Mary's house). This weekend was tomatoes, salsa, and tomato soup (tomatoes from a generous friend with a bumper crop). And there have been a few batches of jam in there too. The pantry is full! And we still have a few things to harvest from the garden.

I have a handful of photos that have been collecting on my camera. Somehow there's never time to pull them off of there. These are pretty random images, but a post isn't a post without a few photos, so here's a little t-ball, a peach pie, some chickens, and the deer that visit outside the kitchen window. Proof that the camera got some use through the end of our summer. Stay tuned for first day of school photos!

Celebrating a family

My brother got married! 
In a sweet, small ceremony last Friday night, my brother Eddie and his bride Ashley said their vows. I've been poking through my photos (my first wedding gig!) and I couldn't resist sharing a few here. Introducing, the new Mr. and Mrs. and their adorable son Bennett. 




Congrats to the new family!
Eddie and Ashley, this is just a sneak peek. Lots more to come soon!

Chicken chores

First off, this video is not very exciting. It's not pretty and the sound is blah. But it's a minute of something I want to remember. The way the chickens follow Walter (and their treat) to the coop. That one last pet for Love before he closes the door. And that exasperated sigh when he sees Black Licorice is still broody and sitting on her nest. I love this evening ritual. 

Chicken chores from Stephanie Billmeyer on Vimeo.

Sunflowers

What's it been? A month? Just about. My only excuse is that we're having too much fun this summer to bother photographing it and writing it all down. But some days that big camera just calls to me. Some days I hear about a giant field of sunflowers, right here in town, that is begging to be photographed. By me and thousands of others. But the world can always use a few more sunflower photos. So here you have them. From the front and from behind. From far away and up close. With kids and with parents. Sunflowers upon sunflowers. 

No more training wheels!

We took the training wheels off Walter's bike a few weeks ago. We took his pedals off too. Have you heard of this? You learn to balance first, then add the pedaling in later. One skill at a time. We practiced a few times but Walter just wasn't into it. So we took him to a local "Learn 2 Bike" program. Same concept, but with a teacher (that wasn't us) and lots of other kids learning the same thing.

Holy cow.

He was riding in about 10 minutes. 

I was amazed. He scooted around without pedals for a few minutes and the teacher said he was ready. The pedals went on and he was off and riding. "This is as easy as eating peas!" he said. Easy peasy, indeed.

After the class we went to a park to practice some more. (And to show off for Gramma and Grampa.) He's got it!

Bike rider from Stephanie Billmeyer on Vimeo.

Yay, summer!

I'm loving this summer. We are having so much fun at a pace that's not too overwhelming. A good balance of activity and relaxation. Walter is becoming more and more independent, which helps with the relaxation part. And we are steadily checking things off the summer list. I've been relying on my phone for photos lately – it's always on hand and is easier to carry when we're biking around town. Here are some snapshots from the past week. (If we are Facebook friends or you follow me on instagram, you've probably seen many of these already.) 
An afternoon spent at the beach.

Walter gets new shoes and learns to tie them!

French toast flipper.Walter also cooked us up some chicken nuggets, from scratch, this week. I may have helped a little. :)

We finally started using our fire pit and cooked up some s'mores.

Walter got the itch to sew again. This time a two-tailed giraffe.

A few from this morning's bike ride and kite-flying adventure. We accidentally all wore orange shirts. We're dorks. :)



And here's a little video from the park. Not too exciting, but I think it's cute.
Dizzy from Stephanie Billmeyer on Vimeo.
I hope you are enjoying your summer too!